On February 11, my wife and I purchased a Vermont Castings Stardance Vent Free Natural Gas Stove from Crown Hearth and Patio on Route 9 South in Freehold, New Jersey, hereafter referred to as Crown. We were told installation would occur in approximately two (2) weeks, which was ideal for us since we were going to be holding our son's Christening in mid March and would be using the room. To our dismay, installation was pushed back four (4) different times and was finally scheduled for March 12, a mere four (4) days prior to the Christening, with your company being blamed for having shipped an incomplete order, and then shipping incorrect parts twice before the stove was complete.
On our installation day, we were told of unforeseen circumstances with the gas pipe, and Crown installers wanted to charge us more than originally agreed upon and in writing on our contract. While the installers waited, I spoke on the telephone with David, Owner, during which he repeatedly stated that we were wasting the installers time, which he threatened he would charge us for. After approximately a half-hour debate regarding contracts and pricing, he ended up not charging for the installers wasted time and to honor the pricing on our contract, which he had signed himself.
After what my wife and I went through to have the installation done, we were hopeful to never have to deal with Crown again. Unfortunately, in late November the pilot light on our stove began to turn off on its own regardless of the setting (on all the time, or on with the remote set to thermo' etc.). After re-lighting it on numerous occasions and having it only go out within hours, we decided it was necessary to call upon the product's warranty.
On Monday December 8, I called Crown to schedule service on our stove under its warranty. I spoke to Denise who informed me that she would call me back that afternoon to schedule an appointment with a technician. When I did not receive a call back that afternoon, I called the next morning and David said he would attempt to have someone come out on Friday. Unbeknownst to me, my wife also called that morning from work and spoke to David who quickly became irate and yelled, saying that this was the fourth time he was speaking to one of us that same day. He proceeded to belittle her by saying you should talk to your husband a little more often rather than call here to bother me! He then informed her (also in a very unprofessional way) that according to his records, we were no longer in warranty.
She explained to him that was not true, as the contract that both parties signed states that the product has a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Reluctantly, he set a tentative appointment for Friday, December 12. When asked if there would be time-frame for service so she could take off only a partial day from work, he replied that he could not promise one. He also said that he would prefer to wait until his installers were in our area, claiming we were too far from his store to send them on a service call just for us. We find it ironic that Crown had no difficulty selling and installing the product in our area, but that we are too far to service it. The conversation ended with the appointment remaining set for Friday.
To our dismay, the appointment did not occur, nor did we get a telephone call from Crown canceling the service appointment for the day. I waited until that afternoon to call and spoke with David. At that point he became upset yet again, saying that he would be in contact with us and the best thing for us to do is to not call him constantly and that he would have it fixed in time for the holidays. He knew that this last point was very important to us because we had informed him that we were planning on entertaining and our gas stove is the only source of heat in that room.
As of January 14, we still had not received a call from Crown in an effort to fix the problem. I called them back on January 15 and spoke with David and said we were still waiting for his company to service our stove. He said he would call me back the following week to schedule an appointment. He had not called as of Friday, January 23, so I called him back again. He agreed to schedule an afternoon appointment on Thursday January 29 and since he could not give me a time frame for that afternoon, he agreed to have his service men call me on my cell phone prior to coming over.
He also asked me to call him that morning at 10 am when they open to confirm a time for that afternoon. My wife called at 10 am sharp and spoke with David. He told her that his men were on their way to their second appointment and we would be the third. She asked to confirm that his men would call me prior to going to the house and again gave David my cell phone. David said he could not guarantee that his men would call me, nor that he himself could get though to the men to make sure they would call my cell phone.
I received a call on my cell phone from David at 11 am that same day asking if the men were there. I told him I didn't know because I was not home and had not received any calls, as well as reminding him that our appointment was for the afternoon. He told me that only in the late morning did he receive my cell phone number and that his men may not have it to call. I immediately went home, only to find a note on the door to my house from the service men with the time of 11:02 am on it saying that they were there. I also received a message on my home machine at the same time, with one of the service men laughing saying that he was from Crown and to call the office to reschedule.
I called David at 12:15 and told him that his men did not show up in the afternoon for the appointment, and rather coincidently showed up at 11 am, the same time he called me on my cell phone. He became irate, yelling at me for not being home, even though he told me the appointment would be in the afternoon. He said I've got to pay them to go from Freehold to Lakehurst and they didn't even get the job done, as well as as far as I'm concerned you're not under warranty among other things. He then said to me listen closely' and hung up on me. I proceeded to call him back, and said David, this is Mike from Lakehurst. I'll make this short. I'm calling the Better Business Bureau as well as Consumer Affairs. He called me back and left a message saying that he was going to call Vermont Castings to tell them what bastards he was dealing with and make sure no one services my stove.
Neither my wife nor I have done anything to cause such callousness from this man. We are at the point where we feel as if this man purposely left us without heat in this otherwise unheated room for the bulk of the winter months just because he felt he had the right to do so. We have begun the process of filing formal complaints against Crown through the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs as well. Yet, we are still left with an inoperable stove and a warranty that is valid until mid March.
Michael
Lakehurst, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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