My family's refrigerator was not working. So I contacted A&E Factory Service. First time A&E Factory Service technician came out was on August 23, Saturday. Technician started diagnosing the problem and said that the total would be $345.28 (which includes $75 diagnostic fee) to have refrigerator to work. I figured that by paying that amount of money for repair, the refrigerator would work again as it used to be. So I agreed to that estimate and the technician replaced an adaptive defroster and did some other labor. After the technician was done with his work, I paid $345.28 with my debit card and he left my house.
After several hours, I have noticed that the refrigerator was still not working. I was upset so I called A&E Factory Service (same day, approximately around 7:00PM). I spoke to the customer representative and she said that the earliest date that another technician can come out is August 25, Monday. I told her that date would not work since no one would be in house that day. I asked her if she can schedule an appointment on Saturday, August 30. She said 'Yes' and supposedly scheduled an appointment on that day. Before I hung up, I asked her if there is going to be another diagnostic fee and she said 'No'. After I heard that, I hung up. On Saturday, August 30, around afternoon, I called A&E Factory Service to make sure that the technician is coming out to the house. However, when I spoke to the customer agent, I was upset and furious to hear that the appointment was not made on August 30.instead the appointment was set up on August 25. However when I spoke to the agent on August 23, I clearly said that the appointment needs to be on August 30 and that was the date the agent said she would set up an appointment to. I was furious and spoke to one of their manager.
That manager said that she was sorry about the inconvenience and that she would set up another appointment on September 6. On September 6, A&E technician named Ricardo came out approximately around 3:30PM. He started diagnosing the refrigerator and said that the evaporator and compressor needs to be replaced. He gave me an estimate of little over $1000. Since that was way too much, I told the technician that we are not going to get it repaired. After that, he told me that I would have to pay $75 for diagnostic fee. I was enraged to hear that. So I told him that I refuse to pay another $75 diagnostic fee.
Two reasons on why I refused to pay $75 fee were: (1) I already paid $75 diagnostic fee when the first technician came out on August 23. He could have diagnosed all the problems from the beginning. He could have diagnosed on that day that there were problems with adaptive defroster, evaporator, and compressor. However he partially diagnosed the problem that there was a problem with adaptive defroster (which is a BIG mistake for any technician. Any technician should diagnose the problem all the way). (2) When I spoke to customer agent on August 23 around 7PM, she said that I would NOT have to pay another $75 fee. I told the technician those reasons above. However, all he would say was that since both repair/diagnosis were two different ones (one on August 23 and one on September 6), he would still have to get a diagnostic fee from me. I called A&E Factory Service at 1-800-905-9505 and spoke to another customer agent. She basically told me the same thing. I kept refusing to pay another $75 diagnostic fee. Ricardo, the technician, said that I have two options, which were either (1) I pay $75 diagnostic fee, or (2) I do not pay and possibly get billed later. I still refused to pay. So he left the house.
I am extremely dissatisfied about the service I received from A&E Factory Service. When the first technician came out on August 23, if he would have done the job right, he would have diagnosed all the problem. However, he partially diagnosed the problem and made me pay $345.28. Thing is, if he did diagnose all the problems from the beginning and let me know that adaptive defroster, evaporator, and compressor would have to be replaced, I would have declined the repair service from the beginning because that would cost too much! (Just to get an adaptive defroster replaced was $345.28. Since the quote to get evaporator and compressor replaced was around $1000, the total would have been around $1400).
This is almost as if A&E Factory Service purposely diagnosed the problem partially so they would get some money out from me. As a consumer, this is totally not acceptable. Like I stated above, I would have declined the repair service completely if the technician would have done the job right and quote that it would cost around $1400 to get my refrigerator to work from the beginning (with $1400, I can just go out and buy another refrigerator). So as a consumer, only solution that will going to satisfy me is that I get a full refund of $345.28 (from August 23) and get assurance from A&E that I will not get billed a diagnostic fee of $75.
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