On August 4th I purchased from Home Depot #0736 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, phone # (865) 425-0493, sale #0736 00005 38512, a Ryobi pressure washer, model # Ry80030, serial # AXH1340054, for $498.00. It has a 3-year warranty, which was one of the selling points that I liked about the unit.
On June 5th, 2006, the unit stopped working after I had been using it about 10 minutes. (In all, I have used this machine about 6 times in the 10 months that I have had it, for maybe a total of 30 hours.) I took the unit to the Home Depot in Oak Ridge, where I had purchased it, and the department head who came to the customer service area told me that if I took it to Franks Fix It Shop in Kingston, their authorized service center that does warranty work, I could get the machine back quicker.
I immediately took it from Home Depot to Franks Fix It Shop. I was told it would take about 2 weeks to get repaired. My claim repair # was 332882.
I called Franks Fix It Shop at (865) 376-9299 after the two-week period and was told that the part needed was on back order. I called again after 3 weeks and was told that the part was still on back order.
I went to Frank's Fix It Shop after four weeks, on July 5th, and was told that the part was still on back order. In fact, per the factory, the part had been on back order since November, and it was not even scheduled for production. I told Franks that I was going to Home Depot to see what they were going to do about this. After some runaround at Home Depot, I was put in contact with Assistant Store Manager Lisa Dockery, who called Franks to verify everything that I had said and then called the manufacturer to verify that the part was not available. She then made some other calls and said that she had located the needed part and that it would be shipped out to Franks within 5 to 8 business days.
On July 18th I went back to Franks and was told that he had not received any parts and that he was still showing the part on back order. I told him that I would go ahead and pick up the machine from him and take it back to Home Depot. He agreed that is what I should do.
On arriving at Home Depot, I took the machine to customer service and asked to speak to Lisa Dockery. I was told that she was off. I then asked to speak to the store manager. Ryan Raper, who said he was the store manager, came over to speak to me. I repeated the whole spiel to him and told him I wanted my money back or a different machine. He said that store policy was no returns after 30 days on any of this type of merchandise. I said this item has a 3-year warranty and that I had followed your store's directions twice and still don't have a repaired machine, plus the manufacturer does not have the part and has no plans of producing it.
I have spent six weeks and numerous hours and gas money trying to get this resolved. He was very rude, and his whole gist was that there was nothing he could do about it. I then asked for the district manager's name and phone number.
He gave me the customer care number, (800) 553-3199. He said the district manager's name was Jody Collifer, but he did not have a number for him (which I know is a big fat lie). When I got home, I called the customer care number given to me, (800) 553-3199. After jumping through all the hoops and telling my story all over again, the guy asked me if I had tried calling Ryobi myself. I said, why should I? It is Home Depot's responsibility; they are the ones I purchased the unit from. It is still under warranty. If they cannot get it repaired, then they should make good on the item. I asked for a district manager's name, and he said that he did not have any telephone numbers and that this was the best he could do. I asked him for his name, and he said it was Ricky. I asked for his last name, and he said they go just by first names. I said, in other words, I am just getting the runaround again.
I then went online to Home Depot but could not find a corporate office listing of phone numbers. I found another number, (770) 433-8211, and called it. I got more runaround and could not find a person to speak to. I finally got their operator and told her that I wanted to speak to a corporate person or a district manager for complaints. She routed me again to their customer care center. I was furious by then. I talked with Mark again, who would not let me have any last name. I told him I wanted to speak to a district manager or to his boss. I was tired of explaining everything three times. He assured me that if I told him, he would take action on the matter. I told him the whole story again. He said that if I would hold the line for 3 or 4 minutes, he would call the store and get everything worked out. He came back on the line and said that, as I had said, Lisa Dockery was not there and that store manager Ryan Raper was out to lunch, but that he had talked with store manager Tammy Pierce and told her everything, and that she said she would look into everything and give me a call at my home phone before she went home at 6 pm today, Tuesday, July 18th, 2006. Mark said that in the future I could refer to Customer Problem Report ID # 3716155 in order not to have to repeat my story all over again.
Tammy Pierce, who is a new assistant manager, said she has been with the company only 7 weeks. I had to explain the whole situation all over again to her. She said that they had tried to call Lisa Dockery and had no luck. Tammy said that the warranty was through Ryobi and she would call them and see what they would do. She took down the information again and said she would get back to me today.
Tammy Pierce called me back around 5:10 pm and said that after talking with Ryobi, I should take it to Kingston Small Engine Repair, (865) 717-3467, that they were the authorized Ryobi repair according to the company. She could not give me a location or address. She said Home Depot has nothing to do with the warranty. I do not feel that I should have to cart this machine all over the country to have it repaired.
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