While I can understand and sympathize with this customer's frustration, there are a lot of inaccuracies in this review (though it is fundamentally ACCURATE in that it did take far longer to finish the repair than either we or the customer would have expected and preferred- the fault is actually the manufacturers for initially sending the wrong part and then not sending the right part until much later); The fact that the customer doesn't remember us coming there multiple times (because the manufacturer sent the wrong part) speaks to them mis-remembering the exact details of an admittedly negative experience. We did not just "take his deposit and disappear"- we did get a replacement upper display which was the wrong one for his treadmill, so we had to contact the manufacturer to have them ship out the correct one, which did take quite a while, not sure how long, I'm writing this response over a year after this was posted because I only just became aware of it. This manufacturer has been somewhat of a problem for us, but has improved markedly over the last year, but it is not uncommon for them to delay orders or simply not ship them at all. We can't install parts we don't have and can't get the manufacturer to send. I know how crazy that sounds, but it's not as rare a problem as we would like, and we know it is hard for the customer to believe that is the case. Over a year ago, this manufacturer had massive problems with their computer system, to the point where a large order we had with them ($1000 worth of parts) didn't arrive for MONTHS, (over 3 months, maybe even 4) during which time I was calling and calling them to try and ascertain WHY the order wasn't shipping, when we could expect it, etc. They either couldn't see why it wasn't shipping or didn't see the order at all, and at one point created a SECOND order, resulting in an ADDITIONAL $1000 charge to our company, and still NO PARTS. I would call and call them, have to wait on hold for 20 minutes, at which point the recorded voice would say; "We're sorry customer service is so busy, please leave a message and we'll call you back", so I would leave a message, and the customer service rep would call me back, not having listened to the message in which I gave all the pertinent info, part numbers, model #s, order #s, etc., and at one point, called me during my lunch, and berated me for not having all this info right at hand, at which point I forced myself to be calm (not going to do any good to yell at the person you need help from, no matter how appropriate it might be) and explained to him that I had called them for MONTHS already, and while I understand that they were doing their best to deal with an unreliable computer system, and appreciated their efforts to help me, (they were very professional and nice) that this company was absolutely the WORST one of all the manufacturers I had to deal with, and if one of my clients asks me for a recommendation of what equipment to buy, why in the world would I recommend their products (even though they are excellent machines) when they make our company look so bad? In frustration, and in order to preserve my own reputation, I have even allowed some clients to call this company directly, which is technically forbidden, but I'm not the sort to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, and I was at my wits end dealing with this company and had to do SOMETHING. Eventually, once that second $1000 charge was done and we still had no parts, I called the accounting department, and said to the head guy there; "Ok, I know the answer to this question is most likely no, but I'm not the sort to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, so, do I need to start SCREAMING at you in order to get you to fix this problem? Or what do you suggest I do? Because I've been calling you guys for MONTHS, and this needs to get solved, and it's NOT GETTING solved, and I need this fixed YESTERDAY. Actually, I needed this fixed MONTHS ago, but we can't do that, so what can we do to fix this TODAY?" He of course answered that no screaming would be necessary, reversed the $1000 charge, and was eventually able to get our parts shipped to us, and I wrote letters of recommendation for all those involved, as I have worked in places myself where management has made disastrously stupid decisions regarding computer systems, and how heavy a workload they're willing to saddle their employees with, and now enjoy a very good working relationship with this manfacturer. There are also other manufacturers that can take months to ship a part or never do send the right one- I tried to get a cable one time and could not get the right one, even though I went on the manufacturers OWN website, and emailed them a picture of the machine the part was from, pictures of the exact cable ends needed, exact length, etc., and still could not get them to send the RIGHT part, and so eventually ended up fabricating it custom. Unfortunately, we are sometimes at the mercy of the manufacturers, and if we can't get a part, sometimes we can make one, but not in the case of a circuit board, or some more even custom part. As to the scheduling conflicts, again, this is over a year ago, but we have always worked saturdays, so I think the customer may be just remembering a negative experience and mis-remembering some things. I'll have to look into the scheduling of that appointment to address it specifically. The fact that the customer is stating that we don't work on saturday also speaks to them mis-remembering the exact details. We have also spent HOURS AND HOURS trying to get the manufacturer to send the parts, NOT because it is profitable for us, (rather the reverse- we get paid for the same 2 service calls even though we had to spend HOURS (which of course eventually added up to DAYS!) just trying to get the parts so that we can protect our own reputation and satisfy the customer. We of course strive to give all of our customers the best service and experience with our company as possible, and meet our own expectations and theirs 99% of the time, and of course will sometimes fail, and do our best within reason to remedy the situation when we can. Sometimes it gets to this point, where really nothing we could do would make them happy, as we can't go back in time and make it take less time. We are a company with a complicated work schedule that entails us having to travel to our customers and so schedule appointments in certain areas on certain days, and so we can't just cancel appointments in order to satisfy one customer and disappoint 5 others, and have found over and over again that despite our willingness and desire to satisfy a customer that it is a bad idea to wedge them into an already crowded schedule, only to not be able to get to them, although we have attempted to do that in the past, with the warning that the schedule is crowded that day and that we may not be able to make it to them unless all goes well AND no one on the freeway does anything dumb (which the customer typically doesn't hear or heed- we've found they mostly fixate on the best case scenario, which doesn't always occur in the real world). We would of course have accommodated him by coming the next Tuesday if it were possible, but it's silly to tell someone that and allow them to wait at home when there is little or no chance that you'll be able to make it to that appointment. That would be the only reason we would refuse, in service to the customer, and not promise them something we can't deliver just to make them feel good at the time and get them off the phone. And just because we fix something doesn't mean it will never break again. We do warranty our work for 30 days, and manufacturers also warranty parts for 30, 60, 90 days, or even years or lifetime warranty on some parts, so if the noise started occurring within that time frame, we will come back for free and fix it. I could certainly understand this customer thinking this long delay was our fault, even though it wasn't, but it's simply not the case. Usually, we can get parts within 3-10 business days, and return within a week or less of the first visit, if parts are even needed. This customer was nice, and understanding throughout this difficult process, so while I understand why he would post a bad review, need to point out that we did everything we possibly could to solve his problem and give him a good experience, and in that we failed, though not through a lack of effort on our part. Angie's list should still consider his reviews accurate though some details of this review needed explanation and illumination as to mitigating factors. It's unfortunate that this happened, but having been in business for 10 years, inevitably some bad situations will occur, and encourage readers of this review to take that into consideration that one bad review in the course of 10 years of business is actually pretty darned good.
