Joel Garber Appliance Repair

My complaint is that I requested an estimate and range of likely charges for two most likely causes of repair before provider came out.  If you do not have that basic information you have no idea what the diagnostic and likely final repair fee will be.   We missed each another on the phone a couple of times.  He did come over in the time frame that he promised but never gave me an estimate of basic trip charge or labor rate before arriving at my house.  If I would have known that he was going to charge me a trip charge of $105 on top of  a labor rate of $80 an hour I would have not have used him. The extremely high trip charge negates the advantage of using a local vendor.  The trip to my house from his office is 2.7 miles and 5 to 10 minutes depending upon traffic.  I would have likely used a vendor that sells replacement refrigerators just in case a major repair is needed for an old refrigerator that is not worth it.  I would then have generated good will with the vendor on a new purchase.

Homewyse website estimates a typical labor repair rate for my area of $55 to $97 per hour so labor rate is reasonable but trip charge is not and should have been disclosed as requested before his visit.  Ice maker charge appears high as typical replacement whirlpool icemakers are available in the $75-130 range from various vendors.   If my plumbing is fine as I believe, I would expect about 30 minutes to 45 minutes labor in the repair.   With high trip charge not a reasonable offer on the ice maker in my opinion.  I have rejected the icemaker repair offer.

oel came out on a Monday after i had left a message on Sunday evening.   He was prompt; on time; very knowledgable and knew right away what was wrong with my GE side by side refrigerator.  He went right to work and then even went out to get a part and returned 30 minutes later and the fridge up and running in about 20 minutes.  No Big Deal.  I would use him again in a heart beat and recommend him.  It saved me a lot of money and he made everything easy.
Joel put in a new heater and defrosted the iced up coil in the refrigerator.  The refrigerator and freezer had totally frozen up and was not running at all.

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Everything was handled in a professional manor.

Came next morning after call. repaired dishwasher and icemaker in approximately 1 hour. Would definitely call again.

Joel is the only appliance repair man I have had in my home in the past 23 years. He is honest, polite, on time, and fair. I recommend him to everyone and will continue to call on him in the future.

It was fine. He was prompt, truthful, and knocked off some of the charge because it didn't take very long.
He even recommended a brand, which I took.

Following the epic power outage this summer, the ice dispenser in the door of my refrigerator stopped working. A friend referred Joel to me. Joel answered the phone himself and came within a few days (he offered to come more quickly if was an emergency, which it wasn't). He investigated the problem, explained how he would fix it, and ordered the part. The part arrived a week later and Joel came back. He installed the part, and the electronics appeared to function, but the dispenser still wouldn't work. Joel said he'd done all he could do without deconstructing the door, which would be expensive and not a guaranteed solution. I decided against further work. Rather than charge me for the part, which would have been a few hundred dollars, he charged me for just the two house calls and said he would return the part or resell it.
I would definitely use Joel again. He was prompt, fair and honest.

Of course the machine wouldn't smoke when Joel arrived. He said it was likely a belt that was the culprit and replaced it. When the old one was removed you could see the place where it had rubbed.

We feel he did a good job: arrived in a timely manner and was very professional. The refrigerator has done this before and he showed my husband how to take care of it in the future.

I found the service reliable and trustworthy. I would not hesitate to recommend Garber to anyone.

JOEL IS REMARKABLY FAST AND GREAT AT HIS JOB. NOT ONLY DOES HE DO REPAIR WORK, BUT HE WILL ALSO MAKE SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO KEEP YOUR APPLIANCES OPERATING PROPERLY.

I WOULD SAY THIS COMPANY IS VERY IRRESPONSIBLE. WHEN THEY CAME OUT TO FIX THE STOVE, THEY HALF WAY DID THE JOB. THEY NEVER CAME BACK OUT AND FINISHED SO I JUST HAD TO GET A NEW STOVE. AND I PAID IN ADVANCE, AND HAD NO SERVICE.