STRAUSS PHOTO TECHNICAL

My experience with Strauss Photo Technical was a complete disaster. It took three months for them to fix my Samsung dishwasher. They first came to assess the problem and charged me $65. but never gave me an estimate. It took two weeks to hunt down an estimate and to arrange for them to apply the $65. I paid to be put towards their return visit as no work or estimate had been provided. Once estimate was provided, they asked me to pay for the parts in advance which I thought was odd but after checking with Samsung they assured me this was proper protocol. So I paid for the parts. And waited two months for service. Each week, I would call them and be either put on hold (once for 45 minutes) or they would disconnect me. I then got Samsung involved so that the vendor would return my calls. When Strauss photo technical finally returned my call, they told me the parts were on back order for the last two months. During that time, they never once reached out to communicate that to me. When they did come to fix the dishwasher, the parts were faulty so they had to return back another time to fix it. The repair man was very nice and thorough -- that was the only part of this experience that was worth being positive about. My dishwasher is now fixed after three aggravating months of chasing down this vendor. In summary, I would rate them an "F" on customer service due to their lack of communication after they had taken my check and not returned to fix my dishwasher until 2 months later.

I called to find out if they could possibly repair my Kodak slide projector and I was told I'd have to bring it in and get an assessment done. (I different repair shop told me they no longer repair them and recommended Strauss. That, plus being told to bring it in set me up to believe that I might be able to get it repaired). I dropped off the projector at the beginning of February and was told I'd have an email with the estimate the following Tuesday. I heard nothing, and called to follow up on that Friday. I called every week or so until I was traveling in March. I spoke wth a variety of people and got a variety of replies, most of them along the lines of "I don't know the status and I'll check with the technician when he comes in and call you back", but I never received a call back. One time I was told that the technician was actively looking for the part that would be needed to repair the projector. A few employees seemed shocked that so much time had passed, but even they did not call me back after promising to. When I called on Monday of this week, the employee I spoke to seemed very frustrated with my questions and became very abrupt with me. I wanted to know what it would take to get the technician to look at my projector, and what was keeping the technician so busy that he couldn't look at my machine in the two months it had been there. The employee yelled and told me he couldn't tell me what the technician was doing because that was "company proprietary information" and that he couldn't tell me when the technician would be in. I asked if there was anything I could do to get my machine looked at and he abruptly told me if I wasn't happy I could come pick up my machine and get my diagnostic fee refunded to me. I took him up on that offer and retrieved my machine. I would have preferred being told that they didn't have any intention to look at my projector &/or that they didn't want to/couldn't repair it. Then I wouldn't have had to drive into DC twice to still have a non-working slide projector. Or even a call telling me that they'd gotten slammed with new work and wouldn't be able to look at it for 6 months would have helped. As it was, I was treated like an annoyance instead of a customer who would have gladly paid to have the slide projector repaired.

After waiting about 1 week for the parts to arrive (which I thought was reasonable), Boris came out to the house to fix the TV. He was very prompt on the day of service, arriving right at the designated time. He spent about 30 minutes on the TV and even explained exactly how the TV works and what he thought the problem was (which I found fascinating). In the end, we turned the TV back on and it worked great. He said to call him on his personal cell phone in 3-4 days to make sure it was still working well and not just a temporary solution. 3-4 days later it was fine, so I did, and now about 1 month later, the TV is functioning perfectly fine. I would certainly use this company again.

Called ahead to ask about camcorder repair as they were said to be the only store in the DC area that performed these services. I was told after describing my camcorder and the problem there would be a $65 evaluation fee that would go toward repairs. After I arrived on site they said that the camcorder is "high end" and would have a $120 diagnostic fee. I asked for all that what might the total cost be? They said they don't know but that it could be as high as $400. Service would take 2-3 weeks. I told them that Canon charges $230 flat fee regardless of the problem. Later I found a service in Illinois that charges $163 for my problem as described including shipping, and promises 3-5 day turnaround. Don't use these guys, they don't have a handle on their business.

A little hard to reach; have to drive so not good if you use public transportation.