Famous Appliance Service

I have a Viking refrigerator whose crisper drawers fell off the tracks and I couldn’t get them back together. I called Famous Appliance since they could come out right away. When they came, I could see that they were struggling. They insisted on ordering a new shelf and drawer runner combination from Viking. They also quoted to install a new dairy compartment that had failed years ago. Their quote was upwards of $2700 to get new parts from Viking and to re-install it all. I overheard that they weren’t quite sure if I might need a 2nd shelf, also, which would have been even more! Service for Viking products is expensive, but this is ridiculous! They wanted me to pay ½ down before they would proceed. So I’m out $1400, up front, while waiting for their parts to come in. After a few days of fuming, I decided to call another appliance service company that is prominent here in Salt Lake City. The price they were quoting was about 25% of Famous and I could tell they knew exactly what they were doing, So I cancelled Famous, and they wanted a 25% restocking fee on the shelf, drawer runner set and dairy compartment. When the other company came out the following week, they brought with them the new shelf without the drawer runner, which they said was not needed! Within 20 minutes they had the new shelf installed with the old runners and drawers! My total cost was 25% of the Famous estimate. No muss, no fuss. I wish I had never called Famous with their higher price and expensive restocking fee. Viking owners, be warned: research repair companies carefully.

I am extremely disappointed with the service provided by Famous Appliance Service. Over a year ago, their technician Aaron took apart the auger on our ice maker and didn't properly reinstall it. He left screws missing, which has since caused greater damage to the unit. When I called them recently because the fridge had a constant small leak, I was quoted over $600 to fix our ice maker which was diagnosed as the problem. (I later found the part on Ebay for $25 and all you have to do is plug it in). The technician (same one as before) said he'd at least disconnect the water to the ice maker so the fridge would stop leaking (which he didn't even do). We were charged the standard $70 service fee for the technician to come out and diagnose the problem. When the fridge continued leaking, we discovered that the water wasn't turned off and that the real problem was a build up of ice at the bottom of the fridge clogging a drain. I was frustrated we weren't at least told about this! We chisled the ice out and unclogged the drain which fixed the leak we'd originally called about. When I called the office to explain the situation and at least ask for the $70 service fee back I was told the technician did his job and diagnosed the issue and the service fee wasn't refundable. After thinking it over and still feeling frustrated and kind of ripped off I called the office again to try and better explain the situation. They were polite but told me they had to run it by management. I suspected I wouldn't hear back from them and my suspicion was correct. Despite their technician's previous mistake, they showed no accountability and still billed us an exorbitant amount. This company's lack of professionalism and integrity is appalling. I would strongly advise against using their services if you value quality and honesty. I understand mistakes happen but at least make it right when they do!

Zero star review. A service tech was sent to our house to diagnose a problem with our dishwasher. It was determined that the heating element was the problem and to fix it would be $450. My wife asked the service tech if it would be better to just buy a new dishwasher and he said no because a new dishwasher would cost around $1000. We needed a dishwasher so my wife agreed to get the part ordered. We looked it up afterward and discovered we could get a new dishwasher for around $500. The part was already ordered so when we tried to cancel it we were told we would be charged 25% of the part. Our fault for not knowing what a new dishwasher costs but the service tech should know and not tell us differently. We called and were told there was nothing they could do so we were charged the 25% for the part and for the visit. Poor customer service and poor knowledge of the service tech tells me to never use this company again. Don't waste your time or money.

Was told on initial phone call that technicians had 10 years experience, well the young man that was sent here told me that he was under a year in the field. He was not prepared to do any of the work. On the range he did NOT have any way to ignite the gas burners and I had to find a lighter for him so he lit paper towels to ignite the burners filling the kitchen multiple times and not able to get the model number or parts numbers. On the refrigerator he had NO way to thaw the coils and had to use my pots and pans to boil water on my stove and my towels to wipe up his mess. Yes I did pay the bill but should have charged him for my time and material. VERY UNHAPPY with them. Would not recommend them for any reason!!

On the plus side: next day service, technician is professional and did a good repair. However, they charge $70 if you don't accept their price - and their parts price is astronomical! They charged $240 for a rebuilt ice maker. The same part is available online for less than $100 (see photos). Advice: find an appliance repair firm that does not charge a use it or lose it service fee so you can get the estimate without penalty.

He fixed the leak by replacing an expensive part. They give a free inspection of a number of items in the house which, it became clear, was designed to find opportunities to sell replacements, if needed. Nothing wrong with this I guess, but I would have liked him to mention that in advance. The inspection seemed reliable and he only suggested one replacement...our water heater which is fairly old.

Long story short-Top loader overflowed upon 1st usage after repair, flooding the downstairs rental unit (damage to walls, carpet, & computers). This company would not cover the property damage, saying that the washer worked fine when they checked it after the repair.  There has to be someone better than this to turn to if you need an appliance repair.

The new sensor did not fix the problem. The techs came back out (no charge) and diagnosed the problem as a broken damper. I was told that there was only one part in stock so I should act quickly to avoid a delay that could damage the compressor. I was quoted more than $400, labor included.
After consulting Angie's list I found American Appliance who arrived at my house within two hours and fixed the problem in less than 20 minutes for under $200. DO NOT TRUST FAMOUS APPLIANCE. I seriously doubt that the sensor was bad and even if it was American Appliance would have fixed it in half the time for half the cost.

They were prompt and courteous and repaired the oven, but the fix was to replace a thermal fuse for which they greatly overcharged. They charged $83 for a fuse that I found later at several dealers for $16 retail. My family works in retail and I understand the need to mark prices up, but the wholesale price of this fuse is most likely $8, so that's a %900 mark up. $128 dollars labor charge is way up there too for about 1 hour of work. I called the store to complain about the price, they offered $20 in return. I am not happy with this service at all.

No complaints about workmanship or cleanliness. But WAY to pricy for what he did. Lesson learned.

They came here Friday at first, but didn't have a part so they came right back Saturday as promised. They were reliable and did pretty good work! Their price was a little high, but they did give me a $20 discount.

My refrigerator was not keeping the correct temperature, it was fluctuating and they came in and said it was the motherboard. They also had to come back and replace some evaporator tubes. So they actually had to come back twice, because I was still having some problems and they had to come back. It had to do something with the defrosting tube in it. The only bad thing was their pricing. I would not have paid this kind of money, but it was a top line GE refrigerator and they cost now about $2022, and that is the only reason I had it repaired otherwise I would have bought a new fridge. They completed the job thoroughly, but I do not know if I was ripped off or not. They came in the same day.

See above statement

OK they showed up and Fixed the microwave while they were there we asked them to take a look at our refrigerator and see if they could get the parts that had broken on it. The tech said no problem. so he looked up the parts and said it would take a couple of weeks and we could go ahead and pay for them now and when they came in he would just run them out and install them at no extra charge. We should have figured there was something up when we went to use the coupon on the $400 = bill they said the coupon was not valid- but what made matters worse the ad said "all Major credit cards accepted" however when my wife tried to use on they refused. Said it had to be a check. RED FLAG #2  My wife rote the check and said that since they did not take cards that we would have to transfer money into our account to cove and please deposit next day long story short they cashed check same day and since the money was not into the account. the immediately sent it to collections! we still had not seen the part nor did the inform us that they tried to submit the check. after we jot the first call form a collection agency we were baffled since they still had not completed the repair that we paid upfront for. Back and forth with the company produced no results WE did not want to pay since we did not have the parts. We were willing to pay the amount of the first repair no problem but at this point we did not trust the company since it had been almost 4 months and not one call about our parts. When ii called the office they told me tat there were no parts on order and I was required to pay the outstanding balance. I was floored. After consulting my attorney I discovered that these guys use the Bounced check law to their advantage The took me to court for $1900 which was 5 times the amount allowed by law as my attorney stated "the fact that they did not do the work or even deliver on the contract did not matter. I wrote the check, and even though we told then the situation and asked them not to deposit right away, they did . Intentionally. it has been over a year now I paid the collection company including fees and court cost to the amount of $879.00 almost double whet the full check was for and keep in mind the repair that was performed was only $150. the rest was for parts that I still to this day have not seen. These guys are crooks and very dishonest. I would never ever ever recommend their services to even my worst enemies. As in the beginning the company has not returned calls or even ordered the parts.

I thought the price was unreasonable but I had no idea how high it was until they left. I looked up the parts online and the parts that he used were marked up over 500% from what you could order yourself online. This was in addition to labor. This repair took him 25 minutes to do, cost them about $100.00 in parts and they charged $450. Shame on them. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS!!!

The technician came within the given time period.  It took him 15 to 20 minutes to diagnosis the problem.  He didn't have a Frigidaire replacement part so decided to try a part he had in his vehicle-it did not work.  He then called for someone to get the correct part from their factory and someone brought it to him.  I did appreciate the fact that they took care of the problem all in the same day but we did have to wait another 30-40 minutes.  They did not charge me for that.  I have never had to have a stove serviced before so I was surprised that my 4 year old stove needed service. I have nothing to compare it to but I was a bit surprised at the total cost.  The only thing I really did not like was the rather large oil stain on my clean driveway when he left.     

The first man who came out in June said there was nothing wrong except it was the belt and pulley. I had asked him to double-check everything else in the washer to make sure I didn't have anything else come up within the next few months. I wanted to get it all taken care of at this time. For the pulley, belt and service, they charged me $343.

Yesterday, my washing machine did the exact same thing. The second man that came out said I needed a new transmission. Needless to say, I was quite surprised as the original worker said nothing about the transmission. Upon explaining this to the new worker, he offered a refund on the parts for the pulley and belt, but wanted me to pay over $300 for the new transmission.  I also had differences with the worker in that he asked if I wanted the "old," worn belt to be put back on after he reviewed the washer's problems. I told him I wanted a new belt put on as the belt and pulley were under warranty since June. He seemed irritated and said that they would put a new one on this time but that they wouldn't do it again. They replaced the belt and determined the problem to be the transmission. They quoted me over $300 for the transmission and service; however, this INCLUDED the refund for the belt and pulley parts. Because this seemed like a large estimate, I decided to get a second opinion. 

I called Sears Appliance Repair as they are very reliable in our area. Their service charge alone is $120 but they still said a service charge and parts for a new transmission would definitely less than $300. I ended up going with Sears; however, I am left flabbergasted at the differences in price and the quality of service.

It didn’t cost me anything since the appliance was under warranty. They did fine work. I am not sure if I would use their services again.

The work cost me $400. They were untrained. They stressed that they did not know how to unstack a stackable washer and dryer. I ended up providing most of the tools as they did not have the right tools with them. I ended up supplying them with sheet metal screws because they did not have those with them, either. They had the wrong kind of equipment. I ended up doing a good portion of the work as well. They did show up on time, though. Also, they were not obnoxious; they were nice enough. They simply were not trained. For the work that they did, the price was definitely high. I will not use this company again in the future.

They came out on time and were very friendly, they did a great job. Their price were very fair. I would recommend that company and I would use them again.

Work was performed well. However, this was quite a simple job and the price quoted over the phone was $50 for the service call plus parts and any "extra" labor needed to perform the job. Fair enough, sounds reasonable. However, after coming to look at the dishwasher, the price to fix this problem was suddenly over $160. After a desperate emotional plea from the wife who "hasn't been able to do dishes for 4 days," the pressure to just write the check and shut up because the problem can be performed "right now" is intense. It is sort of like the guy who sees you walking with your date and offers a red rose for your "lovely lady." Even though the one rose costs more than a dozen roses usually cost on Valentine's Day, you are the unromantic schmuck if you don't pay whatever the price may be for the one romantic rose. Anyhow, when all was said and done, the bill turned out to be $160 in addition to the service call and sales tax (I don't recall being charged tax on a service before) for a total of around $225. Not bad pay for a few minutes of work and a couple of pieces of plastic. Maybe I am in the wrong business. So the final total was at least triple what we anticipated for the work performed. I think they must buy parts from the same supplier who sells NASA a hammer for $200 or the Pentagon a toilet seat for $500. My advice if using Famous Appliance: if you want it done right, money is really no object, and you literally cannot wait one more minute, call Famous Appliance. But if you can wait a day or two and you need a new appliance anyway, just save yourself some money and don't get it fixed- buy a new one. Otherwise you will be made about getting fleeced by Famous Appliance while being stuck with an old appliance.

The appointment was scheduled the day after I called. The repairman, Randy, arrived on time. He was clean, knowledgeable, respectful of our property, organized and worked expediently. The lower oven had a popped thermal switch that just needed to be reset. Randy had it figured out from the schematic and reset within 20 min. The dishwasher was difficult to remove from the counter. He located the source of the leak and removed the dishwasher without scratching the floor. He then had to reconnect the water, power and drain with extensions so it could be operated when pulled out. Once sure of the problem, he fixed it by cleaning a hard water deposit and reinstalled the dishwasher. The labor worked out to be about $50/hr. I was charged a $60 diagnosis fee that was reduced $20 when they did the work. A $10 diagnosis fee was then added for the second appliance. In all, I was charged $50 for them to come out and diagnose even though they did the work. I felt that was a little too much.

I have a GE glass top oven that needed repair. The heating element had burnt out. Randy from Famous Appliance came and looked at it and ordered the heating element part. Unfortunately the part was only a manufacturer part and two about two weeks for delivery. When the part came, Randy came out and installed it and within 30 minutes my oven was in working order again. They are very professional and knowledgeable. I would recommend them to anyone.

Went well, except for some miscommunication with dispatcher. Person who came to our home did a fine job and was clear with price estimates prior to completing repair.

They were a very pleasant company to have work in your home. They came when they said they were going to. They said, the part would be in by a certain time and it was. I was very satisfied.