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Recently we called Kitchen Aid for service on a dishwasher where we were diverted to call A&E Factory Service for an appointment. All seemed to be going well, we were able to get an appointment within 2 days of the call and the representative was pleasant on the phone. Come the day of the appointment was when all confidence with this company was lost. A 9 hour time block was given for the appointment. After sitting patiently waiting for 8hours and 45 minutes with no call from A&E or no show from a representative, we called for a status at which time were informed that the man was running behind and would not be able to make the appointment. Again, we called for the status, A&E did not call us. They rescheduled for the next day, again giving a 9 hour time slot. The technician showed up, spent about 10 minutes in the house and said he had to order a part, when the part comes in I would need to call and reschedule the appointment ( the part should take 7-10 business days to arrive)Oh and before he left he made it clear that payment was due. Ok, part came in and here we go again with the appointments. Was given another appointment and again no show or call from the technician. And what was worse about the situation was that A&E had no regards for my valuable time. They continued to give me time blocks of 9 hours with no apology for any of the inconveniences.
I have worked in service departments for several years and I am currently working in a service department. Obviously, this company does not value the customer or the service it provides to the customers, or incidents such as mine would not have occurred. It is time for this company to take a look at redeveloping its CUSTOMER service department. The poor service from this company has a negative affect on Kitchen Aid as well, I have made a former complaint with the President and CEO of Kitchen Aid so they are aware of how horrible their contracted service department is and I intend to inform all that I know of the lack of SERVICE that comes from the A&E Service Department. An educated consumer is the best consumer and I wish that I was educated on the Kitchen Aid service department before the purchase was made, but since I wasn't I will make sure that those that I care about are aware of it.
NEVER -- WARNING NEVER! After a missed appointment, nasty technicians, poor service from the call-in center to the technicians themselves, and a constant "that will be $200-$300" for repairs on top of repairs that A&E Factory Service makes -- I'm DONE!
When In needed warranty service on my built-in refrigerator, Kitchen-Aid sent A&E Factory Service to perform the warranty repairs. A little over 1-year later the same part malfunctioned and I called A&E. The part now out of warranty is repaired @ a cost of $223.12 -- that was September 12, 2011.
October 31, 2011 -- the refrigerator is leaking. A call to A&E Factory services sets the appointment for November 3, 2011, between 1-5PM. An automated call confirms the appointment on November 2, 2011. The technician DOES NOT SHOW -- no call, no notification. A call into the customer-call center shows the appointment could not be made and the appointment was rescheduled to NEXT WEDNESDAY. OK, who was going to call me to tell me about the reschedule or was I supposed to pick it up off crystal ball?
In frustration, I requested that A&E refund me the $223.12 -- they put me off to their billing department which takes 48 hours plus to call back AND they have now cancelled the appointment.
As of November 8, 2011 -- no repair and no refund! These people clearly do not care.
THIS COMPANY IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST. THREE MISSED APPOINTMENTS, NOTHING BUT CRAP. GE APPLIANCES SHOULD KNOW WHAT THEY ARE OUTSOURCING THEIR SERVICE TOO. THEY SUCK. WRITING A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF A&E HOW THEY STAY IN BUSINESS IS BEYOND ME. THEY OBVIOUSLY NEED SOME ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT...NOT HARD TO FIND OUT HOW BAD THEY REALLY SUCK. GE APPLIANCES YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES, IT JUST TARNISHES YOUR GOOD NAME AND BRAND.
Everything that is one this site re: A&E is absolutely true! After 4 service calls with techs that don't know what they're doing, we have asked our home warranty company to find a Bosch certified repair company. Our dishwasher has been out of service for 3 months. By the way A&E is owned by Sears! Sears is not according to Bosch, a certified repair company for them. That certainly explains it! Spread the word...
A&E wins the All around award for worst customer service in the world. Whirlpool and A&E have taken terrible customer service and made it even worse. My dealings with them started in early April 2008 and after 4.5 months it still hasnt been resolved... Yes over 4 months and 4 trips by A&E technicians.
My saga started with a microwave from Whirlpool. My elderly mother had gotten the insurance for peace of mind. The microwave stopped working a year into the insurance. The first complaint was made on April 4th, 2008. She got scheduled for a technician to visit on April 18th. He ordered a part for the microwave after having spent 10min. The part was finally shipped 2 weeks later and then the appointment scheduled again which took another 10 days. The technician comes in and realizes that this is the wrong part and leaves telling her that he will order the right part this time. And here we go again. It takes 3 weeks to ship the part and another 2 weeks to schedule a technician. We are nearing end of June now -- about 2.5 months since the first call. The technician installs the part and it still doesnt work. He concludes that there is no issue with the microwave but with our internal electricity and tells my mom that she should look into this asap as it could have serious consequences. So she hires an electrician to come check the internal wiring. After paying $200 to the electrician we are told that this is a new house and there is nothing wrong with the wiring. He then goes on to clearly demonstrate that the issue is with the microwave. Great. Time to call the wonderful folks at A&E again. I also call Whirlpool to really get to the bottom of this. I figured they would care about how their outsourced company was dealing with their customers. I even asked that they send someone else than A&E. However, I was politely told by the supervisor that since the ticket had been opened with A&E, I have to complete it with them. There hands are tied and unfortunately they cant do anything to help. When I made the point that this insurance is not really buying any peace of mind and cant use the microwave at all, I was slyly told that it would be better if I just go buy a new microwave. Hmmm.. So why do they sell insurance in the first place. Ahhhhh. Bingo... Most customers would have given up after the second month and this is what Whirlpool and A&E counts on. It clearly improves margins for Whirlpool by screwing the customers. Get money upfront for value that is a mystery and let the customer end up holding the short end of the stick. I really wonder how are American companies are going to compete with the Asian companies. The rapid rise of companies like LG and Samsung taking away market share from Whirlpool doesnt surprise me anymore.
Well, enough about my rant on macroeconomics... I finally muster up the energy to call A&E and get an appointment for July 24th. The technician comes in and this time I am there since my Mom has been tricked by these guys 3 times already. I repeat the experiment that the independent electrician had shown us. He acknowledges and agrees that the problem is indeed with the microwave. Within 5 minutes he nails the issue to a corrupt power cord which now needs to be replaced. He calls in the part to be shipped. I had learnt about the serial nature of setting appointments and asked the next appointment to be scheduled rightaway. It got scheduled for Aug 8th as that gives enough time for the part to be shipped. I called on Aug 7th to figure out where the part is. I was told it was getting shipped on Aug 7th and that they have to now cancel the Aug 8th appointment. Well, ofcourse. What else should I have expected at this point. Now its Aug 14th and I call again. I am told that the part has still not been shipped and that it is the manufacturers fault. I asked to speak to a supervisor and spoke to Rebecca, who assured me that she will personally call the parts department and figure out why a power cord was taking so long. I now have an appointment set for Aug 22nd, 2008. Lets see if they can manage to stretch this even further.
Its been 4.5 months since this saga started. I have gone from frustration to amazement and seriously I am somewhat amused on how terrible Whirlpool's customer service is. I would love to write a business school case study on this.
btw: when I had asked to get A&E's corporate HQ phone number I was told that they didnt have it at the call center. The best she could do was to give me an address. Well, I am sharing it here if anyone feels like writing snail mail.
1300 Louis Henna blvd
Round Rock, TX 78664
Lesson learnt: NEVER buy extended insurance. Its far better to just throw the appliance and purchase a new one. This way you never have to deal with any customer service. Plus they should change the name from Customer service to Suckers beware.
I agree with all the beforehand comments. My saga with A&E is far too long and frustrating to repeat. The "Cliff Note" version is ... One Maytag washer, 5 total repair trucks, 3 separate appointments, 18 total hours of waiting, 6 hours of Laundry Mat time, 11 days without a washing machine, lies from A&E too numerous to mention, and finally zero customer satisfaction. End result...Maytag & Home Depot have lost a life long customer.
Don't understand why this stil comes up as a view.. And E was prompt and cheaper and on time. Reccommend them .. Bill Grover
Their service was great.
My experience was wonderfull with A andE their service was prompt and cheaper then other service providers. I would recommend them in a heart beat. Great Service. Bill Grover.
I'm so mad at myself for not researching this company sooner.
They are still in business because they are trying to saturate the market in an attempt to put the independent servicers out of business, and they don't care how much money they lose in the process. They are so set on this concept that they discuss it in their meetings, however, it is not working because they do not pay enough to hire competent help. As for the ding-bat that forgot to put oil in the compressor, sorry to say, but the compressor comes from the factory with the oil in it. Probably what the ding-bat did was he made a bad solder connection or otherwise left a leak in the system. As John stated, you are not stuck with A&E you can call Whirlpool or visit their web site and inquire about servicers in your area and find out how long the service company has been in business WITH THE SAME NAME. A lot of people will say they have 20 or so years of experience but will forget to mention that they change the company name every couple of years due to a bad reputation.
I agree 100% with the postings on this website. I am still confused as to how this company is still in business. Today is Nov. 26, 2007. my first scheduled date with A&E was on Nov. 5, 2007. My Jenn Air refrigerator is still broken. Today is trip #5 that this company has been to my house and my fridge still isn't fixed. My 2.5 year old fridge had a compressor go out. They installed a new one and the dingbat they called a "technition" never put oil in the compressor and burned the first on up they installed. So the saga continues its day 21 without my fridge.
Very much agree with all that I have read about A&E service. However, there are options Whirlpool/Kitchenaid/Maytag don't want you to know. Having used to work for them, I have some good insite on how to get very good service. About 5 years ago, Whirlpool Corp Decided to drop there very dependable factory service and go to Independents. They sold all there service, Trucks ect. to Sears, and made them there priority service company. Sears, knowing there service track record is not very good changed the old whirlpool factory service name to A&E to fool the public. Whirlpool does not want the public to know there actually getting service from Sears and tryed to keep this a secret. The deal Whirlpool made with Sears promised them the majority of the service calls. If Whirlpool didn't give a certain minimum number of calls, Whirlpool had to pay the differance in the shortage weather A&E ran the call or not. So they promise them 100,000 calls per year, but only give 80,000, whirlpool has to pay sears for the 20,000 calls. All you have to do to avoid A&E, is ask the Whirlpool calltaker for an alternate authorized independent servicer. There are pleanty of very good independent servicers just starving for some of the work they give to A&E. I recently had very good service from on of Whirlpools small independent companys. They came out after the A&E tech failed 4 times to fix my microwave. The tech told me they were constantly cleaning up A&E messes. My product was fixed the same day, and has been working fine ever sence. Now I just call the small independent company directly for any further service. Hope this helps.
I'm not sure which company lies better to their customers Whirlpool or A&E. I just purchased a new range and used it twice to only have the main control board stop working. Without the main control board you cannot control or even lite your oven. This saga has now be going on for over 2 weeks and according to A&E and Whirlpool I have another 4 to 7 days to get the part and then I get to call in for a schedule day maybe another week if I'm lucky.
After fighting with A&E support person and the manager who will not give the cooperate office number for fear the main office getting complaints I went to Whirlpool who contract out to A&E as their service/repair company and also got no where with them except that they (Whirlpool & A&E) don't trust UPS or any other overnight carrier in fear of the part being damaged so in lieu they'll use the United States Postal Service in a 4 to 7 day in a truck verse a 24 hour process to save the part. Or is it the money they're looking to save?
But both companies stated they would mind eating out every night until the oven was fix. These folks must make a lot of money.
My advise to you is don't buy Whirlpool or Maytag. Spend the extra money and get the piece of mind knowing you'll get someone other than A&E.
This company is horrific. They do not call, they do not show up, they disconnect you when you call, then you call in and are suddenly rescheduled for a week out.