I had used Martin’s on other occasions to service my appliances and they were fantastic. Obviously things have changed. This was one of the worst service experiences I have ever had with a company. My refrigerator shut down on me on July 1st. After I described in detail what was wrong with it, nobody came to look at it until July 3rd at 5:30pm…quitting time…after I had to call their office a few times to remind them to come out as holiday crunch time approached. After looking at it for 10 minutes the technician advised me there was a leak and the obvious cost effective solution would be to buy another refrigerator, which I agree with. But why couldn’t they have stopped by my house much earlier, quickly checked it out, and told me 2 days sooner than they did? Instead, I waited 2 days to find out I needed a new refrigerator anyway while getting charged $85.00 for a 10 minute evaluation. They should have just told me…”sir, I am sorry but we are too busy right now to help you out”, and I would have went elsewhere. That night, we went to Martin’s Quarryville showroom and picked out a new refrigerator. I have nothing bad to say about the showroom experience or the assistance we received while we were there. Most places will waive the service charge if you purchase a new appliance from them. I think Martin’s USED to do that. However, now they give only a small discount on the service charge even after a purchase. The next day, Friday, was a holiday, and they don’t deliver on weekends….so we didn’t have a refrigerator for three more days over the 4th of July weekend. Now it was going on a week to get this thing accomplished. On Monday, they delivered our new refrigerator and hooked it up for us. I was at work and not there to supervise them. After all, I shouldn’t have to supervise professionals should I? They didn’t clean up the unit after removing it from the packaging and the inside of the refrigerator was very dirty and looked like it had been used before. They leaned the unit on the freezer door while moving it, knocking it off track. And last but not least, when they hooked the water line up, they immediately pushed the refrigerator back in place, and turned the water on WITHOUT checking the line’s integrity first. Why does this matter you ask? Because when they disconnected the water line from the old unit, they must have stripped and damaged the connector. So, when they turned the water back on a steady undetected leak began at the fitting. At midnight, to my surprise, I found myself walking through an inch of water in my kitchen that was drowning my wood floors. And to make it even better, the water seeped down through the wood floors, between the decking and floor joists, and into a nice sized pool in my basement. After shutting off the water, I found myself participating in a wonderful 2:00am cleaning job. And I considered myself LUCKY to find it when I did. Had it leaked all night undetected, it would have been MUCH worse. The following day they sent a third set of technicians out to fix the problem. They told me the fitting on the water line was damaged and offered to do me the favor of replacing it at a charge of $100.00. Of course I refused to pay them to repair damage that they had done. After all, the line never leaked until they touched it. On a positive note…..we like the fridge so far. Honestly, I could have overlooked the other shortcomings. But the water debacle was the final straw; hence why I feel the need to write this long dissertation so people will take the time to choose wisely. What I have learned is the difference between a company like Martin’s and a company like Lowe's…and why the parking lot of Martin’s is usually empty while the parking lot of Lowe's is typically full. Two years ago, I purchase a grill and a washer from Lowe's. When they delivered the items the NEXT DAY….they slightly scratched the grill in an unnoticeable area in the back. Even though I didn’t see them do it and would have never noticed the scratch, the delivery guy told me about it. Even though I told him to forget it, he advised me that I would receive a 15% discount on the grill as a damaged item. He told me that it is company policy to compensate the customer when they make the mistake. Martin’s on the other hand…ran away as quickly as possible never to be heard from again. Hopefully, the wood floors will not buckle in the next few months; because I will end up having to deal with Martin’s instead of Lowe's to fix the problem.
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