Affordable Appliances LLC defective appliances and atrocious customer service Austin Texas

I bought three appliances at Affordable Appliances on 1/7/14.  I spent $1,1865.34 on a refrigerator, a washer, and a dryer.  All of the appliances were supposed to have been fully refurbished.  The fridge was sandwiched between several other appliances, so I was not able to look it over thoroughly at the time, but I was assured that everything was in working order.  They did not accept credit cards.  

The manager, Kevin, said that their credit card machine does not always work and it may get stuck for up to 45 minutes and that if we use a different payment method after using the credit card machine, that it could be several days before we would be reimbursed for the double payment.  I should have been wary about this, but I went ahead and purchased the appliances. 

I sent my brother to pick up the appliances on 1/11/14.  I called the store ahead three hours ahead of time so they knew to get the appliances ready.  The manager told my brother that he had tested them before giving them to my brother.  When my brother brought my appliances home, there were several problems.  The washing machine leaked and flooded my little laundry room on its first use.  The dryer had a bent leg and the face of it was dented and scratched (the one that I had picked out in the store was not dented or scratched).  And the fridge door seal was torn, two of the legs were bent, and the water line leaked throughout the door and the back of the fridge.

Initially, the manager, Kevin, was polite and understanding.  Although, I do not remember ever receiving an apology from him.  Their repairman, Gilbert, came out to the house and fixed the washer.  The washer works fine and we've never had a problem with it since.  Gilbert said that he could not fix the broken leg on the dryer, so he just removed all of the legs.  Now the dryer sits flush on the floor and my linoleum has rust marks under the dryer. 

The fridge is an ongoing battle.  Gilbert tried to fix the fridge three times.  The first two times, he replaced a 1.5" connector piece on the water line that runs from the back of the fridge to my kitchen wall.  Both times, that connector leaked within two hours.  After three months of complaining, over a dozen unreturned phone calls from the manager and the owner, and a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, the manager finally agreed to split the cost of the $144 door seal and said that Gilbert would install it for me. 

But I had to order the door seal, pay for it up front, and then drive to the Affordable Appliances store with the receipt and explain to the owner's wife why they should reimburse me for half of the cost.  The owner's wife scheduled Gilbert to come out to our house again.  The manager said to schedule Gilbert to replace the entire water line in the fridge.  The owner's wife said that Gilbert would be out to my house first thing the next Monday, 5/12/14.

The next Monday rolls around and Gilbert does not show up.  I finally called the store around 1:00 p.m. and was told by an unknown woman that repairmen only do service calls between 12:00 and 6:00 p.m.  Gilbert finally calls me at 3:15 p.m. and said that he would be at my house in half an hour.  Gilbert did not arrive until after 5:00 p.m.  Then Gilbert said that he did not know that he was supposed to change the door seal and replace the entire water line. 

He did put on the new door seal, but the doors do not close properly now.  I had to tape it down in one section and he broke a plastic strip off of the other door that he was not even working on.  He did not replace the water line.  Instead, he replaced the same connector that he had already replaced twice before.  I thought it had worked, though, as it did not immediately leak.

Two days later (5/14/14), I came home to find my entire kitchen, my entire laundry room, part of my living room, and even part of my garage flooded.  It took hours to mop up and clean up.  I turned off the water at the wall.

I called Affordable Appliances back the next day (5/15/14) and spoke to a receptionist named Destiny.  I left a message for the owner, Jay McCree, and asked for him to call me back.  I called again the following day.  Destiny reported that the owner had not come in to work and she said that she would send him an email.  No one ever called me back.

On 5/20/14, I called Affordable Appliances again.  A different woman answered the phone.  I said that I wanted to speak to the owner and she asked why.  I said that I would really like to exchange my fridge.  I told her the entire story.  I said that Gilbert keeps doing more damage than actually repairing anything.  Then the woman said that she thought I was being "overly dramatic." 

I said that I did not feel that I was being overly dramatic, seeing as they sold me defective appliances and half of my house had flooded because of their repairman's incompetence.  The woman said that if it had leaked twice before that I should not have left it turned on and left the house, as if his failure to properly repair the fridge was somehow my fault.  Then she told me to stop crying.  I wasn't crying, but I was extremely offended.  I said "I am not crying!"  Then she told me to stop yelling at her.

I told her that I was not yelling, but I am frustrated.  She told me that she would have the manager call me back tomorrow and schedule a different repairman to come out to my house.  I told her that I felt that there was already too much damage done to my fridge and that I really wanted to exchange it for a new one.  She said that if I was going to continue to be rude and hostile, that she was going to hang up on me. 

I was not being rude or hostile, but I was extremely frustrated at this point.  I told her that she was the one being rude.  The woman raised her voice and said "Well I am the owner's wife and you're definitely not going to get a free fridge now!"  I told her it was not a free fridge because I had already paid for it.  She amended that I was not going to get a free exchange.  At this point, I knew that I was not going to get anywhere with this woman and I just hung up, refusing to engage any further.

Needless to say, the manager did not call me back the next day to schedule a different repairman.  No one from Affordable Appliances has ever called me back. 

Now I am the proud owner of a defective fridge.  It cools and freezes, but if I open the right door, the left door pops open.  I cannot close the right door without opening the left door, then closing the right door, and then I have to hold the left door seal down to close the left door.  The water line is still broken and I do not have an ice maker. 

The washing machine and the dryer still wash and dry.  But the dryer is still sitting flat on my laundry room floor and it still continues to rust. 

I just had a baby last year and bought my first house on 1/7/14.  I cannot afford to replace these appliances.  I cannot even afford to hire a reputable repairman to come fix them.  I beyond frustrated with Affordable Appliances.  Never in my life have I had so much trouble getting a company to provide an honest service.  And I have never in my life received such appalling and offensive customer service.