Aqua Rec Simming Hole and Fireplace Refusal to come to our home, complete a diagnostic to determin why it would not work and repair our Harmon Pellet stove. Tacoma, Washington

On 11/19/10 my husband stopped by the Bonney Lake Store to trouble shoot problems we were having with our Harmon pellet stove. He spoke to the person at the front desk, who called the Tacoma store. It was determined that we needed a new room sensor. My husband requested a service man to come out and plug in his diagnostic tester so we could determin if that was the cause or something else, but were told they will not come out until they have the part. On 11/26/10 we stopped at the Bonney Lake store again to see if the part was in. The counter person again called the Tacoma store, part was not in. On 11/30/10, I called the Tacoma store to find out the status and request a tech come out to do the diagnotic and was told no. The first week of December my husband stopped over at the Tacoma store and talked to the service manager. The manager was unresponsive to my husband until my husband finally insisted they check the floor model pellet stoves to see if any had the room sensor, they found one. He was allowed to bring it home, but this did not resolve the problem. We contacted the store and let them know it did not resolve the problem. We were told then it must be the exhaust sensor probe. They would order one. We again asked that a tech come out and run the diagnostic test to make sure this is the right part. We were told they were sure this is the right part and a tech would only be out to install it. We scheduled an appt on 12/21/10 for the tech to come out and install the sensor. The service man called that morning to let us know the part had not arrived, hence he would not be out. Again we asked a tech to come out to do the diagnostic but he would not.

The following morning I called and spoke with Caleb to find out why we were not getting any results. I started by telling him what was happening with the stove but he kept interrupting, I finally asked him to please listen to what I had to say. He said he was answering my questions. But I hadn't asked any questions as I was telling him what the stove was doing. He told me that they had no idea we were having problems with the stove until the first week of December because we were talking to sales people who do not know anything about repairing the stoves. He said most of the time the problems people have with the stoves are caused by us not cleaning them properly. I told him we cleaned it as directed by the manual. Also stated that if we are not cleaning it correctly, how can we learn to do it correctly if no one will come out. Also stated at one point that we would order the part directly from Harmon and was interrupted by Caleb telling me to go ahead and do that. I responded that the written material as well as Harmon's website states we have to go through the distributor. I asked him what happens if the exhaust sensor probe also does not resolve the problem. His response was that we will just have to order another part. He was very rude and mostly blamed the problem on us. Finally he Caleb volunteered to call Harmon to put a rush on the exhaust sensor probe, which told me that the part may not even been ordered yet. We scheduled a new appointment for 12/30/10, between 8am and noon. On 12/30/10 at 10 am, Caleb called to let me know the probe still had not arrived. He stated he would call me back after he had talked toFed Expressto get an estimated arrival date. Also I requested a new appointment, but received no response. He did not call back, so I called him back at 2pm and was told he was on another call and would return my call shortly. He did notcalled back.

On January 14, 2011 Mark called and stated they were not able to track the part so will reorder it. By this time we have given up on requesting a service person come out to do the diagnostic, so did not ask. He also stated the part will be here is four days. They will call us and let us know when it arrives. January 21, Mark called to let me know the part was in and asked when they can come out to put it in. I told him tomorrow as my husband has the day off and can watch what the repair person does. He told me they were booked tomorrow so I needed to call my husband to determin a new time, then call him back. I told him no, just let me know when they can come out. We went back and forth of that for awhile, then he finally said someone would be our tomorrow as they would fit us in somehow between the times of 8am and 5 pm. I asked if he could give us a four hour time frame but he said no and hung up. The following day, the repair man came out and immediately put in the ordered part. The stove still would not work. He then did the diagnostic, and completed a temporary fix so the stove would work until he was able to return with the complete fix. We asked how long we had to wait for the new part and were told the part that is needed is at the shop and could be brought out next week.

In summary, we waited two months for a part that was not the right part, if they had come out when we first reported we were having problems, they could have completed the temporary fix and within another week possibly have replaced the right part. Instead we have waited two months as they were too lazy and incompetent to deal with our problem within a timely manner. The manual specifically states the distributor has a diagnostic tool that can be plugged into the stove to determin what the problem is. They refused to do this.

In the meantime to keep our utility bills from rising, we purchased an Edenpure portable heater for $397 while havinga pallet of pellets for $199 which were useless since the stove would not work. Luckily we had not purchased the pellets from Aqua Rec as they charge $269 for the pellets, the same brand. Our heating costs also increased by $100 from the previous year while we maintained our thermostat at 65 degrees during the day. Prior to getting the stove our winter heating bill was about $300 per month, after getting the stove the cost were about $100 per month. So their incompetence was very costly to us.