Midway Home Solutions: Dustin - Repairman; Richard - Repairman; Midway Repair Dept. - Manager Removed & Replaced Good Parts, and Charged for New, Unneeded Parts, And Labor to Install Those Parts. Victorville California

The temperature of the refrigerator (top) part of my Frigidaire brand refrigerator/freezer was getting warm, and the red warning light was on, so I called Midway Home Solutions for repairs.  They sent out “Dustin,” who diagnosed the problem as a faulty fan motor.  I paid him $80 by credit card for the “service call,” and he said he would be back in 4-5 days to install the part, and I would need to pay only the cost of the part.

Dustin did come back and install the fan motor, for which I paid him; however, the “over-heating” problem continued.  I called Midway again, and again Dustin came out and said that the problem was actually a thin “cut,” about 8-inches long, that ran along the middle of the white, rubber gasket that surrounds the lower freezer part.  Although the gasket was making a firm contact all around the freezer, Dustin claimed that, somehow, “air was going up into the top,” refrigerator part, and causing the over-heating problem.  Although I didn’t see how this could be physically possible, I agreed that he could replace the entire gasket, since he is, supposedly, an “expert” in repairing refrigerators.

About a week later, he came back and replaced the rubber gasket with a new rubber gasket, and I don’t recall paying him anything at that time.  However, the next day, in the morning, the temperature of the freezer (which had been constantly “0 degrees” Fahrenheit, for the previous 6-years, since I bought the refrigerator, new) was 10 degrees F., at about 10:30 AM.  The temperature of the refrigerator was 65 degrees (normally it is 37 degrees F.).  I called Midway, explained the situation, and asked for help.  Dustin came out again, and now he said that the real problem was an “electronic control board,” and not the fan motor, although he still thought the rubber gasket was causing a problem.  I thought this was odd, because with the old gasket (even with the small cut), the freezer had maintained a temperature of 0 degrees F. for 6-years.  But, after 1-day with the new gasket, the freezer temperature was abnormally high.

Dustin said he would send out “Richard,” who is an “expert” at diagnosing electronic problems.  When Richard did come out, a few days later, he said that the problem had not been the fan motors (they had also replaced a second fan motor), nor had it been the gasket.  Now, when Richard was there, with me, and both of us standing in front of the refrigerator, the temperature of the refrigerator was now 68-degrees F. (not 37-degrees F.), and the temperature of the freezer was up to 20-degrees.

Obviously, the problem could not have been the fan motors or the rubber gasket, and Richard said that the entire unit “was failing,” to use his exact words.  He suggested that the refrigerator be turned off completely, and I recommended that the refrigerator and freezer door be left open, so it would not get a musty smell inside.  Richard did this, and also ordered a new “electronic control board,” which he said was the actual problem all along, and he agreed that the fan motors and gasket had not been the cause of the problems.

Richard came back the following week with the “electronic control board,” and he installed it in no more than 15-minutes.  The bill he presented to me was, initially, for $543.65.  I noticed, on the bill, that he had included $80 for a “service call,” and I told h im that I had already paid $80 to Dustin for a “service call,” and that Dustin had told me, at that time, that I would have to pay only for the cost of parts – and I would not have to pay for another “service call.”

Richard did call the Midway Home Solutions office, and confirmed that I had, indeed, paid the $80 to Dustin, roughly a month earlier – when this whole fiasco began.  So, Richard did deduct the $80, which I had already paid, from the $543.65, and charged me $463.65.  This amount also included an additional $90 for “Labor” – a rather dubious charge at best, considering their incompetence and misdiagnosis.  Most of this “labor,” I believe, was entirely unnecessary.

My complaint is that I was charged for the removal and replacement of a perfectly good (by Richard’s own admission) fan motor, as well as a rubber gasket, which – although it had a hairline cut – was not causing the problem, and did not need to be replaced.  The proof of this is even after these items were replaced (which Midway charged to me) the problem was not fixed.

I would have been more than happy to pay for the service call and the “electronic control board,” and even the “labor” to install that – although you’d think that the $80 Service Call would include some amount of “Labor.”  However, I am not running a “RefrigeratorRepairSchool,” where people simply guess at what is wrong, and keep replacing parts until they happen to stumble upon the correct part, and the refrigerator works.  These people are the “experts” in repair, and they are charging a lot of money for their time (and supposed expertise), so why should I have to pay for their mistakes?  But, that exactly what happened here.

If they had been honest and fair, they would not have charged me anything for removing and installing parts that were already good – and simply chalked that up to their own errors, which it was.  But, instead, I am paying for their incompetence, or “training,” or “repair-by-replacement,” philosophy, or whatever else you want to call it.