Smith Brothers Appliance Repair OC-Repair More than what you ask for... in a bad way, Internet

Our appliance broke recently, and after checking out our local Sears who charged around $70 for just an estimate, I stumbled across oc-repair.com, or the Smith Brothers Appliance Repair company.

I gave them a call to see when they could come out and how much an estimate would be. They were friendly and informative. They let me know it was about $65 (or so) to have someone come out and assess what is wrong, then if we choose to use them for the repair, that $65 is waived (or collapsed into the service fee if you're cynical).

They ended up having a window of time they could visit so I said that was great. The repair person arrived within 15 min of the start of the window time which was wonderful.

The man did not speak very good English, but was nice enough. He got to working and a few minutes later called me over to inform me of the problem. The issue for me was that he didn't just inform me of what was wrong, he described the problem and told me he fixed the problem and was ready to leave. He informed me that parts, labor, and such were a total of roughly $250 dollars, when we weren't even sure if we wanted it repaired in the first place. We just wanted the estimate. The sheet he had me sign was an acknowledgment of parts/services fees estimates (which we were never given until after the fact) then signing the bottom line saying we agree and pay the fees. Had he told us how much it would cost to fix, we might have just paid the $65 and sold the appliance.

We definitely felt like we got robbed in that situation. Make sure if you use them, that you clearly emphasize what you want...