This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly Part Two

Is this how to treat a customer?

THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY

As I stated the other day from time to time I would be pointing out the good, the bad and the truly ugly.  Well......today it's the truly ugly!

It is never a good time for our appliance to shut down and cease to work.  It always seems to come at just the worst time in the year and we scramble to replace it.  We trudge to an appliance store and look over the selection and ponder which one might work the longest, which one will be the most for our money?  We whip out the cash or credit cards and whimper while the merchant completes our transaction.  We know we've just shelled out a couple hundred dollars for a much needed item but the dreams of paying off another bill a few days early flies right out the window after our new purchase.  There will be no out to dinner for the family this week.  We may even have to pull our belts a little tighter and put things off since the purchase was so unexpected in our budget!

Now imagine your dishwasher breaks right after Christmas!  We're all still stinging from the amount of money we spent on the kiddo's and trying to figure out how in the world that little pile of gifts they opened in 30 seconds could have possibly cost so much, and now we have to shell out hundreds to replace that dishwasher that just couldn't find the strength to work a few more weeks.

Well this is exactly what happened to a lovely woman named Cindy a few days after Christmas!  Her dishwasher waved the white flag and surrendered and she was left with the task of buying a new one at a very inopportune time.  So she trudged along to GERHARD'S appliances in Doylestown to make her purchase.  She pondered over the choices and finally went with the salesman's suggestion of a KITCHENAID dishwasher.  The purchase put a big dent in her family budget but she felt comfortable that she had made a good choice and she was getting the most for her money.  Oh how wrong she was!!!

Although her purchase was made in December it was February before it was installed.  The dishwasher was a relief to her kids after weeks of hand washing those dirty dishes.  Then again Cindy noticed the white flag waving in her kitchen from the NEW dishwasher.  How the heck could that be?  Didn't she just fork over hundreds for a new working one?  There had to be some mistake, but that dishwasher waved even faster!  She immediately called GERHARD'S and they said they'd send someone out and it would be fixed right up!

Well.....not so much.  Here we are 4 months after purchasing a new dishwasher.  The service department at Gerhard's has been out 5 times and it still doesn't work!!!!!  They told her to be patient!  Patient!  Patient is waiting a week not 4 months. 

Now when I heard of this debacle I took it upon myself to contact GERHARD'S appliances.  I emailed a letter expressing my dismay and reminding them that customer service could make or break  a company's reputation.  I told them they had a choice which they would like to be known as in our community.  I received a quick reply from Mr. Hesse as follows:

    Hey Mary,

    Thanks for the heads up.  Sorry that this has turned into a headache for your friend and for you.

    I am on this and will have a resolution for you tomorrow.

    ZACHARY HESSE

Now one would think that Mr. Hesse would be on this like he said BUT what he did was put someone else on this and she sent out ANOTHER repairman who did not bring the part to fix the dishwasher.

So here we are 4 months later, 6 service calls later and the dishwasher is still waving it's flag and GERHARD'S has still not given Cindy a new one.

I believe this is taking advantage of a customer.  Cindy is a hardworking young widow who struggles to provide for her family.  She has taken off 6 days of work to have this dishwasher repaired with no pay!  She cannot afford to keep taking off just for repairmen to show up and throw up their hands and walk away!  She paid for a working dishwasher and all she has gotten so far is a lot of runaround from a company who states they value their customer. 

I am appalled at the behavior of GERHARD'S APPLIANCES.  If they were a reputable company they would have just given her a new dishwasher months ago when they couldn't fix it.  If they were a reputable company who cared about their image it might prove very valuable at this point to give this woman a FREE NEW DISHWASHER for her trouble. 

Now we all know CUSTOMER SERVICE is key to any business.  Giving this young widow the runaround is not good customer service....it is DEPLORABLE!!!!  When someone spends their hard earned money they should be able to receive a sound product.  Now I understand that sometimes products are defective but how many days, how many hours is enough?  How many working days should Cindy give up especially when she is the sole provider for her children?

Why not be a stand up merchant and fix this issue?  I just don't understand. 

Remember this is only my opinion.

Have a wonderful day!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?