When our Hitachi TV quit working, I searched the Internet for a TV repair service. This company offered the lowest house call fee of $75, half of the other companies. The technician estimated the repair over the phone for less than $300, and said the house call fee would be applied to the labor costs. When he arrived with his partner, they took apart the TV, they said it was a power surge problem, and they worked on a panel, popping off soldering, and replacing it. The TV still didn't work so they said they needed to get an error code read and would call the next day. The man told me his name was Dmitrie, and charged me $75 before he left, and said the bill would total $461.00, which included $75 for the house call, $186 for parts, and $200 for labor. The check was presented to my local bank that afternoon. Dmitrie also said that I would be able to get the repair costs reimbursed by the surge protector manufacturer, if I had a receipt for the TV. I verified that information with the phone number he gave me. Unfortunately, we could not find the receipt for the TV, which was purchased at the old Circuit City. When he did not call the next day, I called him. He said all the technicians were in a meeting, and he couldn't get the error code read. I called Hitachi, who offered to call him and read the error code. Hitachi later said that they were able to reach the business, who said they would have their technician call back, but he never did. When I did not get any results, I had my husband call. Dmitrie answered the phone the first time, but refused to take any calls after that. We tried several more times to no avail. Finally, I called another company who came out and diagnosed the problem, ordered the part, came back a week later with the new part, and repaired the TV. When he took the back off the TV, he said that a lot of screws were missing. The TV repairman was very helpful, and said the problem was not related to the power source because it was too far away to be affected by the power supply. He also looked at another TV that I asked him about, and fixed it for no charge. I had already been told that the TV was unrepairable by another telephone consult from a different company. It was actually just a loose wire! I want to take the time to give a sincere thank you to Mike from the , who was very professional and courteous, honest and knowledgeable, and repaired our $2,000 plasma TV for less than $300. Thank you, Mike! Dmitrie, I hope you read this, and regret the way you handled our business. By the way, I'd like my $75 back and the missing 15 screws! |