LAKE AREA APPLIANCE SERVICE

This contractor was assigned by American Home Shield to address my washing machine shaking during the spin cycle. Donny with Lake Area Appliance Service came out and informed me that this is a common issue that happens over time due to normal wear and tear. He said (word for word) that the tub had become unbalanced due to it warping from years of use and that once that happens, it just gets worse and worse from the weight of any clothes being added. I have this conversation recorded for 3 reasons. The first is that I had a very uncomfortable interaction with another contractor AHS sent out for a completely separate issue and I was home alone. The second is because I read reviews for this contractor before they showed up and not a single review was positive. Just about all of them reported them lying about the true issue, causing AHS to deny the claim and I was nervous I would be another victim of this (and unfortunately, I was). I even expressed this concern to AHS and asked for a different contractor and they said this one was the only one in the area… in Dallas, TX… sure. The third reason was because I’m not as mechanically knowledgeable as my husband and knew it’d be easier to just play back the recording vs attempting to repeat what the contractor said. All that to say, I have this man recorded telling me the complete opposite of what he told AHS. He told them that it was not normal wear and tear (my washer is over 10 years old) and that it was unbalanced due to overloading it (it’s just me and my husband and we barely fill it halfway each wash). When AHS called them to confirm my allegations, Rhonda hung up on them. This company is disgraceful, dishonest, and I truly don’t even understand what they have to gain from this. I’ve begun the steps in taking this “business” to small claims court as this is absolutely unacceptable and it’s clear they do this all the time. Thankfully I have concrete proof to back my claims.

LAKE AREA APPLIANCE SERVICE told AHS that my refrigerator did not have adequate air flow which caused it to go bad. AHS does not want to cover the fix. We clean the refrigerator coils yearly and there is adequate space between it and the wall. The coils do not look bad at all. Apparently they do not want to fix it and decided to tell AHS is was inadequate air flow which is hogwash.

My washer was vibrating and making super loud noises during the spin cycle so I filed a claim with my home warranty, American Home Shield, and they assigned Lake Area Appliance Service to my claim. The technician, Mike, seemed friendly and knowledgeable. After putting my washer through the spin cycle to witness the issue, he told me the problem was with the bearings and drum and that would need to be replaced. He said this issue was common for LG washers and was normal wear and tear. However, when I received an update from AHS, they told me Lake Area Appliance had reported the issue was caused by overloading so the repair would not be covered by my warranty (because it was our fault). We are very intentional about how much we put in our washer because we did have an issue with overstuffing a previous one and learned our lesson! I cannot believe Lake Area Appliance lied to AHS about what was causing the issue especially when the technician confirmed verbally with me it was a known problem with LG washers. And, when I tired to call Lake Area Appliance to discuss and see if there had been some kind of misunderstanding, they screened my calls. I ended up requesting AHS send another company out to take a look, and their technician was able to immediately locate the issue and fix it within the hour. DO NOT TRUST THIS DISHONEST COMPANY.

This company was scheduled to repair my washing machine. They gave me the time frame of 10am-1pm. I get a call at 8:55 am from a blocked number and let it got to voicemail. It was them giving me a 30 minute notice of the repairman being on his way. I left a meeting about lay offs and furloughs to go home. After about 45 minutes no sign of the repair man. I then call and I am told that he is in my neighborhood within blocks and they wanted to call him to find out his status and put me on hold. They come back and state the repairman is not answering his phone and they think that he reached some difficulty with his current job and it may be taking him longer than expected and want to know if I want to re-schedule. I asked why you would be calling me at 8:55 am if he is not on his way. They gave lots of foolish answers. I asked to speak with a manager and he took the phone and told me i should not have a problem because it is still within their 10am - 1pm window. Excuse me you called me at 8:55am and every company gives a 30 minute call when their person is truly leaving an appointment to come to you. He would not give me the opportunity to ask a clarifying question I finally hung up the phone. RUN FROM THIS COMPANY! IF THERE WAS A GRADE BELOW AN "F" THEY WOULD GET IT!

Sent out by my home warranty company. Said to my (representative’s) face that both appliances were an easy repair and indicated no blame on our part (as in it wasn’t because we weren’t maintaining the appliances). Turned around and told my warranty company that both appliances were broken because of us. Additionally told the company that the oven was infested with bugs. We were shocked! Alarming right? We then independently had an exterminator come out and check the whole house, oven included. They found nothing: no bugs. When I asked Lake Area Appliance why they didn’t say anything about the appliances being non-repairable or that they found bugs in the oven, they told me they regularly don’t say what they really find for fear of the homeowners attacking them. They would not let me speak to the repairman directly. My 70 year old mother was in the house when the repairman came out. She needs two knee replacements and has cataracts— point being she couldn’t possibly have been that threatening to like a 25 year old guy. What a load of BS. That company lady was right, they do regularly lie— they lie to their customers and they lie to warranty companies, all so they can collect a service fee and not have to do anything more. The only thing I can’t decide is if American Home Shield is in on it.

AHS sent this horrible excuse of a repair company. Not only do they have terrible customer service, they don't fix the problem. Will be elevating to American Home Shield to recommend they find someone else to handle their claims. No one should do business with this company; look around - they have terrible reviews EVERYWHERE!!!

My story is basically the same as all of the other terrible reviews I have read about Lake Area Appliance Service : a HORRIBLE experience and no resolution. Our dishwasher recently stopped working (water wouldn't drain), so I called AHS to have someone come out, and they sent someone from this company. The guy spent a total of about 10-15 minutes at my house, and all he did was open the dishwasher, looked inside, and somehow determined (through a sixth sense, I suppose) that the main control board and pump were shorted out and that the motor was rusted. Those are all lies, since the dishwasher still powers on and runs fine (it just won't drain the water). As for the motor being "rusted" and his claim that he found a lot of rust on the bottom of the dishwasher, those are all false also. He never pulled the dishwasher out to examine anything, and I'm not a dishwasher "expert", but I DO have common sense, and I know I can make a pretty accurate assumption that you simply cannot diagnose a rusted motor without removing the standing water and disassembling certain parts to get access to the motor. Of course, just like with the other negative reviews, AHS refused to repair the dishwasher, claiming "the conditions were not normal wear and tear" and even cited "sitting in standing water" as the cause for the rust that was apparently found on the motor and underneath the dishwasher (and ultimately the supposed cause of the malfunction). I can't imagine they think I'm that dumb and that I wouldn't realize that what they claim is ridiculous. The dishwasher stopped draining water because either a part malfunctioned (drain valve, pump, etc) or because of a blockage somewhere. Why he didn't think to take out the water and check the filter or the hose or garbage disposal for blockages FIRST is beyond me. They ended up blaming me for the malfunction, as if I could somehow purposefully and negligently leave standing water in the dishwasher. The way he went about "diagnosing" is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE, UNPROFESSIONAL, and LAZY. They're doing to me what they have done to SO many other people, and they need to be stopped. AHS continues to defend them, and quite frankly, it doesn't make sense to me why they would continue sending out this company after all of the bad reviews. They are the WORST company I have ever dealt with, and I will make sure everyone knows that they are scamming people!

I put in a service request for my dishwasher through my home warranty (American Home Shield) who chose to send Lake Area Appliance Service to answer the request. My appointment window was 2:00pm-6:00pm. I called the company at 6:15pm because he still had not shown up and they were closed for the day. At 6:35 Daren from Lake Area Appliance Service shows up. He left at 6:50. He was there for 15 minutes. He took pictures and said he was going to report to home shield that the washer should not be covered because I had tampered with it. The day before putting in the request I pulled the drawers and sprayers out to check the filter. This is regular maintenance stuff recommended for every dishwasher 2x per year. I thought I was being courteous and saving the tech some time by not putting it back because he would have to remove it to check the pump and filter as well. It would have taken me 5 minutes to put back. Instead of being appreciate that I saved him a few minutes he used this as an excuse to not have to do anything. Now I'm out the $75 service fee and still have buy a new washer and install it myself. This company would use any excuse to not have to do any work and keep the service fee. If your home warranty tries to send Lake Area Appliance Service I would highly recommend canceling and demanding that the warranty company chose a different company to service the request.

American Home Shield assigned Lake Area Appliance Service to repair my microwave. Roughly a week after I placed my initial call, a serviceman came out and confirmed that the microwave was broken and said that the magnetron cooling fan needed replaced. A few days later, he showed up with a replacement fan. However, when he plugged the microwave in, the touchscreen issued an error code (essentially saying that the touchscreen was defective). He said he would need to do additional research to resolve the issue. After a few more days, I received an email from American Home Shield that they had assigned a new company to perform the repair. Since I hadn't heard anything from Lake Area Appliance Service, I called them to find out what was going on. They told me that the serviceman did not feel qualified to replace the touchscreen. When the serviceman came out for the second visit he indicated that it would be a hassle to replace the touchscreen so I honestly believe that he simply did not want to perform the repair. American Home Shield indicated that Lake Area Appliance Service would be able to keep the service fee I had paid them, so I have to wonder if this is their way of getting paid for doing nothing. It seems like a poor way to treat your customers, since I had to go back through the whole diagnosis process with the second company that American Home Shield dispatched.

I turned in my request to AHS in January. LAAS did not follow up. I had to call several times to get an appointment, and each time they had trouble finding my paperwork. First appointment was missed due to snow, and to their credit they called to cancel. We rescheduled and the repairman showed up on time. My dishwasher would not duplicate problem and the oven was fine. The Samsung front loading washer had been bouncing like it was out of balance and he was able to duplicate. He never opened up the washer case to look inside but informed me the washer would need new shocks and that parts would need to be ordered and it would take about a week. Next it was determined that what needed repair on my refrigerator was in a sealed area and beyond the scope of his ability and would need to be turned over to Samsung for repair. The man informed me that I would let the fabric softener compartment become clogged and that was causing the drawer to leak. I do not use fabric softener and the tray had leaked from the beginning. He argued with me. I told him I could read and directed him back to the utility room to look. As I said there was nothing in the fabric softener compartment and the only compartment that had anything in it was the bleach compartment because I had tried to do a load. It was NOT clogged. Rude and condescending. After one week I called LAAS only to be told my claim had been denied because the repair was caused by more than normal wear and tear and by overloading the washer. I was livid. I am a single woman who is disabled. There is no way on earth that washer has had more than normal wear and tear nor am I even physically capable of overloading it. The woman with whom I spoke informed me that when the shocks go out it is ALWAYS because of overloading. Incredulous, I asked her had she ever heard of defective parts? She then informed me that when there is twisted and bent metal it is always because of overloading. I then told her he was assuming because he did not see anything inside the washer. He was the reason I was denied and I wanted to complain. He was not honest. Or someone else. Reading other reviews I recognized the pattern and now wonder if it was him or someone else but it was indeed LAAS. I was referred back to AHS and told I could not complain. I would find a video on YouTube and try to do it myself before I would use Lake Area Appliance Service. AHS has been contacted, and they are now sending Sears to appeal LAAS dishonest assessment. Due to multiple counts of what I view as disorganization, rudeness, dishonesty, and as my grandmother would say, pure-d laziness, I would recommend avoiding this company. 3/18/15 update. Sears was here. There was nothing mechanically or electronically wrong with my washer. It needed to be leveled. Lake Area Appliance Service's rude employee cited "bent and twisted metal." Sears agreed my washer was in pristine condition. These people are rats. P.S. The lack of punctuation or contractions is due to them being converted to a string of numbers and symbols. Please overlook.

Did not know how to fix it

It didn't.

The Lake representatibve was late for the original scheduled time, and then called with a new arrival time, which was missed. The sales person was friendly and polite, and after completing his inspection stated that the oven needed a new heating element and it should not be used. Regarding the cook top, he stated that they see these thermal cracks all the time and it needed replaced. He had a write up, but said he couldn't provide us with a copy unless they complete the work (1st warning sign!). Since he was getting paid for this call, we asked him to sign a business card that he completed the inspection, and had received payment. He did this. A couple of days went by, and we heard from AHS that they would replace the upper oven heating element, but that they were not covering the glass cook top because the inspector had reported it as "not normal wear & tear". As this went against our understanding, and the comments given by their representative onsite at our home, we called and requested a copy of the job write-up. They sent it the same day, and told us they usually don't share a copy with the customer. On the write-up, The writing of the scheduler (Rhonda as we were told) in advance of the appointment is evident, the inspector/salesperson onsite write-up is evident, and then there is a 3rd writing style that notes not normal wear and tear, and areas where white out was used. My wife called and spoke to Rhonda, who now represented herself as a manager, and was speaking to us because Carla, the manager, did not want to talk to us about this. Rhonda got very defensive when my wife questioned her regarding the analysis. My wife shared internet research regarding thermal cracks, and was screamed at and told that they would not discuss it with us. We then received a call from AHS advising we would have to start over with a new provider. Perhaps AHS pressures suppliers to deny claims, and they hope nobody questions them. But this company is disingenuous, unprofessional, and rude.

I PROVIDED MODEL NUMBERS FOR THE OVEN AND DISHWASHER. WHEN THE SERVICEMAN ARRIVED, LATE, HE INDICATED HE WOULD HAVE TO ORDER PARTS. WE PAID FOR A SERVICE CALL IN WHICH NOTHING WAS DONE EVEN THOUGH I HAD ALREADY PROVIDED THE LIST OF THINGS NEEDED. WHEN THE PARTS ARRIVED, ANOTHER CALL WAS SCHEDULED. WE WANTED TO KNOW IF THE REPAIRMAN COULD MAKE A SMALL LEVELING ADJUSTMENT WHILE HE WAS HERE AS WE DID NOT PERSONALLY HAVE THE NECESSARY TOOL TO MAKE SAID ADJUSTMENT. THE COMPANY SAID IT WOULD COST AN EXTRA $49.95 FOR THE SERVICE CALL, PLUS LABOR. THE ADJUSTMENT WOULD HAVE TAKEN PROBABLY 2 MINUTES OR LESS. ADDITIONALLY, EVEN THOUGH I HAD ASKED FOR THE SEAL TO BE REPLACED ON THE DISHWASHER, BECAUSE THE DISHWASHER LEAKS, THE REPAIRMAN REFUSED BECAUSE HE COULDN'T MAKE IT LEAK HIMSELF. LAKE AREA PROVED TO BE VERY CRAFTY IN EXTRACTING MONEY FROM ITS VARIOUS LEVEL OF SERVICE CHARGES. THEY WERE NOT PROMPT AND THEY DO NOT KEEP PARTS IN STOCK. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

OUR TECHNICIAN WAS EXTREMELY EFFICIENT AND PROVIDED US WITH GREAT INFORMATION ON OUR OVEN AND FIXED IT THE FIRST TIME.

THIS SERVICE PROVIDER WAS REFERRED TO US THROUGH OUR HOME WARRANTY SERVICE, THUS THE COST TO US WAS MINIMAL. THEY ARRIVED AT THE EARLY END OF THEIR ESTIMATED RANGE OF ARRIVAL WHICH WAS A PLUS.