UPDATE: 16-OCT-2021 - On 22-SEP-2021, Santee reached out to say he would reimburse me for the board, and on 28-SEP-2021 he sent a text indicating he would contact me soon. I had hoped to update the review with a really positive customer satisfaction ending. Unfortunately, he has not responded to multiple Yelp messages and has not responded to text messages either for 3 weeks, so the update is just a rotten cherry on top of a really crappy cake.
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What a huge disappointment. While there were only a few reviews for Decks Appliance repair, they were all good. Unfortunately, other than his initial responsiveness, my experience with Santee couldn't be any further from good.
Santee was very nice and personable, and he arrived when he said he would to diagnose my oven. Unfortunately, after that it all went downhill.
While he was diagnosing the problem:
- he dropped tiny screws several times because his screw driver was not magnetic
- he did not bring a rolling stand to pull out the oven, so he was unable to test the thermal fuse on the back, but said there was not one
- when he was testing, he broke one of the connectors for the heating element, but he said he would fix it at no charge
- he "diagnosed" one of the relay boards as bad
I ordered the replacement part per his suggestion and it arrived as scheduled. Santee said he would install it the next day, but a week and a day later, he finally returned to install it. He parked in our freshly powerwashed driveway when he arrived. After about 30 minutes, he left his tools, but he had to leave to pick up something from Home Depot to finish the job. When he left we noticed there were several puddles of oil where he parked. When he returned, he parked on the street and left similar puddles of oil there.
Sadly, he still did not have a stand for the oven and asked if he could borrow my step tool. After he replaced the relay board he indicated the wires for the element had slipped and he could not reach them. He needed to pick-up another tool. But this time, he packed everything up when he left. After 45 minutes, he called to say he would not return until the next day. At this point, I fired Santee. He did not argue with my reason, and agreed to refund the diagnostic fee, so I could hire another technician.
A tech from Top Notch appliance arrived in 2 days with all the proper tools and repaired the damaged element connector properly (Santee crimped it when it should have been soldered). He also indicated the relay board did not need to be replaced as the thermal fuse on the back of the oven was tripped. This meant the $190 part was a complete waste of money, but I could not return it as Santee opened and installed it...
Santee was a nice man, but clearly not prepared to diagnose and repair my double oven. And driving a vehicle that leaks oil to a customer's home is terribly unprofessional. read more