When we renovated our kitchen prior to moving in 15 years ago, we ended up buying our appliances at PC Richard after looking around at various local shops. We replaced several of these over the years, particularly in the last few, also, as it happens, from PC Richard. But recently, when our washing machine called it quits, I knew we had to do something different. Our building has strict regulations about the type of W/D you can install, who can do it, what water-saving devices are required to be installed in advance, etc. On top of this, our kitchen was basically created around the washer and dryer and getting them out would take a real pro, not a generic big box store installer. For this reason I really wanted to use a local Manhattan shop that would know how to deal with this sort of situation. We first checked out Gringer, a place we'd been to in the past though never purchased anything from. True to their Yelp reviews, no one paid the least amount of attention to us when we walked in. A bunch of guys sitting there talking to each other, not helping customers or potential customers. It seemed odd, but c'est la vie. Next up: Flamtech. It was located right on the Bowery in what we'd always considered the "lighting district," though I'd never actually noticed them there. The reviews were great so we headed over. We looked around but didn't see any washers or dryers so we asked for help. The woman who helped us took us right over to working models, said "This is really what you're looking for," (particularly the Miele heat pump dryer), and was so knowledgable, friendly, and capable that we knew we'd found the right place. This turned out to be Jane, star of many (accurate) Yelp reviews. She asked us to send photos of our kitchen so they could plan an installation, and when we got home we took said photos and sent them along. Our building required some onerous paperwork, insurance, master plumber-installed-water shutoff valve, etc. Not only did Jane and co handle the building with aplomb, but they helped me justify to our management company why we didn't actually need such a device (the washing machine had its own, built-in). Their installer even came to the apartment in advance to plan out a route in to the kitchen, measure our current appliances, and devise a strategy on delivery day. And while the whole process took longer than I'dve really liked, that was no fault of Flamtech: they jumped through the hurdles our management company posed with nothing but smiles and courtesy. Following the installation our first test run of the washer resulted in a "water input pressure" alarm being tripped, and they were all over it. I ran it a second time without any problem and realized that after the complex installation the installer had wanted to run both the dishwasher and the clothes washer to make sure they both worked, and that inevitably caused the pressure to be low for both. Running them one at a time (which is what we usually make a point of doing) alleviated the issue. Even so, the installer himself called me the next day to follow up and make sure everything was working properly.
This is what service should be everywhere. Unfortunately it isn't, but be happy that Flamtech is around to see things through. Our experience wasn't just good, it was perfect. read more