In August 2023 my bedroom and living room air conditioners both broke. I went to PC Richards in New Hyde Park. That was a BIG mistake. Everything went wrong, all their fault:
1. I paid in full at that time for the 2 machines. The salesman gave me his business card and told me to call if I had any problem. He never answered the phone and didn't return my calls.
2. The salesman said that the sleeves needed to be measured. I had to wait 3 days for an appointment with the man who measures. He took 4 days to transmit the information. Why did it take him so long?!
3. Once it was transmitted, the store chose the Friedrich air conditioners for me, according to this information. Then I had to wait 3 days for the machines to be delivered to the store, then 3 more days until they were delivered.
4. The bedroom AC was fine, but the delivered living room machine was a 110, instead of a 220, which was needed. Either the measuring man made an error or the person in the store ignored the report, ordered the wrong AC.
5. I called the store and the salesman who answered the phone told me it was my fault that the wrong machine was ordered. MY fault?? I didn't tell them what machine to order. The PC Richards staff did all the decision making, I just paid the bill. The man on the phone didn't believe me and I had to send him a photo of the plug of the old machine.
6. The correct machine was ordered. 3 day wait for delivery to the store, then 3 more days for installation.
7. The installers were in a big rush. They just put it in the wall, handed me the remote, and left. I turned it on and it wasn't working correctly. It blew cool air for 2 minutes, then hot air for 5 minutes, then 2 cool, 5 hot, continually. I didn't want to call PC Richards because I got no satisfaction from anyone working there, so I called Friedrich. That man told me that I wasn't using the settings correctly!!
8. By then it was September, the heatwave over, so I let it go, thinking that maybe you can't test an air conditioner if it's not hot outside. The fall and winter passed, and the spring arrived with a heatwave. I tried the air conditioner and it still didn't work correctly. I called PC Richards and explained the problem. The salesman said he will not give me a new machine, even though the broken one was new, never used. He said I had to call an AC repair service. I called and they came. They tested the machine and said there was a leak, and he could repair it in 5 days. He said it would be better than new because Friedrich uses foreign parts and he uses American. I knew that if I called PC Richards, they wouldn't give me a new one, anyway, so I let him take it away for repair.
9. It was repaired in 5 days and a delivered a few days later. The repairman turned it on and said it was working perfectly, but I cannot use it as is. It will overheat because the PC Richards delivery man left the grill in the carton instead of putting it on the back of the machine. There is a little tag on the front of the machine saying that the grill must be installed in the back.
10. I called PC Richards and told this information to the salesman who answered the phone. He said I had to call the service department. So I did. If anyone in PC Richards tells you that they will find out the information you need and will call you back, do not hang up. Say that you will hold on, no matter how long it takes, because they will not call you back. They said that they could not get another grill.
11. So I deserve a new AC, no? I let them fix a new machine, because that's what they insisted on. I had cooperated. But there was no resolution to fixing this except to give me a new AC. BUT the salesman in the service department didn't want to give me a new one. He told me to describe the AC because he didn't believe that this problem was real. He was accusing me of substituting another broken machine to get one for free. I told him that I was not home because I am a senior citizen and spending my days in the nearby cooling center, the local public library, because weeks were going by in the peak of the summer, because they were being so difficult. He said that even if I am not home, the machine is in the living room, so I must pass it all the time and should be able to describe it. Well, I'm sorry, but I couldn't. I didn't go looking at it, and when the machine isn't on, the drapes cover it, anyway. I told him to come over to see it, if he doesn't believe me.
12. So then after holding on a long time, he came back on the phone and told me that he has a photo of the AC that the repairman took and the grill is on it. The grill was NOT on it! The repairman was the one who told me that it wasn't on, and I 12. needed it. I told him to come over to see for himself, because there was NO grill on the machine!!!
13. He finally surrendered and I got a new machine. I took from June to late July. read more