Two weeks ago we bought a dehumidifier from Hunter Appliance. After just 10 days the unit seized. We called Hunter and spoke to the manager/owner, who was extremely rude to us. and blamed us rather than taking responsibility for his defective product. We told him we were sure it was a siezed compressor and we had to have another working dehumidifier right away. He insisted on calling a technician and told us he could not give us our money back or even swap the unit out for a replacement. The next day, the technician came out and verified that the compressor seized. He said he would talk to the manager and have the manager call us back that day with an action plan. Instead, the technician called us back and said the manager had left the store early ""to pick up his daughter"" and would not be back. The technician said he could not give us a refund or accept an exchange at this time; that they had to call the manufacturer on Monday and ask the mfr. what they wanted to do, and that they could hot help us until the manufacturer had decided what to do. We repeated that we needed a dehumidifier now and could not go even a week without one. We said that everyone knows that the cost of repairing a compressor is greater than the cost of replacing a dehumidifier. The technician said they had no other dehumidifiers in stock at the store and they would not replace it. They would not even give us a loaner. We then asked for a full refund so that we could go to another store and get a working dehumidifier the same day. He said, no, they can't give us a refund because he could not accept as a return ""a used unit."" We argued, saying that the unit is only 2 weeks old and it had seized already through no fault of our own, and he said no, he would not accept it back. He again repeated that they had no other units in stock so he couldn't replace our unit for us, and that the manufacturer had to decide whether to repair the seized compressor or to give us a new dehumidifier. Again, he said that the manager was not in the store, and that he would call us on Monday (2 days hence) and the mgr. was not around today.
After hanging up the phone, my husband waited 3 minutes and called Hunter Appliance back. He asked the person answering the phone who was on duty as manager that day. They said that the same manager that the tech. had just told us was not there; they said that he was there. My husband told them he would be right over. He didn't say who he was, so Hunter did not know from us that it was us who called and said we were coming over. The manager figured it out for himself and called us back, leaving a message that he would replace our defective dehumidifier today. The manager did this because he knew we had caught him and his technician in more than one lie--he was indeed at the store and available to talk to us, and he indeed had a replacement in the store ready for our immediate pickup. My husband and I immediately went over to the store and there were 3 big guys waiting for us at the door. My sense was that they were trying to intimidate us into not standing up for ourselves. We met the mgr., who tried to give us all kinds of excuses why his technician had lied to us. He had a brand new dehumidifier waiting for us at the door, and we didn't take it right away but instead we left the store to go get the defective unit and bring it back. When we returned to the store with our defective unit in its box, we told him we changed our minds and wanted nothing less than a full refund. He took our credit card and gave us a full refund and we walked out of the store, happy never to return.
Save yourself the huge pain in the neck of having to go through the same hassle we had to go through, these guys lied to and did everything they could to bully us into keeping a defective appliance so they could keep our money and not have to deal with the problem.
more