Installation is Great, What About the Service?

Earlier this week, a lady was in a pickle and was hoping to sort out some water treatment problems.  Just over ten years ago, she bought a water treatment/iron removal system from one of the major brands operating in the area.  (No names will be mentioned here here, but let's just say they have a LOT of advertising using a celebrity pitch man.)

10 months shy of their warranty expiring, they started having problems and called for service.  Their technician was dispatched, noted a problem with their iron filter and removed one-half of their distiller.  She received a note indicating the repair should be covered under warranty and the tech took their copy back to the office to arrange repairs.

That was the last she heard from them.  After calling daily, twice-daily and then hourly for months, eventually a threat of going to the Better Business Bureau got their technician out again.  They were quoted $180 for the service call and told their warranty had since-expired so would now need to pay for parts and labour to perform the repairs they'd been waiting for.

To add insult to injury, they never returned the missing components from the distiller, so the family still has no drinking water - they've gone from using a distiller to a "pitcher-style" filter in their fridge - NOT acceptable for well water!!!  To further aggrevate the situation, the family now will have to replace or re-finish their sinks and tubs as no amount of scrubbing is able to remove the iron staining etched into their fixtures.  (Pretty sad considering this function is built into the name of the equipment the family had purchased for water treatment.)

She then called her realtor who referred her to Douglas Environmental Solutions.  Not only will she be getting a 25 year warranty on the replacement equipment, she was also offered several references and testimonials attesting not only to the quality of the Hague WaterMax equipment and the water it produces, but also to show that service doesn't stop the moment her payment for installation was completed.  Suffice it to say, this other company has to do a lot of advertising because there's no way they get referrals and from what I've seen, not a chance for any "repeat business" from people moving around within the area.

It's too bad the big guys have such deep pockets for advertising.  This seems to happen all the time - a copious amount of coverage in the papers and on the radio leads people to believe they are dealing with a reputable company.  In reality, it often just means their system prices are inflated to pay for all those ads...

Please - be an informed consumer.  Get references of existing, satisfied customers before making a purchase decision.  Specifically, ask for examples of times when service was required and talk to those people.  It's not too hard to be satisfied when everything is working tickety-boo, but where the rubber hits the road is on after-sales service.