Totem Appliance & Refrigeration Ltd

***Before we posted this review, we have posted it with a video of a Totem's technician KEN on Google Maps app. However, the review was still awaiting moderation. So we post the story here, with only photos. Once the original review is published we will remove this one.***

My husband called Totem to schedule a repair because one of our ovens did not heat up. At such time he paid the initial fee $159 + taxes + 2% fee, $170.29 in total but he forgot to tell me about the payment. He was told that after their technician diagnostic, we will receive quote for parts and labour as additional charge and then pay for that, which was reasonable. Then, Ken came and diagnosed the range. He did NOT quote the cost, instead, he replaced a new igniter which was a simple job. The oven worked. I was told $327 in total. As I knew there was a $159 initial fee for diagnosing, I asked Ken if his quote included the $159 fee. His answer was YES, and this was all to pay, with only 2% additional credit card charge. After I agreed, Ken said Totem's website showed INCORRECT price of $120 for the part, and should be higher. He spent time on his laptop much longer than replacing the part and said $352. With each quote, he confirmed twice that these two amounts included the $159 initial fee. Had I known that my husband paid for it up front, I would have corrected Ken immediately. When we knew Ken charged the second initial fee, we did not block the transaction. Instead, we decided to deal with customer service, as it was a simple mistake by Totem. After my husband requested the refund, we received our invoice. The part was $119.6 clearly on it. Ken charged $25 more for himself. They made up the invoice to match his overcharge as the labour of $343. We requested Totem to refund the second initial fee plus the $28.56 ($25+taxes+2%), totaling $198.85. For a business, except quality work, customer care is equally important. However, the person, who was in charge "never had a chance" to look into this matter until one week later, when we contacted him again. Never happened with a service provider! Finally the person replied that the total cost still was $529.39, including labour of $184.19. Had Ken quoted the amount of labour for replacing an igniter, I would say NO, use another oven and find another service provider with a transparent cost structure. The person was informed by Ken that he "quoted" me before repairing. Ken definitely had no idea how our surveillance system works in the house. We saved all of records from his service call as needed! We were taken for a ride for $198 just to replace a simple part.

Before I posted this review, we received refund offers from Totem. They offered a refund $24 and then changed to $66. Also mentioned warranty which was not related to the issue. Not acceptable!