From all the General Contractors, Plumbers and Heating contractors I sourced through Homestars, this contractor is the only one which stood out with the deficient service and incompetence. I sought their service to fix the overheating situation (and the circuit breaker going off and shutting down the dryer) of a 4 year old Maytag dryer. When the technician arrived, I told him specifically that the dryer had the same issue about 3 years back but somehow the situation got resolved by itself. Also I told him specifically that the Machine was overheating and probably that is the reason the circuit breaker is going off. The technician checked the circuit breaker, the Receptacle and examined the Machine and told me categorically that was not the issue and went on to advise me that there is "no heat" in the Machine (he showed me some reading) and proceeded to advise me that it will cost between CAD 350 to CAD 375.00 to have that fixed (to replace the Thermal switch and Thermostat) which I agreed (In spite of me telling him that the clothes are coming out semi dry just after about 10 minutes of the dryer running when it shuts down, also that I could feel the heat). He replaced both and billed me CAD 378.00 for the 50 minutes he spend at my place (CAD 245 labor and CAD 115 parts). He initially told me that both were separate but then later after all work was done told me that for this model, both the thermal switch and thermostat came together.
But that didn't fix the issue, the Machine was doing the same thing the very next day and after about 3 days when I called him back he at first refused to entertain me (full disclosure - I called him on a Sunday) and then he called me back the same day (after I called Maple Leaf Appliance Repair over their number) after a couple of hours and instructed me to speak to an Electrician and have it checked out. By that time I realized I am not getting anywhere and I am getting the run around. I spoke to some of my work colleagues whose husbands are Electricians and Millwrights and I got that feed back from the Electricians (they were astonished that the technician didn't check the Circuit board to find out if anything was wrong with the fuse...partial blame lays with me because of my incredible naivety at that time and my trusting nature, I should have second guessed things and explored more on Internet before calling in a Repair). I brought in an Electrician and it took him about 2 minutes to find out what was wrong - the fuse which fed my dryer had melted in the inside (possibly) and the fuse wont come out of the receptacle even with a lot of force. Moreover the position the fuse was in was like "half on". The Electrician wondered why any type of technician with even little knowledge or experience in repairing anything could have found out what "might have been" a plausible cause of the dryer shutting down intermittently. He replaced the fuse and the issue of the dryer shutting down resolved right away (its being 2 months and no issues at all). I definitely do understand that the Repair technician may not be certified or proficient enough to check the switch board or do any repair to the Electrical board system but a cursory glance (and some experience) would have helped him find out if there is "some issue" with the fuse position in spite of he examining it. If this is the quality and training and expertise of a Maple Leaf Electrician, I dont think I will be comfortable in allowing him to touch any of my Appliances with a 10 feet pole. Also before the Electrician showed up and finally fixed the issue, I was a bit curious about their pricing policy since they charged me CAD 275.00 labor for an hour of work - I emailed them asking about it and a gentleman Mark replied that their policy is of offering clients a fixed price after the technician making an assessment of what need to be done regardless of how much time the repair will take, in his own words "40 minutes or 4 hours"(akin to you taking your car to a garage because of a rattling sound it gives out and the Mechanic right away giving you an all ball figure to have that issue resolved, regardless of whether you having to replace the Engine or a timing belt).
To be honest right now I dont know if this was plain incompetence on behalf of this company/tech or this is how they roll in general (and no reply from them when I reported what transcribed and how it got resolved). But what astounds me more is this site is filled with glowing reviews of this organization and their services. I am truly at a loss to explain that with the experience I had with them.
