Austec Appliance

So our saga began in mid December when the dishwasher we bought from Home Depot stopped draining. We had a plumber come out and take a look at it. He determined that it was the dishwasher and not our lines or hoses. Since we were still under warranty we contacted Home Depot. On Dec 26^th they sent a tech from Austec. He was sort of rude and hostile, like he was mad about having to come out. He said the pump was bad and that they would have one sent to our house. Over a week later we got a call that the pump had been ordered. Then a week later when it arrived, now two weeks since he came out, a second man installed the pump. He seemed professional, but asked us to leave a towel under the washer the first time we ran it since «there could be some leaking.» We did but the next time we ran it we removed the towel and shortly after water started coming up from the floor and from behind the washer. We didn’t have some leak, we had a flooded kitchen. We called again, and again about a week later, now we’re in the middle of Jan, a third guy came out. This man was from Paul’s Appliances. He was competent and quickly discovered that one of the guys from before had disassembled the flood guard and had not properly put it back together. Now, I have a bare concrete floor and ruined cabinets while I try to figure out how much of the damage my insurance company is going to pay for. Austech turned a simple repair into a disaster. Our agent and claims adjuster can’t get them on the phone. If you have a warranty from Home Depot or Lowe’s and they send these guys watch out!

I have some suggestions for the person answering the phone for this company; If your job is not customer service, then don’t answer the phone. If it is, how ’bout having some coffee before you start working, or better yet if you don’t like your job then get another one.
Growing up in Austin, I’ve come to have absolutely no standards when it comes to customer service and I’m rarely suprised and certainly don’t waste my time telling anyone and here’s a situation where I’m not even paying any money (this was supposed to be for warranty work) so you’d think I’d really let this one go but her attitude, the way she spoke to me and just the complete and utter lack of professionalism promts me to write. I’m not livid, nor do I think I am unreasonable and I’m sure she’s a lovely person outside her job. I usually try to imagine someone in that situation as someone’s daughter, or son, or wife or brother or sister and just give them a break but I just don’t like being talked to so rudely first thing in the morning? It’s a Monday for me too sweetheart. How about leaving your crappy attitude at home?

the absolute WORST customer service i’ve EVER dealt with! Lauren is just about the rudest person i’ve ever spoken to… do NOT use this company!!!

As I’m not able to use my favorite, Expert Appliance Repair, for Whirlpool warranty repairs, I used these guys by request from Whirlpool’s manufacturer warranty as the other company Whirlpool wanted to send out didn’t have a single good review.
The lady I spoke to on the phone at Austec was extremely helpful, efficient and was able to schedule an appointment for the next day. Cleo, the technician, called in the morning and let me know the two hour time frame he would be there, which he arrived in that time space promptly — about half an hour after the start of the two hours. He spent way more than a sufficient amount of time resolving the problem, then stayed to make sure the problem continued to stay resolved after he fixed the issue. I feel he went above and beyond to make sure he understood what was going on and make sure it was taken care of, and I definitely appreciated him doing so.
I would definitely have Austec out again, and especially Cleo.

Never again. Spent $ 80 for dude to turn water on. Still broken.

My Maytag Dishwasher push button front panel quit working and I had an Extended Warranty through Home Depot on it.
Austec Appliance was assigned to repair it and Cleo came out and checked it out.
He determined it was the push button panel as well as the electronic control board malfunctioning.
They ordered the parts and even had them sent directly to my house so I knew when they were there.
I called them the day I had both parts and Cleo promptly came out and repaired the dishwasher and tested it out with no questions.
I would highly recommend this company for appliance repairs and Cleo the technician that came out to do the repairs.
My dad used to own his own appliance repair business for 32 years and ended up getting a job assisting techs with appliance repair so I know about appliance repair and they did a great job and were prompt with my dishwasher repair.
Thanks,
Robert

This company quoted a charge to calibrate my less than 3 year old Fisher & Paykel oven. They are an authorized service company for this mfr. The technician they sent had never heard of F&P and had no knowledge of our oven. He spend quite some time on the phone and then told us he couldn’t calibrate the thermostat. He said it had to be replaced. They quoted a charge for replacing it. Then they called and said the part is no longer available. I called F&P who would happily sell me the part for $ 68. F&P also recommended calling a different authorized repair company. When I called Austec back they still claimed the part isn’t available. I would never call them again for anything.

Our dishwasher, a mere 6 months old, started going crazy and finally stopped working. It was under warranty from Lowe’s, and they directed us to Austec Appliance to take care of the repairs. I have to say they were very difficult to deal with. They were difficult to schedule the time for them to come out to look at it. When they finally came out, they said they would order the part and call us when it was in. When I didn’t hear from them in 2 weeks, I called again, and was told they ordered the part, but Whirlpool didn’t ship it and they didn’t know what was going on. I asked if they called Whirlpool about it, and they admitted they did not. I asked them to call, and they finally did. I was told Whirlpool did not have it in stock – that «it’s a very hard part to get a hold of.» I asked what the plan was – did they get an estimated date of delivery, etc. – and was told I was probably better off just calling the company myself. So, I did. Turns out I needed their original purchase order number, so I had to call Austec back, but once I had that, it was no problem to get the part ordered (When I asked about it being a difficult part to get a hold of, the woman said, «Who told you that!!!»). They shipped it right to me, and I called Austec to install it. The guy who came out both times was really nice, but Austec itself is an organization that seems to lack integrity and, well, organization. Also, each time I called Austec, the person I spoke to was very unfriendly and gave clipped answers with little valuable information.
Basically, I feel like I did the work that Austec was supposed to do, but they got whatever payment from Lowe’s/Whirlpool. From the time we made the initial call to when our dishwasher was actually fixed/​working again, it had been a month. That just seems like too long. If I had a choice of whom to contact for appliance repair, it would not be Austec.

I wanted to thank you for what Austec has done for us. Austec made the last 3 of 10 service calls we had on the same KitchenAid refrigerator. The problem was not fixable on this particular unit even though 3 separate appliance repair companies tried. Your phone call on April 28^th with findings to Whirlpool made the difference. I made the call to Whirlpool yesterday morning. The KitchenAid Product Specialist submitted a request for «approval to exchange.» We got the call just 30 hours later from the committee confirming approval. We should have a new KitchenAid delivered withing 10 – 14 business days.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make that call to Whirlpool Tech Assist. It worked and we are so relieved and happy!
Regards,
Martha Short

Whirlpool keeps sending these guys out for warranty work. They don’t know what they are talking about. They haven’t fixed a thing each of the two times they came out. They blame the Whirlpool Duet washer vibration problem (by the way, dont buy Whirlpool, it SUCKS!) on something other than the washer. Joker tried to blame wooden floors… hahaha I have TILE floors… WTF.
Long/​short, guys were very nice, but seemed inexperienced. I am having another company come out on Whirlpool’s dime, which is NOT easy. They are HARD to work with.

Frankly, I would give them about –2 stars if it were an option. Forced to use them since they are the only local Whirlpool authorized repair shop, but I certainly won’t call them on my own. (If you have to do a repair on your own dime check out James Beardsley — he’s on Unilocal)
It took Austec 4 visits to fix my dishwasher, and every time they told me the day but couldn’t even give me morning or afternoon timeblock. Instead, they said the tech would call early that morning to tell me an approximate time. Now, I can appreciate that some repairs take longer than expected and they can’t always know for sure what time they can get there, but this is the 21^st century people, why can’t you at least tell me am or pm??? I cannot sit at home all day waiting on you. Then on the day the tech doesn’t call as promised, you have to call the office and they call the tech and he calls you back in about 40 min to give you an estimated time. Sheesh. If the tech isn’t gonna call don’t tell me he will.
I sure hope Whirlpool checks these sites and picks a new local servicer before you need them. If not, plan to have to take the entire day off from our job. And they don’t do evening appts either.

My window AC unit broke down and it was out of warranty. They scheduled a service man to come between 1 and 3 and he was timely. Unfortunately the Frigidaire parts for repair cost too much. And they recommended we buy a new unit. I appreciated their honesty! Will use them again in the future…

My experience was short. I was happy to make an appointment from 1pm to 5pm, today, with the first person I spoke with. She was enthusiastic to help and I asked and verified more than once about the time frame because myself or my wife had to leave work to meet the repair person at the house. Today, I got a call at 10 am: «Are you available in fifteen minutes?» Apparently, the appointment is: «just a request» and the office was glad to repeat that several times without apology or flexibility. There won’t be a next time for me, but I suppose in order to make an appointment with these people, we have to wait at home all day for their call.

They came right away to check out my 2 yr old dishwasher. After that they forget about you once they charge you for their diagnosis. Very rude personnel. Stupid techs too, who scratched up my dishwasher finish. Took them 2 months to fix my dishwasher that lasted only a month. Not only do they have rude staff but they have incompetent barnyard techs. Stay away! Rip off!

I had Austec appliance out for warrenty service on my dishwasher. They confirmed their appointment the week before, called me in the morning with an estimated arrival time, showed up on time and completed the repairs very fast. Overall one of the best experiences with a appliance repair company I have had

Overall, my experience was bad. They made and didn’t keep an appointment, didn’t apologize or take responsibility for that, waited 10 days to order the part then lied and said it was ordered 10 days earlier. I wrote the company twice about my complaints and got no response. I won’t use them again and will need to tell the warranty company that referred me, of my experience and I am wondering if this is the kind of thing I should tell the Better Business Bureau…

These guys are are a bunch of jokers. Kept me on the phone forever, asked me a bunch of questions about a warranty repair that I had an authorization number for, and kept putting me on hold. They were obviously more concerned with trying to figure out what would be covered by the warranty than anything else.
Hello. I will pay you to fix my refrigerator if the warranty doesn’t cover it. I need cold beverages, fresh vegetables and cheese, and milk for my kids. You do accept money, right?
No, 8 days from now is not acceptable. 8 days? You’re kidding, right? What, do you have one technician who goes from call-​to-​call on a bicycle? Should I use a cooler for 8 days? Biznatch with an attitude, you suck.
Thankfully, I’ve got a 20 year old beer fridge in the garage that plugs away like a champ. Much more reliable than the 2 year old model. But needless to say, I will not be using Austec Appliance. Next.