My Nightmare Experience with

AAMP Appliance Repair of Norcross, Georgia

(770) 263-9194

We didn’t just wind up losing money.

We didn’t just wind up with a broken appliance. 

We didn’t just wind up with a lot of lost time and work.

We wound up being scared in our own home by these people.

My decision to call AAMP Appliance Repair of Norcross, GA eventually cost me $80, three days of my time, and a "working" part in my dryer - meaning that it was worse off after than before they came out... and that wasn't even the worst part of the experience!

We were referred to these swindlers by Lanny Adams.

VISIT #1

A technician shows up four days after we call.  He brings no parts with him, but tells us that the problem is the heating element.

I call Ken Kaufman, the owner of AAMP to find out the cost.  Instead of answering, he asks to speak with the tech and directs him to get the $80 service fee from me.  He then hangs up on me.

The next day.  I call AAMP back and find that they will charge $350 to replace the heating element.  (I later find that that the part itself is only $80 and that they charged another customer about $200 total for the same repair only a year earlier). 

VISIT #2

The technician comes by the following afternoon and stays for a few hours.  He tells us that replacing the heating element did not fix the problem and suggests that perhaps a lightening strike had taken out both the element and the controller at the same time.

Two days later, Ken's wife, Lori calls and tells both my wife and me that the new element will remain in the dryer even though the problem was most likely the circuit board.  She offers to charge us "only" $390, given that we had been inconvenienced by the misdiagnosis. 

AAMP's business ethics are starting to look a bit shaky at this point.  The controller board part may cost about $50 more than the element, but it is a much easier repair, since it is on the front panel and only requires removing a few screws and four quick-connects.  It is a 30 minute job at most.  Does the company really charge $260 for a half hour of labor?

Another company had charged us $256 to replace the same part four years earlier, but I agree to the repair with AAMP anyway.  (I was already invested  with time and money and I thought that I was getting a new heating element in the mix - even if the status of the old one was ambiguous at best.  Ironically, I was also trying to be fair to AAMP, and didn't want them to lose money.  Little did I know what Ken and Lori had in store for me.)

Owner Ken calls later to schedule the service.  His only interest is in doubling me up with another repair in the area to conserve his technician’s time, even though this is inconvenient for me.  I have no choice really, but to agree to his schedule and plan the time off work.

VISIT #3

The technician arrives at the wrong time because Ken did not relay the correct information.

The technician begins disassembling the dryer and surprises me by asking for the old heating element to swap out with the new.  I explain what Lori had told us and that the old one was no longer in the house.

The technician calls Ken, who insists that either the new element be taken out of the dryer or I be charged additional for it. 

At this point, the job has gone from being quoted at $183 to $350 to $390, and now an additional $80 if I want the dryer to actually work.  In other words, somewhere in the mid $400's for a dryer that only cost $350 originally.  On top of that, AAMP wants another free hour of my time to "undo" a repair that they decided arbitrarily had never been necessary.

The technician is visibly uncomfortable at this point, being caught in the middle.  I try to resolve the problem by calling the office and asking for Lori.  She isn’t there, according to Ken, so I talk to him. 

What happens next is not something I would ever imagine a company doing to a customer.

Ken tells me that if I don't pay him the extra money then he will have the technician stay in my home and remove the heating element from the dryer. 

I tell Ken that his company had previously told me that the old element was bad and that under no circumstance was someone to be in my house without my permission.  Ken says that it isn’t my call to make.

I ask Ken if an $80 part is really worth doing something illegal over.  His response:  "Absolutely."  He then shouts that he doesn't like it when "people steal from me."

I remind Ken that this is the third time someone has been out to my house, and the second time that I have had to miss work, so he is stealing my time by screwing up the initial diagnosis and then trying to charge me for it.  I say that I will call the police if the technician is not out of my house.  Ken continues to insist that his man will stay put.

At that point, I ask the technician to leave - not really knowing if he will or not, since it appears that he is being asked to choose between his job or breaking the law.  While doing this, I try to keep the line open with Ken, hoping that it will prevent him from calling the tech and reaffirming the order to stay.

Showing a lot more sense than his boss, the technician begins to leave immediately and even apologizes for not being able to put the dryer back together.  I make the mistake of hanging up on Ken early and the tech's phone begins to ring, which we both know is Ken ordering him to stay on site.

To my relief, the tech ignores the call and I am able to lock the door behind him. 

Conclusion

Ken Kaufman's temper and disdain for the law actually left me feeling violated – and I’m a reasonably capable man who keeps a gun nearby.  A single woman or a housewife at home by herself might have been more easily intimidated and taken advantage of by AAMP Appliance Repair and its greedy owner. 

By instructing his technician to do something illegal and dangerous, Kaufman also demonstrated an amazing disregard for the welfare of his own employee.  If this poor guy had not defied his boss's order by acting decently and sensibly, then it would have resulted in a criminal matter and a civil lawsuit at the very least.  At worst, someone would have gotten hurt. 

The amazing thing is that AAMP was forcing this situation over an $80 part that they had already told me in writing was not working!  It's bad enough that they wanted to take up hours of my time to save themselves $80, but to trespass in someone's home on top of this?

To sum up the situation, AAMP:

• Misdiagnosed the problem, wasting hours of my time and three afternoons of work.
   

• Never apologized for their error, but instead attempted to push off the cost on me.
   

• Went back on their word and demanded more money once they were on site.
   

• Insisted that a part they previously described as bad was actually good, and demanded an hour or more of my time to "undo" the repair.
   

• Wanted to leave my unit worse off than before, with a missing part in addition to the original problem.
   

• Insisted that they would stay in a homeowner's house against a demand to leave.

I honestly can't think of anything I did wrong in this - other than call AAMP to begin with, of course. 
I even went into the dryer afterwards, removed the heating element and mailed it back to them at my own expense, since I didn't want them showing up again.  (Once again, the actual labor involved appeared to fall extremely short of justifying what the $270 wanted to charge for it).

The arrogance of this company is positively jaw-dropping.  AAMP believes that they are entitled to their customer's money and time without having to provide any value in return.  Then they threaten to stay in a customer's home against their will until their demands are met!

This isn't just a stupid company.  AAMP is a dangerous one.  They should not be in anyone's home to begin with, since the owner doesn't understand a private homeowner's most basic rights.  If Ken Kaufman had been the one to show up at my house that day, then I have little doubt that it would have ended badly for everyone.

What Other Customers Have Said about AAMP Appliance Repair

From Kudzu.com (3/29/2010):

OVERCHARGE!!!

 

My LG dishwasher needs a pump replaced that had been replaced last year for a labor fee of $145. (That company no longer services LG ) so I was referred to AAMP by LG because parts are still covered. AAMP wants me to pay over $351 for labor to do the same job I had done last year for $145. I called LG to complain and warn them and they said the labor should be no more than $80 to $120 for replacing this part. CALL ANYONE ELSE!

From Kudzu.com (11/1/2009):

Poor Overall Service

 

I moved into a house with a broken dishwasher and ended up calling AAMP as recommended through LG. In the mean time, I researched the error code my dishwasher was giving. The most common problem on the web was a broken wiring harness. When the tech came to the house, he didn't even open the front panel to check any of the wiring harnesses. He just "listened" and determined that it needed a $650 sump pump assembly. It took some persistence to even get a written quote from them. They never would give me a part number. I spent $80 on the initial service call but based on all of their responses, or lack of, I have decided to buy a new dishwasher instead of dealing with this company. Overall, I have to give them a very poor rating.

They did show up within the 4 hr window that was allotted.
LG didn't seem to offer any other service providers.
If you choose to use them, I hope you have a better experience that I did.

From Kudzu.com (9/11/2009):

AAMP Rip Off Service

 

Requested AAMP visit to determine why our LG washer was not running. Paid the $79 and now have a washer that still would not run. AAMP first said it was the main control board and provided us with the wrong part number for the repair part. The main control board was not the problem. Spoke with the owner who would not provide a refund for the incorrect diagnostics report. Contacted another repair company who came out and fixed the problem in 15 minutes. Turns out it was just a simple sensor that needed to be replaced. AAMP tried to tell us that it would cost $400 dollars for the repair. Beware of AAMP.

From Kudzu.com (8/12/2009):

Dryer no longer runs

 

Requested AAMP visit to determine why the dryer was running but not heating. Paid the $79 and now have a dryer that won't even run. AAMP first said it would be $203 to replace the heating element. When the heating element was replaced we were told now the dryer doesn't run at all and it would be another $174 to replace the terminal block. So now the repairs are up to $378. We're not saying these parts aren't needed to get the dryer working again, its just the the dryer was working, just not heating, but now will not even work. AAMP still has the $79 and we have to get a new dryer.

 

Note that this last experience sounds very familiar.  It's also interesting that their price for replacing a heating element seems to have gone up by 72% in the last 12 months.  (My guess is that they have started building in the cost of their initial misdiagnoses to subsequent quotes).