Russian appliance repair company tried to scam me - what should I do?
Background:
I have a 3 1/2 year old dishwasher which, for a long time, doesn't clean the dishes on the top rack very well. This is because the 2 propellers on top do not spin. Those propellers are "powered" by water pressure, so somehow the water just isn't getting up there. The bottom rack is fine, and other than this propeller issue, the dishwasher seems to be in good shape.
I had a handyman here doing some other work, had him look at this in addition, and he was stumped by this. He admitted that appliances weren't his area of expertise. I called an appliance specialist. The guy charged me $45 for a service call and said that he was "sure" it was either the motor failing or hard water buildup in the lines. He had me run some rinse through the water lines to see if that would solve it, and it didn't. That left me the option of him doing a $360 motor repair, which wasn't worth doing. Besides, despite not being an expert, I didn't agree with his diagnosis. The motor seemed to be 100% fine with everything else it did, so how could it be at fault here? I decided just to eat the $45 with this guy and assumed he was an idiot.
I then called a second company. This company was recommended by the manufacturer, but is independent and owned by Russians. Their service call was $59, but I figured it was worth doing because they were directly recommended by the manufacturer. The Russian repairman came out and spent about 30 minutes trying to diagnose the problem. He agreed that the previous guy was full of shit about the motor. However, after 30 minutes of attempts to figure out what was wrong, he was stumped. He admitted that this problem was incredibly tough to diagnose, and that all of the usual causes didn't seem to be the culprit. He told me that he was almost out of ideas, but was going to go back to the office and look up the specs of my dishwasher to see if it had a "water diverter", which would alternately divert water from the bottom to the top. His guess was that if this dishwasher did have that part, it might have gone bad and be the problem. Absent of that, he admitted he had no clue.
Despite his inability to diagnose it, I didn't feel cheated. I wrote the guy the check for the $59 service call, and felt the company deserved it. After all, it was indeed a tough problem, and it's not the company's fault that my dishwasher had some weird issue that no one could solve.
However, here's where the scam came in, and why I'm pissed...
He didn't call me back as promised, so I called them. The girl who answered the phone told me to hang on, and she came back with, "It was determined your dishwasher needs a new pump, and the cost of that will be $425. Would you like me to schedule that job?"
:shock
A new pump?! How did he come up with that? While he was over here, he admitted he was completely stumped, unless that water diverter part existed in my dishwasher, and was supposed to look up if it did. Then he never calls me, and suddenly it's the pump that needs replacing?
So I ask, "What happened to the water diverter he was supposed to look up and call me about? How could he have diagnosed something completely different after having left my house?"
She replied, "Well, he and the other senior technicians got together and figured out that's what it is."
:facepalm
Keep in mind that this guy had 20+ years experience and very clearly knew what he was doing. So there's zero chance that the "other senior technicians" could have helped him diagnose this without having seen it themselves.
Basically, these sleazy Russians weren't satisfied with the $59 service call, and hoped they could take a blind stab in the dark at the problem and charge me for an expensive repair to "fix" it.
I asked, "Okay, so let's say I do the $425 repair, and it turns out that the pump replacement didn't help at all. Will you then back it out and not charge me for it?"
She checked with her manager. "No, we still have to charge you full price," she told me. "If it doesn't work, we will then diagnose it again and quote you a new cost to continue the repair."
:facepalm5
So basically they want me to keep paying them to keep guessing at things that need repair in the dishwasher, until finally they luck into fixing the right thing.
I asked for the manager, and she was suddenly "busy". I asked for a call back, and I never got one. Obviously they figured out I wasn't going for the scam, and didn't have interest in returning my call.
I am out only $59 here, but I am still pissed. Mind you, I would have been totally okay paying the $59 if the guy tried his best and couldn't figure it out (and admitted it), but instead these scumbags decided to make up phony problems and try to send me in an endless cycle of throwing good money after bad in "repairing" this mystery problem.
So I want the 59 dolla back.
I called them today and the manager was "on a conference call" and I was promised a call back. I won't hold my breath.
So here are my questions for my esteemed forum members:
1) Do you agree they were trying to scam me?
2a) If yes, should I threaten to write them up on Yelp and Angie's List if they refuse to refund my $59?
2b) If they still refuse, should I actually do it?
3) Should I call the manufacturer and report this to them, and urge them to take these sleazeballs off the recommended repairmen list?
FYI, Russian appliance companies in general are notoriously bad, at least in California. There are tons of horror stories of severe overcharging, sleazy business tactics, unnecessary repairs, etc. One of my friends had a (different) Russian appliance company out to fix his broken Subzero refrigerator, and was quoted $1900. The Russians didn't know that he had the exact same problem 3 years ago, and had it fixed for $600. Without telling them that, he said, "There's no way this repair costs that much. I'm going to call around". Immediately he was quoted $1200 instead (lol). Then he told them the truth that he was charged $600 last time this happened, and the guy said, "Okay, $600." At that point, he LOL'd at the dude and told him to GTFO of his house, and called back the original company he had hired 3 years ago.
