Bray & Scarff

Our recent experience with the Fairfax B&S was excellent. This was due to several actions. First, we were looking for a replacement dishwasher. Having perused Consumer Reports I was not willing to purchase a highly recommended brand because of its apparent need for many repairs. I looked further in the ratings to find what I considered a better brand (Bosch) and then turned to the internet to get more information on the models considered by CR. Not being turned off by what I read I then looked up who sold the brand. We had previous experience with B&S for a new home elsewhere and, because we pass it frequently, opted to go to the Fairfax Store. The salesman, Michael America, proved to be very knowledgeable about the particular model I was interested in, and so the sale was consummated. Delivery with installation was scheduled for two days after the purchase, and took place as planned. The installer (Jeremy) was professional in pointing out a couple of possible problems. Having had a dishwasher in the same space for the past 12 years I wasn’t concerned because the new dishwasher fit the space as I expected it to. It works perfectly while being so very quiet that one has to keep an eye on the red light which shines on the floor when it is in operation.
Having read several of the very low reviews I heartily recommend two things: 1) don’t put all your eggs in one basket (we did a kitchen upgrade and, basically, went to specialists for each different item (appliances, countertop, cabinets). A lot of work, perhaps, but it kept us away from major delays of any kind; and 2) do some homework in checking out the history of use and repairs on the appliances you seek.

I got my kitchen redone and Paul Barrett was awesome to work with! I let him know what I wanted and the price I wanted to stay with and he gave me multiple options to pick from. He was always available to answer any of my questions and run the numbers with and without extra add ons. Paul was very helpful when it came to submitting my rebate request. This was the best experience and I will look to Paul again for help in my next remodel.

Matt Bernier at the Fairfax, VA location was so helpful; we were new to the area and needed appliances ASAP! Matt helped me decide on the best style of fridge for our limited kitchen corner. We also purchased a new dishwasher, garbage disposal, and then a second fridge for lower level. I was able to find a model I liked, e-​mail Matt, and he would give me his best price. The Bray and Scarff installation team are top-​notch: one of them who installed the dishwasher said the previous installer had left a ground wire unattached and the water hose into the old DW was kinked up. He fixed it all.
Thanks to Bray and Scarff for a great staff who know their products!

I have very mixed feelings about Bray and Scarff. I’ve purchased from them a couple of times now, at two different locations (the other was the Tyco Rd location), and have had very different experiences.
My most recent experience involved the purchase of an entire suite of appliances. Refrigerator, range, dishwasher, and range hood. Went in the store on Memorial Day weekend and was greeted by Dennis. Friendly guy and knowledgeable and helped us make our purchase and was generally good to work with during the sales process. The experience cascaded from there.
Delivery was delayed because a refrigerator came damaged. Not their fault and understandable. That resulted in my being out of town when the delivery was made. The installers came and said that the refrigerator wouldn’t fit up our stairwell. I had measured before the purchase and knew it would fit, but they didn’t even attempt to get it up the stairwell. They said that we would have to buy a new refrigerator and took the one we purchased back. In all fairness, a stair rail should have been removed for extra clearance, which I would’ve done if I was around, unfortunately that wasn’t so because of the date change and the installers probably are required to complete each job as quickly as possible so I don’t knock them for that. Just wish they had at least attempted or removed the stair rail. (It’s only a few screws, but I get that there may be liability issues). It took repeated calls to Dennis to get a new delivery date for the refrigerator and I had to sign a waiver stating that they weren’t responsible for damage. I would also have to pay an additional fee because they needed 3 people to get the refrigerator up the stairs. I talked to Dennis and he agreed to credit me the difference on the extra delivery fee so that was helpful and he said he would refund my credit card. Except he didn’t. It took repeated calls and he finally credited it from another installation fee for the range hood which was a service I asked for. When they redelivered the refrigerator, it ended up only taking 2 guys instead of the 3 and they had no issue getting the refrigerator installed. I would’ve been mad that they charged an extra fee since the 3^rd guy didn’t do anything to lift the fridge, but the fee was credited so I let it go.
The dishwasher was also dented, they said it happened in the box and they would order a new door so they installed and left. I also repeatedly asked him about the dishwasher door and when it was ordered and when I could expect a replacement. The delivery was on June 5^th, Dennis told me the door was ordered on June 7^th and said it generally takes a week to get in. After a week passed I asked him what the status was and he said he would check. I never heard back from him. I called him the next day and he told me that it would take awhile and he’d let me know when it comes in. I had to speak with him about a measure and an install and asked him each time when it would come in and he told me he would check. Fast forward to July 10^th, I called and left a message and asked another salesperson that it shouldn’t have taken that long and that Dennis would check and call me back. I finally gave up on Dennis and called their main office and was told by someone they would check and get back to me. They promptly called back after looking into it and I was told the door wasn’t ordered till June 20^th. It was also back ordered, but I would get a call back on the due date. I got another call the next day and the installation was scheduled.
In sum, the salespeople do seem to know what they are talking about and the installers who came were professional and good at what they do. Bray and Scarff also was very good on their pricing. My issue was with Dennis. Might be great working with him if there are no issues, but if you state that you’re going to do something or follow-​up and call back, a customer should be able to expect that there will be follow through. Dennis repeatedly failed to do what he said and it never got done unless I called and pestered him about it, and he pretty much lied to me about ordering a replacement dishwasher door because he told me it was ordered when it was not. I’m not sure if it’s a function of just being busy or overloaded or a system that needs to be changed where customer care is handled by someone other than the sales staff, but when I step back and look at the situation as a whole, a fairly good experience was tainted by poor customer service from a salesman. I still think I’d check them out the next time, but I might be tempted to just get their prices matched by another store and buy from somewhere else. 5 stars for the delivery and installation staff and the home

Ok, so now my journey has begun! I bought an entire set of the GE Monogram kitchen appliances in the beginning of 2012 costing me well over $ 20,000. Since then I have had quite a few inconveniences with the appliences such as a leaky freezer loving to create a puddle, the metal rims falling of the lights from the hood, the knobs getting loose on my hood making it difficult to adjust the fan speed… and so on. Due to my busy scheduale, I had not contacted bray and scarf about these problems though I have been highly frustrated. I was very surprised that these luxury, high end and extremely expensive appliences would start having problems only months after I started using them. Well, now the worst has occurred. Yesterday my 6 burner range with duel electric oven caught up in flames. It was an internal fire where even the knobs melted off and fire was coming out from within. Thank God our fire extinguisher was near and my brave brothers where there to put it out because the flames were getting bigger and bigger and the whole place was filled with black smoke. The kitchen is fine but the range is pretty much gone. So I called bray and sacrf first thing today and my sales man wasn’t in so I asked the person on the phone what can be done. And he said to call their service center and since we are out of the manufacturer warranty and have no warranty with them… that we will need to pay out of pocket. I was upset to hear that but also bothered that the person on the phone was clearly trying to brush me off. It seemed that I was wasting his time with my situation:-/ so now I will wait till Monday to speak with GE, the service center and my salesman. Ill keep u guys informed as we go a long. I hope I have a happy ending to this:’(

My family spent a long time planning a large scale kitchen renovation and had been impressed with our initial experience with one of the bray and scarff designers, Kelly. She had great ideas and a good sense of kitchen layout and storage. When our first architect bid didn’t work out, she suggested an architect she had worked with, and ultimately we went with him. Then we paid the 50% deposit.
That was the last we heard of olé’ Kelly. She didn’t respond to emails, phone messages, for days, weeks, months. Once we left her a message saying «aren’t you embarrassed to have let this go on so long?» and still didn’t hear back. Our GC didn’t have his messages to her returned either. I think at some point in this 2 month gap of not returning calls or emails, we were out shopping for fixtures for the kitchen and actually saw her, helping another client shop! That woman must have paid triple what we paid to get such service… seriously, how much money should we have paid to get a phone call?
Then came her final delight. We had been calling her because we needed the «counter guy» to come out and measure the counter tops, once the cabinets had finally been delivered. I believe he finally arrived in September… our project started in July mind you. The order goes in and someone else from bray and scarff called to tell us (obviously not Kelly, I mean let’s get real here) the counter we wanted was on back order until November 18. Oh and by the way, since the order is «in» you have to pay the remaining 50% you owe us, even though your kitchen is an unfinished train wreck. Lovely. Well as you can guess from my post on November 20, we just received a call saying the counters haven’t actually arrived, but because the installers only work Tuesday and Thursday for some insane reason, we will have to wait until DECEMBER 3 to finally have them installed.
Super, well we’ll just cancel Thanksgiving then, thank you bray and scarff. You have guaranteed that we would NEVER recommend your terrible customer service, lazy follow through, and absurd scheduling to anyone in Virginia. Thank you for dragging this renovation on from July 15 through DECEMBER, taking our money and never once trying to make us happy. It’s been such a pleasure.
***Just to cement the point that you should NEVER use bray and scarff, here’s my January update on our still unfinished kitchen.
When a free-​standing part of our cabinetry set up was set with counters on December 6, we discovered that the valance that was to connect two upper cabinets was too big to fit. Surprisingly, we quickly received a call from Kelly telling us it was our fault! She is such a treasure. There were also several trim pieces missing from this separate piece of cabinetry which Kelly insisted were delivered (we invited her to come to the house and look for them, as we have a pile of trim that doesn’t fit anywhere else… so glad we paid for all that extra by the way). And even though she ADMITTED that one piece of trim she ordered is 3 inches too short, apparently WE HAVE TO PAY MORE to get the right sized piece. Does that make any sense to anyone? Seriously, I would love to hear the logic on that.
But bray & scarff got their money, so now the phone calls to fix these last few major details are nonexistent, and the emails are coming farther and farther apart. We understand that getting the valance in the right size is going to take some time, but how long? Has the company started working on it? Will this kitchen be finished before 2015?
In our last email to Kelly, who said she didn’t remember us ever calling or emailing her after June, we detailed her failures in customer service and asked her to send us her supervisor’s email. Do you think she replied to us? HAHAHAHA! Of course not!

We used B&S b/​c of the less than great experiences of Sears etc — B&S got some reasonably good word of mouth reviews — it wouldn’t be fair to condemn the entire chain, but the experience we had was not very good at all. The actual purchase was okay, nothing worth noting. Then the waiting game began. The salesman (formerly of Sears, also bragged how Sears was terrible and then showed how he still worked at Sears basically) promised to call and let us know when the range hood would arrive — manage the whole process basically — no call. I called, left messages, no responses. This continued a few days, even though we were told it would be very quick. After finally getting our salesman on the phone, he was very defensive and made excuses (other customers, trade show??) as to why he didn’t call back or response etc etc. By then we just wanted to appliance installed and be done with them. Installation came and went (over 2 weeks after ordering), they left some of the tape liner on the actual hood and put a screw through a cabinet wall (nice touch). We were so happy to be done with them that all those little details seem like positives. In all, I’ve come to expect very little from appliance stores. Strange b/​c with the economy as it is, you would think service would improve with durable goods. Not at B&S.