R C I Discount Appliance

When I bought a new a/​c, I wanted to patronize a local outfit rather than a national chain. While RCI’s price was good, if you need any follow-​up service or have problems, you’re in trouble, based on my experience.
RCI installed the a/​c improperly, but it took numerous phone calls and broken promises before I managed to get someone to come back and do the job right. As others have observed, the manager Kenny had a million excuses. I finally went ballistic and threatened to file a complaint with the DCA. Miraculously, the installation guy was on my doorstep within two hours.
Even worse, to determine the size unit I needed (BTUs) the employee on the phone was uninterested in cubic feet, only square feet, so my unusually high ceiling was not factored in. Needless to say, the unit they said would be fine does not adequately cool the space. But RCI has refused to swap out my current unit for a more powerful one, even though I have offered to pay the extra cost, minus a new installation fee.
In a nutshell, dealing with Kenny and RCI has been an infuriating experience.

Went to buy an electrically reversible box fan. Two employees told me that it doesn’t exist. Wouldn’t even look for one. Went right to Home Depot and bought just what I was looking for. Tried to shop local and independent, but lousy customer service drove me away. Since new management, they are useless. Too bad, used to be a good place.

Well… I’ve given three stars, because my experience with this store – covering over two decades – has ranged from five-​star to one. Long ago, I bought a couple of air conditioners from them. They delivered promptly etc. After a couple of weeks, i thought one of them didn’t work, and when I called the owner, he quickly and graciously agreed to replace it. As it turned out, the unit was fine, so I can’t speak to follow through in this instance. However…
About six years ago, I wanted a microwave that could be installed on the wall without an overhead cabinet. They didn’t have one in stock, so the owner special-​ordered one. I paid for the machine and pre-​paid quite a hefty price for installation. The microwave arrived timely, but when the installer, Leo, unpacked it he realized that this model that needed an overhead cabinet. Over the phone, the owner said he’d take it back for exchange. Leo then offered to buy a cabinet for me and come back with it within a few days. I agreed to the latter arrangement, and gave him the price and design parameters for a cabinet (no money, though).
I spoke Leo over the phone a couple of times, but he never returned. I went to the store, and the owner told me he’d schedule Leo to come back, but he didn’t. After a while, I couldn’t get a call back from the owner either. Under normal circumstances I’d have been very aggressive about having this problem remedied one way or another. As it happened, though, one of my parents fell gravely ill just then, and even though I was out over $ 100, the whole business went to the back burner for many months, and eventually I had someone else get a cabinet and install the microwave.
Though the whole thing left a pretty bitter taste in my mouth, I can’t go far as to recommend against RCI. There are some great reviews here, and I do know that several of my neighbors like them a lot, and have winter-​stored their air conditioners with RCI for years. That said, the review from Lewis S. below has a pretty familiar ring to it.

RCI on Broadway stored two of my air conditioners. When they were brought back, both were broken. After promising to come to my apartment to install a new A/​C on 6 separate occasions – all throughout last summer (2013), it was too late. The summer had ended. The stories Kenny, the owner, told me were ridiculous. On one of the days that I went in to complain about another missed appointment, he told me he’d been to a funeral that day and could I come back. All the stories were similar but that one was particularly unseemly.
After the summer ended, I proposed that he make it right in the summer of 2014 by promising in writing in a email to me that he would install a new AC and store it for an extra year. This launched us into a whole new set of stories («my internet is down, I can’t respond to your email.»)
I wanted RCI to fix my problem but it turned out that RCI was the problem.