Mar-Beck Appliance

TERRIBLE customer service! Drove 40 mins to this store which closed at 6:00. I had my family with me and called ahead to store to let them know I may be 1 min late. The employee told me they closed at 6 and would not stay open one min longer. Got to the store at 6:01 banged on the door and they just ignored me. I had one thing to pick up that they were holding for me. Sat in the parking for a few mins, not thrilled about the situation, and saw the two employess scamper out at 6:05. So much for helping someone out and being decent human beings.

This place is full of odds and ends at reasonable prices. It’s not an appliance shop you go to when you want to see all the newest and fancy pieces of equipment presented in spotlights with many different options to choose from. Can you find appliances here? sure. But this place is more than that.
This is the store that doesn’t exist anymore where you can pick up parts and pieces or whole appliances. Where in today’s world can you walk in and get a replacement part for an old no longer manufactured oven? Mar-​Beck!
This is where you go to get that replacement burner for your stove that was put into the house in 1968. This is where you go to get replacement shave heads for your 10 year old Norelco. This is where you get parts for your central vacuum that was installed in 1980 and is not manufactured anymore. This is where you go to buy heads for your Sonicare toothbrush at the cheapest prices.
AND this is where you go to pick something up and find that there are bins and shelves with all kinds of other stuff that you suddenly remember needing. You can walk up and down inside this small store and you will come across that replacement doohicky you thought you would never find, or you can go to the counter and ask the very helpful fellows about how to fix your broken widget, and they will have a part in back that is just what you needed.
It reminds me of shopping in a small Kansas farming town with my grandfather in the 1970’s. Everything you need to keep things running is there. You just can’t find that experience anymore because the big stores want to sell you a whole replacement and want you to throw away the old.
I have been using this place over the years for many different off-​the-​wall repairs and to get new hard-​to-​find items for our homes, but I can best review this place by describing my last visit, when I just wanted to ask a question about our vacuum.
My electric razor is perfectly fine, as long as I can find heads for it. I got it as a Christmas gift many years ago, and used to get replacement heads at Walmart. Well, Walmart doesn’t sell those heads anymore, and it is tough to find just want I need on the Internet because I can’t find the part number anymore either. After speaking for two seconds with the guys at Mar-​Bek, they hand me a box with the heads I need.
Apparently, my wife was tired of cleaning her jewelry with a tooth brush or taking it to a jeweler to have it cleaned in one of those sonic cleaners (terrible problem to have). While standing at the counter with me, she spots that same sonic cleaner, and my wallet is now a little lighter… but not much lighter.
Our front loading washer is an older model, and tends to get moldy. We use these chlorine tabs in it that we get from Walmart. I’m not sure how it came up, but suddenly my wife is holding a bag of some other type of cleaner that is supposed to handle the mold better and is design specifically for our washer. The guys there know of the problem and speak about how to resolve it and also about keeping the kids from closing their forgotten load of laundry in the washer for days at a time… And my wallet lightens a small bit more…
But what brought me in was the need to find replacement hoses and a floor vacuum attachment for our old 1987 central vacuum. I searched the internet and found some potential replacements, but I wasn’t sure they would work with my old vacuum. I asked, and was immediately shown several options from low end to high end. They knew the history and what parts would work, and how to swap out parts on the higher end new pieces to get it to work with what I have. Awesome.
Not buying it today? no problem. They will be there when I need it. There was no pressure, just simple direct answers to my questions. I didn’t even have to say, «I’ll think about it,» when presented with the $ 400 premium package of replacement vacuum bliss that I will likely buy.
I searched on the internet, and found similar pricing with additional shipping and handling. I am completely baptized in the Internet. I even found my wife there, if you must know. But before I got married, we met in person. Mar-​Beck gives you the chance to find what you need, call them to see if they have it, ask questions, and then buy with confidence.

Pretty much useless unless you’re not an Internet user or can’t wait 2 days to have parts or a product shipped to you. Even so, they’re not exactly knowledgeable. I got «It just depends on what part you need.»
I found that humorous. Well, if I knew, I wouldn’t have been talking to them and would’ve rather been ordering it for less $ on Amazon.
Most recently, I called knowing the part I needed and they had it, so I said I’d be right over. I got there 7 mins later as two guys walked out and basically shrugged their shoulders. Obviously, I won’t be back.

I love shopping at Mar-​Beck Appliance… if you need it, they have it! If they don’t they’ll order it for you! They always have goodies in baskets known as Dollar Day! Check it out!

Part arrived faster than scheduled, packed so no damage was even remotely possible. Perfect match, exactly as described and the cheapest price I found. Thanks for being a quality merchant. John, San Diego