Bay Appliance Repair

This is the worse company ever. I wish I could give this company zero stars. Their front office person, Michelle has no clue what customer service is. They will only pick and choose what they will service. In my case, it took them 3 days to tell me they won’t service my refrigerator because they lacked the personel. Are you serious??? You could have told me from the start and I could have called someone else. Michelle was indignant, and rude, plain and simple.

I have been using Bay Appliance since buying my house in Oakland 4 years ago. There were a lot of problems with the appliances when we moved in and Bay Appliance has worked on the Viking fridge (multiple issues), my range hood fan, and dishwasher. Fortunately I had a home warranty and they referred me to Bay Appliance The service has always be friendly and on time, diagnosed the issue correctly, and given a fair bid and fixed the problem the first time. Even after the warranty expired I’ve continued to use this company whenever I have an issue at my house.
Would highly recommend and will continue to use Bay Appliance.

I had never such a bad experience with a provider. My frigid aire fridge is under warranty and needs repair. Frigidaire send bay area appliance. They took forever for them to come see the fridge and rescheduled last minute. After seeing the fridge, they gave me a call saying that Frigidaire would not cover the repair but they could do for 500. I called Frigidaire and they told me that bay area appliance never put a claim s d of course they would cover. Frigidaire sent me the piece but bay area appliance took over one month to come with 2 rescheduling from their part.
This morning we talked to the technician who said he would arrive until 11. We waited until 11.30 and no one showed up. Now they are saying that no one was at home. They had our phone and could have bother to communicate a delay, especially after we called them to confirm the time. The costumer service is rude. I totally don’t recommend

I am so impressed and totally blown away with this company! They offer a page where you can type in your issue and submit it and a technician will respond. I typed in an issue with my Jenn Air refrigerator and within a minute I got a response from «Gene.» He quickly assessed my situation and offered a solution that I could do on my own. I have NEVER seen a company do this and I will call them whenever I need in home service. Thank you Gene!

Unfortunately, my experience has gone from a five-​star experience as noted in my review of a few years ago, to a hopeless interaction most recently. I had noticed the many poor recent ratings, but in the hopes that my prior experience would come through, I called Bay again about 2 ½ months ago.
About 2 ½ months ago, it took two calls to get an appointment (fairly quickly) regarding a range, a refrigerator and an oven. I asked the repairperson to fix things, rather than merely «diagnose» what were obvious and/​or small problems. They charged me $ 150 for a visit, wrote down what I had already explained were the problems, and left with no follow up for weeks. It took me a number of calls to get a response and realize that nothing had in fact been done. They finally ordered parts, but I just heard the parts for the oven were no longer available (at least through Bay). Separately, I have repeatedly inquired about the follow up on the refrigerator, and in each case I’m basically starting the story from scratch and being told there is only one person who is qualified for the repair, and they will «send him an email to see when he’s available.» On the range, they did receive the part but of course never called me about it until I asked. By the way, the part was an ignitor, which given the delays I got working on my own by simply cleaning it.
Ultimately, I told them I didn’t want to deal with them any more, and have requested my $ 150 back. A manager is to call me tomorrow, but I will not be holding my breath.

Do not use this company! My home warranty company, American Home Shield (AHS), referred me to them. I first checked their Unilocal reviews, and was concerned about their response time and their service level, but I felt that I would give them a chance since the reviews are so polarized. I called the receptionist on November 30, she put me on an appointment two weeks out at December 15. I expressed my anxiety about half of their company’s Unilocal reviews are bad. She told me not to worry since people would talk bad when they are not happy at any tiny issues. I decided that I would trust her and give them a chance.
Fast forward two weeks later, on December 15, I waited patiently for my four-​hour window. The tech did show up, and brought along another guy for training. They came in the door, no chit-​chat, did not bother to ask or explain shoes on/​off policy, went straight to the kitchen. Both guys poked around in the refrigerator, within 5 minutes, told me their work was done. I needed a new thermostat. The tech said Bay Appliance would call AHS to get the authorization to order the parts and I would expect a call from Bay Appliance for the next appointment within a week. Before they left, they made sure to collect a $ 100 check for the service visit. My check was cashed within 2 days on December 17.
Another week went by, it is December 22. I just received an email from American Home Shield asking if it is okay to close the service ticket due to inactivity. I called AHS and found out BA never called for authorization. When the rep proceed to call BA, she was told they had lost the paperwork for my order. The rep also told me it is unacceptable for any service provider giving me an appointment time longer than four days out. I should not have to wait for two weeks just to have my appliance diagnosed. In addition, adding insult to injury, BA is going to collect another $ 100 from AHS for my service call, which would eventually billed to me.
Now it is three days before Christmas, I have to scramble to find another vendor to fix my refrigerator.
Again, listen to me, do not use Bay Appliance Repair, even if you are referred by your insurance company. You can always request another service provider. I always check Unilocal reviews before using any vendors. And once again, I learned my lesson for not following them and my own gut feelings.

Fox HVAC and Appliance Repair
Of course my 21 year old built in refrigerator stopped working Friday night when I was having 10 for dinner on Sunday. Called Fox and scheduled them for Sat. afternoon so we could shop replacement built-​ins first. Fox came and said he would not leave until it was running. It took almost two hours,…but it is running! I know it is 21 years old, but I appreciate that it may go for another 21 years!

I experienced an issue with my Sub-​Zero refrigerator about 6 months ago, and was worried that I was going to have to buy a new one. It was custom built into my kitchen, and the cost of replacement with a similar model would have been way too expensive.
I did my research on Unilocal and contacted a few companies for quotes on the repair. 2 of the companies I contacted never called me back, the other 2 offered appointments a week out. Bay Appliance Repair was able to schedule me for a last second appointment that same day. The technician came by promptly and gave me a thorough assessment. He told me there were three things I can do:
1. Replace the fridge
2. Perform a costly repair that may keep my fridge working for another year
3. He suggested a cheap fix that could give my fridge another 6+ months of life (and can be done again if it fails after 6 months).
I went with option #3. And that’s why I’m writing this review now. 6 months later, my fridge is working perfectly, and I didn’t have to spend an arm and a leg. The technician could have convinced me to go with the expensive repair, and I wouldn’t know better. Thank you Bay Appliance Repair for being honest and fair, something I’m not used to when dealing with the service industry.

Jon just came by and fixed my refrigerator — he was super fast and was able to advise me on some difficulties I was having with other appliances. Very efficient and professional!

Had a dryer that wouldn’t stop running when the door is shut. Cameron diagnosed the issue as one of two possible parts malfunctioning. One part was MUCH more inexpensive than the other. When both parts arrived, it turned out that only the cheaper part needed to be replaced. We appreciated that Cameron was very honest about that, on-​time to arrive and fast in repairing our dryer, and cut us a good deal on the labor cost since he could perform the job quickly.
Only docking one star because the parts took longer to arrive than estimated, but otherwise, the service was great and now my dryer works properly again!

Had a repairman out in June to look at our refrigerator door which was not sealing, and our oven which was giving an error code. He said the oven needed some kind of new control board, and it would probably be cheaper just to buy a new oven. The refrigerator door, he apparently just pushed a drawer in that was out of place and that fixed it.
These complicated tasks cost $ 120, seems a little much for pushing a door in, but fine. That’s what they charge just to come out and take a look at appliances.
Fast forward 3 months, I receive a letter in the mail saying «FINAL NOTICE» claiming that we had been contacted by mail and by phone because the card we gave had been declined. This was the first we had heard of it. No phone calls had been made, no earlier letters received, just out of the blue 3 months after the service I get smacked in the face with a $ 120 bill.
The invoice attached was all kinds of strange as well, there were no signatures on it in the section that was supposed to be signed to agree to payment. In the section that was supposed to be signed to agree to estimate, it just said «Complete».
When I called customer service, I was just told that I did in fact owe the money and asked for a credit card number. No explanation as to why it took them THREE MONTHS to get in touch with me. No explanation as to the fishy looking invoice. I went ahead and paid them to prevent them sending the bill to collections, but I’m so seething mad over it.
We had the money for that service in June when the service was done. Now my October budget is going to be strained from getting blindsided by a large bill.
Totally unprofessional, will never use again.

The refrigerator (GE Profile) for a rental property in Millbrae was not working. The refrigerator temperature was inconsistent and constantly higher than the recommended setting. I researched the issue online and most people said it could be a gasket or thermostat issue. I contacted AHS (American Home Shield) Warranty and they sent a service call to Bay Appliance Repair. I set up an appt with Bay Appliance Repair and the technician came out and said it was a gasket issue on the refrigerator door after I explained the situation to him. I asked if he could check the thermostat as well in case it was not a gasket issue. He said that the thermostat was located in the back of the refrigerator and insinuated that it would be a lot of work to take the refrigerator apart to look at it since it is most likely a gasket issue.
The tech ordered the gasket and said it would probably take approx 3 – 5 business days for the gasket to arrive from Sacramento and their co would call me to set up an installation appointment once the part came in. I made a follow up call a week later since I have not heard from the co. It took approx 10 business days for the part to arrive and the Co set up an appt for me a week later.
A day before the scheduled appt, the co called me and said the gasket was damaged and they have to order a new part and reschedule my appt. (In my mind, i was wondering why didn’t they check the part when it arrived rather wait until the day before). The rep scheduled me one week out from my original appt so that I can have an appt spot although there wasn’t any guarantees that the new part will come in.
The tech went to the property to install the new gasket. I tested the gasket and told the tech that the suction of the new gasket was not that great and that the old gasket on the freezer door has better suction than the new gasket. He told me to wait a couple days to see if the issue is solved. I checked the refrigerator a week later and the gasket replacement did not solve the issue.
I contacted AHS who issued another service call to Bay Appliance. Bay Appliance contacted me and gave me an appt that was 1.5 weeks out, claiming that they will not be in the area until Oct 2 even after I explained that the tenants were complaining and their original repair suggestion did not solve the issue. I end up calling another repair co to fix the issue (which happened to be a board issue, which the tech might have discovered if he had opened up the refrigerator).
Hence, in summary, I would not use this company again as they are not good at follow up appointments nor identifying the correct issue.

Here’s what happened:
1. I was scheduled to receive a dishwasher repairman between 12:00 — 4:00 pm on the Saturday of a holiday weekend.
2. Returning from errands at 11:40 am, there were three messages on my machine. First, the repairman at 11:00 am, saying he’d arrive at 11:15; second, the repairman at 11:15, saying he was on my doorstep, and third, at 11:20 from the dispatcher, saying that since I was not home when the repairman arrived, I would have to reschedule my appointment for another day.
3. When I phoned the dispatcher at noon for an explanation, I was told that it was my fault for not being home when the repairman arrived, since he had called beforehand, and that, even though it was only just 12:00, the repairman had «gone home for the day,» and I would have to reschedule for a different day. When I pointed out that the repairman phoned and arrived outside of the time slot, the dispatcher told me, «You don’t understand how they work.» Her position was that since the repairman had called before he came, regardless of whether or not it was during the agreed-​upon time slot, they had fulfilled the obligation of the appointment.
4. The next business day, I phoned the dispatcher’s manager twice in an attempt to report the incident. Twice I was told the manager was busy and couldn’t answer the phone. I finally requested her voicemail, and left a message asking to set up a time we could meet on the phone.
5. The manager never returned my calls. However, they did have the dispatcher phone me to reschedule the appointment. Huh?
Since initially posting this review, someone named Gene first commented that this review was faked, then had it removed completely. Read some of the other negative reviews is you don’t believe mine — this place is consistently unprofessional and discourteous.

After my A+ repair and service from Bay Appliance Repair last year, I had to sadly call them again because my dishwasher stopped cleaning the dishes. I’ve had the unit for about 10 years so it being covered under warranty was out of the question, therefore I would have to go out of pocket again. Never the less, I called Bay Appliance Repair and scheduled an appointment. I had a very friendly technician named Cameron come out, diagnose the unit, and he said he needed to order parts and he will come back to fix it. Cameron came back out today and fixed my unit. The unit works great now and my bank was not broken. Impeccable service and courtesy from Bay Appliance and staff.

UPDATE: as expected, someone from company tried to make it sound like his guy did a great job. NO. He’s completely wrong. For a $ 40 part they wanted to charge me $ 170, claiming I need a «Viking» part, not Whirlpool: Viking is MADE by WHIRLPOOL! The Whirlpool part is exactly the same as what came out of the frig, down to the part #. I can prove that. And he said his guy «correctly» diagnosed the problem: not exactly. I already knew the ice maker was broken! He did NOTHING about the rattling, but told me I needed to pay another $ 150 to have a second person come and help pull out the frig to figure it out. I fixed the noise on my own! And he tried to say $ 90 is reasonable to fix the icemaker: to remove 3 screws? NO!
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This repair co. has a mix of 1 – 2 stars, and 4 – 5 stars. Maybe this is related to the specific repairman. The person who came to my place was Cameron.
This is a long write-​up, but please read it all. The kicker is at the end :)
When I made the appointment I told the person I had a Viking refrigerator that had two problems: ice maker not working, and a very loud buzzing/​rattling sound. Also, my Viking range makes a horrible clanking sound when the convection fan is on. She told me it was $ 80 to come out and diagnose the problems, which would be applied to any repairs.
My appt was from 8 – 12 noon. Cameron showed up at 1pm… I try to be understanding, but 5 hrs is a long time to wait.
Here is what Cameron did:
1. Pulled plastic cover off ice-​maker, tested something, and told me ice maker was broken and needed to be replaced. That took 5 – 10 minutes.
2. Refrigerator wasn’t as loud as it often is, but he said «when there are noises it’s usually the compressor.» I asked wouldn’t I have problems with cooling? (I don’t) He said compressors can die suddenly after awhile (my frig is only 5 years old). he also said compressor is a $ 1000 part. But he couldn’t budge the frig. Told me I would have to pay to have another visit with a second person!
3. Then he looked at the range: however, it was not making the noise. He wrote down the serial number, NOTHING else.
He said he would get back to me with quote for the parts and cost to bring a second person to pull out the refrigerator. He said if it was the compressor, I’d have to pay for a 3^rd visit to have the part replaced, because he doesn’t do the actual repairs!!!
So after waiting 5 hours, the only info I got out of this was… my icemaker was broken. Which I already knew.
But here’s where things went bad. He wanted to charge me $ 120, I was told $ 80. Cameron said for two appliances it was $ 120 0 but the woman on the phone did not tell me that. Secondly, he didn’t even do anything with the oven besides write down the serial number.
he backed down and said I didn’t have to pay the oven «diagnosis fee» this time, but even if I knew what the problem was (convection fan) I would HAVE to pay the «diagnosis» fee for the oven, in ADDITION to the actual repair fee. Sounds like double charging, bait and switch.
I reluctantly paid $ 80, even though he couldn’t tell me what the rattling was. Over next week and a half, it took 3 phone calls before I finally got a call back re: parts/​repair.
Here is what Cameron quoted me:
1. $ 170 for the ice maker part. $ 90 to install it = $ 260 to fix the ice maker.
2. $ 150 to bring another person out, just to pull out the refrigerator.
Not to mention the $ 80 I had already paid. So that would be $ 490 to fix icemaker and pull out (NOT fix) the frig. I decided to deal with the oven noise later.
FOLKS: Here is where it gets really good. I am a 50 year old single woman, but I will not be taken advantage of.
I went on-​line and Googled the icemaker, found it on Amazon:
W10190935 — Factory original icemaker motor module.
Price: $ 41.70. NOT $ 170. (Verified Rip Off #1).
It arrived in the mail in 3 days.
And that $ 90 installation charge? What a JOKE. I turned off the electrical at the breaker. I unclicked the wire arm from the icemaker. I removed 3 screws. Replaced part.
THAT’S ALL. It took me FIVE minutes. (Verified Rip Off #2). Now I have ice.
But that’s not all: The refrigerator noise? Cameron seemed to think it could only be the $ 1000 compressor. I don’t know why I didn’t do this before, but I got down on the floor and listened to where it was coming from. It seemed to be underneath, not behind the frig (where the compressor is). I reached under… felt some sort of metal grille or pan… I yanked on it a few times… the buzzing/​rattling STOPPED. That’s all it was! Why could an expert repairman not figure this out? (Verified Rip Off #3 — trying to charge me an additional $ 150 just to pull out a frig).
It cost me $ 41.90 and about 10 minutes of fiddling to fix the frig on my own. Bay Appliance would have charged me $ 490…and possibly an unnecessary $ 1000 compressor.
It’s depressing to feel so taken advantage of. All you can do is be aware.

I scheduled a day to be home during the 8 to noon window of service. The tech came around 10 and had no clue what needed to be done (it was an oven safety recall). He of course had no parts to do the repair.
At 11:45 I received a call telling me that the tech didn’t have the parts and we’d need to reschedule — he’d already been gone an hour. Now, I will need to arrange another half day to get the work done.
This is Monday. Don’t you think they’d have known on Friday that the parts weren’t there? A responsible company would have called to reschedule then, not 15 minutes before the end of the window. I asked to speak to the manager and of course she wasn’t available. «she’ll call you later.» It’s almost 7, no call. If they redeem themselves I’ll remove this post. But, I think it will be up forever.
Find another repair shop.

This is a long overdue update. I wound up buying a control board private party. Alex installed that, and submitted the bad one to the warranty company for re-​build, which I have and can re-​sell to get my money back. The fridge works great.
Now, my washer’s broken, so I’m calling Bay Appliance again.

There is a big mess in this company. We had people coming to fix our dryer many times and they never did it right since it was breaking not long time after repair. They replaced many parts but issues are coming back (same issues). Moreover what made us really concerned is a incident that happened during our last repair. Technician who arrived to fix the problem (broken heating unit) told us that he needs to order a part and will contact us to replace it. However week later I contact a company to check on status and all they told me is that this service is cancelled because technician reported that there is no problem with a dryer. Customer service does not take any responsibility neither does technician. I recommend to avoid this service.

Update 2: Unbelievable that the business has the nerve to call my review fake. I’ve uploaded a picture of the $ 168.19 invoice that I signed off on, only to $ 235 charged to my credit card for a botched repair. Proof that they’re the liars, not me.
Update: I posted the following review with a 2-​star rating a several months ago. Within minutes I received a call from Bay Appliance Repair apologizing, and offering me a refund in exchange for removing the review. Morally I knew it was wrong, but I really needed the cash so I agreed. Fast foward to today and I have yet to receive my bribe. Thankfully I’m now in a position where I can forfeit what I paid in order to publicly shame this company for poor customer service (and bribery now too!) To Bay Appliance Repair: Before you pick up the phone, don’t bother, I’ve blocked your number, I don’t want your money, and this review is staying right here.
Original Review:
Repairman came to diagnose my malfunctioning oven, determined the door motor had failed (it had), came back to replace it, oven still didn’t work, turns out there was a second issue involving the control board which he didn’t catch the first time, quoted me $ 600 to repair a 12 year old oven. I declined, he kindly offered to remove the labor fee from the $ 235 bill, which meant I was paying $ 168 to have my oven in the exact same unusable state.
Fast forward to the customer service side: I ended up being charged $ 235 by the company instead of the $ 168 I signed off on. After a few conversations with customer service I was told by the person on the line that she doesn’t «want to argue about this anymore so I’m refunding you the difference». Which I thought was very rude and implied that I was wrong, but out of annoyance or grief she was willing to refund me.
Fast forward to today: After getting fed up of having a broken oven, I spent 20 minutes on some forums about oven repair, got out my tools, and in another 20 minutes my oven was working again. No $ 600 repair necessary.
Moral of the story (for me at least): just do it yourself.

From 1^st call to 7^th call: 1 failed diagnosis/​repair and 3+weeks later (after saying they would expedite the shipment of a part if possible… which took over a week), with 2^nd repairman telling us (INSISTING) that our door was crooked when he arrived. I showed him a before picture in which case he STILL insisted that it was crooked (you be the judge. I uploaded before and after pics and other issues post repairs). Now the doors no longer line up on the edge. Now the bottom door is hard to open and close b/​c the draw has somehow become dislodged from the railing and I can’t seem to re-​lodge it, for fear of breaking it on my own time. He or someone from Bay Appliance is supposed to come check on replacement of compressor in a few days to ensure it is really working and hopefully fix the door.
Final opinion still pending, as the work is still not signed off.
What ever happened to the customer is always right… when they even have before pictures for proof? How is it people are in denial in light of the proof?
UPDATE: The replaced compressor after 3 days is so-​far-​so-​good. Long story very short: immediate appt made and kept to rectify the mystery of the dislodged freezer drawer, which the repairman conceded was what I told him it was. . an easy fix with the bottom freezer, not top door requiring parts as he thought. Yes, he is the professional, but sometimes it just takes this thing called «observation» to figure out.
Gene, the owner, asked that I change my Unilocal review after our phone call re: the door. I told him I would, once the situation was resolved. To their credit, they did credit me the money for the first repair/​part into the second repair/​part, since the initial fix didn’t solve the problem. I am giving the experience a 3 star (up from original 2) as it wasn’t the most straight forward of repairs + timing (took a month) and required me making repeated follow-​up phone calls throughout the process.
If there is anything I’ve learned from the experience, it’s that I love modern life in 2014. Refrigeration is an amazing thing! Second only to flushing toilets. Try living out of a cooler for a month with baby needs. ..