Appliance Service Redlining?

[EastsideAl]

I am trying to get someone to repair my refrigerator and my Dad's dishwasher, and am running into some problems.

I called an appliance repair company that used to be located here on the eastside that my family has often used over the years [[even after they moved out to Macomb County), but they now tell me that they will no longer take service calls in Detroit. They gave me that number of another Macomb County company, but they also refuse to come here without an outrageous extra charge. Another company that my mother used in the past that used to be in Grosse Pointe has also apparently moved out into the hinterlands somewhere now and won't send service people "all the way over there" anymore.

I've never run into this problem in the past, even in the really bad years, so I'm not sure why this is happening to us now. And it's not like we live in some awful part of the city either. This is for the Indian Village/Gold Coast area.

So, anybody have any fine suggestions for dependable local appliance repair that will work on the eastside?

[FlyOnTheWall]

What are their reasons for not servicing your area?

[313WX]

What are their reasons for not servicing your area?

Fears of becoming a crime victim?

Isn't that the reason most suburbanites tends to avoid and dissociate themselves from Detroit, aside from the downtown/midtown "oasis?"

[Gistok]

Fears of becoming a crime victim?

Isn't that the reason most suburbanites tends to avoid and dissociate themselves from Detroit, aside from the downtown/midtown "oasis?"

Perhaps the Steve Utash incident... the tree trimmer working in Detroit before he was nearly beaten to death in one of the better neighborhoods of Detroit [[48224)... made business owners take notice...

Even beautiful Indian Village is surrounded by a lot of "awful".

[FlyOnTheWall]

Just read a news article on another thread. I'll quote a snipped. In the article "he" is the Detroit Chief of Police.

"He added that this doesn't mean mistakes can't happen. He also said he gets frustrated when Detroiters focus on incidents of excessive force with police but do not speak out against the violent actions of their fellow residents.
"When is the community going to step up and stand up and say I am sick of the violence happening in our community?" he said. "It should not be OK. We should be vocal — as vocal as we are about police officers using excessive force.""

The inbolded quote is what interested me. Link http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...-key/17108475/

[courtney]

So, anybody have any fine suggestions for dependable local appliance repair that will work on the eastside?

http://www.repairclinic.com/ , http://www.appliance411.com/ and the forum at http://forum.appliancepartspros.com/ have saved us two dishwashers and a refrigerator and even if you're not super mechanically inclined, you can save yourself quite a bit of money if you can troubleshoot and repair/replace the part[[s) yourself.

[Dan Wesson]

I used to work for Sears as an Appliance Repair man in Detroit below 8 mile for nine years. Oy, the stories I could tell you...

We used to schedule 2 man calls in bad areas if the tech felt unsafe. I guess that the whole East Side is now considered unsafe.

I grew up in the ghetto so I didn't know much else till I got seniority and could bump some tech during slow times who serviced the areas north towards Pontiac, that's when I saw how the other half lived.

We would set up our routes to do inner city calls in the a.m. and work our way out to the better area zip codes in the afternoon.

That's when I saw the inner city spread outward and it's still spreading. I had cops back then tell me that if I knew what went on in some of them houses I wouldn't go in.

Then I met many good God fearing older couples who raised their kids right and were proud of them living behind windows and doors decorated with wrought iron bars.

Would I do it today? Nope and oh so glad I don't have to. It was scary at times and depressing seeing some of the living conditions that little kids had to live in.

ps. those were the days when I met a fella named Lowell

[Dan Wesson]

Would I call it redlining? Not in the sense that the term is normally used.

[Dumpling]

This past summer I bought a shiny new washing machine from the Maytag located
at 13 Mile and Rochester Road in Royal Oak and had it delivered to my Warrendale,
Detroit house. It arrived in the morning. Two men took out the old smoked
washing machine and installed the new one. I thought nothing of the fact that
they arrived in the morning and that there were two delivery persons. Seemed
like a good way to go about delivering a washing machine regardless of location.
Warrendale has many tiny secondhand appliance shops but I really wanted a
brand new washing machine. The delivery persons noticed the rooster in the next
yard over. I haven't had to call them back for service yet.

[DetroitPlanner]

Delivery is different than service. Yes you will get two or more people delivering appliances. There is a lot to do in terms of moving out the old one, hooking up the new one, explaining the features, and signing the documents. Plus those things are heavy and sometimes they have to get them into some fairly difficult areas [[tight basement stairwells, enclosed kitchens).

The reality of the service situation is a sad one. If a service sends two people to make a call, it costs them nearly twice as much to make that call. You can't make money doing that or you have to charge a lot more meaning fewer customers. I sort of understand how a company would want to limit risk, reduce costs, and want to service people who have money and less drama. These are private companies, it is not the government. No different than why you can't find Kroger in Detroit.

[EastsideAl]

What are their reasons for not servicing your area?

The reason given is that it's "too far". But I suspect there may be other reasons, since distance never stopped them before. However, if the reason is crime, I find that a little weird, since the crime/theft problem isn't bad around here at all these days.

It's certainly nothing like it was in the '80s and early '90s. I walk around here, and over to Belle Isle, all the time and its been years since I've had anything like a problem. And where Dad lives is a very nice building that is staffed with its own parking area that is off the street.

Anyway, I'd be happy if we could find someone closer who could reliably handle these repairs. Dad's dishwasher is a higher-end brand, but none of the supposedly company-authorized servicers will come here!! I wouldn't trust myself to work on this, and my 89 year old dad is not about to undertake his own repairs.

[Gistok]

The reason given is that it's "too far". But I suspect there may be other reasons, since distance never stopped them before. However, if the reason is crime, I find that a little weird, since the crime/theft problem isn't bad around here at all these days.

It's certainly nothing like it was in the '80s and early '90s. I walk around here, and over to Belle Isle, all the time and its been years since I've had anything like a problem. And where Dad lives is a very nice building that is staffed with its own parking area that is off the street.

Anyway, I'd be happy if we could find someone closer who could reliably handle these repairs. Dad's dishwasher is a higher-end brand, but none of the supposedly company-authorized servicers will come here!! I wouldn't trust myself to work on this, and my 89 year old dad is not about to undertake his own repairs.

Maybe if you read my reply, you wouldn't sound like a deer in the headlight. I know several business owners in the inner burbs that have given up on Detroit... and refuse to send their workers into the city... after the Utash incident.

it's not just those that moved to the outer burbs that refuse to come into the city for work....

... although I do know one owner that has his employees get a concealed weapons permit before working in the city.

[EastsideAl]

I assure you that neither I nor my father was involved in the beating of Mr. Utash. Nor was anyone within several miles of my neighborhood.

For that matter, neither was %99.9999 of the 700,000+ residents of the City of Detroit.

[softailrider]

This past summer I bought a shiny new washing machine from the Maytag located
at 13 Mile and Rochester Road in Royal Oak and had it delivered to my Warrendale,
Detroit house. It arrived in the morning. Two men took out the old smoked
washing machine and installed the new one. I thought nothing of the fact that
they arrived in the morning and that there were two delivery persons. Seemed
like a good way to go about delivering a washing machine regardless of location.
Warrendale has many tiny secondhand appliance shops but I really wanted a
brand new washing machine. The delivery persons noticed the rooster in the next
yard over. I haven't had to call them back for service yet.

We bought a new Maytag washing machine early 2011 and put it in a house we were renovating. We moved into the house in Oct. 2012, we used the machine for about 30 cycles max. I noticed a roaring and screeching sound near the end of the cycle. Repair said it was a bearing which was an 800.00 fix - couldn't believe it. Warranty was long over. We bought a Samsung with a 5 year extended warranty from Best Buy. Not too great of service from that Maytag.

[Zacha341]

Business owners are not looking at the specifics or the exceptions. Crime dictates the choice followed by theft, and these businesses are not going to strain out which block vs. what area.

Tools-in-a-truck in some areas are a strong magnet for thieves on the look out. Not a perfect solution but sometimes I use the DTEnergy Home Appliance Protection plan which while it costs a rate every month, services various appliances depending on which plan you have.

I assure you that neither I nor my father was involved in the beating of Mr. Utash. Nor was anyone within several miles of my neighborhood.

For that matter, neither was %99.9999 of the 700,000+ residents of the City of Detroit.

[EastsideAl]

OK, so I see a lot of blather about crime, Steve Utash, etc. here, but not one decent suggestion of what to do about this or who to call.

I've talked to a few other people in my building about this and all who've needed to have an appliance repaired report the same problems. One of my father's neighbors even said one company suggested she truck her Sub-Zero refrigerator out to them to fix!

This is just bizarre, and again is not a problem we've had in the past. I know, Steve Utash, blah blah blah. But redlining people in the Indian Village area [[or downtown or on the westside) for something that happened over on Morang is like blaming someone in Wyandotte or Novi for what happened to Renisha McBride. Weird and infuriating to have to beg businesses to take your money.

[313WX]

OK, so I see a lot of blather about crime, Steve Utash, etc. here, but not one decent suggestion of what to do about this or who to call.

I've talked to a few other people in my building about this and all who've needed to have an appliance repaired report the same problems. One of my father's neighbors even said one company suggested she truck her Sub-Zero refrigerator out to them to fix!

This is just bizarre, and again is not a problem we've had in the past. I know, Steve Utash, blah blah blah. But redlining people in the Indian Village area [[or downtown or on the westside) for something that happened over on Morang is like blaming someone in Wyandotte or Novi for what happened to Renisha McBride. Weird and infuriating to have to beg businesses to take your money.

I've had the hardest time finding a reliable lawn service as well [[I'm in NE Detroit). So it's not just you or the folks in Indian Village. That's simply life for everyone in "Detoilet."

To suburbanites, with the exception of Midtown/Downtown, the city's all the same to them. I don't know what to tell you as far as finding a repair man, except to keep calling around.

I don't know of any repairmen personally. Since our appliances were under warranty, Sears had no choice but to send their technicians out to fix the problem. Since those warranties ended, we've been using the DTE service Zacha341 mentioned.

[Jimaz]

We bought a new Maytag washing machine early 2011 and put it in a house we were renovating. We moved into the house in Oct. 2012, we used the machine for about 30 cycles max. I noticed a roaring and screeching sound near the end of the cycle. Repair said it was a bearing which was an 800.00 fix - couldn't believe it. Warranty was long over....

We were warned by a Maytag repairman that their quality would plummet about the time they were acquired by Michigan's Whirlpool. He was saying we'd better keep our old machine as long as possible because the new machines were going to be crap. It appears he knew what he was talking about.

The Town Maytag Left Behind

[Zacha341]

These are the times for soliciting what used to be called the 'handy-man' where possible. I'm serious! Word of mouth is best in this situation as there are many highly skilled out of work heating and cooling folks who work independently. Check the hardware stores where they post their numbers or the staff knows of individuals.

One of the downsides is lack of warranty in some cases etc., and of course employ ONLY someone that someone you know has used and trusts! But until crime is addressed the companies that once serviced the D are not returning. Though as I mentioned DTEnergy does offer appliance repair service to a certain level if you subscribe for it. I've had them repair my furnace and replace an igniter on my gas oven.

[EastsideAl]

But, again, crime in many areas of the city is lower now than its been in decades. Certainly the case around here, and in most of the central city [[downtown, midtown, lafayette park, corktown, etc.). These areas are safer than they were even 20 or 30 years ago.

[Mark Smiles]

I assure you that neither I nor my father was involved in the beating of Mr. Utash. Nor was anyone within several miles of my neighborhood.

For that matter, neither was %99.9999 of the 700,000+ residents of the City of Detroit.

What part did the700,000+ play in electing a judiciary that thought the Utash incident was merely a joke, worthy of a little probation?

If the people who vote, are not held responsible for their vote, why vote?

Recall those charged in the Utash case laughing while being arraigned? They knew the Judges the 700,000+ chose to elect.

[Hermod]

But, again, crime in many areas of the city is lower now than its been in decades. Certainly the case around here, and in most of the central city [[downtown, midtown, lafayette park, corktown, etc.). These areas are safer than they were even 20 or 30 years ago.

In dealing with people, it is important to remember that their perception is their reality.

[Cliffy]

I found this on Angielist

Stevie Murphy

15324 Strathmoor Ave
Detroit MI 48227

[[313) 837-3500
[[313) 837-3500

www.beebeapplianceshop.com

[Cliffy]

http://www.appliancemandetroit.com/home/

[Wesley Mouch]

You can look at this as a problem or an opportunity. This is a jobs opportunity in Detroit. Why worry about what the suburban appliance guy does. There's work. There's a market.