Service team broke my fireplace blower during a repair and then fails to return emails and calls to correct their damage
The service department at Rich's for the Home engages in narcissistic abuse of their customers by not acknowledging emails about their service call failures and not returning customer phone calls. The service team hides behind an email address; you cannot reach them by phone. Be prepared to stop payment on your credit card when dealing with these narcissistic abusers.
If you're thinking of dropping $4,000-5,000 one of their Fireplace Xtrordinaire fireplaces, know that you could spend an equivalent amount of money on installation and tile work alone. When that fireplace inevitably has a malfunction in time (it will happen!), know that Rich's does NOT have your back and will leave you hanging after a botched service call, potentially leaving your now $8,000-10,000 fireplace investment broken or malfunctioning.
I've had 3 unprofessional experiences with Rich's service team over a Fireplace Xtrodinaire ignition apparatus that failed on a 5-year-old fireplace that cost about $7,000 to install.
For the first appointment, Rich's never showed up, later claiming (after I contacted them to ask why they didn't show) that "there was no answer at the gate intercom." (The unit is in a condo building; my phone never rang, and no one left me a voicemail.) Tellingly, *I* was the one who had to contact them to ask why they stood me up on our appointment booking. If they ever showed at all, they did an ineffectual job of trying to contact me to buzz them through the gate. The fact that no voicemail was left for me establishes this fact. Ethical workers always leave voicemails or other papertrails to prove they showed up and tried; Rich's service team did not.
The second appointment was an inspection that seemed to go OK. After a month or more wait for parts, the third appointment resulted in a weird interaction with the service technician who had to work with me away (buzzed in remotely). What was weird is how he left my property without so much as a basic courtesy phone call to verbally conclude the job and lock the front door. When I went to test the fireplace a couple days later, I understood why the technician sneaked off without calling me: in the course of the appointment, he'd damaged the fan blower, resulting in an ear-piercing screech when the blower runs. No ethical technician would've left a customer's property with a blower malfunctioning horrendously. While the igniter was fixed, the fact that the fireplace blower was rendered unusable (and the technician failed to call and tell me about whatever happened, an action any reasonable and ethical person would take, leads me to conclude the technician slacked off on the job and/or was covering up damage they caused).
I sent several follow-up emails to Rich's service team; all were ignored. I called the sales team, who sighed and seemed to knowingly hint their service department is lackluster; but they promised a callback that never came. Multiple emails over the past month and have been ignored, and I've been forced to contact my credit card company and stop payment over Rich's botched service call. If you know anything about narcissistic abuse, this culture is exactly how abusers operate; from the first appointment, this team gave me bad vibes. If you're thinking of investing in the products Rich's for the Home sells, know that getting these expensive products repaired will take a lot of legwork on your part that you shouldn't have to do.
I'm also contacting Fireplace Xtrordinaire to let them know how Rich's is letting down customers of their (expensive) fireplace products. The owners of Rich's need to terminate the bad service employees ruining their company's image.
Net Promoter® NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score™ and Net Promoter System™ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.
Attention
We use cookies to personalize content, enable certain functionality, and track site analytics for marketing purposes. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.
If you're thinking of dropping $4,000-5,000 one of their Fireplace Xtrordinaire fireplaces, know that you could spend an equivalent amount of money on installation and tile work alone. When that fireplace inevitably has a malfunction in time (it will happen!), know that Rich's does NOT have your back and will leave you hanging after a botched service call, potentially leaving your now $8,000-10,000 fireplace investment broken or malfunctioning.
I've had 3 unprofessional experiences with Rich's service team over a Fireplace Xtrodinaire ignition apparatus that failed on a 5-year-old fireplace that cost about $7,000 to install.
For the first appointment, Rich's never showed up, later claiming (after I contacted them to ask why they didn't show) that "there was no answer at the gate intercom." (The unit is in a condo building; my phone never rang, and no one left me a voicemail.) Tellingly, *I* was the one who had to contact them to ask why they stood me up on our appointment booking. If they ever showed at all, they did an ineffectual job of trying to contact me to buzz them through the gate. The fact that no voicemail was left for me establishes this fact. Ethical workers always leave voicemails or other papertrails to prove they showed up and tried; Rich's service team did not.
The second appointment was an inspection that seemed to go OK. After a month or more wait for parts, the third appointment resulted in a weird interaction with the service technician who had to work with me away (buzzed in remotely). What was weird is how he left my property without so much as a basic courtesy phone call to verbally conclude the job and lock the front door. When I went to test the fireplace a couple days later, I understood why the technician sneaked off without calling me: in the course of the appointment, he'd damaged the fan blower, resulting in an ear-piercing screech when the blower runs. No ethical technician would've left a customer's property with a blower malfunctioning horrendously. While the igniter was fixed, the fact that the fireplace blower was rendered unusable (and the technician failed to call and tell me about whatever happened, an action any reasonable and ethical person would take, leads me to conclude the technician slacked off on the job and/or was covering up damage they caused).
I sent several follow-up emails to Rich's service team; all were ignored. I called the sales team, who sighed and seemed to knowingly hint their service department is lackluster; but they promised a callback that never came. Multiple emails over the past month and have been ignored, and I've been forced to contact my credit card company and stop payment over Rich's botched service call. If you know anything about narcissistic abuse, this culture is exactly how abusers operate; from the first appointment, this team gave me bad vibes. If you're thinking of investing in the products Rich's for the Home sells, know that getting these expensive products repaired will take a lot of legwork on your part that you shouldn't have to do.
I'm also contacting Fireplace Xtrordinaire to let them know how Rich's is letting down customers of their (expensive) fireplace products. The owners of Rich's need to terminate the bad service employees ruining their company's image.