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       Our garage door opener and remotes came with the house when we moved here in 2002. They were very old. I don't know how old they were, but just by the size of remote control and the inside of the structure, I could tell it was close to becoming an antique. Our house was built in 1981. If they were made at that time, I would say they were very well made to last such a long time, even though we were having some troubles here and there periodically since we moved in; but at least it still worked. 
We have used this garage door company since we moved here. There were several repairs and maintenances made by this company which includes a spring replacement. Less than one year after the spring was replaced, the new spring broke and shot out. Luckily, there was no one injured and nothing else was damaged. By looking at the spring down on the ground, I couldn't tell how it happened. It just happened so suddenly. Our garage door is a double door kind, which is quite heavy. The spring was a heavy duty spring. You can imagine the force when the spring shot out. Since then, I have never allowed anyone to open or close the garage door while standing inside the garage. Anyway, due to the spring is covered by lifetime warranty, so the company replaced another new one for us without any hassle, only to charge the labor fee. That made me think this company is one of those good companies to deal with (I still couldn't find the reason why the less-than-a-year old spring would break and shoot out).
So, when the garage door stopped working again in March of this year, I did not hesitate to call this company again. 
It was a very windy and cold day. The technician was supposed to show up before 5:00pm, but there was a big storm right before then. The technician called us and said he was stuck in traffic and would be a little bit late. He did not show up until 7:30pm. His name is Brian, a skinny, pale guy in his early 30's. After a very quick exam, he told us the opener had died and needed a new one. I confirmed with him that there wouldn't be anything else that could go wrong, things like electrical issues…. The new opener cost almost $500. I sure didn't want to eliminate my old one and replace a new one with that kind of price, but the door still wouldn't open/close right.  Brian explained to us why it couldn't be the electrical issue. His explanation seemed logical to us. The replacement included a new opener, a metal bar with a pulling cable, an outdoor keypad, 2 car remotes and one indoor remote. If we denied the work, we would still need to pay the trip/diagnostic fee of $80. It was already close to 8:00pm, but Brian said he would be able to finish the work in around one hour. We decided let him do the job, since our old opener was really old and the trouble happened more and more frequently.  
By the time Brian finished the work, it was already 9:30pm. He looked exhausted and we were ready to go to bed. He briefly went through the things about this brand new opener with my husband and handed us the manual and invoice. I then noticed this new opener was under a brand name I have never heard about (I was thought it would be the same brand as the old one which is "LiftMaster"). Brian explained that it is their company's brand and it's very well made. Oh, well, what can I say?! He had already installed it. 
When I looked at the invoice, it came with an over $500 charge in total. Brian charged us $50 to recycle the old parts. I immediately denied it. I insisted to recycle the old parts by myself. After a negotiation, our final bill came down to $455.74 with only 30 days labor, 1 year "electrical", 5 years "motor" warranty.
The new garage door opener is much quieter and we can operate the remote from one block away. Unlike our old one, which could only be sense signal while we were on the driveway. Also, the new one gave us back the "light turn on" function when the remote is pressed. We had lost this function from our old opener a long time ago that caused every time when we came back home after dark, we would need to have our car's light shine on us until we got into the house and turned on the garage light. I was kind of amazed and thrilled with this new garage door opener and thought that we made a good decision by replacing the new one. But good things do not last too long……. About one month after the replacement was made, my car remote started to show the troubles. First, that one block away distance started to shrink. Gradually,  I had to be right in front of the garage door to make it work. Finally, even right in front of the garage door, I still needed to click the remote several times to make it work. Due to the trouble only happened on my remote, my husband kept thinking it was a battery problem in my remote. He thought if I changed to a new battery, everything would be fine. I wasn't  convinced that a new battery could wear off so quickly. But the time had come when everything's so busy and chaotic. Several rentals were in the middle of remodeling and finding new tenants, kids were in spring break, then CRCT, AP exams, orchestra concerts… one after the other. In the mean time, the garage door started to malfunction more and more, not limited to my remote anymore. But my husband was able to fix the issues by sweeping debris out from the sensor area or adjust the sensor alignment. We never called the company for any complain or repair until Jun 05, when this brand new opener complete stopped working, no matter what we did….
Another big stormy day. I called the garage door company 1st thing in the morning to ask them to send a tech to come over. I also requested not to be charged by any labor/trip cost due to we have been suffered with a lot of issues with this brand new piece of sxxx. The CSR of company was very nice, polite and totally (at least behaved) understood and apologized for all of the trouble we had experienced. The tech showed up on my door the same day 12:45 noon. His name is John, a big, tough looking guy. From his talking, it showed he is a much more experienced technician. He also brought an assistant with him. When I was still in the middle of telling the story of what was going on, he had already made the door work. He then pointed out the wires hanging out of opener box and told me the way that wire was installed would cause a short sometime. He went over there and adjusted all of the wires and pushed to the inside of the opener box and taught me when the same thing happened again (while press the remote, only the opener beeping, the door won't response at all), just use a screw driver or a small hammer to tap the top of the opener, and it should work! He also replaced a new remote for the one in my car. He said that one was broken/defected. Thanks to John's work, our garage door opener worked fine for a two straight weeks. On Jun 20th, the same problem resumed. But we were able to use the trick that John taught us and we swept the debris in the sensor area to get the opener to function again. By end of Jun 21th, the opener stopped working completely.
The weekend started, so we couldn't make a repair call until Monday, Jun 24th. All weekend, we had to go in and out (including unload the grocery) from the laundry room's side door. It was really annoying.
A tech was not able to be scheduled until Jun 25th 11-2. My husband moved my car inside of garage the night before by manually opened the garage door. He did not move the car back outside before he went to work that morning. Me and 2 kids thought about to open door manually to move my car outside, but were afraid of causing more damage. So we couldn't go anywhere until the door fixed. By the time, 10 mins before 2:00pm, no one showed up and no one called (the tech should call 30 mins before their arriving). I called the company to see what was going on. The company explained the tech had 2 very hard jobs before mine, so it was going to be late. The tech finally shown up at 2:20pm on my door. His name is Tim, a stocky guy, wearing a dark blue company shirt.
Tim looked around while he listened my whole story about this garage door opener. Then he stepped into my kitchen area w/o even doing anything to fix the garage door issue, and then he said: "Let me tell you what to do here. 1st of all, I am going to un-install this whole unit for you and lay it on the side. Then, you can go to Lowe's to buy "Chamberlain Belt Drive Garage Door Opener", it should cost around $139. Then, I will install it for you for only a $100 labor cost. After that, you call the company and tell them their unit created too many problems, and you don't want it anymore. Ask them to send someone to take that unit back." I was kind of surprised at what he said to me. I told him that I don't think the company would do it. He said: "Then, you can tell them if they don't, you will report it to the BBB." I started to think this guy must be a contractor, not a direct employee from this company. Tim saw that I was not convinced by his suggestion, and he asked me if we had any power surges recently. I replied: "There was one on Sat. afternoon, but the opener had already had problems at that time." He said he is going to reset the opener. He unplugged the switch and very quickly, he re-programmed the opener. It worked! He then walked back to my kitchen again and started to tell me: "I am a sub-contractor with this company, you can just pay me something you think is worthy for what I did today. I told him that I have talked to the company when I made my appointment that this trip will have no charge unless something else goes wrong beside of opener. Tim left w/o getting anything from me……
I took my younger one to the Y right after Tim left. The garage door closed fine. But when I took older one to the SAT class on 4:55p, the door could only close to half way, I had to try 5-6 times before the door closed completely. Later on when my husband came back, it was getting even worse. The door stuck on half way, the cable was trying to pull the door while shaking entire metal bar and making a very loud noise. I video recorded down the situation and called the company again. They said Tim would come back next day 12-3. I was thinking to request another tech from them, but then thought company might have pay him by case. And this considered a same case since the problem happened within 2 hours after he left.  
Second day, Tim shown up around 1:30p and w/o even try to do anything about the garage door issue. He proposed his same suggestion from yesterday to me again. I started to wondering he must think I am stupid. I told him that I truly don't think the company will agree to settle the way as his suggestion. He, then, voluntarily called the company, as MY behavior/spoke for me, to present his idea with the manager. He used speaker phone, so I can hear everything they said from both side. He kept to emphasized: the customer is very very upset with this garage door opener and the opener is beyond repair. But the manager (might not realized the speaker phone was on), as what I expected, just teased the "money back" request and replied very firmly: "No way!". She said that madly over the phone: "They have used this opener for 3 months long and w/o any issues (which was wrong) and now asking to get a full refund? They must be kidding!". Finally, the manager asked Tim to make the garage door work temporarily until next appointment. They are going to issue a new one to replace this one. The manager also told Tim not to worry, they will "take care" of him.
Tim was very disappointed about his idea did not get to be accepted. He told me that company only pay him $10 for this job (it really hard to believe). He, again, was giving me a hint to pay him some money. I told him that I was a victim of this case also. Spent almost $500 and ends up with a not working garage door opener. Tim just left w/o even touch the opener. Another wasted time for me. The opener still not worked.
The company kept sending me emails for my next appointment. The tech's name was different in each emails. It kept change back and forth in between Tim, John and Brian. I called the company expressed that I prefer some one beside of Tim. I don't want to give Tim a trouble, so I made an excuse that I will like to get a second opinion from different tech to make sure the opener was beyond repair. So company won't think I am just try to take advantage to exchange new one. Finally it settled to be John for an appointment 2 days later - Jun 28.
John came with his assistant again. Both of them remembered last time while they were here. I asked John if he knows Tim. He said Tim is their new guy. He didn't specify if Tim is a sub-contract with their company or a direct employee of their company. I asked John to verify the opener was beyond repair. He said it was not necessary. He already brought a new one to replace. The new one is same brand but an improvement version of 1st one. Obeviously, there were quiet a few people having trouble with this model. It only took John and his assistant around 20 mins to complete the job. Til this day, I still don't understand why company award of the problem but still even bothered to send techs came several times and tried to fix it. It was really waste both their time/trips/gas and my time.
Now, almost 2 months later. The new opener works super! I hope this one will last long long time…. 
後記：This second new garage door opener broken again when 3rd month. The company refused to do any free repair any more. A minimum of $80 will be charged on any trip they make. I filed a complain twice with their main office which got no response at all. Up to this day, we still suffer with this trouble garage door opener. The problem persist come and go w/o any repair…. |
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发表于 2013-12-20 19:22:04
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