Bowman Refrigeration

Bowman Refrigeration's In response to the negative review left by Bjorn Ruud:

As much as our goal is to provide complete satisfaction to every customer on every job, we know it is inevitable that at some point someone will be unhappy. If it is a result of something we did, we make every effort to make the situation right with as little negative effect on the customer as possible. There are times when the customer is unhappy because he or she has old equipment that we can only do so much with but they want us to try. This is one of those cases.

Upon arrival on our first visit the compressor was running so hot that it had clearly sustained damage, although it was still running. We told the customer that we could repair the freezer, but that we could not say how long the compressor might last due to the overheating. We were told to proceed if we could keep the cost under $3,000. We proceeded with the repairs, which came to $3,300. The freezer ran for a while after the repairs but eventually the compressor failed, as we suspected it might. The customer was very upset, so as a courtesy we offered that if he bought the new compressor we would provide labor at no charge to install it. The customer wanted an extended warranty (factory warranty is one year) for no extra charge, essentially passing all risk to us on his old freezer that was purchased used from a third party. We offered a factory extended warranty which comes at a reasonable price, but the customer refused. And here we are being accused of screwing our loyal customers. We never claimed to be perfect but we didn't grow a successful business over 30 plus years by screwing loyal customers.

My initial review is below. Let's be simple. Tim and I spoke on the phone on 9-19-18 and agreed that spending more than 1000$ to fix an old freezer was silly. You are BOLD FACE LYING to say that I agreed to 3000$. Why on Earth would I do that when I could buy a new freezer for just a little more? You know full well I said 1000$ (we said 1000$ Tim, both of us) and you should be ashamed to lie in order to swindle your customer. I had to buy a new one for 4700$ since you not only screwed me but failed to fix my old freezer. So we agreed 1000$. No further calls. Then I get a bill for 3300$. For a freezer fix that didn't work! Get out of town. Furthermore now you are saying there was something up with the compressor on your first visit? Oh really? That's absolutely news to me. There was some doohickey valve that you had to replace and you checked the lines throughout the unit. But you never mentioned the compressor. Now with the compressor blown out you are saying you were aware of it!?!?! You have fabricated your whole story line here. You guys really are liars. I was disappointed in you as a business now I'm disappointed in you as human beings. Now you post a five star review as a reply. You are a business, you can't review yourself! I am taking legal action.

For several years I had used Bowman for my commercial refrigeration and freezer needs. Although not cheap I felt they had done a good job. Recently one of my store front freezers started acting up and I had them in again to do some work. I spoke with their tech support head, Tim, about the costs for this and told him I wanted to keep the costs under or around 1000$. He understood and soon enough a problem was diagnosed and I approved they fix it. It is an old freezer so I did not want to spend a bunch of money fixing it when a new one could be had for around 5000$. So they fixed it, supposedly, and nobody called to discuss the costs aside from the first chat I had with Tim. Two weeks later the freezer shuts down again and then I get a bill from Bowman for 3300$. Imagine my frustration! Not only did their "fix" not fix the machine, but they wanted more than 3x the initially discussed value. I could have nearly bought a new freezer for that cost. So since the freezer wasn't working and while I was waiting on their response for the costs of the first fix they said we need to put a new compressor in there for 1000$. Now we are basically talking about a new freezer! They did offer to cover labor on the new compressor install, but frankly that wasn't enough of an offer of compensation considering how massively I had been swindled already. As I said I have done business with these folks for several years and I would continue to do so if they wanted to give me a fair shake. So I asked them to provide me a written guarantee that the unit would operate until 1/1/2020 with their new fixes. They usually have a 12 month warranty I was asking for 14.5 months. It didn't seem like too much more. But they were unwilling and they just came back to me saying I could buy a warranty from the manufacturer for 250$. By this point I was tired of playing the game with them and after two more days of not having them respond to my questions I decided these guys don't want to play nice then they can catch a google review. My only real recourse for getting raked over the coals by these guys. Perhaps they will reconsider screwing their loyal customers over in the future.

Walked in door up stairs and got blown out the door by the rude office gal. Will not go back!