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We regularly survey area CHECKBOOK and Consumer Reports subscribers for their feedback on services they have used. For our survey on major appliance repair services, we asked consumers to rate their experiences with shops they had most recently used "inferior," "adequate," or "superior" on several aspects of service, including "doing work properly on the first try," "starting and completing work promptly," "letting you know cost early," and "overall performance." Our ratings tables show the percent of each firm's surveyed customers who rated it "superior" (as opposed to "adequate" or "inferior") on each question. Our ratings tables also show the percent of each shop's surveyed customers who rated it "adequate" or "superior" (as opposed to "inferior") for "overall performance."
We have included in our ratings tables all of the firms for which we received at least 10 ratings on our customer surveys. If a firm is not listed in our ratings tables, it simply means we did not receive at least 10 ratings for it; that fact has no negative or positive implications.
Since many firms were rated by rather small numbers of raters, small differences between two firms in the percentage of raters who gave a particular rating (say, "superior") should be ignored. The table below gives a rough guide to minimum differences you should look for in deciding on one firm over another.
When using these survey data, remember that the questions are to some degree subjective and that the differences among firms might be explained by differences in the personalities, backgrounds, critical standards, and other characteristics of the raters or by biases these raters might have.
For firms that were evaluated in our last full, published report, our ratings tables show the number of complaints filed against individual firms with the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Washington, DC (BBB) for a three-year period, and the number of complaints filed with local government offices of consumer protection for a recent two-year period.
For the counts of complaints we have reported for the government consumer protection offices, we have attempted to include only complaints that relate to major appliance repair work (as opposed to complaints that relate to appliance sales or other types of work).
For the counts of complaints we have reported for the BBB, we were unable to be so selective. Those complaint counts include all complaints filed against a firm, not just complaints relating to major appliance repair work, so these complaints may be related to disputes that arose from other types of business the firms conduct.
When using the complaint information, keep in mind that complaints are not always justified; sometimes the customer is unreasonable. Remember that we didn't have a measure of business volume; large firms are more likely to incur complaints simply because they serve more customers. Also be aware that some firms may be at greater risk than others of incurring complaints because of the specific types of business they do.
You can check current BBB complaint information on any firm by visiting www.dc.bbb.org. To view a current report for firms listed in our ratings tables, click on the firm's name, and in the detailed ratings report for it, click on the link under "complaints" to go directly to the BBB's most up-to-date report for the firm.
We always recommend that you look for substantial differences in complaint counts and rates. We also advise giving little weight to complaint counts if the total count against a firm is less than three or four.
Information reported in our ratings tables regarding areas served, types of appliances repaired, and minimum service charges came directly from the firms' representatives. We mailed a survey to each firm. If a firm did not respond to our mailed survey, we called it and completed the survey over the phone, then followed up with a mailed verification form.
To compare prices, our shoppers made a number of calls to each of the firms included in our last full, published report and, without revealing their affiliation with CHECKBOOK, obtained prices for four specific repair jobs.
To compute our price index scores, we calculated an average price for each job or item for all the firms that quoted on that job or item. Next we compared each firm's price to the average. One firm might come in at 120 percent of the multi-firm average for a particular job, and another firm might come in at 90 percent. We took each firm's percentage score on each job or item, standardized it, and assigned a weight to each job or item, based on our judgment. We then averaged the standardized, weighted percentage scores to find how the firm compared to other firms overall. Finally, we multiplied this overall percentage score by a flat dollar amount, say, $100.
The price index score, then, is intended to indicate the relative prices we found for the firms, adjusted to the base of this flat dollar amount. These index scores are imperfect for various reasons: for instance, the jobs or items checked may not be representative; the weighting of various jobs or items in the index may not accurately reflect typical expenditure patterns; and the number of jobs or items is small.
All of the data must be interpreted in view of timeliness. Our customer survey data are from surveys conducted from September 2003 to April 2011. Survey respondents were asked to report on experiences in the preceding year. Our data on complaints for the BBB are for a three-year period dating back from a date in August 2008. Our data on complaints for local government consumer protection offices are for a two-year period dating back from May 31, 2008. The data from our survey of firms were collected from July to November 2008. Our price data were collected from April to July 2008.
We give checkmarks to firms that score highest on a scoring system that we devise for each service field. Our scoring systems weight the various data in our tables and text based on our subjective judgment of their importance. Since the scores are based entirely on information presented, you can apply your own subjective judgments, and decide whether you prefer firms we have not given checkmarks. Where we do not have important data on a firm, we cannot give our checkmark.
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