A guide to appliance repair in San Diego
If you’re looking to move to or visit a warm and pleasant city by the Pacific, San Diego is perfect for you. The city sees balmy weather and gentle sea breezes throughout the year, truly embodying the spirit of sunny California. The city is also home to some of the nicest people (friends and working professionals) you’ll find anywhere in the country.
If you’re looking to make a move, we’re sure you’ll love it. However, as you’re probably already preparing for, with a new home comes a barrage of new household appliances like dryers, ice makers, garbage disposals, cooktops, and other major appliance systems like washing machines, HVAC systems and air conditioning.
So, it’s no surprise that the city also sports a bustling appliance repair market where you’ll find on-call help immediately.
This makes it all the more important to conduct thorough research before hiring an appliance repair company for your house. Here’s everything you need to keep in mind while zeroing in on a particular appliance repair shop.
What to look for when choosing an appliance repair company in San Diego, California
It is important to look at a few key things before contacting an appliance repair company for your house. For starters, you should run a simple background check on the company by reading customer reviews, checking its website, and asking for more information on the service members it employs. Here’s what else you can do.
Online business reviews and ratings
Customer reviews are one of the most important indicators of a company’s quality of service. Unlike featured testimonials or case studies, you can trust customer reviews to be completely unbiased and highlight both the good and the bad parts of the customer service experience.
Reviews and ratings also help credibility and instill trust among customers. How? They assure you that you’re browsing through the honest reviews of a local business used by the city’s residents. A key thing to watch out for here is how credible the reviews seem. Be sure to click on a couple of customer profiles and verify that they are, in fact, real people and not digital bots.
You can find credible customer reviews by Googling a service or browsing the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages. These platforms display customer reviews and average ratings at the top of their business pages to help businesses establish social credibility. Specialized review sites like Yelp and Trustpilot can also help you find credible customer reviews.
How long they’ve been in business
When it comes to service-industry businesses, in-field experience matters a lot. Businesses with more experience usually understand the appliances better. This helps them provide exceptional customer service by doing their job quickly and efficiently.
Seasoned businesses also have a better sense of the market. They are able to provide you with reasonably priced services that come with add-ons like free revisits, repair warranties and customer discounts. You can find out how long a company has been in business through its website, social media pages or by asking.
Repair business qualifications
Business qualifications are often a good indicator of the quality of service you will receive. A repair business that’s accredited and certified will meet industry standards and repair your home appliances and systems well.
How can you check a repair business’s qualifications? You can go to its official website and look for the certifications it carries. Most repair companies are likely to advertise these qualifications on their websites. If you see none, don’t hesitate to ask over a call.Be sure to check sites like Angi, Yellow Pages and Yelp to see if the repair business is accredited and certified by the Better Business Bureau. As a rule of thumb, the more certifications, the more reliable a business is.
Besides these qualifications, you can also check if the repair business specializes in the type and brand of appliances you have. For instance, if you own a Whirlpool refrigerator, you would want a repair company that officially partners with or is at least certified by Whirlpool for refrigerator repair.
Areas of San Diego the repair company serves
When choosing a repair company in San Diego, check which areas of the city it has a presence. If the company does not have your area listed as one of its locations of service, it may charge you an additional fee for transportation. Plus, it will take longer to reach you. While that may be acceptable in some situations, selecting a company that can quickly fix your broken appliance is better. This is especially important because some home appliances can be hazardous when broken.
You can go through different companies’ websites to check whether they provide services in your area. You can use this list of major San Diego County neighborhoods to locate your service area.
- La Mesa
- Poway
- El Cajon
- Mira Mesa
- Rancho
- Escondido
- Amana
- Bonita
- Chula Vista
- La Jolla
- Oceanside
- Carlsbad
Questions to ask your San Diego appliance repair company
Once you finish shortlisting appliance repair companies, you can further contact their customer service reps to ask them a few questions. These questions will help you check if a company provides the services you’re looking for, its prices are fair, and its services come with important add-ons like a service warranty.
Here are a few things you can ask businesses.
Ask about their service warranty
A service warranty will protect your home appliances and systems against damages and other defects for a specified time. When choosing an appliance repair service company, asking about the kind of service warranty it provides is important.
A service warranty offers financial security to homeowners. With a strong service warranty plan, you’ll pay only a minimal fee for the repairs of your covered home appliances and systems for the specified period. Be sure to also check for offers like extended service warranty and how you can qualify for them.
Ask about their experience with your brand of appliances
Different brands of appliances require different repair services, even if it’s the same appliance. For instance, if you own a Boschwasher and dryer, you need a repair company that has experience with Boschwasher and dryer repair.
Even if the repair service professionals are skilled at fixing Samsungwashing machines, they may not be able to repair your Boschwasher because of its design and operational specifications. So, it’s always a good idea to ask your repair company if it has working experience with your specific appliances and brands.
We recommend looking for repair services that have experience with at least some of these major brands:
- Frigidaire
- Samsung
- Maytag
- Kenmore
- Thermador
- Bosch
- Dacor
Ask about pricing, fees, estimates, forms of payment and more
As with any service or product, pricing is something to factor in when deciding whether it is right for you. While it’s not the wisest to go with a repair company based on price alone, asking repair companies about their fees and pricing structure is essential. You can ask for estimates if a fixed pricing structure is unavailable. This will help you gauge how much you may have to pay to complete your repairs.
Besides the fees and pricing, ask what forms of payment the repair company accepts. Ideally, you should go with a company that offers a wide variety of payment options, such as cash, check, digital payments, credit cards and debit cards.
Ask about the repair company’s insurance
No matter how reputable a repair company is, if it doesn’t have insurance policies that cover liabilities for bodily injury and property damage, it’s probably not worth hiring. You don’t want to be stuck in a legal situation where something happened to the repairman while he was servicing your appliance. So, asking your repair service professionals several questions about their insurance is important.
Ask them about what kind of policies they carry. Learn about what happens if an accident occurs in your home when a service professional is fixing your appliance. Understand what your liability will be in the event of an injury. Also, ask if they cover appliance and system expenses in case of breakage during repair service.
Check the repair company’s appointment availability
Ask your appliance repair company questions about their work timings. Ideally, you want a repair company with flexible hours and quick appointments. When your appliance or system breaks, you shouldn’t have to wait for weeks to have it repaired.
Ask the repair company if they offer emergency repair service calls. For instance, if your dishwasher starts leaking, you’ll need to immediately call for a dishwasher repair; otherwise, it could flood your kitchen. Many appliance repair companies offer 24/7 emergency and same-day services for such situations. Ask your company several questions to understand its hours of operation, availability and turnaround times.
What to do when you have an appliance emergency in San Diego
Appliance repair emergencies require urgent attention. Depending on the emergency, it can be dangerous for your house, you and your family, and even your neighbors. For instance, a leaky washing machine or valve can soak your entire kitchen and permanently damage some of the wood, while a gas leak can prove fatal.
Things like pricing and add-ons cannot be a priority in these situations. The only thing you would be looking for in an appliance repair service here would be a quick response time. It is ideal to have a small list of companies that provide services like these ready with you for emergencies.
If you don’t, the best thing to do is search for services using where you live. For example, you can Google “Oven repair services in Maple Rd., San Diego” to find specific results with all appliance repair services near you. Google also allows you to search “Oven repair services near me” to quickly get the most relevant results. Be sure to keep your location tracking on for this.
You should note that emergency service prices may vary from normal ones.
What’s the best appliance repair service in San Diego, California?
Simply put, no single appliance repair service can be perfect for everyone. Each customer has their expectations and priorities while looking for a good appliance repair service company.
As a general rule of thumb, you should assess a company based on the customer reviews on their website, Google, Facebook, and specialized review sites like Yelp.
As mentioned, the average customer rating is one of the best parameters you can use to judge the quality of the service provided by a company. You can also filter your options based on other priorities like pricing, quick appointments, and special experience with the appliances and brands you own.
While it is OK to compromise on some of these parameters a little, don’t opt for a company with no prior experience with the appliance you own just because it will do it cheaper and quicker. Your top priority should be getting quality service that ensures that your appliances need little to no subsequent repairs.
Let Cinch handle the process of finding a professional repair person for you
If you’re looking for comprehensive appliance repair services in San Diego, look no further than Cinch Home Services. At Cinch, we understand that when things break down, you need a plan. We have you covered with three! Our Appliances, Built-in Systems, and Complete Home plans all come with a service warranty that keeps you covered, no matter your problem.
When you place an order with Cinch, our systems intelligently locate a certified, highly reviewed repair service professional near you that can offer you the quickest, most reliable appliance repair services in San Diego. Get an instant quote to find a suitable service for your home today.