You decide:
When a company places you in harm's way, is it simply projecting incompetence, or does it have more sinister intentions.
In march of this year, I was researching a replacement air conditioner. I filtered my search by features, price and brand, and ordered what seemed to be the best fit for my needs.
After a month of shipping and handling the air conditioner, which is produced by an U.S. company, the air conditioner was dollied into my kitchen. The following day, I noticed the air conditioner box sporting a large warning, informing all, that installation of this air conditioner, anywhere in the state of California, will result in penalties and/or imprisonment. I live in southern California. Stuned but willing to give the retailer the benefit of the doubt, I reached out to local HVAC businesses and home construction contractors to find out what this means to me. They were as confused as I. I then contacted the retailer of the air conditioner, a number of times, explaining to them their mistake and asking to return the air conditioner. I was informed by the retailer that they would be happy to correct their mistake after charging me a $400 dollar fee.
Unwilling to bend to extortion, I then contacted the Refrigerant Management Program For the California Air Resource Board (CARB), who were the creators of the warning, to get facts verified. The California Air Resource Board upheld the warning prohibiting the import of the type of air conditioner that was delivered by AJ Madison. Again I contacted AJ Madison asking them to correct their mistake and again AJ Madison refused to take back the air conditioner.
Unable to resolve this, you would think, simple matter, I turned to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). F.Y.I, unbelievably, the BBB rates AJ Madison as being excellent.
AJ Madison replied to the BBB with empty promises to resolve the mistake and pick up the illegal unit for free but did nothing. AJ Madison never sent me a notice of return, nor had I been contacted by AJ Madison's transportation company informing me of a scheduled pick up. Meaning that no return order was ever sent. They also lied to the BBB about not being able to reach me.
Unable to get this illegal air conditioner returned and remove my $1,300 dollars out of the pockets of AJ Madison, I turned to the Attorney General. I mailed all of my correspondence with the retailer, CARB and BBB to the Attorney General's (AG) office. AJ Madison's response to notification from the AG office was to deny all responsibility and blame me, the customer. They said that I was at fault for them sending the illegal air conditioner. AJ Madison stated to the AG that I was at fault, because I used the AJ Madison website. AJ Madison argued that I should not have followed the instructions on the AJ Madison web site.They argued that if I spoke to a live person on the phone, instead of using their website, the live person would have steered me away from purchasing the illegal air conditioner. But that was simply another lie. I contacted AJ Madison after their response. On April 26, I asked AJ Medison "what is the California legal equivalent to the air conditioner that you sent me". An AJ Madison representative responded with "I have reached out to Frierich for assistance, I am seeking their help". May 1, AJ Madison sent me and answer. This exchange would support the fact that, when I ordered the air conditioner March 5, no one at AJ Madison would have taken any action in preventing sale and shipping of an illegal air conditioner.
The illegal air conditioner was finally picked up May 3rd and my money returned June 16th.

Purchased 8/28/19, received order confirmation email 8/29/19 with ship date of 8/29/19.8/29/19 11:23am received shipping confirmation email stating ship date of 8/29/19 with notes stating please allow 2-4 business days for product to be shipped. Credit card charged full amount on 8/30/19. Last date products should have shipped, including Labor Day holiday, would be 9/5/19. No tracking information given. Emailed AJ Madison 9/8/19 asking for shipping update/tracking-no response received.
Called customer service 9/11/19 at 8:50am CST, rep states "shipping from Friedrich" today. Asked what this meant, she states "it's a Friedrich order so it's shipping today." I have no idea what this means, so asked to level up to someone else for clarification. Remained on hold for 20+ minutes before AJ Madison dropped call. Immediately called back to sales department, asked rep to remain on line, rep hung up. Immediately called back, same reaction. Immediately called back, a different rep placed me into a separate "on hold" area. I continued to remain on hold with "11 callers ahead of you." Finally, a rep returned to the line and I asked for Friedrich's customer service phone number to verify that the order was placed. Back on hold for 10 min. Rep returned and she DID give me the number.
After calling the manufacturer at 10:30am CST today to verify AJ Madison placed my order to be drop shipped, Mr. Joe Guerrero of Friedrich (phone *******645) stated AJ Madison NEVER placed my order, no PO at all, though AJ Madison states it was placed 8/29/19. The credit card was charged in full, $4,400.00, on 8/30/19 by AJ Madison.
Called AJ Madison back to inquire why order was never placed but credit card charged. A different rep now states "there was a problem with the PO" (isn't that convenient?) but it is fixed and Friedrich will ship my order today. I asked for clarification of the "problem" and was placed on hold. Rep came back and stated no clarification but she called Friedrich to verify order and said yes it is there now with no problem. Now she stated it will "not ship today" but AJ Madison will get back to me with a ship date. I said this was unacceptable and asked rep to conference call Friedrich so we could all be on the line at the same time to make sure my order is placed and will ship today. Placed back on hold for 10 min. Rep returned and said she could not place a conference call-she was not authorized. I asked to be transferred to someone who could place a conference call. Back on hold for over 30 min. Eventually the original salesperson who made the sale, Ms. Grace Kohl, came on the line and stated "we are getting a really great deal" because of a mistake by AJ Madison from a previous order we placed. This order was "only a few dollars above cost." After saying I needed Ms. Kohl to place a conference call to Friedrich with myself on the line for order verification, she refused, stating "we don't make phone calls." After conferencing in my husband to hear for himself about this current situation, a long back and forth exchange occurred without resolution on either side. We maintained that it was fraudulent of AJ Madison to charge the credit card, lie repeatedly about a shipping date, suddenly have a "problem with the PO," and then refuse to confirm the order with the manufacturer, Friedrich, with us on the phone. Ms. Kohl stated she would cancel the order and we would receive a refund and we could try and find the items at that price elsewhere, and also maintained that AJ Madison was not committing fraud. She stated that in order for the items to be now re-ordered and shipped, we would have to write an email stating we would not accuse AJ Madison of fraud. We refused, and she stated the order was cancelled. We received an email about the cancelled order, but there is no credit pending on the credit card as of yet.
Meanwhile, there is additional cost on our end due to booking our HVAC installer a nonrefundable airline flight and nights at a hotel room near this project's location, based on AJ Madison's original email about a ship date. The project is now on hold due to AJ Madison's neglect and deception.
UPDATE 9/20/19: AJ Madison refunded the credit card the full $4,400.00 on 9/14/19. However, a credit from a previous order, sold to us by AJ Madison's Mr. Solomon Lewis, remains on the credit card, in the amount of $1,796.00. This order actually shipped, though late, and was received by our third party. Once we inspected the shipment it was obvious Mr. Lewis sold us something unusable for our purposes, as it was not a complete set, only a portion of a set (AC split system units). We had asked for clarification BEFORE purchasing, and Mr. Lewis lied and stated the units were complete sets. We returned the shipment to AJ Madison via UPS (AJ Madison emailed us the labels, so no cost to us) and they received it on 9/18/19. A call was placed on 9/20/19 to inquire why no refund yet as was promised. Ms. Vanessa Lino stated we should see the refund by Monday, 9/23 or Tuesday, 9/24. UPDATE #2: $1,796.00 refund received late 9/24/19.
Spend your money elsewhere.

BELOW YOU WILL READ MY EXPERIENCE, THIS WAS NOVEMBER FOR AN ITEMS PURCHASED IN JULY, NOW IT IS JANUARY AND STILL NOT RESOLVED.

I want to tell you of my experience with AJ and make a formal complaint as a result.

First, I have had good experience in the past with AJ which is why I was a return customer.
I made my order in July. Having researched your site I chose the appliances I thought best suited me and my needs however I had some questions about delivery and installation so I wrote to customer service that evening.
I received a call back from Jon the next morning while I was in transit at a cafe without my computer or notes and thought it best that I wait to call back when I got home. Jon convinced me that we could go over it on the phone and find the things I needed again (I had some good memory of the items but did not remember any model #'s and since I wanted only white appliances, there were little to choose from). We took some time and went thru it, finding out I had to switch the fridge because of availability and that there was only one of the stoves I wanted left in the warehouse so he thought it important that I place the order at that time. Which I did.
I ordered 5 year warranties on all
I ordered installation on the stove and dishwasher.

My home was under construction and the contractor was there when the pieces arrived.
They delivered and installed a Stainless stove. The stove did not work after installation and the installer said it was because there was no gas service, which there was.

They refused to install the dishwasher saying the flex tubes on the previous model (both the old and new ones were Bosch) were different and he couldn't install.
My contractor installed the dishwasher as the previous one was installed. They were nearly identical.

I believe I was charged for both installations.

Then the ensuing months of emails and calls trying to get the proper stove. In the meantime Eastern Marketing had to come and see why the stove was not working.
They found it was not properly installed and fixed that problem.
Still I had one stainless appliance and a dishwasher that would not work. I went thru weeks of back and forth on whose fault it was that I received a stainless appliance. Until I was told that AJ would listen to the taped conversation to see who was in error. At this time Jon, stopped responding and only Karen was in contact with me.
In desperation, because I had tenants moving in... I called Bosch to come and look at the Dishwasher. The service guy charged me almost $300 because there was no way to know how "the hose was damaged". Whether it was your installer that refused to install, or my contractor.
All of this going on while I spent days sending email and calling with little response. I have scores of emails I can send you. Karen was moved to another department and it took weeks again to get anyone to respond.

Now I have a date of 11/29 that EM is going to put the white panels on the stove. The stove was delivered in July.

I have several properties and am ready to purchase new appliances for one of them. Based on this treatment (and all I have recently read online) I am likely going to go elsewhere and add my experience to the myriad of poor reviews your company has had recently.

Please let me know you have any authority to do something about this.

Bought the SUMMIT BIM45 Ice maker. Talked to them, read all the information on the description. Says it will produce up to 32 pounds of clear ice per day and store up to 25 pounds of that ice. Three days later the ice has melted and turned to a bin of water. Clearly something must be wrong right? I bought extended warranty, I have 1 yr mfg warranty so I am not worried. I called Summit they told me that the BIM45 Ice maker will sure enough make 32 pounds of ice per day and it will store that ice for zero time frame. The moment the ice hits the bucket it will begin to melt. Why I asked? The machine does not have a "thermostat" the Summit Technician says. It's made only for people who use the ice as fast as it makes it. I told him to ready through the brochure with me... He did, and agreed it is very misleading and that no where does it say the ice will melt or must be used right away. The owners manual even says, that it will be fine for up to 3 weeks to leave town and just leave it alone. If you leave town for over 3 weeks you probably should shut it off! LOL. It does have a pump that will pump the excess water drain away to the sink but not 25 gallons every 3 days of water. If the ice melts it would be just making ice water so why own it.?
Summeit told me to return it to AJ if I was unhappy with it. I called AJ, and went through the brochure with them and they agreed, and told me they wanted to talk to SUMMIT before taking it back. Two weeks later I get no response from AJ. So I called them and they told me the time frame for returns is over. Well of course it is, because you guys told me you wanted to talk to Summit before me sending it back. I filed a claim with PAYPAL which got someones attention there and eventually they decided to take it back. They agreed there is a problem with the advertising but they probably wont be changing it. I ordered this along with a beverage center, and when they were delivered by YRC freight carriers the boxes were crushes by a forklift or other freight pushing on them so when they unloaded them the Driver wanted them to be opened to ensure there was no damage. OK so we opened the boxes to find that both items were ok and not damaged. The freight carrier gathered up the two pallets, all boxes and told me it was his job to dispose of it and away he went. Back to AJ, they want me to ship the ice maker back in the same box, same pallet or they wont take it back. Ok this is rediculous so I explain that I have no way to send it back since the shipper took all the boxes and pallet for the ice maker... They don't care. You have 7 days to get it back to us or we will consider this closed. Pay pal did side with me and said I have 12 days to return it to them at my own expense for a full refund but thats not possible. I talked to a shipper who wants 190 to pack it back up, another who wants 250 to pack it back up then there would be the 150 shipping fee, which does not cover my lost time from work to make all this happen so now the ice maker is in the scrap yard where it belongs. SUMMIT BIM45... BEWARE DOES NOT STORE ICE, ONLY MAKES IT. AJ MADISON will sell you this product but save your packing and dont let the shipper haul it off because you will be sending it back. Spend a little more and but a better quality product and make sure it does have a thermostat built in so it keeps the ice cold.