On June 21 2011 I posted about my new stove and the problems with the delivery; you can read the post here. It is now May 2012 and much has occurred that might be of interest to consumers in Panama.
The delivery truck from Casa Gala accidentally damaged our electrical service. We literally required the truck and driver stay until we did photos and contacted their manager to document the incident. Only after we had all in agreement that their truck did the damage did we raise the electrical line and release them.
Casa Gala responded, saying we should get a quote to have the pedestal repaired. After looking at the $1,200 quotation they said they would do it themselves. To their credit they started quickly and sent people from David daily until they installed a new service. When it came to finishing the job they dragged on forever. They never quite finished the job and we paid someone else to finish.
During that time the stove broke, the Italian model was defective; great lines do not make a great stove. The chromed plastic knobs peeled, the burners flamed too high and the oven quit working. Despite requests Casa Gala failed to appear to fix the problem when promised and we decided in December to visit ACODECO and make a complaint. I learned about ACODECO at a Tuesday Community Meeting, I knew more about ACODECO than Mayra and many Panamanians because of that meeting.
We filed a complaint, they gave us a copy to literally serve on the manager of Casa Gala giving him thirty days to resolve the stove problem. ACODECO said they had no authority regarding the truck damaging the electrical pedestal. Advice for the future, call the Corregedor they are the correct authority for a truck colliding with a building.
Sometime in February we returned to ACODECO and explained that nothing happened in the elapsed time. The employee at ACODECO picked up the phone and called the owner of Casa Gala. The next week technicians arrived to check out the stove, two weeks later they arrived with new parts. They fixed one of three problems, not good enough. The following week they came, took the stove and left a loaner. They were not able to repair the stove in my house or in their shop. So much for Bompanni stoves and service.
Finally the owner said, you have 100% credit pick out a new stove. This week we have a new Italian Job, an Ariston, a new guarantee and the cell phone number of the owner of Casa Gala. Without ACODECO this would not have happened, the consumer protection system worked, it was slow but it did the job. To his credit, the owner said Casa Gala will also cover our cost for finishing the repairs to the electrical pedestal.
As I posted on .Ning, Acodeco definitely came through for me. All it took was a phone call from the Licenciada and I had my money refunded in less than a week — after the 6 fruitless months,excuses for delays in payment and many emails which were ignored, I realize I should have taken that route earlier, it would have caused me much less stress. I returned to Acodeco to tell them the good news and also to deliver cookies — they were amazed, I guess not too many people do that but I give thanks where thanks is due. Great people. I would advise anyone to go to Acodeco if they have a consumer problem with a business. Acodeco is how the BBB used to be 30 plus years ago, now they charge to have a company, good or bad, listed as approved.