Pinnacle Appliances--Be Very Very Cautious!

[NWJeeper]

I have to urge all RVrs not to buy any product made by Pinnacle or to do business with a company called Appliance Desk, here is our story:

We were given a Majestic 9000MV washer/dryer combo unit by a friend who did not need it. He had bought a 2005 Fleetwood 5th wheel and it had been put in the rig by the previous owner. By all appearances the machine had never been run, it was for all practical purposes, new.

I set up the washer/dryer in our garage for a test run and noticed right away that it was smoking and had a bad smell. Upon investigation I noticed the smoke coming from the motor and found that it was way too hot to touch. I went to the companies web site (Pinnaclecombos.com) and found a parts breakdown for the unit as well as a parts list from which to order from. Clicking on the "parts" menu takes you to a different web page called "Appliance Desk" where you order the parts, you are no longer on the Pinnacle web page. Seeing this to be about the only place on the net to buy parts and because you are led there from the manufacturer's web page I figured it would be reputable and safe to buy parts from them, boy was I wrong!

I placed the order on June 14th for the motor well in advance of our month long trip coming up in September. The following day, the 15h of June, a man named "Steve" called and told me they do not stock these motors but that he could get me a rebuilt one for about 15% less. I said that would be OK as long as it works. After about 3 weeks I called to get any information about when or if the motor was shipped but only got an answering service, my call was not returned. It took until July 14th to receive the motor and at no time was I given any shipping or tracking information. The box was left on my front door and was in perfect shape, however upon opening the box I found that the motor had been dropped on it's mounting lugs, crushing one and smashing the metal case, the motor was not only unusable but it had obviously been placed in the box in that condition when it was shipped! I was outraged! I called "Steve" at Appliance Desk and only got an answering service. I left a message that I was going to reverse the charges on my credit card. The following day I received a call from "Steve" and he stated that he would have another motor sent out right away, I told him I was running out of time and didn't have a month to wait for another motor, he promised me that the replacement would reach me the following week so I agreed. By August 4th I still had no motor, I called and once again got a message service. I decided to call Pinnacle and tell them about the problems I was having with Appliance Desk, low and behold I got THE SAME answering service, Pinnacle and Appliance Desk were one and the same!

Today, nearly 5 weeks later on August 15th I still have no motor, I called once again and expected to get the same answering service but instead "Steve" answered the phone this time! Amazing! I told him I still had no motor and intended to reverse the charges with my credit card company, he started to tell me he would have another motor sent out and I told him I was out of time and patience with his customer service and wanted nothing more to do with him, Appliance Desk or Pinnacle products. He agreed to refund my money. I told him if the motor did arrive in the future he could damned well send a call tag to get it back as I wasn't about to pay the shipping to send it back to him.

So, I have two bad motors and a "new" washer/dryer that will all go to the dump. It would appear that Pinnacle and Appliance Desk are a "one man" operation run by this "Steve" person if that is his real name as he sounded more like a Dell tech support representative from India to me.

I hope this serves as a lesson to other RVrs out there who may be looking to buy an appliance for their RV, DO NOT BUY PINNACLE! If you happen to own a Pinnacle product and need to fix it you are probably going to pay half of what the machine is worth to repair it, that is if you are even lucky enough to be able to get the parts. I hope others can learn from my experience before loosing a lot of money on a machine that has NO support.

I did find it a bit absurd and pathetically funny that all the "testimonials" of great service by "customers" on Appliance Desk's web site were in many cases poorly written with the same bad grammar of someone who has English as a second language. The letters also seemed to reference the same employees at Appliance Desk, many of whom are also listed as employees on Pinnacle's web site, hmmm coincidence, I THINK NOT! This entire operation is a fraud and a sham from where I sit.

For reference. Pinnacle markets washers, dryers, washer/dryer combo units and ice makers and Appliance Desk sells parts for the following brand names:

Conserv

Deco

Equator

Galaxy

Hirundo

Majestic

Meridian

Pinnacle

Triton

[HarleyJones1]

This might just be a shot in the dark, and probably too late for this trip, but try this link for parts for your machine. I had a similar model and found these parts to be a match. I don't know how these prices compare, but at least they are a reputable outfit.

Sears Parts: Majestic washer/dryer combo parts

Best of luck and don't let this bad experience ruin your trip!

[NWJeeper]

Thanks Harley. I did see those listed on Sears but they want $380 for a $150 motor. The $265 I had paid through Appliance Desk was about $100 too much in my opinion. I don't want to sink 2/3 the cost of a new machine into this thing if something else goes wrong too. As our up coming trip takes us through Phoenix AZ I am going to check into AZ RV Salage and see what they have. They list having good used Splendide washers on their site. If I can get a good used washer for not much more than Sears wants for a motor then I would rather go that route. Besides, we are just 2 weeks from blast off, I don't have time now to fix the danged thing and get it in our rig.

[badcubs]

We have a majestic stackable set and have had a very difficult time finding parts for the washer (mj9200w). The only place we have found is Appliance Desk, especially for the hose that runs from the dispenser to the drum. We have had no real problems ordering from them, until we purchased the wrong part. We too spoke with "Steve" to arrange the return of the part to get a refund from them. We sent the part back UPS so we could track the delivery, which recorded as being received by Appliance Desk on 07.17.2013. To date we still have NOT received the refund for the item sent back. First we were told the unit had arrived, but had to be inspected, and we should expect a refund in 5 to 7 days. That didn't happen....... Now we need to order another part for the washer, and to our unfortunate surprise, Appliance Desk is the only place that we can find with the part in stock.

We have ordered several parts from them without any problem, until the refund issue. As of yesterday, I sent "Steve" an email advising that if I did not see the refund posted to our credit card within 48 hours I will be disputing the charge with our credit card company.

The sad part is the majestic washer and dryers are hard to get parts for, and Appliance Desk seems to be the only game in town that we can find. We need to replace the drum shocks, and are forced to make the purchase with Appliance Desk because they are the only ones who have them. Our other option is to replace the washer and dryer, but we just did a full restoration to our coach (1998 Winnebago Adventurer 37WW), which included putting in the stacking washer and dryer, which we got for a pretty reasonable price from the dealer that did the renovation.

If you can avoid doing business with Appliance Desk, I would advise to do so. It is sad that "Steve" is willing to allow his company's reputation to get slammed because he refuses to honor issues like refunds in a timely manner.