Amati Home Systems Ltd

Not a great customer experience and seems like they don't stand behind their products or care about customers that spend over $1000 on a new system.

Details:

I came in and indicated that I wanted to change my central vac and power head and was very clear that noise was an important factor. I was sold a quiet central vac unit (demonstrated in the store), but was not told that some of their power heads are louder than others (fine) or given a demo of the power heads. Not ideal, but not the end of the world. I was also not told that once I try the unit at home it could not be returned. The policy was printed in fine print in the back of the room where customers are not allowed - and it mentioned 48 hours. OK.

The central vac unit was installed on Friday. We immediately tried the unit and found that the sound on the unit included a high pitch whine especially when the unit was not flush on the ground, making the performance of my brand new system louder than my 30 year old old system. I called the office Sunday (they were closed on Sunday and Monday (labour day) leaving a message - i.e. within the 48 hours with a detailed message including the fact that I was not able to come in until later in the week. No call back.

When I brought the unit later in the week and demonstrated the high pitch, I was told it was 'normal' and that no one complains. I asked to be shown other models (other units did not exhibit the irritating high pitch) and was told that to exchange the unit I'd have to pay more because my unit was now 'used' even though I immediately called within the 48 hour period - and they were closed during the 48 hour window.

So I paid more, exchanged the unit, but was not pleased with how my concerns were dismissed (even though it was clearly more high pitched and whiny even in the store) and that they did not care that they did not have a happy customer. They really should have allowed the straight return given when I had contacted them and the fact that their store was closed within the 48 hour period. They claim to be better than the big box stores, but why bother when I couldn't return a unit I wasn't happy with after trying it for less that a day?