Not happy with local Harman dealers, in the process of buying!!!

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nicko

New Member
Jan 19, 2011
5
Atlantic Canada
In my area Halifax,NS there is only one harman dealer. Now, their price is very high and they refuse to budge , over $1000 to install charging me freight on the stove etc. I called other harman dealers in the province and they won't help because its not their territory. I could buy the stove im interested in p35i from one of these other dealers but they can't install or service the stove. I've had a quick look around on harmans website and i can't find anything about their warranties. Is it possible for me to purchase just the stove from another dealer and get someone who is wett certified to install it ? and still keep the warranty?

Any advice woudl be greatly appreciated, i'm almost ready to forget about a harman.
 
I would look at some other stoves at other dealers. ;-)
 
imacman said:
nicko said:
I've had a quick look around on harmans website and i can't find anything about their warranties.

http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/communications/Warranty_Policy.pdf

BTW, I agree with your last statement....there are many other stove companies that make great stoves. You live in Canada....why not consider an Enviro....they are making VERY good stoves these days.

Thanks!, I guess that warranty throws my idea out the window lol.

I did a search on enviro and once again only one dealer available in my area. But I will give them a ring and see if they are easier to deal with.
 
When it comes to Harman it is all about the dealer. If the stove has an issue you will HAVE to go through your dealer to accomplish anything. If the dealer decides to thumb their nose at you, Harman will do NOTHING about it. Quadrafire is owned by the same company or something like that and I have a quad I purchased off of CL. It seems to me the area only dealer avenue for anything is something only true with the Harman business model. I haven't heard anyone who has had similar treatment from the Quad side but I do not doubt it.


If the dealer is being difficult in any way shape or form I would look for a different avenue.

If dealers are hard to find in your area I TOTALLY recommend looking into an Englander stove. The company is very customer oriented and are not transparent like many others seem to attempt to be. One of the most helpful people in this forum works for Englander and really goes the extra mile for issues with his brand and offers tips for many other brands.
 
nicko said:
In my area Halifax,NS there is only one harman dealer. Now, their price is very high and they refuse to budge , over $1000 to install charging me freight on the stove etc. I called other harman dealers in the province and they won't help because its not their territory. I could buy the stove im interested in p35i from one of these other dealers but they can't install or service the stove. I've had a quick look around on harmans website and i can't find anything about their warranties. Is it possible for me to purchase just the stove from another dealer and get someone who is wett certified to install it ? and still keep the warranty?

Any advice woudl be greatly appreciated, i'm almost ready to forget about a harman.


Atlantic Stoves & Fireplaces?

I had a decent experience with them doing service on my Whitfield Advantage stove a few weeks ago. They weren't the cheapest around for a service call ($100 for the visit + parts), but they had the most convenient times for me, only had to wait a couple days. I wasn't looking at buying a new stove though. :)

The other dealer listed on the harman website, Roode & Rose Plumbing & Heating doesn't do pellets stoves anymore to my knowledge. I called them for service and they said they were getting out of the business.

Total Gas and the Fireplace, the enviro dealer, was booked up for a few weeks.

rb
 
Some dealers will bend for customers that did not buy the stove from them. It depends on the dearler, they do not have to service a stove that they did not sell, BUT the dearler thats old the stove MUST service the warrenty on that stove. I have serviced harman stoves that a dealer did not sell to the customer. The warrenty info is with the selling dealer and the not sell dealer would not know when the stove was purchased or installed, which makes the warrenty process a little harder for the dearler that did not sell the stove.
 
nicko said:
In my area Halifax,NS there is only one harman dealer. Now, their price is very high and they refuse to budge , over $1000 to install charging me freight on the stove etc. I called other harman dealers in the province and they won't help because its not their territory. I could buy the stove im interested in p35i from one of these other dealers but they can't install or service the stove. I've had a quick look around on harmans website and i can't find anything about their warranties. Is it possible for me to purchase just the stove from another dealer and get someone who is wett certified to install it ? and still keep the warranty?

Any advice woudl be greatly appreciated, i'm almost ready to forget about a harman.

If they are charging you $1000 to insatll, I'm living in the wrong country!!
 
1k for an install on a new stove seems high to me unless it is very involved. I know the hearth pads aren't cheap and the pipe isn't either. If the 'install' includes a really nice hearth pad and involved pipe install procedure along with installing a new outlet for power or other procedures I could see it. If he quoted 1k to throw down a hearth pad and cut a hole in the wall and shove a 4' stick of pipe out the wall and plug it in, I would not walk back in the place.
 
$1000 for install...full reline? S.S. liner included in price? chimney cap? if so, and you want it done in winter in Canada, I'd say thats a steal.
 
My existing S.S liner and chimney is good. All that needs to be done is pulling out my old insert and installing the new one. The $1000 includes a $200 reducer to take my 5" liner down to the 3". I could have swore a friend of mine paid $30 a couple years ago for the same thing.
 
in that case...do it yourself, thats a silly price. UNless thats in pesos, then its still a steal, if its dollars either US or CA then silly.
 
Do it yourself. You will be surprised how easy it is and how foolish the dealer is asking that kind of money for a two hour job. Who makes $500 an hour??
 
tonyd said:
Do it yourself. You will be surprised how easy it is and how foolish the dealer is asking that kind of money for a two hour job. Who makes $500 an hour??

I know thats exactly what I was thinking. How nice it is to make $500 a hour. I guess if I install it myself though I will lose the harman warranty. So thats out of the question.
 
The directions in the owners manual are for you to install, not an installer, so it shouldn't void any warranty. I would think.
 
go to the dealer and really put your hands in one... the 35i is not as nice and as easy in design as the other harman units. No accordion heat exchanger, lots of nuts inside to remove. Its still solid, but not put together with the same "standard".
 
summit said:
go to the dealer and really put your hands in one... the 35i is not as nice and as easy in design as the other harman units. No accordion heat exchanger, lots of nuts inside to remove. Its still solid, but not put together with the same "standard".

The local dealer doesn't have any 35i's in the showroom. Also the girlfriend hates the look of the accentra, so I don't have much choice hehe.
 
nicko said:
summit said:
go to the dealer and really put your hands in one... the 35i is not as nice and as easy in design as the other harman units. No accordion heat exchanger, lots of nuts inside to remove. Its still solid, but not put together with the same "standard".

The local dealer doesn't have any 35i's in the showroom. Also the girlfriend hates the look of the accentra, so I don't have much choice hehe.

So you leave the girlfriend there and take the Accentra. :)~
 
The Accentra is a much better unit than the 35i ... If it were me I get the Accentra and tell girlfriend to live with it . :lol:
 
My Wife hated the look of the Accentra also, said it looked like a childs coffin. They have a add on leg kit for the Accentra that kinda helps with the looks. I went through the same B.S. local dealer didn't have what I wanted in stock and wouldn't sell the floor model and couldn't get me a stove for 2 months, so I used a co-workers address and purchased it from a not so local dealer. Harmans warranty is transferable so by all rights my now local dealer will have to service it since I decided to move the next day. I was quoted 3,400 for the Accentra and we ended up getting the enamel XXV for 3,600 for the extra 200.00 I am extremely happy we got the XXV. I too think th Accentra or the xxv is a better built stove than the 35. Good luck..
 
The dealer is more important than any other factor....a bad dealer can make your life hell with customer no service.

Find another stove... Harman's are over rated anyway.
 
out of all the stoves I researched, Harman had the absolute best burn pot design and ease of maintenace I have ever seen. stove will run circles around other stove that need to be shut down daily or weekly, could probably go months with just a weekly burn pot scraping. overrated,,, hardly, overpriced, well thats another story...
 
Think of this for a moment. What if youe dealer dies? How good will that warranty do you then?
Harman is a good stove but like many have said it is by far not the only stove not is it the best. Do some more investigating.
 
I looked at all the top brands in person, Harman, Quad, Enviro, Lennox, Rika, others like Thelin, and researched many lesser models online, I will stand by my statement, NOTHING comes close to Harmans burn pot design and maintenance free operation. Harmans can run months with about 1 minute of scraping a week, and no need to shut it down. The dealer network aspect of it works as long as the " local " dealer has the stove you want, or can get one in a reasonable amount of time, 2 months wasn't reasonable and they had a snotty attitude about selling the floor model when I asked, so yes that part of the experience sucked along with the dealers attitude.
 
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