Crane Appliance is one of those Island businesses that Islanders love to hate. “You can get it so much cheaper off-Island or online” is the comment most heard. People talk about their bad experiences but rarely their good ones.

A few weeks ago, our less than one-year-old flatscreen TV went black in the middle of a show. We tried all the usual reboot things — cable was working fine and there was definitely power to the TV but there was no picture or sound. We called LG as the manual told us to. They told us that yes, it is under warranty and to call Sandwich TV, the authorized service place “in your area.” We called Sandwich, left a message and waited. No call back the next day so we called Crane’s service number. Well, they told us that, yes, they would pick it up (since it is a 55-inch TV it would be difficult for us to bring it to them), send it off-Island to be repaired and bring it back to us — all for a very nominal fee. And they were even really nice about it!

The next day we heard from Sandwich TV. They were nice too and said they would be happy to take care of our problem until they heard we were on Martha’s Vineyard. “Oh, you are out of luck!” the guy said, and that is a direct quote. He continued on and told me that they have told LG that it just doesn’t make financial sense for them to send a truck over to service customers. So I said, gee, I guess that makes my warranty useless and he agreed. So much for customer service. Without Crane standing behind the products they sell, we would have been, as the guy said, out of luck. So next time you are thinking about buying something that might actually need to be serviced, particularly under the warranty, think about buying on-Island. You might just get the service you need, and pleasantly so. We got that from Crane.

Eleanor S. Beth

Oak Bluffs