Atherton Appliance & Kitchens

Lots of SALES, very little service. STEER CLEAR. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY BUT WON'T HELP YOU IF THE APPLIANCES THEY SELL HAVE ANY PROBLEMS.

Atherton Appliance sold us three major appliances for our house remodel -- a refrigerator, a fridge/freezer drawer set, and a dual oven + range. ALL THREE BROKE WITHIN A YEAR. While this is not their fault, they were completely unhelpful in getting them repaired. The fridge/freezer drawer took 5 months to repair and dozens of emails. Whenever we sought their help they told us that we had to call the manufacturer and wait on the phone. Phone wait times were over 1 hour at times and we never got through, I only managed to get it repaired by sending dozens of emails to the manufacturer.

The fridge / oven repairs were mishandled by their staff when we were traveling. We hired someone to stay at the house all day for TWO DAYS to wait for the repairman which Atherton scheduled. He never showed up. It turns out that Atherton failed to enter a street name for the repair, only a number and the city. So the repairman couldn't come to our house, and Atherton's response was an unintelligible email which I still can't figure out. It read:

"I apologize I will created another service ticket since I can go on the Thermador system to change the information once the service is created and also I can't change the phone number of you would like to provide me with the number that you would like to be reach"

What does this even mean? I provided an address and phone number in my initial email and their response doesn't even acknowledge the information I shared.

STEER CLEAR. THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY BUT WON'T HELP YOU IF THE APPLIANCES THEY SELL HAVE ANY PROBLEMS.

Apparently all they care about is customers buying entire kitchen remodels. Try to buy less than $20k at a time and you'll find you are the bottom of their priority for ordering and delivering your purchase.

I was updated by Farmers that they do not have insurance. Honestly, I would not trust any business that don't take responsibility of their drivers. Not even an apology for the hit and run.

I have bought well over $15,000 in appliances from this place. The store is beautiful and they carry premium brands at MASSIVE prices.

I stopped going when I was told in no uncertain terms that they would not do installations for either a disposal unit or a dishwasher. Rudely and by the store manager himself. Wouldn't even offer names of installers we could call.

And yet still charged a 50% premium over the appliances' price.

Honestly, I think this company has learned to emulate the snotty attitudes of many of their customers and designers. In the end, it's just an appliance company in Redwood City in a shitty little building.

Won't go back again. Ever.

We did a full kitchen remodel. Bought fridge, stove, dishwasher and hood all Thermador all amounting to thousands of dollars. They don't inspect the items for defects as they just want to get to the next job or go home. They installed the backguard which we paid extra for the larger one. After install I noticed it was defective along with the knobs. Fast forward nearly 1 year of back and forth emails since install there's been zero resolution. Despite persistent follow up on our part we still are living with defective items. And now that the oven is fully installed and our contractor has moved on to other projects, we can't afford to have our cabinets and countertops damaged by moving the stove. It's been going on close to a year! We plan to lodge a more official complaint with the Better Business Bureau and may seek legal action if there's no satisfactory resolution.

I am a contractor and ordered $23,000 in high end appliances for a customer job. Appliances took 14 months to receive. Delivery dates were pushed out and I was not contacted by anyone at Atherton Appliance. I had to call on the expected delivery date to find this out. Politely, I'll say my customer was dissatisfied.

Atherton Appliance has terrible customer service, horrible communication and adds no dealer value add other than a fancy showroom to select your appliances. Contract repair service guys won't come repair products under warranty because Atherton Appliance low-balls fees. Buyer beware. Contractors especially beware. These guys will hurt your business.

The worst service! I have used Atherton Appliance since 2000 for three different homes and spent countless tens of thousands of dollars there. 20 years ago they were THE place for high end appliances. But the customer service has grown increasingly terrible over the years. We keep going back to them because as a local small businesses we are stupidly loyal. Shame on me. But I'm done after my last experience. Asked them to replace a small GE microwave that we had for about 10 years that we had installed into a custom cabinet space with a trim kit. The microwave display was dying and we could have had it fixed but it would be about the same cost to replace it. After the Atherton manager told our property manager that the new GE model was larger and would require a new trim kit (which we also paid for) their installers came out twice and couldn't fit 2 different trim kits. So we went to a custom trim kit company who told us as follows (edited for length):

"[they] unfortunately simply do not know what they are doing, or they would have never even suggested putting the microwave in the cabinet to begin with
You CAN NOT use the microwave you have in your cabinet opening
It doesn't allow for near enough room to engineer and fabricate a trim kit around the microwave....

In addition: the microwave will die in short order due to a lack of ventilation and degradation of the electrical components. You would also not receive any service or warranty support".

Oh did I mention the Atherton installer took the old microwave and trim kit to keep for himself so we couldn't just repair it? After going back and forth for months where the sales person never returned calls and we lived with a ugly hole in the cabinets, Atherton suggested two smaller model microwaves and a custom trim kit. Genius! Not sure why that took 4 months of calls but whatever. After discussing with the trim kit company, we went to return the other microwave and Atherton had the nerve to tell us we were subject to a 50% restocking fee. When I finally got involved and called the manager, he told me he was waiting to hear back from the owner on waiving the restocking fee. He should have left it at that. Unfortunately he felt he needed keep talking and informed me essentially (1) it wasn't their fault, (2) the microwave was the replacement model and was the same size (thus denying that he told our property manager months previously that the replacement unit for our model had gotten larger), (3) blamed the person who built our cabinets 10 years ago for making the space too small and (4) ...unbelievably...actually said that if my last microwave lasted 10 years this one would as well despite the inappropriate ventilation. Ok so I guess I should just sign that 'ole liability waiver because it's just no big deal! And that's when I completely lost it, yelled at the guy and hung up. What professional actually gives advice to a customer to install a product that violates the manufacturer's install requirements and voids the warranty?? By the way, their rating with the Better Business Bureau is a D- which pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Based on his shockingly inappropriate justification, I'm sure the manager will have all sorts of excuses why this review is unfair. My advice is go elsewhere. Not worth the headache and poor treatment.

I purchased a Thermidor fridge and freezer column set that Atherton installed back in early 2022. While the installers were very prompt and professional, they unfortunately damaged our cabinetry in a few spots. Atherton worked hard throughout 2022 to find a suitable vendor that would come out for just a "cosmetic" job. While it took a year, I was ultimately thrilled with the repair results. Stuff happens on an install sometimes. So shop with a conscientious vendor like Atherton that takes full ownership of miscues and stays engaged until the job is complete to your full satisfaction.

Very good service. I got a good walk around of kitchen appliances for my project. In 2-3 days I got a follow up email with info i need. My project is still undergoing. So far happy with this store!

I would not use Atherton Appliance again because the service after the order was place was absolutely atrocious.
I was told that my full order was in, only to find out that the dishwashers were backordered.
On the day prior to the delivery the website said that they were in. In fact it said that 4 were to be delivered instead of two. No dishwashers delivered until 6 months later.
Sent my contractor to pick up the fan unit, confirmed by phone that it was in the warehouse, but when he arrived, he was told that they were not in. He requested information, but was given information about a different fan unit.
Contacted the manager, who rectified the situation. However, when I tried contacting her on other problems, she did not return my calls.

Many of the products are priced the same at other appliance stores. Would definitely try elsewhere the next time.

After speaking to others that have used them, delivery and service after placing orders seems to be a common problem.

Definitely customer no service after they got your money!