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House of Louie
Rating Details »
Category: Appliances [Edit]
Neighborhood: SOMA1045 Bryant St
(between 8th St & 9th St)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 621-7100
9 reviews for House of Louie
Great variety, Great pries.
They are not pushy and offer some really great discounts.
Their delivery crew were extra professional. They upacked my purchase, put it together and took away all the packaging material.
Not a bad experience. Prices were fair (not the best) but the most important thing was that they had the items in stock when no one else did; I was able to get the items delivered the very next day. Sales person(s) were fairly formative.
The best part was the delivery crew; very professional, friendly and cautious.
+++I would go back (especially if they gave me even a slight price break).
Last Sunday morning, my 10 year old Sears / Kenmore portable clothes washing machine finally rusted out and puked rusty water all over my kitchen floor. I checked on http://sears.com for a replacement... $550. Ouch!
Since I live near House of Louie's Bryant Street store and they had taken good care of me a few years back when I needed a new fridge, I decided to take a walk over there to see what was available.
I was immediately greeted by a nice young guy who turned out to be Paul Tan. Got to talking to him about my needs. They didn't really have any portables, and that got me looking at my need for a portable. The portable I had sat in one place for 10 years except for when it walked around the
room while doing the noisiest spin cycle you ever heard. I have the room for a full sized machine, and you really give up a lot and pay a premium price for those portables. Mine did a crappy job on the laundry even when it was working well, it was noisy, used lots of water, and only 2.1 cubic foot capacity.
We looked at full sized top loaders. Wow, lots more capacity and features for $350 in the full size machines. I told Paul that one of the things I hated about my little machine was that it frequently left soap scum marks on the twisted up laundry I took out of it.
We got to talking about the advantages of front loader machines... gentler, higher capacity, much better electrical efficiency and much more conservative use of water. Problem is, they are pretty pricey. He showed me one Frigidaire one that was list price $799. I gulped, too much money.
However, he said they bought a truckload of them, and the sale price was $668. On top of that, there is a $50 rebate from Frigidaire, and $200 in combined PG&E and Water rebates. That makes this $800 machine only a little over $400!
I wrote down the model number and told him I wanted to do some research. I walked back home (only about 3 blocks) and jumped on the 'net. This machine had great reviews everywhere I looked, and virtually everyone was selling it
for $799.
I went back and looked some more at House of Louie, and this was the best deal by far. All things considered, it would cost me significantly less than replacing my crappy portable one.
I bought it. They delivered it right on time Monday morning. It does an awesome job on the laundry, even removing stains that had been on some of my shirts for months. It's very quiet, uses almost no water and very little of the High Efficiency soap, and spins the stuff so dry that my little portable electric dryer can dry it in much less time using much less heat.
I posted this whole long story because people have given House of Louie some bad raps on this site, alleging you get better service if you speak Chinese. I am an old white guy, and they took GREAT care of me. I will go back next time I need something.
So there!
No one picks up the phone when you call and their website sucks.
Skip this place if you don't speak Chinese.
The refrigerator I wanted wasn't in stock, so they ordered it. They were supposed to call when it came, but a month went by and I hadn't heard from them. The woman who sold me the appliance hadn't filled out the order # and customer # so she couldn't find my invoice. She couldn't understand the spelling of my name, so it took a while to find the invoice. When she found the invoice she didn't know if it had arrived or not.
Contrary to what the first reviewer said about speaking Cantonese and getting great service, I found the staff to be extremely rude and money hungry. I was asked 10 times if I needed help, and when I said I am just looking, they walked away before I could finish my sentence. I can't say my father didn't warn me about this place. He had a bait and switch happen to him 20 years ago on an item he purchased at House of Louie, and he still holds a grudge.
five stars for house of louie! disclaimer: i cannot guarantee your service or experience if you don't speak chinese.
but here's what i do know: i walked into house of louie looking for a washer, dryer, and refrigerator, and i had the part numbers for each item. also, i'd looked up each item online through pricegrabber or nextag or whatever and found out the price range for each. armed with that information, i walked into house of louie to look around.
after about 15 minutes of strolling through their aisles, i plonked down with a salesman (a very nice, patient, but bumbling older gentleman, mr. wong) and gave him the part numbers - he went off, looked them up, and came back with prices. i was happy to see that all of them were as low as the lowest prices i found online. i placed the order, and a week later i got the call that everything was ready for delivery. and for a $59 local delivery fee, i got everything much faster and cheaper than going online. so i'm a happy camper.
but remember, i can't guarantee any of this to be your experience as well if you don't speak chinese. but if you need new appliances, it's worth a shot.
They were there when I needed a new fridge...it took them a while to get it to me but they were ok to deal with and I like that they are local people. The drag was when I ordered a mattress they said they had and took my money but then they called me two days later and said all they had was the floor model --grr. I ended up with it and now I really regret it...took me a really long time to get used to that thing.
I can see how so many of you may have had a not-so-pleasant experience at H.O.L. Clearly they're Chinese owned and the majority of their customers speak the language. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in there last weekend. I was expecting to be completely disregarded being that I don't speak Mandarin / Cantonese, but, no sooner did I enter the store than I was approached by Lee Wong, who in my opinion did an excellent job. Comparatively, Cherin's on Valencia was far less customer service focused. I initially went to Cherin's, but was disappointed by their complete lack of attention. By comparison Lee Wong at H.O.L was a lot better and he knew his stuff. I actually ended up going back there during the week to purchase another item. I recommend this establishment; ask for Lee Wong
