I received the Karcher K3.91 electric pressuer washer as a Christmas gift - 2006. After approximately 4 hours of use it developed a significant water leak from within the sealed outer shell. To remove the shell would void the warranty, so I followed their instructions and applied for their "Rapid Exchange" program. The essence of the program was sound; however, the application of the program was a nightmare. First of all, customers are dealing with a very polite but ill-informed offshore call center located in The Phillipines. They made the necesary arrangements to have a remanufactured replacement sent to me in exchange for the original unit. This aspect of Karcher's service worked as planned. Unfortunately, the replacement machine was defective with a broken ON-OFF switch. I sent it back immediately. Start the process again, including a credit card guarantee. Replacement machine # 2 was shipped to me in about a week, and yes, this machine was also defective with a broken ON-OFF switch and a broken pressure water valve that created a huge flooding situation from the interior of the machine. I packed up the original machine and returned it to Karcher. Again, I made a call to The Phillipines and ran through the entire procedure again, including the credit card guarantee. Five days later I received replacement machine # 3. As soon as I opened the box, I noticed that the remanufactured Karcher model K3.91 was missing an ON-OFF switch, an inlet water valve and an outlet high pressure water valve. Now I am starting to get angry. This time, my new friends from Manila referred me to a tech support person named Shanique (located in NY), who was absurdly uncooperative and non-sympathetic. She was unhappy that the offshore call center transferred me over. She referred me back to the girls in Manila. They were more than happy to run me through their "Rapid Exchange program again...just give us your credit card information, please.

Enough is enough already! This company (Alfred Karcher, Inc.) is real cute. They do not publish any stateside address, phone numbers, contact lists or customer service remedies other than their offshore call center. When I asked for a corporate contact, I was curtly told that their email address and telephone contact list is not available to the general public. That, in itself, speaks volumes about the character of the decisionmakers at Karcher. If nothing else, I am persistant. I was able to track down Karcher's 'unpublished' contact information through normal internet cross-searching. When I telephoned them??? Of course, no one answered their phone. Surprise, surprise.

Now the good news. I went back to original retailer, Sam's Club with my well-documented dealing history with Karcher. Even with an inoperative, remanufactured pressure washer with a different serial number, Sam's Club issued me a full refund of the product. Case finally closed.

Goodbye Karcher! You have lost my business forever. Now, I would gladly forward my complaint to Mr Joseph Jones, CEO at Alfred Karcher, Inc., unfortunately, the company has a policy of not divulging their email contact list. I guess their mission statement begins with the heading "Out of Site-Out of mind".