michael g.
Yelp
In short, I took my expresso machine to him for repair. I told him that it was either the electronics board or the pump. When dropping off the machine I asked him if he had an electronics professional on staff and he said he didn't. (I should have walked out at that point but I didn't.) He charged me a $35.00 drop off fee and I left. He called me a few weeks later and told me that he was not able to repair the machine. When I asked him what the issue was, he stated that the problem was with the electronics board and there was nothing wrong with the pump. (Parenthetically, I'm thinking the following: he doesn't have an electronics professional on staff but he was able to conclude that it was the board that was the issue. Are you with me on this so far?). So I drove out from Arlington to pick up my machine, which is an hour round trip and of course the fee on the green highway, the gas and my time. This is my second round trip along with the associated personal costs. Here's where everything falls apart. I begin contacting espresso repair shops nationwide and someone says to me, buy x, y, z pump from us and if it works, great, if it doesn't you can return it. Guess what? It was the pump that was bad and now my machine works. You can draw your own conclusions from what transpired but there's no other conclusion. The owner is a deceitful business owner or a moron. Take your pick. When I wrote my first honest review here on yelp, he saw it and responded with something that had nothing to do with our transaction and Yelp pulled my review and said I'd need more detail on my review. He did, however, refund my $35.00 fee but not my time, gas or highway fees. So here I am again letting people know about this guy, Tom Fasolo, and his company, Potomac Coffee Company. My bottom line review is this guy only knows how to pull components out of certain types of espresso machines and replaces parts until he replaces the right part that makes the machine work. How else could he be in business without an electronics professional. In addition, when I dropped off my espresso machine, I also dropped off a bean grinder that stopped working. His comment about not repairing my grinder was that he couldn't figure out how to take it apart. Yea, you read that right. Yelp, if you delete my review again, I'll never use you again for anything.
Note: This is the second time I've posted this story about this guy because Yelp asked me to be more specific about what transpired. Interestingly enough, the owner responded to my first posting with a bunch of garbage that he invented and that never occurred. So I suspect he'll do the same with this posting. He is obviously a very sick puppy.
Pro trump anti masker? This guy is a bonafide nut case.