LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Dozens of people were scammed by the owner of a Louisville appliance repair company, but since a WDRB Investigates story in June highlighted the scheme, Chris Smith has paid several of the victims back.
Smith, also known as Christian Skyfire, has closed his appliance repair business, which he called both Skyfire Appliance Repair and Appliance Repair Lou.
One of the victims, the Bibelhauser family, hired Smith to fix their broken stove. A year after they reached out, it still hasn’t been fixed, and Smith wouldn’t return their calls.
But within the last few months, the Bibelhausers said Smith paid them back the full $475.
“I appreciate you doing the story,” Jeanne Bibelhauser said. “I’m sure we wouldn’t have ever heard from him again.”
Another woman said Smith just paid her mom back $150 that he charged for appliance repairs that were never fixed.
Many others who have sought help get their money back have received small payments from Smith and said he apologized to them. But some others said they still haven’t heard from him.
“He got us too,” one woman named Pam said. “Our LG fridge went out this past July, and he was referred to us by another company, because a lot of companies around town won’t work on LG refrigerators. He called his company Appliance Repair Louisville then. He came out and said he had to replace the compressor. He also said he had one on his truck. Long story short, the compressor he had on his truck was a Panasonic and was for chest freezers.
“He cut the connector and hard-wired the compressor so it constantly runs. The freezer part of our fridge still won’t freeze, but he never would return our calls. The LG repairman said the refrigerator was dangerous because of the way it’s wired. Chris Smith charged us $1,099, and we found out from Sears it was actually still in warranty and we wouldn’t have had to pay near that much.”
Greg Burton, from Sellersburg, Indiana, tells a similar story.
“Smith came to my home on Dec. 28, 2020, to look at a refrigerator that was not cooling, and the freezer not even getting cool,” Burton said. “He diagnosed the problem as a faulty board and charged me $540.60 to repair it. I paid him half, and he came back a week later, Jan. 5, 2021, at which time I paid him the other half.
“Of course, the refrigerator was not working correctly when he left, but he told me I needed to give it 24 hours before all the electronics were in sync,” Burton added. “Through numerous attempts at contacting him, either he never showed up at the promised time, or he simply did not answer the phone. He simply lied constantly. Finally, he promised to send me a refund, which of course never arrived.”
Burton said after talking to Smith, they’re all “squared away” now.
“I am working 16 hours a day to try and repay everyone,” Smith said.
Smith was also a former wrestler also known as Dub C and Johnny Homeless and then turned to appliance repair. Smith originally agreed to an interview to this story but later made excuses and stopped returning messages.
If you have information about this story or any story you think our WDRB Investigates Team should look into, you can email us at investigate@wdrb.com or call 502-322-1297.
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