Frequently Asked Questions

First of all, please be sure that the unit you’re calling about is a Wolf, Sub-Zero, or Cove brand appliance. As a premier partner of the Sub-Zero Group, we exclusively service those brands.

We use a phone number as your customer number, so if you’re a new customer emailing or leaving a voicemail to request a service call, please be sure to include the phone number you’d like us to use for that purpose. If we’ve done service calls or Pacific Distribution parts orders for you in the past, we will already have an account set up for you, and for efficient service, it’s great to be prepared with the phone number we use as your customer number, but if you’re not sure what number you might have used, we can also look you up by address or last name.

If we don’t already have your address or if we’ve made service calls for multiple addresses under your account, we’ll of course need to know the address where this service call will take place.

If at all possible, we will need the serial number of your appliance. This will give us information about everything from the unit’s model number to its warranty status and may even tell us something about its service history.

Every Wolf, Sub-Zero, and Cove unit has its own unique serial number. This identifies your appliance to us, confirms the appliance’s warranty status, and allows us to supply the correct parts for it.

The model number alone is not enough in many cases, because during the time a particular model of appliance is manufactured, individual parts used can change slightly, leading to what are known as serial number breaks.

Example: for an R304 range starting with serial #11065763 and higher, the spider grate would be part #811561, but for a range of the same model with a serial number prior to that, the spider grate would be part #815529.

You should be able to find your serial number on a permanent sticker affixed to your appliance, and it may also be on your bill of sale and/or other paperwork you received with your appliance.

Please don’t remove the serial tag from your appliance! You might need the serial number fifteen years from now and be unable to find the bill of sale at that time, or the new owner may need to look for it if you sell your home in the future.

The location of your appliance’s serial tag can vary depending on the type and model number.

Sub-Zero

For Sub-Zero refrigerators and freezers, the serial tag is often inside the door frame at the top near the hinge, inside or near the middle drawer opposite the hinge, or inside the top freezer drawer. For undercounter refrigeration, look inside the upper left corner of the cabinet.

For wine storage units, the serial tag may be on the underside of the control panel, on the inside wall of the unit just below the control panel, or on the ceiling of the upper compartment.

Ice machine serial tags should be on the upper left corner of the ice storage bin at the back of the unit.

Wolf

For Wolf built-in ovens, viewed with the oven door open, the serial tag should be underneath the control panel on the right side or on the left side or bottom left of the front face frame.

Microwave ovens, viewed with the door open, should have a serial tag in the lower left area of the front face frame, except for drawer-style microwave ovens which will have a serial tag in the bottom of the oven cavity.

Warming drawers, viewed with the drawer open, should have a serial tag on the left front floor area of the inner cabinet. For cup warming drawers, also viewed with the drawer open, the serial tag should be on the right side of the control panel.

Most ranges, both gas (GR models) and dual fuel (DF models), should have a serial tag on the underside of the control panel, on the right side. However, some gas ranges (R models) have the serial tag underneath the left burner pan — remove the burner grates, burner rings, and the left burner pan to see the serial tag on the left side wall of the burner box.

Serial numbers on cooktops, rangetops, and integrated modules may be hard to find as these often have the serial tag on the underside of the unit. If you have cupboard doors or removable drawers underneath, you may be able to look for the serial tag, but otherwise a technician may need to help you find it. RT model gas rangetops have the serial tag underneath the left burner pan — remove the burner grates, burner rings, and the left burner pan to see the serial tag on the left side wall of the burner box.

The serial tag on an outdoor grill will be above the drip tray, behind the logo. You will need to remove the drip tray to locate it. For outdoor modules, the serial tag should be on the underside of the control panel.

For ventilation hoods, the serial tag can be found under the left side of the hood above the filters; you will need to remove the filters to locate it. For the Pro ventilation line, it should be inside the left wall of the hood shell. For downdraft ventilation, the serial tag should be next to the blower housing on the front side of the downdraft, below the countertop, which unfortunately may not be accessible without the help of a technician.

Cove

With the door open, you will find your Cove dishwasher’s serial tag inside the door frame of the unit on the left side.

If the serial tag is missing, it’s possible someone in the past decided to remove it as unsightly or unnecessary (a very bad idea). It’s also possible that you are in possession of an appliance that was scrapped, since serial tags are removed if that occurs.

The following guides are available as downloadable PDFs to help you find your serial tag locations:

• Sub-Zero Serial Tag & Product Rating Guide
• Wolf Serial Tag & Product Rating Guide

Our technicians arrange their own schedules based on the calls they have each day, arranging the destinations geographically so that they can move efficiently through their service area.

With emergencies, cancellations, and other short-notice factors involved, our technicians’ schedules are often changing and changing again right up until the day of service. Your technician will phone you on the morning of your service day (usually between 9 – 9:30 AM) to confirm what time they expect to arrive.

Even on the day of service, it’s not possible to know exactly how long each service call will take, which is why we give you a two-hour estimated arrival window rather than an exact arrival time.

If there’s anything you’d like your technician to know about your availability and needs on your service day, we can include that information in the call dispatch. Examples include a preference for morning or afternoon, a meeting or class time during which you can’t be interrupted, or a time before or after which you won’t be available. We can’t guarantee that the technician will be able to accommodate every request, but they do their best.

If the appliance is under full warranty and the rental property is occupied by a tenant, the tenant can contact us directly to book the service call. All we need is proof of warranty. If the appliance is registered with Sub-Zero, its serial number alone carries proof of warranty, but if the appliance was not registered or incompletely registered, the owner can call Sub-Zero at 1-800-222-7820 to complete the registration OR provide us with an appliance bill of sale or new building occupancy permit as proof of the installation date.

If the appliance is under full warranty and the rental property is unoccupied or in transition between tenants, the owner or property manager should call us to book the appointment at a time when they or their representative can be present. Again, proof of warranty will be necessary.

If the appliance is no longer under warranty or is under limited warranty and the rental property is occupied by a tenant, the owner or property manager (whoever is paying for the service) will need to call us first to set up the service call. At that point, we can call the tenant directly to book a time for the service. We will need a credit card number on file in advance if the owner or property manager will not be present to make payment at the time of service.

If the appliance is no longer under warranty or is under limited warranty and the rental property is unoccupied or in transition between tenants, the owner or property manager will need to book the appointment at a time when they or their representative can be present. If the person present for the service call won’t be making payment, we will need a credit card on file in advance.

The minimum service call fee covers the technician’s trip to the service location (within our service area) and the first 15 minutes of service time.

This is usually enough time for the technician to diagnose the issue and give an assessment of what would be involved in terms of additional labour and parts to resolve it.

After that, additional labour is charged in 15-minute blocks, and parts are charged according to the parts price list. If you wish, you can request a written quote before the technician proceeds with a bigger job.

If two technicians are required on site together, the minimum service call fee will be charged for each technician involved.

Please contact us to inquire about our current rates.

Unfortunately, due to the current high cost of vehicle fuel, we have been obliged to add a minimal surcharge to help offset this increased expense of getting your technician to your destination to provide service. We hope this will be a temporary increase, which is why we are adding it as a separate invoice line rather than raising our minimum service call fee.

No. The minimum service call fee is per technician, not per trip, and covers however many trips are needed to complete the service call. You are only charged for labour time on site during additional trips.

If we need to send a different technician on a subsequent trip due to scheduling issues or a specialized skillset, we are still only sending one technician at a time, so you would not be charged a second minimum service call fee.

Yes. If the technician is talking to you about your appliance, he is doing his job, and therefore gets paid for it. You are of course welcome to ask questions, but please understand that in doing so, you are consulting a professional, not making idle conversation.

We recommend not distracting your technician while he is working, so he can concentrate on completing the job efficiently.

No, there is no charge or penalty if you change your mind about needing a service call. We appreciate the earliest possible notice if you decide that you don’t need a service call so we can allocate that time slot to another customer.

Please note that we may need to charge a non-refundable deposit before ordering certain specially manufactured and non-returnable parts from the factory.

We welcome payments by e-transfer, credit card, cheque, or cash. When booking, please let the customer service team know which payment method(s) you’d prefer to use.

If the person on-site to admit the technician during the service call is not responsible for payment (e.g., a tenant, housekeeper, or concierge), we will need a valid credit card on file in advance.

We accept all major credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.

Step 1. Check the time

Before 9:30 AM — your technician may not have contacted you yet. Our technicians typically reach out to their day’s customers between 9 – 9:30 AM, so if it’s earlier than this, please be patient and your technician should be calling you shortly.

After 9:45 AM — by this time, you should have been contacted by your technician.

Step 2. Check your messages

Is it possible you missed a phone call or text from your technician? Please check your messages to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

Step 3. Call us

If it’s after 9:45 AM and you don’t have any voicemail or text messages from your technician, please call our customer service team at 604-941-6199 so we can confirm that you’re on the day’s schedule and coordinate with your technician to get you an estimated arrival window.

We recommend calling as soon as possible once you’ve determined that you’ve reached step 3. If you wait until later in the day before calling, it could be too late to complete your service call.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to diagnose appliance issues over the phone. While it’s sometimes possible to guess at possible causes, there’s no way to be certain without a site visit.

If you have reasonable schedule flexibility (that is, you could rearrange your schedule to accommodate a service call if an opening were to become available), we can add you to our cancellation list.

When a technician has availability open up due to a cancellation or a rescheduled call, we look at the cancellation list to fill that spot.

The cancellation list is prioritized first by urgency, then by length of wait time. Please understand that we will call customers with life-impacting issues (such as their only fridge not cooling) first whenever possible.

When we call you from the cancellation list to offer a day that has opened up, we can’t hold the spot until we hear back from you. We will keep calling down the list and whoever answers or calls back first will get the newly available opening.