Forest Appliance Services

The same Townsend shop that sells you the washer is the one that comes back to fix it — and that pairing is what customers keep writing about. When a dryer starts grinding or a refrigerator quits, Forest Appliance Services is the name neighbors in Shirley, Pepperell and Fitchburg passed around in Nextdoor threads this May. The storefront is at 260 Main Street, and the Better Business Bureau lists the shop under major appliances — washers and dryers, stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, cooktops and ovens — with an A+ grade. Across 94 Google ratings the average is 4.5, and on the repair side one name keeps coming up: Derek. Four reviewers write about him — returning calls quickly, arriving the next day inside the scheduled window in a February 2024 account, explaining what had gone wrong with a washer in a July 2024 one. In a March 2024 review a customer said a washing-machine repair from the month before had failed; the shop came back out, charged nothing for the second service call, and traced the fault to the main board. A July 2023 reviewer whose machine broke down on a holiday said John, the owner, called back that same evening. The selling side moves quickly, and the old unit leaves with them. A June 2026 buyer had a dishwasher and gas range installed within a couple of days in an older house with very tight fits. In July 2025 a customer came home from vacation to a beeping refrigerator with everything inside lost, walked into the store that morning, and Tammy showed them a comparable replacement; a 2022 customer's dead washer was hauled away, the new one installed, and the floor vacuumed before it went in. Three reviewers took issue with what a service call costs before anything is fixed: a $145 bill after the repair person was at the house five minutes (February 2025), $135 to travel to a house in the same town plus $100 an hour to troubleshoot a washer (July 2024), and $119 for ten minutes and a recommendation to buy new (April 2022). Two people writing in 2022 described rude treatment, one on the phone and one from the technician who came out. An August 2024 buyer said the hood fan they ordered had silicone painted over it and was peeling, and was not new; a property manager wrote in August 2021 that after three days of calls they were told John would not come to their rental property. For a household around Townsend replacing an appliance outright, this is a simple call — they stock it, deliver it, install it, and the old one goes with them. For a repair visit, settle the trip charge and the hourly rate on the phone before the truck rolls; that is where the unhappy reviews start.