Maine Thrive Insights — Companion Insight | Maine Thrive Voices Podcast | Episode 9 | Guest: Chris Mendoza, The Appliance Doctor

Chris Mendoza's life changed with a piece of mail.

He was living on Long Island, working in retail, engaged to be married. Then an envelope arrived from Maine — a hand-written letter from his grandfather Jack, who had run The Appliance Doctor in the greater Bangor area for thirty-six years and believed his grandson was the right person to carry it forward.

Chris and his fiancée Dorothy opened it together. They read it together. And together, they took the leap.

“We had a lot of trust in my grandfather,” Chris says. “I think it was a good move for us.”

In Episode 9 of Maine Thrive Voices, Chris sits down with host Sandy Smith to talk about the letter, the man who wrote it, and the business that still answers the same phone number Jack answered decades ago.

Learning From a Man Who Could Diagnose by Ear

Chris had ridden along with Jack as a kid, tinkering with appliances on visits, taking things apart and putting them back together. But when he made the full move north in 2016, the reality hit: retail was a different world, and everything about the trade was new. Where do I start? How do I begin?

Jack slowed things down. They worked side by side, and Chris watched his grandfather do something that still amazes him — listen to a machine and name the problem before a single panel came off.

“I'm like, how do you know that? And he's just like, watch. And sure enough, I'd take it apart and that's what it was.”

The teaching ran both ways. Jack trained Chris on the older machines; Chris trained Jack on the newer ones — occasionally pulling something apart and asking the manufacturers of the world, why couldn't they just keep it simple? Even after Jack moved to Florida, he was a phone call away, checklist in hand: Did you check this? Did you check this? Did you check this?

Carrying a Legacy Through Kitchen Doors

They got about three years together in the business. Jack moved to Florida around the turn of 2019 and passed away that October.

“It made the car rides a little more lonely,” Chris says. “I'm out on the road all day, so it's just me, myself, and I — and he was definitely a person that I spoke to every single day.”

But the loss also sharpened his appreciation for what Jack had built: the foundation, the reputation, the legacy. Chris still walks into homes across the Bangor region where customers remember Jack by name. Oh man, he was such a nice guy. Every one of those conversations is proof that his grandfather treated people right — and a standard to live up to.

From Long Island to the County Line

Chris is honest about the move: coming from Long Island, New York, the transition to Maine was genuine culture shock. The pace, the people, the quiet — all of it different. But somewhere between the service calls and the seasons, it stopped feeling like the place he moved to and started feeling like home. Bangor is where he and Dorothy built their life, and it's where they intend to keep building it.

Kind, Honest Service — Starting With the First Phone Call

Appliance repair is a trust business. Nobody thinks about it until something breaks, and then a stranger is standing in your kitchen. Chris's answer to that is simple: make people comfortable, and be upfront and honest from the first hello — greet people properly, explain what's happening, and be willing to show and teach rather than mystify.

That's not marketing language. It's his stated personal mission: deliver kind, honest service on every call. And yes — The Appliance Doctor is dog friendly. In this corner of Maine, that matters.

What Breaks Most in Maine Homes — and How to Get Ahead of It

Asked which appliance gives Maine homeowners the most trouble, Chris says the calls come in waves — but two categories lead the pack: laundry units, especially in homes on well water, and refrigerators.

One culprit he sees constantly: pet hair. Sandy knows this one from personal experience — Chris has serviced the Smith family's LG front-load washer, where pet hair had clogged the pump. His prevention advice is the kind of thing most homeowners never hear: clean the filter regularly, and run a periodic deep-clean routine to keep the machine healthy. His comparison lands: you wouldn't skip oil changes on your car, so don't skip maintenance on the machine that washes your clothes every week.

The Real MVP

Ask Chris about Dorothy — the fiancée who read the letter with him, now his wife — and the answer comes without hesitation.

“She's my best friend. She's the real MVP. We built this from the ground up together, and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anybody else.”

Don't Throw It Away

Before the conversation ends, Chris makes one ask of listeners — and it has nothing to do with hiring him. We're becoming a throwaway society, he says, and a lot of the appliances headed for the landfill are still good machines, or easily repairable ones. His suggestion: before you haul it to the dump, list it on Facebook Marketplace. Someone out there can use it, fix it, or give it a second life.

It's the kind of advice that costs him business and he gives it anyway. That tells you most of what you need to know about Chris Mendoza.

The Number That Never Changed

When Sandy asks for the best way to reach him, Chris laughs that he wishes he had a jingle. He doesn't need one. The number is 207-327-1000 — a Hudson-Bradford exchange, the same line his grandfather answered, the business number for as long as Chris can remember.

Some businesses rebrand. Some relocate. The Appliance Doctor just keeps answering the phone — the same way, on the same number, one generation to the next.

Maine Thrive Voices is produced by Smith Digital Solutions, LLC — Maine's Visibility Consultant. Get Found. Get Calls. Get Paid.