James River Air Conditioning

In February, 2016 we had our first experience with James River Air for plumbing work. Our representative, Matt S., was outstanding. He gave us logical options to our plumbing situation. I was so impressed with his professionalism, we got on Matt's schedule for the work. He did an outstanding job. We fully intend to go back to James River Air for our next plumbing adventure and we will request Matt S. We have been customers of James River Air for a few years as they changed out our heating/ac system and did an outstanding job. Note - they have a lot of female reps who are excellent!

Scott M[redacted] serviced my James River Select heat pump today (2-22-2016), and was very professional. He performed the semi-annual service assessment, kept me apprised throughout the process, answered all questions, and afforded me an opportunity to enhance my coverage. He called ahead, was prompt, efficient and once again I am pleased with the service of James River Air Conditioning. As a customer, you couldn't ask for better service than Scott provided today.

Review: This review is about the [redacted] service group of James River. I purchased a service agreement with them this spring. This issue occurred during their second service call, last month.

James River send a technician to our home for our fall service call. We have a natural gas furnace with forced air.

My wife was home for the service call and showed the technician our furnace. After some time, the technician told her he needed to call his field supervisor to the house. After the field supervisor joined him, my wife was told to keep our furnace off, and was asked to sign a form acknowledging that it had been “red-tagged,” meaning that James River doesn’t consider it safe to operate. She was told that the issue was a cracked heat exchanger. This would mean that exhaust from the burning gas could escape into the house air, presenting carbon monoxide risk to us in the house. Following this, my wife was given a quote for a new furnace, given that this one was no longer safe to operate.

In the five days following this service call, we replaced our carbon monoxide detectors and have had no alarms. We also had TWO OTHER [redacted] COMPANIES come to our home. Each of them first inspected the furnace and had no major feedback – then, when asked to specifically look at the heat exchanger, both these companies did not find any cracks in the heat exchanger.

At my request, James River returned to our home. They sent the same technician. I asked him to show me the issue that caused him to red-tag my furnace. He took the cover off and shined his flashlight through a small hole, and asked, “can you see anything in there?” Of course, I couldn’t.

I told him to remove the blower, as he had during his first service call. He told me it was a pain. I asked him to remove the blower. As he did so, he told me that:

- “I can’t say I’ve never been wrong about anything”

- “I’d always rather be better safe than sorry – can’t imagine if it was my family”

- “They just make us red-tag them for liability reasons”

These all sounded like backpedalling to me.

He asked me whether I’d turned the furnace back on, and I told him yes. He said, “Yes, that’s what I advised your wife, that we just have to red-tag it for liability, but you could probably turn it back on.” This statement doesn’t make sense if you truly believe CO is leaking into my home.

After removing the blower, the technician looked at the heat exchanger and made more comments to the effect of “cracks are hard to see.” When I got under there, I took a flashlight and visibly inspected the tubes. I took photos from multiple angles. I ran my hands along the tubes. I am not an [redacted] tech – but I neither felt nor saw any cracks in these steel tubes that make up the heat exchanger.

At no point did this technician tell me which tube had the crack or where along a tube a crack might be located. At no point did he offer to perform any other kind of inspection (there exist various other tests, like cameras and smoke tests). At no point did he offer to remove the heat exchanger to show me the problem.

When I showed this technician one of the photos I took on my cellphone, I pointed to a random spot on a tube in the photo. “Right here, right?” I prompted; he responded, “That’s one of the worse ones.” This is a tube that I saw and touched for myself and did not have any cracks in it.

All of these things make me conclude that James River AC used scare tactics to try to trick me into purchasing a new furnace from them even as mine is operating normally. They tried to take advantage of me, and I truly believe they outright lied to me.Desired Settlement: 1) A letter stating that my furnace is in proper working order and that my heat exchanger is not cracked, since all evidence points to this.

2) A refund of $105, which represents half a year of service agreement service. I received good service the first half of this year, but this incident occurred during the second half of the year.

Business

Response:

Revdex.com Case #[redacted] - James River Air Conditioning Co., Inc.[redacted], We are in the process of contacting client to send a senior manager over to inspect the heat exchanger for a crack. Once inspected, we will be refunding the maintence fees requested. Thank you, [redacted]Assistant to [redacted]James River Air Conditioning

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I want a third party to inspect my heat exchanger, not James River. I propose that the Revdex.com choose the contractor to inspect my heat exchanger.

Regards,

$221 to replace a dryer door latch seems to be way too high, especially for an established, long time customer. The tech merely pulled 2 screws, replaced the 2 screws. 15 minutes of work and he didn't have the correct replacement part, he took it from the existing door.

I would recommend James River Air Conditioning, they are always on time and very nice. I had problems with my unit that is just a little over a year old. They came out and it was a manufacturing problem, that was going to cost quite a bit to fix, but Brian C. called his boss Tom and they waived the fee, I just had to pay the service fee of $98.00. I also use them for plumbing problems this past winter. Only thing I would warn about is the Lenox Unit, not sure of model number, but there is another manufacturing problem with this unit.

To say that my attempted employment with JRA was lacking would be an understatement. I was told that JRA would be holding classes strictly for women who were interested in getting into the HVAC field. I took these classes with the knowledge confirmed by the HR department and another supervisor that this class would help us get trained in learning the basics of HVAC. Upon the end of the class, we then told that there were only two positions available and that we would be interviewing. I was taken aback because this information was with held from us. During the interview process, the fact that I had a bachelor's degree was sneered upon and I was asked "with all this education behind you, why would you want to get into HVAC?" Since when did an abundance of education make a person unqualified especially when this is what people are looking for today.
When I received my rejection email, I was informed that I had applied for another position entirely, Residential Service Technicians which was not at all what I had been told that the class was going to prep us for. Why would I apply for an advanced position when I just completed the basic course to be a helper with a Preventative Maintenance Technician, wherein I was told that I would need two months experience before taking the test to become refrigerant certified. I replied with an email back and have yet to hear back from JRA.
Such practices are incoherent at best and manipulative at worst.

Great customer service! They have worked hard to please me and squeeze more life out of my ageing system that was maybe too complex before its time. But they have stuck with me on issues thru the years with a veteran tech who has become a friend. They even lent me a window AC to survive those few hot days one summer! They were smart to recognize the importance of making sure the condensate drain pan drains properly for something had happened and mine was not. Standing condensate water leads to nothing good and they fixed it. You might think a big company like this might always be trying to push a new system but that was NOT my experience. They listen to customers concerns and hopes for their systems. That is my experience.

Review: Back in 2000, we purchased a supposedly new heating and A/C unto from James River. After numerous service calls to repair the system (and a letter to you all), it was discovered that some work that was supposed to be done was in fact not done (a chimney liner was to be installed, along with a chimney cap, and insultating the duct work). In 2003, I was sent a letter stating that the work would be done at not cost to me, which I was very pleased to hear. However, I just found out yesterday, that the work was actually never done (only a chimney cap was installed). Now, I am having to pay AGAIN, for a service I paid for once and was assured it would be fixed.Desired Settlement: I want James River to pay me whatever I invested in this supposedly new heating and A/C system, since they can not seem to get it done and lied about it.

Business

Response:

We were already on it.

Mike J[redacted] did a great job. I am not happy with the charge but have heat.

I recently had the units in my house serviced by Gus D[redacted] of James River Air. Gus was personable, professional, and thorough with his work. He indicated other services being offered by James River Air such as plumbing, electrical work, and installation of surge protectors. I found his attention to detail to be excellent.

Although while on the James River A C website I only saw the picture of one of the men who attended the installation of HVAC equipment at my residence. In addition to that gentleman there were two other men brothers Adam and Doug M[redacted] who did an outstanding job of installing the equipment at my residence. They showed up as scheduled and worked very diligently to complete the job not taking any shortcuts or skimping on workmanship. They kept me totally informed as to what they were doing and at times sought my input on where some things had to be placed. All in all they should be commended for their work ethic.

The service provider from James River, Fred K[redacted], spent considerable time with us showing us how we could improve the air conditioning in one of our rooms. He was knowledgeable, patient, and well spoken.

Review: On 6-26-15 I had a scheduled visit on my LG mini split unit that wasn't cooling and instead was making an unfamiliar noise at the outdoor unit. I was contacted by the service tech while he was enroute to my home. I gave him the background on my unit. (make, model and problem) He told me that he didn't have his gauge adapters with him for this unit but still wanted to come and check it. He came and listened to the unit run and left me a bill for $98.00 and said he would schedule another visit when he had his gauges from his garage. He came back on 7-1-15 with his gauges and told me the unit was pulling it self into a vacuum. He stated he talked with LG tech support for a long time and determined that all the sensors were bad on the pipes/valves. He stated his supervisor would be in touch with a price to replace all the sensors and left me a $234.00 bill . After waiting a week and not hearing from James River I called and spoke with the service supervisor who told me that he would have the service tech. call me. Service tech. called and told me that it would be $600.00+ to replace all the sensors. I told him I would call him back. After work that same day I called LG tech support. I told them what the service tech said and was asked for my units serial number. They always track all info using the units serial number. They had NO information for anyone calling about my unit. I was transferred to a LG service tech who in about 15 min had me ohm out all the sensors. (which ohm'd out GOOD) and diagnosed my unit with a bad expansion valve solenoid using my meter we verified the coil was bad. I ordered the parts from another vendor and had another company put the parts on. Unit works great now. On 11-8-15 I sent a complaint email to the owner, Hugh Joyce who responded the same day and said they would be in touch first thing Monday morning. To this day I have never been contacted by anyone at James River about my complaint. I have copies of all correspondence emails.Desired Settlement: I feel the I was not provided adequate service. The service tech should not have came to my house the first time knowing he did not have the proper gauges and bill me $98.00. Secondly, He came again and diagnosed my unit grossly incorrect and almost cost me a lot more money but still left me a second bill for $ 234.00

I contacted the owner who assured me he would be in contact the very next day. Its been 13 days and I haven't heard anything from the owner.

For informational purposes, the reason I waited to file a complaint is because the solenoid was on back order and I wanted to verify the unit was fixed with the $55.00 part that another company put on.

I feel James River should refund me for both visits in the amount of $332.00

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted] I apologize for the problems that you have experience. Our GM had

requested a refund for you after you earlier letter as well as a follow up

call, unfortunately that did not happen. We are immediately refunding your

moneys spent with James River. I also wanted to take a moment to explain what happened with the

HVAC equipment in your garage, from our perspective. As you are

aware, working on this unit yourself and replacing parts prior to you placing

the call with James River, these are complex machines and each has there

own characteristics. Each year the manufacturer makes

intricate changes that have to be kept up with in the service

department. On 7/1/15 while we were working on the garage unit we contacted LG at

1-888-865-3026 and talked to Chris at LG, case # [redacted] (all

on our phone records and LG records). Mod# [redacted] ser#

[redacted]. At this point we followed directions from the manufacturer

. We had spent 3 3/4 Hours on site per the phone records with LG and our global

position system on our truck. We called back that week and left

messages. You were on vacation per Van Blick (our service

tech). Approximately one week later you called back and were given

the quote to replace 3 sensors on 7/9/15 . At this point we didn't communicate until the e-mail was sent Nov 8th. I

apologize once more that we didn't get the problem resolved and am giving

you a full refund for $332.00. You will find the check in your front door

when you arrive at home today. [redacted] James River Air Conditioning, Co.

Mike J[redacted] was the service representative who came. Our heatpump had completely stopped working. He identified the problem quickly, and replaced the thermostat. Mike is extreamly professional and knowledgeable about the mechanics and technology involved in today's heating/cooling systems.

Mike was punctual, respectful, knowledgeable and very helpful. He is a fine representative of his company. I'll request him whenever I need service in the future.