Valley Heating & Air Conditioning & Home Improvements Inc.

Review: a/c unit has had problems since I got it. First it did not cool the house well enough. Then it has had repeated leaks that have still not been fixed

When I first got the a/c unit, it did not cool the house nearly as well as my old unit, but I was assured that it was an "efficient" system that could not cool the house more than 20 degrees below the outside temperature. That means that when it got to 100 degrees outside which it does often in Sacramento, that it wouldn't cool the house below 80 degrees. That seemed absurd to me at the time since all of the my previous a/c unit could cool the house to whatever temperature I desired. Still, they were supposed to be the professionals so I naively believed them. For the past 7 years or more, the system has had chronic leaks in the refrigerant that have still not been fixed. They put in new Schrader valves, but now they ssy that the schrsder valves are no longer leaking but there is a new leak. To properly identify the leak would apparently cost me well over $1000 dollars. I told them that the system did not work well when I first got it and it has had nothing but problems ever since. I told them that I would be foolish to keep paying them when I have not been happy with their product or their service from the beginning. Desired Settlement: I would like Valley Heating and Air to fix the system at no charge to me since it has been a "lemon" from the very beginning.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

This person is trying to extort free services from our company by filing this complaint and attemting to tarnish our company name. This complaint is unjustified, erroneous and laughable.

First of all, we replaced this Heat/air unit over 11 YEARS AGO and this customer has NEVER DONE A SINGLE MAINTENANCE ON THIS SYSTEM as advised by both the manufacturer of the equipment and advised by our company as well. He has neglected his HVAC equipment and is now erroneous with the details in his complaint. He did develop refrigerant leaks at the adjustable valves (a very common leak area in HVAC equipment) and it was likely due to High heat and very possibly can be caused by dirty equipment, dirty filters, or poorly perfoming motors (any of these conditions could and would be discovered with a simple maintenance).

After the first year, this customer called us because he was getting some escalated utility bills. We came out FOR FREE and found a duct was coming off in the attic (we did not install this duct and it was original to the house). We repaired the duct at NO CHARGE as a customer service... this would normally be a chargeable repair. We also came out after the new equipment was installed for just over a year and did a FREE 1 year checkup... The results of that checkup was that the new equipment was working great! The airflow and temeratures from each of the vents were fine... No complaints noted!!!

We didn't hear anything from this customer for 3 years after that (4 years since equipment replacement). This was the first noted problem having to do with the equipment (4 YEARS after installation... not since it was new as the customer stated in his complaint). At that point we found that there was a leak at the schrader valves. We tightened the valves to get them to stop leaking (which they did) and charged him a nominal fee for a "minor AC repair". This fee was $150, which included the repair itself, the diagnostics, and the refill of the lost refrigerant. This is about 20% of what this would normally cost a homeowner as the valve tightening is not a "warranty issue" and is classified under "maintenance". Thats right, if he had done his maintenance as he should have then this leak would have been fixed before it even showed up as we tighten these valves when we perform routine maintenance. Either way, we decided to cover most of the cost of the repair ourselves in trying to provide good customer service and in hopes that he would use us in the future for his service needs. The very next year these valves leaked again and we went ahead and completely replaced the valves FOR FREE. Over a year later these new valves started to leak again and this time we were able to get them to stop leaking by tightening them again... AGAIN at NO CHARGE TO THE CUSTOMER. That lasted 2 years with no leaks... So in the first 7 1/2 years with not a sigle maintenance done he paid a total of $150 and we repaired and recharged the system 3 times... and now he is complaining about our service??????

The next time he called with "poor AC" we came out and sure enough, those valves were a problem again... This time we replaced the valves as tightening them was not an option and we charged him full price for the repairs as he had the system for many years and there was no warranty left on the system and he had still not done any of the recommended maintenance. We have explained to him about the importance of maintenance on different occaisions and how maintenance can prevent issues like the ones he is having but still not a single maintenance has been done...

It's now been 11 years since we installed the HVAC equipment and the last repair we have done for him was 3 years ago and we have not been to his house for anything since then.

We went out there last week as the customer was having cooling problems again. The valves that we have been repairing are NOT leaking and he now has a new different leak... It is going to expensive to repair the system as leaks can be very difficult to find and he needs to add quite a bit of refrigerant (which is very expensive now as well).

The problems that he has had since the start could likely have been prevented. We have done a substantial amount of work for free (unnecessarily) as a gesture of good customer service. He is now trying to tarnish our name in order to get his 11 YEAR OLD NEGLECTED system (which has just recently developed this new problem) repaired for free... It is an abuse of the Revdex.com's system. We feel like it is extortion and we will be doing absolutley nothing for this customer for free.

Consumer's Final Response

First of all, it is interesting that the word "extortion" was used since as a first time user of the Revdex.com, it could hardly be applied to me. However, it could certainly be applied to Valley Heating and Air, given that their prices appear to be at least double what I found with another company who only charge $79 per pound of refrigerant compared to $130 per pound not including a ridiculous $195 charging fee that is not a part of the other companies charges at all. In addition, the $320 stop leak charge does not compare favorably with the $125 fee for the same service. The $1400 quote for a "system isolation", is not even a part of the other companies vernacular. In addition, I did not have to go far back to find a check written to Valley Heating and Air for $664.95. if I had time to go further back, I am sure that I could find many more ill advised a/c expenses that could have been prevented by hiring a different company to get the job done right in the first place. I never expected them to fix the job for free, and I only thought they should have. I already hired a different company who took care of the problem at a small fraction of the quoted price.