W.F. Smith, Inc.

This past week our home heater went out We called a few contractors and Dave Smith and his team could not have been more responsive He came to the home on Monday made the agreement and our new unit was installed on Thursday in hours The crew was excellent very professional I would highly recommend WFSMITH for HVAC needs

Review: I purchased a 7000.00 furnace/air conditioning unit from w.f. smith in july 2010. Two years later the unit wasn't working in May 2012 at which time it was found that the coolant was low. The bill was 142.50. It was filled with fre-on and a year later in May 2013 the unit wasn't working again. A tech came out and coolant was low and I was told that there's probably a small leak. I had to pay 110.700 for that service call. They came back out in July and the coolant was low again. I was told that it would cost anywhere between 200.00 and 300.00 on their time to find the leak. So basically when the unit was 2 years old there was a leak which is unacceptable for the kind of money I paid. I contacted the Product Company-[redacted] and was told the leak would be covered under the warranty once it was found. I told W.F. Smith that I shouldn't have to pay for labor for them to find a leak that should have never happened. [redacted] told me that the unit may have been improperly installed and sealed from the very beginning when it was installed. W.F. Smith will not come out and find the leak without me paying for labor. I have spent close to 20,000 on services with this company over the past 20 years and I feel that they should honor the contract and not charge me for finding the leak. I sent a letter of complaint to them on July 2, 2013 and never received a response back. My original phone call in May of this year I was told by the lady working the phones "Sorry, things are made the way they used to. Get used to it" I spent a lot of money for this unit and they need to stand behind it.Desired Settlement: I want them to find the leak at no charge to me. Submit a bill to [redacted] for the parts which will be covered under the warranty.

Business

Response:

To whom it

may concern,

I am sorry

to hear about the homeowner’s dissatisfaction with our company. The system we installed came with 10 years

parts and 1 year labor warranty. In the

three return visits since the installation in 2010, none of which were within

the 1 year labor warranty period, our technicians found the system slightly low

on refrigerant and added one pound each time.

The first technician (the call in 2012) did not charge the customer for

the refrigerant, only for the time he spent on site identifying a block filter

and tripped high pressure switch and then identifying the low refrigerant charge. The second technician charged for his time

and the refrigerant. The third technician’s

entire call was free – no labor or refrigerant cost to the homeowner. At this point, a leak search was recommended

but the homeowner refused to pay for it.

The

homeowner claims that all we need to do is find the leak and submit the costs

to repair to [redacted] for reimbursement under warranty, but that is simply not

the case. There are two possible

outcomes of the leak search:

1. The leak is in the equipment, in which case

[redacted] would typically only pay for a replacement part, not the labor

for the leak search, the labor for the repair, or the refrigerant (although we

would try our best to get additional money from them on behalf of the homeowner

if it is clearly a failure of their equipment).

2. The leak is in the refrigerant lines outside

the equipment, in which case [redacted] would not pay anything.

We cannot

agree to do the leak search for free as no one will reimburse us for the costs

and we've already gone above and beyond with the homeowner providing free

refrigerant and labor outside of the warranty.

The customer says we should “honor the contract” but we did honor it

(installed the specified equipment and provided 1 year labor warranty). The customer insinuates that the problem is

due to poor installation, yet the system worked for almost two full summers

(2010, 2011) without any problems. Yes,

the system should continue to work for another 10+ years without problem, but

all sorts of things can happen to cause a leak – the equipment can prematurely

fail, someone can accidentally hit the unit causing a crack in the line feeding

it or in the unit itself, etc. I worked

with a homeowner this summer who had a crack in his refrigerant lines after his

grandson ran into the unit while playing, and there are countless tales of

landscapers wreaking havoc on AC units.

Resolution: The customer has to pay for the leak

search. If the leak is found in the

equipment, we will go after [redacted] with all of our resources to get as much

credit for the homeowner as possible (we do a lot of business with them, so

usually get more than they have to provide).

If the leak is outside the equipment, the homeowner is responsible for

all of the costs.

Sincerely,

[redacted], VP Sales

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: I just want to clarify that the owner stated that the 3rd call that was made to my house on Jul 1, 2013 was "free" is incorrect. I paid for a Maintenance Agreement for $245.00 and that was my summer check-up, so yes I did pay for that and they were going to charge me for the coolant until I discussed it with [redacted] and said it had lost a pound in a month since my last visit. He then agreed not to charge me for the coolant. I did file a complaint with [redacted] directly and they have done nothing about it.

Regards,

Business

Response:

I stand corrected - the third call was for a maintenance agreement that was purchased the month before, then cancelled with half the money refunded on 7/31. The refrigerant was still free on two of the 3 occasions, which is still going above and beyond the contract which specified a 1 year labor warranty.