A-1 Heating & Air Conditioning Service Inc.

I can completely understand the homeowners frustration with having to deal with water damage and how disruptive it can be to their daily life in having to deal with the repairs and getting things back in order. With regards to this particular home we have been servicing it under a
maintenance program for over ten years now and they are very familiar with our service and the need to keep up with their scheduling of their maintenances that they prepay for under the maintenance program. After the first incident in July of 2013, maintenance inspection had not been scheduled or performed yet despite reminder being sent, we did convince the homeowner to install two *** drain line safety devices to help prevent this from happening in the future. Unfortunately, again despite reminders being sent this past year on different occasions (July and Sept11th) after not hearing from the customer to schedule their routine maintenance we did get and emergency call on September 16th that another water leak had occurred causing water damage again. Unfortunately because the drain lines had not been cleaned as they would have had the routine maintenance been performed a sludge had formed which caused the *** safety switch mechanism to fail as the slime had caused the float to be held down and not cut the unit off as they are designed to do. The *** device was wired correctly and was not the reason it failed to cut the unit as it is designed to do.I understand this customers frustration as I mentioned but I fail to see what we as a company did to deserve this complaint honestly. We have a customer whose home we have been in over times since for routine maintenance, prompt emergency service, to install new equipment when needed, and for repairs to both of the systems in this house as well as for their humidifiers. We solicited an email address several years ago as we do with all of our customers on a maintenance program so that we can send courtesy reminders to schedule their inspections and this email address was provided to us by this particular customer which we used prior to both water leak occurrences to remind them to call to schedule their inspections and with regards to this past year two notices were sent.
These particular homeowners have been very loyal customers to our company for many years, they have a good working relationship with our technician John who has been servicing them all these years and they just last month renewed their contract for the upcoming year. As a courtesy and a sign of our appreciation for their loyalty I will extend their contract on both systems for another year so that they not won't be renewable until January of

[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]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I have a contract in place with A-1 to perform two inspections per year to help me ensure my unit is working properly. Each time they inspect the unit, they checked the boxes on the work order and write by hand the unit is "ok". However R-22 has been added and I never had to complete or sign a form saying they are complying with the EPA. Secondly, and most importantly, the inside of the furncae has a lot rust formed on all 4 sides. How can a company charge me for the expert inspections and never tell me of the serious rust issues or even suggest to me a replacement. Since all this has happened, I had a second opinion from another HVAC company and they have disclosed that this was unacceptable and should have been diagnosed sooner. Since A-1 never recommended a replacement or noted on the work order of this rust, I had a water leak that had to be going on for some time. The amount of damage this caused to my condo is extensive and expensive. This must have been a slow leak over an amount of time that went undetected by A-1, but they always said it was "ok". I feel that a proffesional company should have suggested replacement or done a better job inspecting the unit, to include drains, pumps air flow, humitity levels etc. The work order also states a 90 day guarantee as well as a one year warranty. If I would have only known about the substantial rust build-up in advance it could have saved me thousands of dollars and I would not have had to live with my daughter and her husband for two month as well as an additional two months in a hotel. Durring this past 4 months insurance companies by the HOA, Building Management Company and A-1's insurance was looking into the problem and A-1's insurance denied the claim twice. I cant believe a company that specializes in this would take advantage of thier customers this way. I strongly feel that I hired this company to save me from this type of disaster but instead choose to take my money and run. What was I paying them for? Needles to say, I had to get a new HVAC Furnace and heat pump from another company. New carpet, sub-floor repairs, mitigation, sheet rock demo and repairs, paint, base boards etc. This is unacceptable for a company to operate in this manner, so I really appreciate your efforts in investigating this claim against A-1. 
Regards,
[redacted]

We have worked with this customer since the day that she called and reported that there was a water leak at her property and immediately dispatched a technician to her residence to resolve the problem on the same day and within a short period of time because she is one of our maintenance customers. ...

Upon arrival our technician found that her drain line had clogged and was overflowing water into her condo so he had to flush the line out to clear it from the debris that had caused the clog. We actually installed an [redacted] condensate safety switch as an added source of protection from water leaks for her on July 2, 2012 but unfortunately it was clogged at the discharge of the coil with a piece of rust and other debris that had fallen into the pan from wither the coil or the duct work above and never tripped the safety switch.
We immediately called our insurance company to let them investigate the matter even though we didn't feel that we were liable as this was a result of normal operation of the system and not a part failure or a failure due to a part of our regular service that was performed back on May 8th with the water leak reported on July 16th. The unit and drain were functioning properly when we left on May 8th and some almost 2 and a half months later the line became clogged causing the problem. Our insurance company came out and investigated the matter and found that we had done nothing wrong to cause this problem and that this was a matter for this customers Home Owners policy and was not a result of our negligence. With regards to the claim that the leak was caused by a refrigerant leak there is NOTHING further from the truth and this has been explained to the customers son-in law on NUMEROUS occassions and could be confirmed by other contractors. Our customers system is approximately 9 years old (new construction so exact date of start-up would be her settlement date) and while we did add 1 pound of refrigerant at our visit in May (first time this was required) her system was certainly not near the end of its expected life and we are not in the habit of condemning equipment until it is necessary and in the customers best interest to do so.
We are truly sorry this customer has had to endure this experience as I have lived through it myself when a plumbing line sprung a leak in my own home but we certainly are not responsible for the damage caused and agree with the findings of our insurance company that this is an issue for her homeowners policy. I have attached the letter that the customer received from our insurance company after their independent investigation and for your reference finding no fault on our behalf, also attached is a letter dated the same day as the reported problem to show that we took the matter seriously and acted immediately for the benefit of the customer.

[redacted] I am responding to the complaint that was given ID # [redacted] as requested.  On Saturday January 25, 2014 my answering service received a call from the customer indicating that she...

had no heat and the message was relayed to my technician who promptly called the customer to make arrangements to go to the house and try and restore her heat.  When my technician arrived at the house he found the heat functioning properly and no error codes recorded on the board to indicate what might be causing the problem.  The customer indicated that she had been resetting the switch on the side of the furnace to get the heat to operate and unfortunately when the customer does this it clears the codes from the board which help indicate what is causing the problem since it was described by the customer as a sporadic problem which does make it difficult to diagnose especially when the unit was operating upon our arrival. 
 
[redacted] this particular customer was told to call if the problem occurred again to give us a call back as is noted on the service ticket (attached copy) as we were not about to start replacing parts at the customers expense until we could identify the part causing the problem.  The problem and description indicated by the customer could have been caused by several things which is again why we did not just start replacing parts as I would rather a customer be disappointed that we did not identify the problem (again on a working system) than be upset with us for selling her a part that she did not need as that is not how we operate which is why we have a 98% rating in [redacted]’s [redacted] for customers indicating that they would use us again.  [redacted] I will return this customers diagnostic charge despite the fact that we did nothing wrong for this customer who should have simply called back and utilized the warranty that was given with her original call until the problem could be identified.
 
[redacted]
President
A-1 Heating & Air Conditioning Service

I completely understand how difficult water damage is to deal with but again have to state that we are not responsible for the damage here. When our inspection was performed and this customer signed our invoice it was noted that the drain line had been flushed and was draining properly when we left. It was 2 1/2 months later that this line became clogged from its operation and please know how much condensation an air conditioning system generates in the hot Northern Virginia months on a daily basis. This is a mechanical piece of equipment and issues will arise from their operation there is no way around that. The additional information this customer provided was passed on to the insurance company and their response is attached again finding NO FAULT from our company for the water leak as we did NOTHING to cause this occurrence.
In an effort to help this customer we would be willing to donate the labor to install a new system at her condo should the customer be willing to purchase the equipment, this would provide a substantial savings to her, invoices of costs of material gladly provided. Other than this we cannot try and convince the insurance company of fault where it does not exist. If this customer is interested in our offer we can be reached directly or through this avenue.

Review: I contacted A-1 to diagnose and fix a problem with my furnace. The furnace would not answer the call for heat from the thermostat unless the unit was turned off and on again. It would, sporadically turn on w/o the aforementioned reset, but would mostly turn off before the desired temperature was reached. The technician who was sent to perform the service could not diagnose the problem, saying that the unit was functioning normally. He recommended that I "may want to change the thermostat" and also that I "try not changing the temperature on the thermostat at all". Neither of these prospects sounded reasonable to me. In addition, he opined that the thermostat was in a "drafty" location, and that contributed to my problem.

Four days later I called another company to diagnose and fix the same problem. When I met the technician, I gave him the same verbal description of the problem I gave A-1's technician. This person told me what he thought the problem was that was causing these symptoms. He did this before we went to the basement utility room that houses the furnace. That is, he had a clue without even looking at the unit. He told me that the flame sensor is probably dirty and needs to be cleaned. When dirty the sensor does not sense/inconsistently senses the flame, causing the unit to shut down for an extented period of time, before it tries again. When he got to the unit, he showed me that the sensor was indeed dirty. He unscrewed it, cleaned it with steel wool, and the problem was fixed within minutes. He also showed me how to read a code the furnace puts out, to diagnose future problems.

I believe, A-1 sent an unqualified technician to my home who could not diagnose a common problem. This does not warrant a service charge. A woman who answered the phone when I called to complain refused to acknowledge inferior service, maintaining that she 'stood by her guy'. A message left with the Service Manager has not been answered.Desired Settlement: Refund-Credit Card Credit

Business

Response:

[redacted] I am responding to the complaint that was given ID # [redacted] as requested. On Saturday January 25, 2014 my answering service received a call from the customer indicating that she had no heat and the message was relayed to my technician who promptly called the customer to make arrangements to go to the house and try and restore her heat. When my technician arrived at the house he found the heat functioning properly and no error codes recorded on the board to indicate what might be causing the problem. The customer indicated that she had been resetting the switch on the side of the furnace to get the heat to operate and unfortunately when the customer does this it clears the codes from the board which help indicate what is causing the problem since it was described by the customer as a sporadic problem which does make it difficult to diagnose especially when the unit was operating upon our arrival.

[redacted] this particular customer was told to call if the problem occurred again to give us a call back as is noted on the service ticket (attached copy) as we were not about to start replacing parts at the customers expense until we could identify the part causing the problem. The problem and description indicated by the customer could have been caused by several things which is again why we did not just start replacing parts as I would rather a customer be disappointed that we did not identify the problem (again on a working system) than be upset with us for selling her a part that she did not need as that is not how we operate which is why we have a 98% rating in [redacted]’s [redacted] for customers indicating that they would use us again. [redacted] I will return this customers diagnostic charge despite the fact that we did nothing wrong for this customer who should have simply called back and utilized the warranty that was given with her original call until the problem could be identified.

President

A-1 Heating & Air Conditioning Service