A Better Deal Heating & Air Conditioning

We received a call from the customer late in the evening and she was told that our service call is $25, not $The owner of the company, [redacted] , went to her home with the understanding that it was her air conditioning drain system that was leaking onto the floor and so it was appropriate to send an air conditioning technicianUpon arriving, he determined the drains were blocked and per international mechanical code requiring that all condensation drains be configured to allow for cleaning and servicing without cutting the pipe, he proposed to the customer that he install a [redacted] Valve, and this would assist in cleaning the pipesHe stated in advance that the total cost of that repair would be $This amount was agreed to by the home ownerThe valve was installed and he attempted to clear the drain using the new valveHe was unable to clear the blockage using the valve, so at no additional cost he attempted to clear the line using a small motorized drain augerStill unable to clear the drain he proposed to have one of the plumbing staff come by in the morningIn addition he spent the time removing water from under the furnaceFirst attempting to remove the water by using towels provided by the home owner, but the volume of water was too great to be removed with towels, so after discussion with the home owner it was determined that there was a wet vac available (new in the box) and [redacted] assembled the wet vac and was able to remove nearly all the water to prevent damage to the home owner's floorsAfter spending nearly two hours with the home owner, he left without collecting any moneyThe following morning our plumber, ***, arrived at the residence and determined that the pipe within and under the slab has been compromised and that section of pipe would have to be replacedHe gave her a quote for the associated work, which would require breaking the slab and removing sections of floor from in front of the closet This type of job would require tunneling to allow for the replacement of the damaged pipingThis is a labor intensive and expensive procedure that is common to homes of this age [redacted] did not consider rerouting the condensation drains to the adjacent bathroom because he was not aware that they were directly behind the furnace closetSometime later that day, the owner, Mr ***, in a conversation with [redacted] has become aware of the proposal and called the home owner to notify her of a second possibility common in the air conditioning trade which would utilize a specialized pump to collect the condensation and pump it to the outside of the homeAt this time he was informed by the home owner of another proposal from another company that would reroute the condensation drains to the adjacent bathroomAfter conferring with the plumber, he contacted the home owner and advised her that we could beat the price offered by the other plumbing company, which would include a refund of the money that she had already paid, if the drains were located in a manner that would allow for the proposed reroute Someone from the company would have to come out and evaluate the feasibilityThe home owner stated that she would get back to us and failed to do soThe home owner never contacted us to request any kind of refundIt was determined by the owner of the company that the plumber, ***, had collected the $from the home owner as payment for the work done by Mr [redacted] (payment he did not collect the night before), installing the [redacted] ValveThe plumber had seen the installed [redacted] Valve and notes in his dispatch order describing the work completed the previous night and he believed he was responsible to collect the money for the work performedThis was an errorWe do not charge for work that is not effectualOur policy would be to refund all of her money excluding the $service callBut since there has been so much turmoil behind this call, we will be happy to refund her the entire amount of $