ADVO Inc.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
The issue here is not a buyer/seller issue My concern is that Fremont Plumbing and heating was at this house times and we received a large bill when we were in no better situation or had no plan of action after all three visits. You can see that from the invoices he attached, this company has charged us and the prior owners over $in total and nothing was resolved or corrected related to this air conditioner.He stated that it was days between the first two visits, but we called immediately upon moving in, when we noted that the air-conditioning was not providing the correct temperature. He even stated when arriving for his visit in August that the refrigeration should not be that low after such a short period of time. He stated that he could look for it with the dye test, but did not recommend at that time weighing whether to invest in a new unit. Additionally, during the entire hours he was at our residence, we continued to approach him and ask if he had found anything. (He was not approaching us during those hours to let us know what “progress” he had made.) Each and every time we inquired, he stated that he had not found anything and that he didn’t know what was wrong. After hours of looking at our unit, he still said, “I don’t know”, “I am in a tough situation”, and did not offer us solutions As stated in my original complaint, he filled the unit with refrigeration and said run it hard. That to me is not a solution. Regarding reducing the bill, that bill was sent after we called just days later to inform them that our unit was still not working and that we didn’t want to pay him for all the hours he was out here, as it obviouslyaccomplished nothing. Additionally, during that phone call, I asked what we were supposed to do and if I should just call someone else because he had not gotten us anywhere. He said he had tried everything in his book and didn’t say outright that we should call someone else, but again said he was in a “tough position” A professional business should stand by their work. The fact that they keep saying they are in a tough place because they never serviced the unit before is unprofessional and leaving us to get another company in here while still sending us a large bill, I believe is unethical, as stated in myoriginal complaint.We did end up calling another company and within minutes of being at our residence, they examined the unit, and gave us different options along with how much each option would cost and they charged $for that original inspection. I do not understand why there should be such a discrepancy in service quality and price.As stated before, I believe the amount charged for what service provided is outrageous and if I had known that we would be put in such a terrible situation by having them back out here after servicing the unit onlyseveral weeks earlier, I never would have called themThe only reason we did call them is that we thought they would stand by their previous work and resolve the issue, or at least give us a plan of action for correction. That did not happen I really want this issue to be resolved and over with, but again, I can’t justify paying $for no solutions. I believe that he as a consumer would feel the same way if put in a similar situation Please let me know what the next steps are for finding resolution I am interested in hearing the opinion of the Revdex.com
Regards,
*** ***

On July 6th, 2015: Fremont Plumbing and Heating Increceived acall from a customer stating that he was selling his house and the inspectorhad told him that his air conditioner was not blowing cold enough. Upon arrival to the customer’s residence, hewas asked when the air conditioning
system had been serviced last as FremontPlumbing and Heating Inchad no record of the unit ever being serviced byus. The owner stated that it had alwaysrun good for him and that it had not been serviced since it was new. Upon checking the temperature and pressuresof the system, the system was low. Iproceeded to leak checking the service valves and ports, condenser coil(running), lineset tubing up to evaporator coil, as well as the air streamthrough the evaporator, no leaks were found. It was then explained to the homeowner what was done and found. He was the informed that I was unable topinpoint a cause of the refrigerant loss, but over that many years, it waspossible that he was only losing a minute amount per year. I finished setting the charge of the systemat degrees superheat. The owner wasthen instructed to keep an eye on things and call me if the system does not maintainthe temperature that the thermostat was set at. We received no call until August 11th, when the newowners of the property called and informed us the air conditioning was frozeup. Upon arrival, it was discovered thatthe coil was frozen and the drain line from the evaporator was not keepingup. It was explained to the owners that thiswas not a unit that we had serviced prior to my initial inspection for theprevious owner and that there was no way to gauge the rate of loss other thanthe amount of pressure drop over a measurable period of time. I suggested to the new owner that the nextstep was to inject the system with dye to see where we could find it comingout. At this time, they were alsoinformed there was no guarantee the leak could be found or repaired andadvising them that this is the point where most customers start to weigh thecost against the cost of a new unit. Iwas given verbal approval by the new owner to go ahead with the dye test. After returning the next day, I went throughthe system attempting to find where the leak may be. I could not identify dye leaking out theevaporator coil, lineset, drain or condenser coil. At this point, I pumped the refrigerant intothe compressor and proceeded to pull a vacuum on the lineset evaporatorcoil. I was able to evacuate it downinto a deep vacuum of microns. Thedeep vacuum held for minutes but upon attempting to release the refrigerantback into the system, the service valve on the suction side of the condenserwould not operate freely. Upon furtherinvestigation, it was found that the O rings in the valve itself weredeteriorated and missing. As these arenot ordinary service parts, I did not have any suitable replacements on thetruck. Our shop is only miles down theroad, so I ran back and grabbed the rings needed. Additional O rings were added to the serviceport caps to ensure that no leakage could occur.During the progression of the above work, all procedureswere discussed with the homeowner and his wife step by step. Before the homeowner went to work that day,he asked what the next step was if this did not work and was informed that hewas likely looking at a new unit As itwas determined that the coil and lineset were good, they could just install anew condenser and be up and running. Hesaid to let his wife know what they owed and she would pay before I left. Upon completion, his wife asked how much theyowed and was told how much in labor but the materials would have to be figuredin so we would need to send them a bill.Fremont Plumbing & Heating Inchas gone above andbeyond just trying to help this customer. The customer had left us with the impression that he was going torequest that the previous owner of the house be responsible for thecharges. If we could have been of anyassistance in that process, we would have cooperated fully. When we were informed that the unit did againfreeze up, we were sympathetic to the new owner’s circumstances and did notcharge him for the initial service visit or the dye test, reducing his bill byapproximately $without a request to do so. When the customer called us to ask that his bill be further reduced, wehad a hard time finding where it was justifiable to do so. There was discussion about the initialinspection. He was informed of what wasrequested of us for this inspection and he said that the findings of theinspection had not been disclosed to him until after the closing where westated that the unit had not been serviced in its entire lifetime. This was not our responsibility to make surethat the report was shown to him prior to his closing. (This bill and report is beingattached). Fremont Plumbing and Heatingwas only authorized to do service to make the unit’s air colder and to reportthe findings and that is exactly what was done on July 6th. It was not until days later that we weremade aware of any issues with the unit and that is a long period of time forany other issues to surface with the unit. We only perform work that is authorized by the homeowner. This goes for both the buyer and the sellerof the home. We performed the workrequested both before and after the sale. If we were not authorized to test or repair a unit, we would not doit. We believe that we have been more thanfair with the customer and not understanding why he believes that he should nothave to pay for time and materials that were used when this is the route thathe chose in regards to the issues that he was having with the unit. Fremont Plumbing and Heating, unfortunatelyhas been caught in the middle of a buyer/seller dispute and should not beshouldering the blame for the lack of maintenance and disclosure on a propertysale. This would be something that wouldbe between the buyer, seller and realtor to resolve

We have over 50 years of service to our customers and our service tech has over 20 years of experience.  It is extremely rare for us to have a customer as disenchanted with our services as this customer is.  We feel at this time, we have no choice but to credit the entire amount of the invoice to the customer's account as the customer has expressed that this is the only outcome that will be acceptable to him.  The account will be credited immediately.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
Regards,
[redacted]