Airways Unlimited

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered] Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: Regards, [redacted] I have sent Ed the same documentation that I submitted to the Revdex.com An estimate was simply an estimate The final cost would be established after the job was completed Ed insists on doing the repairs I want him to pay for someone qualified to do the repair Ed has admitted that his experience with high velocity AC systems is limited, and this is evidenced by his inability to diagnose and fix my still broken system

At this time Airways Unlimited has not received any written estimates with price or repair procedures. We remain ready, willing and able to proceed with any repairs at no cost to homeowners.Respectfully,Edward *P***President, Airways Unlimited Inc

We have used Airways Unlimited for the 25 years we have owned our home. They installed our original HVAC unit, as well as the new one for an addition. They did all the duct work as well. The owner, Ed P[redacted], is always available to help, very customer oriented and very honest. We have an annual contract which is very reasonably priced for the service we get. Anytime we have a new issue, they come the next day. We trust Ed and his company implicitly. He runs a very honest business that does the job they were hired for and as much as needed. I would recommend them highly.

From: Edward...

P[redacted]<airwaysunlimited@[redacted].com>Date: Mon, Oct 9, 2017 at 12:54 PMSubject: case id [redacted]To:In response to the letter dated Wednesday, October 4, 2017.  We have never received by email, regular mail, or cell phone any estimate for repairs from the complainant. He said verbally he had one for $2000.00 but we have not seen it.Thank You,Edward P[redacted]Edward P[redacted]airwaysunlimited@[redacted].com

[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 as Answered]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Regards,
[redacted]I have sent Ed the same documentation that I submitted to the Revdex.com.  An estimate was simply an estimate.  The final cost would be established after the job was completed.  Ed insists on doing the repairs.  I want him to pay for someone qualified to do the repair.  Ed has admitted that his experience with high velocity AC systems is limited, and this is evidenced by his inability to diagnose and fix my still broken system.

Review: We first contacted Airways Unlimited on the morning of July 14, 2014 because one of our central air units was malfunctioning – the set temperature would randomly drop to 45 degrees and short of turning off the unit the setting could not be over-ridden. Mr. Ed P[redacted] proprietor of Airways Unlimited was very prompt in coming to our home to assess the situation and determined that all that he needed to do was reset the thermostat, which he did. That solved the problem for only 4 days.

We were then told that we needed a new thermostat. We asked what a new thermostat was going to cost, and were told, rather authoritatively, by Mr. P[redacted] as well as his office manager that if our unit was less than 10 years old then the thermostat would be covered under warranty and so would not cost us a dime, except for labor charges amounting to $160. Upon reviewing our records and confirming that the system had been installed in 2006, we agreed to the repair and a few days later an Airways Unlimited employee showed up to install the new thermostat. After he’d spent over an hour working on uninstalling the old thermostat and installing the new one, he discovered that the “manual” thermostat was not compatible with our air handler and that he would need to get one that was the same kind as we had. After repeated phone calls, trip back home in the middle of the day from my workplace in downtown DC to get the model and serial number off my old thermostat , and many days later the technician returned with another thermostat that was supposedly compatible with our system. He turned on the system and claimed that it was good to go. I paid the bill and mere hours after his departure the system shut down spontaneously. Numerous phone calls and days later, Mr. P[redacted] and the same technician showed up at our residence to “reset and program” the thermostat. Mr. P[redacted] once again claimed that it was good to go and that I should register the thermostat to ensure warranty. I did so promptly. But it was the same problem all over again, but given that I had registered the unit, I received constant emails with the error code and notice to contact my dealer immediately—which I did.

We made daily phone calls to try and find when Mr. P[redacted] could return to determine the problem. Needless to say we were concerned about what damage was being done to our system. But rather than being focused on fixing the problem, Mr. P[redacted] and his office manager were concerned that the thermostat they had installed was not the one that was covered by the original warranty and that Airways Unlimited would like to return to our house to swap it out with one that was the same make and model as the original one. We insisted that we would prefer to hang on to the thermostat only until we were assured that the system has been fixed successfully. Once again Mr. P[redacted] and his technician returned and determined that we needed a new mother board in the outside unit. We asked how much that was going to cost, and once again were assured that the mother board was under warranty, given that our system was less than 10 years old. So we had the mother board replaced on September 8, and we spoke with Mr. P[redacted] that very same evening upon our return home from work to find out if and how we need to reset the thermostat to communicate with the new mother board. He informed us that if the system appeared to be running and the screen on the thermostat did not display any error message then we were all set. However, to date we continue to experience problems – the system shuts down as soon as it comes on. We have continued to share all emails received regarding the malfunctioning status of our system with Mr. P[redacted].

The office manager at Airways Unlimited called us last Friday (September 26) claiming that neither the thermostat nor the motherboard are covered by our original warranty because we had apparently failed to register our unit, which is indeed not the case, that Airways Unlimited need to recover their costs, and that a technician will come by the house and replace and reprogram the thermostat. It took me three days to be able to speak with someone because no one was in the office and they do not have an answering service. When I spoke to the office manager on Tuesday September 29th and explained our system was still not working, she said a technician needed to come and reset it—even though Mr. P[redacted] had assured us that was not needed. After setting a date for this Friday (October 3), the office manager then reiterated that neither the thermostat nor motherboard were under warranty and that I needed to go figure out my warranty policy because she needs to recover costs both for the equipment and the fact that they have had to send their technician to our house so many times. She was rude, raised her voice and cut me off several times, and this was not the first time that she got belligerent with me. Not once has she or Mr. P[redacted] acknowledged that their ineptitude, inability to figure out and fix the problem, and miscommunication has greatly inconvenienced us, given that I’ve had to take time off work and stay home all but the one time they came over to deal with the problem.

After all that has gone on we are not sure that the thermostat was the problem to begin with. In addition, we have yet to be told the cost of the thermostat and the mother board. If we had been informed at the very beginning that we might need expensive replacement parts, we would have sought a second opinion and shopped around before settling on having the work done by Airways Unlimited. In addition, we would have considered whether to fix or replace the unit. The only reason we stayed with Airways Unlimited was because we were assured repeatedly that it was (1) a minor problem, the thermostat needed to be replaced and (2) everything was covered under warranty and we only needed to pay labor costs.Desired Settlement: We are still in the dark about what exactly was needed to fix our malfunctioning unit, whether it was a new thermostat, a new mother board, or both. We also don't know the true cost of either of those parts. Furthermore given the nature of their communications to date, we are unable to trust any dollar amount they might propose as truly reflecting the costs of the parts. We are not assured that they will not pad the bill to cover the numerous house calls. Given the fact that we were repeatedly told that both replacement parts were covered under warranty, we believe that we should not have to pay for the replacement part(s).

We have used Airways Unlimited for the 25 years we have owned our home. They installed our original HVAC unit, as well as the new one for an addition. They did all the duct work as well. The owner, Ed P[redacted], is always available to help, very customer oriented and very honest. We have an annual contract which is very reasonably priced for the service we get. Anytime we have a new issue, they come the next day. We trust Ed and his company implicitly. He runs a very honest business that does the job they were hired for and as much as needed. I would recommend them highly.