Allied Mechanical & Electrical

Dear Sirs-- I ** [redacted] * *** ** [redacted] *** *** *** [redacted] ** ** [redacted] *** We are offering full settlement per his request in attached filing with the VA Attorney General's Office I will advise you upon receipt of signed agreement, and we hope that this matter will be resolved.Thank You [redacted] *** ***

[redacted] - It seems as though we have no choice than toaccept your offer. Para 3 seems strange since you have repeatedly stated youhave no use for those windows, you don't re-use them on other jobs and we arepaying you for them but now you also want them back (perhaps we are beingcharged rent for the months that they have just set in our home, awaiting yourdecision). We were just going to donate to [redacted] but evidently amult-million dollar company like [redacted] needs them more than the needy, sogreedy of you at this time of the year. In order to go on with our lives and get this over with I suppose we arewilling to forego that to get this done. [redacted]
[redacted]

Dear  Sirs--  I  **  [redacted]  *  [redacted]  **  [redacted]  **  **  [redacted].  We  are  offering  full  settlement  per  his  request  in  attached  filing  with  the  VA  Attorney  General's Office.  I  will  advise  you  upon  receipt  of  signed  agreement,  and  we  hope  that  this  matter  will  be  resolved.Thank  You[redacted]

After  several  offers  to  resolve  this  with  our  company  fulfilling  the  contract  we  have  with  this  customer  failed,  Our  most  recent  counter  offer  to  his ...

request  of  a  refund  of  $8862  was  a  refund  in  amount  of  $6750  with  us  delivering  remaining  properly  sized  windows  from  contract  to  his  residence  for  him  to  have  for  installation  by  others.  We  did  not  receive  response  from  customerRegard  [redacted]

Review: A technician from Allied Mechanical came to my house on Wednesday, July 24th, to repair dents in my air conditioner coil that were caused by hail. When the technician arrived, I showed him the approximately twenty dents. He told me that it would take "a good hour" to fix the coil fins. I left and came back about an hour later to check on his progress. He, to my surprise, had fixed just one dent. At the rate he was going, it would have been more cost efficient just to purchase a new coil, so I told him to put it back together and leave. I was charged for 1.5 hours of work. The bill was $117.60 ($80 per hour x 1.5 hours with a 2% discount for paying with a check). I submitted a complaint to Allied Mechanical online that evening, but I never received a response.I called and talked with the manager on Monday, July 29th. Amazingly, he told me that they had tried to repair dents on ten to twelve other similar units, and none of them had gone well. This means that they knew before even starting mine that they would be unable to fix it properly, let alone fix it in the "good hour" that I was given as an estimate. He also claimed that there must have been some miscommunication because this is an eight to ten hour job. The technician clearly said "a good hour" to fix all of the dents, not an hour per dent. I find the manager's claim absurd because who would pay $800 to have dents removed instead of just buying a new coil, and why would an honest company allow the work to proceed without just recommending a replacement? Originally, I thought that I just had a slow or incompetent technician, but based on the fact that the manager admitted to knowing that they would be unable to complete the job successfully before even starting mine, I do not believe Allied Mechanical is an ethical company. After our conversation, the manager said that he would get back to me. He did not, and he would not return future phone calls.Desired Settlement: I want a full refund of $117.60.

Business

Response:

I am writing in response to a complaint filed by [redacted] on August 14, 2013, against Allied Mechanical & Electrical.

Mr. [redacted]’s outdoor AC unit (condenser coil) suffered from hail damage. Mr. [redacted]’s claims that the Allied technician told him that the repairs would take "a good hour" to complete. Upon returning to our technician an hour later, Mr. [redacted] discovered that only one dent had been repaired. At this point Mr. [redacted] asked our technician to pack up and leave. Mr. [redacted] was then billed $117.60 for the hour and a half that our technician was on site. Mr. [redacted] later contacted our service manager and claimed that he was told that Allied had similar issues with 10-12 other units and that these repairs take 8-10 hours to complete.

Mr. [redacted]’s entire complaint is hearsay, and the desired resolution is unrealistic. For starters, we encountered similar hail damage at more than 20 other residential locations prior to Mr. [redacted] calling in late July, as the storm that caused the hail damage took place in June. The majority of our customers filed homeowner’s insurance claims, paying their deductible, and then making repairs to their houses, cars, AC units, etc… Since the majority of these repairs came in prior to Mr. [redacted] contacting Allied, we had a fairly good grasp on what repairs would entail. Our dispatcher informed Mr. [redacted] of the nature of these repairs, and that many customers opted to replace their outdoor units rather than make repairs. Mr. [redacted] indicated that he was going to use his homeowners insurance, but wanted to attempt repairs first. In our dispatch call log, it states that Mr. [redacted] was informed that we would come out to make repairs to his coil at $80 per hour, and there would be no diagnostics fee since we already know the issue. Our records indicate that our office did not give Mr. [redacted] a timeframe to complete these repairs.

I have confirmed with our technician who was on site, that he never guaranteed that he could complete these repairs in one hour. Our technician has performed these repairs many times throughout his career, and is fully aware of the lengthy process of straitening bent condenser coil fins. He states on his work order, that he informed the Mr. [redacted] that straitening these fins would not look factory due to the corrugated coil. On the paperwork, our technician indicates that he was able to repair the largest dent in the first hour, before Mr. [redacted] returned and asked that he pack up and leave. Mr. [redacted] signed our technician’s paperwork and paid him for this service call. Mr. [redacted] could have refused payment at the time of service if he truly thought these repairs were unfair. Mr. [redacted] was charged for repairs that were made to his equipment, at his request. Allied will not be issuing a refund for quality work performed by our technician.

Consumer

Response:

Firstly, I would like to point out that it took 7 months for Allied Mechanical to respond to my complaint.

Regarding Allied's response:

1. The dispatcher NEVER informed me of the nature of the repairs or that other customers opted to replace their outdoor units. As stated in Allied's response, this is not included in their dispatch call log. In fact, I asked the dispatcher when making the appointment if they use a comb to fix the dents, and she said that she did not know.

2. According to Allied's response, their call log states that I was told that I would be charged $80 per hour with no diagnostics fee, and that I was not given a timeframe to complete the issue. That is correct. The dispatcher did not seem to know any technical details. She was simply scheduling the appointment. The technician gave me the estimate before starting the work after he arrived at my house.

3. Never did I say that the technician guaranteed that he could complete the repairs in one hour. I said that he estimated it to take a "good hour." Estimates can be wrong; however, completing 1/20th of the work in the estimated time is unacceptable.

4. My insurance company looked at the damage prior to Allied's attempted fix. The damage was not great enough to warrant a replacement. The insurance company covered an HVAC technician for up to 2 hours to fix the damage, which falls in line with the technician's original estimate.

5. The technician did inform me that the straightened fins would not look like the original. I agree with that, and that is not part of my complaint.

6. The technician did repair one dent. Nothing that I signed is contradictory to my complaint.

Common sense contradicts Allied's stance. Nobody would pay more than the cost of the coil to repair the dents, and no company should perform the work without first recommending a replacement. Despite Allied's claims, they did not. The insurance company's estimate is also at odds with Allied's statement.

Apparently, I did make a mistake by paying the technician at the time of service. I thought it was better to dispute the issue with the manager than with the technician. I have learned more than one lesson in my dealings with Allied Mechanical.

Regards,