Alum Creek Heating & Cooling, LLC

I reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and I feel I have no choice but accept your demand to paid the $ and put a end to this disagreement Your payment will be mailed out to you
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There is nothing more important to Alum Creek Heating & Cooling then the satisfaction of our customers.  We have worked really hard the past 13 years to keep our A+ Revdex.com rating and accreditation by standing behind everything we do.  Of course our service techs are human and can make...

mistakes.  If this happens we do our very best to rectify the problem. This "problem" began with our on call phone crashing the morning Mr. [redacted] had called.  The tech on call that day did not know the phone was not operating and thought he was having a really good day where he wasn't going to have to go out on a call on his day off.  We discovered the phone was  not working when a current customer called on Monday morning saying she had left a message and had not gotten a response, which was unusual for us.  Upon checking the phone, it would not even turn on.  We lost all the contacts, supplier numbers and the voicemails in the phone.  A new phone was purchased and we were back on track.  We do regret that Mr. [redacted] became frustrated and felt he had to call another company.  From the invoice Mr. [redacted] sent us from [redacted], they did not go to the property until Monday, so if he had called us Monday morning as the other customer did, we could have explained why his call was not returned on Sunday and we would have also went to the call on Monday.  We hate that we had at least two customers that were "neglected' due to our on call phone issues that day.One of our techs did go to Mr. [redacted]'s rental property in July 2014 and replaced the blower wheel on the unit.  Over 8 months later, in March, after the furnace had ran through cooling season and through one of the most frigid winters we've experienced in years, the tenant called Mr. [redacted] saying they had no heat.  It is [redacted]'s opinion that Alum Creek Heating & Cooling's service tech is to blame, so Mr. [redacted] wants Alum Creek Heating & Cooling to reimburse him for [redacted]'s bill.   [redacted] contends that he finds it impossible that this could be true.  Maybe if it happened within a couple of weeks of our tech installing the blower wheel, but not 8+ months later. [redacted] does not know why he did not see Mr. [redacted]'s email of 04/04/15.  If he would have, he definitely would have responded.  He would never ignore a situation like this.   I wish Mr. [redacted] would have called our office to inquire as to why [redacted] had not responded before he chose to file this complaint against us and threaten to take us to court over it.   I personally think this could have been taken care of through personal interactions via a phone conversation or personal meeting and not emails back and forth.  Emails and texts are great, but they do not convey human emotion or sincerity.  [redacted] did respond to Mr. [redacted] yesterday...again by email.   He did tell Mr. [redacted] to call him at ###-###-#### if he would like to discuss this by phone or arrange a meeting in person.  Our standard warranty on all service calls is 30 days, but if it can be PROVEN  beyond a doubt that our service tech was to blame for this, than Alum Creek Heating & Cooling would be more than willing to come to a fair resolution with Mr. [redacted].  Thank you,Charlene B[redacted]

Let me begin by saying that after going over ALL the facts with our service manager and breaking down the sequence of events that took place for your call on 08/18/15, it seems that the call may have had a couple of glitches.   Please let me say that is NOT the way our calls...

normally go and contrary to what you said in your complaint, we do NOT get a lot of customer complaints considering we do thousands of calls per year.  We work very hard to keep our good name and A+ standing in the Revdex.com.  Unfortunately, we are all humans who work here and we do have those "bad days".   I am actually  the one who answered the phone the first time you called and you asked if we could look at a system in a house you were trying to purchase.  [redacted] was on the phone and was going to be a few minutes , so I took your name and number to have her call you back.   She did call you back and scheduled the appointment.  It is a part of her routine phone call to tell people that the diagnostic is $75 for gas and electric furnace calls and includes 15 min of labor.  After 15 minutes it starts the regular labor rate of $75 per hour, but is broken down by 15 minute increments.  If a tech is at your house for half an hour the labor charge would be $93.75 and any parts or refrigerant would be extra.    Our pricing is not out of the norm for our industry or this area.  Most companies in the surrounding areas have went to flat rate pricing which is way higher than what we charge.I believe you were scheduled for a time frame of between noon and 3pm for [redacted].    You did call in around 2pm and ask if we had any idea of when we would be there.  Again, I answered that call as [redacted] was on the phone.  I asked her and she said you were indeed still on the schedule, but [redacted] had gotten hung up at a geothermal call that was requiring a lot of time, so he would be running behind, but you were next on the list.  In order to try and get you done sooner, she called [redacted] our other tech that had just finished his last call for the day to see if he would be able to take your call since [redacted] was running behind.  [redacted] told [redacted] he was already home and was headed out to run an errand, but he would do the call.  He was not in his company truck however.   [redacted] called you to let you know that [redacted] was not going to make it to your place, but she had another tech that was coming.  She did mention that he would be in his personal vehicle, so you would not see an Alum Creek Heating truck.  She also told you that he would not be there until around 3pm. ( I could hear this conversation taking place.)  [redacted] ended up going to your place before he ran his errand and got there prior to 3pm and no one was there.  He said he called the number [redacted] gave him and there was no answer, so [redacted] called and left a message.  You did call back and say you were only 5 minutes away.   From what I gather, we always talked to you on the phone, but your wife is the one who ended up at the house during the call.   [redacted] turned in his invoice the next morning 08/19/15.  It stated that he went through the furnace and found the furnace needed several parts.  Customer did not want to replace parts, she wanted a quote to replace.  (This is not word for word) His invoice did not mention the a/c since the furnace would not run, the a/c really could not be checked out.  There was no mention of a hot water heater being checked when the call was scheduled.  Only the hvac system.  Hot water heaters are not a part of an hvac system and are usually checked by plumbers.  We usually do not do plumbing.  The invoice indicated he was at the call for 1.5 hrs.  We do not get a signature prior to doing work on service calls, but the tech is supposed to get the invoice signed at the end of the call to verify all the information on the invoice is correct.   I noticed he did forget to get your wife's signature on his invoice when he was finished with the call.  [redacted] had to call and leave a voicemail asking for the billing address, since all we had was the address for the house you are trying to buy.  You called her back with that information and she sent out a bill for $168.75 for the 1.5 hrs of labor.  In your complaint you state that your wife asked the cost before the tech started the call and was told $65-$75 max.  I don't know where that came from, but none of our techs should ever say the words "max" as they do not know what they are getting into prior to actually doing the call.   When we asked [redacted] why he was at the call for 1.5 hours, he said your wife had a lot of questions and he spent quite a bit of the time answering her questions.      [redacted] did work up a quote on Friday 08/21/15 to replace the system.  The quote was mailed out that same day.  The only reason I can think of that you did not receive the quote is that [redacted] put the address of the house you were trying to buy on it and not your "bill to" address, so it was sent to the other house.  If that's the case, then we will be getting it back in the mail pretty soon.I originally thought that this whole thing was about you thinking our pricing is too high.  We have to charge enough to cover our costs to stay in business and we have to charge for the time our techs are on the jobs or we lose money and won't be in business very long.   Since I have talked this out with [redacted], our service manager, I have to say that it was not one of our routine calls.  [redacted] not being able to get there and [redacted] sending [redacted], I do feel is justified and she did try to accommodate the time frame to get someone there by 3pm.  The "verbal quote" of $75 max should have never been uttered and we will make sure the techs know that they are not to do that in the future.   The quote to replace the system....honest mistake on [redacted]'s part to list the address of the house needing the system.  That's the only address he had. I will reduce your bill to the "max" you say was quoted to your wife of the $75, because there were a couple of mistakes made with the call.  I am sorry that you feel your experience with Alum Creek Heating & Cooling, was unpleasant.   I do hope that [redacted] was professional and helpful while at the call.  We get a lot of calls to compliment both [redacted] and [redacted] on their abilities and how they interact with the customers.  Best Wishes,[redacted]

After reviewing this with our service manager and the service technician, I have the following information.   Our tech was there 4 times, not 5 as stated.  06/06/16-service call found control board needed replaced and txv (thermal expansion valve) was sticking.  Per manufacture...

requirements, zerol ice must be added to system to try to unstick the txv before they will cover under warranty to replace.  Tech was there a total of 1hr & 30 min.   You were charged $75 service call (which includes 15 min of labor) and an additional 1hr15 min of labor.  $93.75  Tech ordered new control board.06/10/16:  Tech returned to install new control board and check to see if zerol ice had broken txv free.  Txv still stuck, so tech ordered new one.  Was there 45 minutes.  You were charged for the 45 minutes of labor $56.2506/14/16:  Tech returned to install new txv.  Removed old txv and upon opening box with txv discovered supplier had sent the wrong txv.  Took tech 30 min to remove old txv, so you were charged the 30 min of labor $37.5006/15/16:  Tech returned to install correct txv.  This process is not a "QUICK FIX"  It takes approximately 1.5-2 hrs to complete a txv change.  System has to have all refrigerant removed and then the txv installed and then the refrigerant put back and the system pumped down and pressures checked, along with making sure refrigerant levels are correct.  The removal of the old one took 30 minutes day before, so that part was already done.  you were billed 1.5 hours for today.  Tech did not bill you for any refrigerant that was used to bring levels to normal.  (Refrigerant is not considered a part and therefore not covered by warranty)You were billed a service call (which you knew as stated in your complaint) and 4 hrs of labor.  Service call $75 and 4 hrs x $75 = $300.  Total bill $375.  Board, zerol ice and txv all covered by warranty.  You paid $150 toward the bill on 06/15/16.  Cindy sent bill to address where service was performed.  We had not received any further payments, so she recently sent out a past due notice which caused you to then call into the office to question the bill.  She went over the bill with you and stated that all of the charges were correct and you were responsible to pay the bill.  She did not add any additional late charges at that time.  Cindy did let you know that if the bill is not paid it would end up going to collections.  I asked Cindy if you had called back at any time during the period from 06/15/16 to 08/12/16 and she said no.  We warranty our calls for 30 days, so if you had called to say it was not working correctly, we would have honored our work.  I asked if you mentioned that it was not working correctly when you called to question the bill, she said no.  We did receive another $50 payment in the mail from you today bringing your total owed down to $175.00.   I'm sorry, but this bill is correct and due.  We did not run up your labor costs because your parts were under warranty.  It did take 4 trips, one of which was not our fault, but suppliers make mistakes too.  We appreciate your business but I find that this complaint against us was very unfair.Thank you,Charlene B[redacted]

[redacted]I asked our service manager to pull the original quote that you were given by the tech back in March 2014 and see that the quote says "Estimate to replace loop solution $400-$600"  I have reviewed your invoice and see that the actual loop solution was $480.00, the labor was...

$168.75 (2 hr 15 min) and then $56.28 for pvc fittings made the total bill $705.03.  Our quotes generally always include an estimated amount for labor, but we can not always foresee the additional parts or labor that may be needed once we get into the repair.   Your system took a few more pounds of solution than expected and longer to do than anticipated in the beginning, which accounted for the extra charges.  That being said,  I do feel that the quote given to you by the tech could have been more precise and at least broken down by an estimated amount of solution, fittings and estimated labor to install.  This way the extra amount could have been easily explained and hopefully more acceptable to you.  I am going to credit your account with $75.00 (1 hr)  to cover the extra labor since the estimated labor was not broken out on the original quote.  That makes the total bill $630.03. ($620.03 after the $10 coupon you redeemed)  That is still over the $600 estimate, but the fittings and loop solution were required to complete the repair.We do apologize for the misunderstanding between the quote and the invoice, but sometimes our "estimates" are right on and sometimes they fall short due to unforeseen complications. Thank you for your past business and I hope you will continue to allow us to be of service to you in the future.[redacted]
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