Brad's Heating & Air Conditioning

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/08/18) */
[redacted] (customer/Cust.) called at 7:55am Fri. June 6th. Cust. Request was that she needed freon. Cust. was quoted our service call rate and advised that we could get to her call same day. Cust. stated that she was going to "continue to...

search". At 4:50pm Mrs. [redacted] called and wanted to schedule the service. Service was schedulede for tues. 6/9.
Upon arrival at 1:45 pm on 6/9/15, the technician found system to be low on freon according to gauge pressure. Freon was added and allowed the system to perform as designed. [redacted] was the individual on site with the service tech. . [redacted] was advised of the very low freon level and the discussed the concern of the 1994 y/o equipment . Options of either further leak testing or equipment replacement was discussed with [redacted]. It was at this time that [redacted] allowed that they did not have the money to replace the system and needed to " try and make it through the summer".
It is, and always has been, to evaluate the best decision for repair or replacement based on history of this equipment i.e. previous work on our part or information from the customer. This was a new customer and no prior work performed at this location. Going by what the Cust. requested in the initial phone conversation it was our understanding that they had freon added in the past and we're comfortable with adding freon and getting along through the season. Considering the cost of the old R-22 freon and the amount that was added, was the reason for the above mentioned considerations.
Late in the afternoon of the same day the service was done, we received a call from the daughter [redacted] proceeded to chew on me as to how the call was handled. She proceeded to tell me of her financial situation and how this was the wrong call to have made etc.
In this complaint the customer makes some statements that are not factual. The first being a adding freon without authorization, customer requested freon in her initial call, second being we do have equipment to leak detect, however we do not carry it in the field due to the cost of the equipment and infrequent use of the leak detector. It is more readily available to the rest of the technicians when we maintain it here at our shop and retrieve as needed. Third being we have digital scales on all service trucks to measure the amount of freon, on all service trucks, so as to properly bill out.
I fail to agree with the complaint made then and now. When I step back and look at this customers request and our effort to
help them. I see a technician doing exactly what [redacted] requested in the initial phone conversation, and leaving it exactly as [redacted] requested (" to wait and try to make it through the summer").
[redacted]
Brad's Heating & Air, Inc.
Moore, Ok.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 12, 2015/08/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
When I called Brads I explained that I thought we were low on Freon but I never told them to come out and put it in without telling me first or giving me an idea of the cost. If he had given me an estimate of the amount I would not have allowed them to put the Freon in the unit. I would have paid them there service fee and sent them on there way. I did not tell them over the phone to come and put the Freon in our unit, I wonted them to come and check the unit for a leak and tell me how bad it was that is all. They decided on there own to put the Freon in the unit and then come to tell me what they had done and how much it was. The initial call I told them I thought we needed Freon but I wasn't sure. I wanted them to come out and check to see if that's what it needed or if it was something else. Yes the unit is old but like he said we do not have the funds to replace it. Paying that bill has put us in great distress, but like he told me that's not his problem its mine. the bottom line is if they had told me and I stress if they had told me it was going to cost $429.00 to put Freon in our air conditioner and that he could not tell us how long it would last I would not have allowed them to do the work period.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2015/08/28) */
I find it interesting that [redacted] is declaringthat when she called in initially that she requested that we come out and tell her if it is low on freon and to leak check. We have it recorded exactly what was requested, when it was requested, and who requested it. I also find it interesting that while on the call we offered to pursue further options, and at that time a ticket had not even been written up to reflect the charges. [redacted] did not want to consider replacement. Based on experience we find that all evaporator coils near 10 yrs old have corrosion present and are often times the source of freon leaks. I'll insert here that we don't have knowledge of how much freon will be needed until we add it and then weigh the drum on the scale. We could guess. In my 38 years of working with public, I have refrained from guessing freon weights because what if your too low? Or too high.? It doesn't work out well either way to guess at it. Generally if a customer is concerned enough about price etc. they are near while we are working thru the call and are involved.
As for the statement " but like he told me that's not his problem it's mine" I'm not sure where that came from.
May I ask if this complaint is actually coming from [redacted] or her daughter [redacted] If this is [redacted] please note that she was not present on the call, nor had we talked by phone until she called that afternoon with her aggressive accusations that I mentioned in the earlier response. It this is is from [redacted], please note that she asked if she could pay this bill out. We originally agreed to hold her check until Fri. 6/12. She came to our office and wanted to make other arrangements. We gladly offered for her to write two checks. Both dated for the day she was writing the checks 06/12/2015. One to be deposited same day/ or the following business day. The second check was to be held until July 10th, allowing her approx. 30 days on the 2nd half). We did exactly that.
[redacted]
Brad's Heating & Air, Inc.
Moore, Ok.