California Industrial Electric Corporation

The customer contacted Mills Heating & Air Conditioning, Incon September 8, stating that he had "cut some wires to his heat pump while weed eating." We let him know that our schedule was full however, we had a technician (***) in the area and that we would work this call into to the schedule to help them outThe technician (***) responded at 1:pm and departed at 3:pmPer his service invoice he spliced the thermostat wires back together(matching wire color to wire color) and checked all cycles of operation to ensure working correctly in cooling mode and all tested okayThe technician (***) spliced the wires at the bottom of the line set (near the ground only) where the customer had cut them with his weed eaterWith this repair there was no need to access the inside of the outdoor unit, thus the technician did not open nor make any additional changesThe technician did zip tie the thermostat wire to the line set to prevent the wiring from sagging and being cut again and used blue wire nuts, based on the gauge of wireto secure the connections at splice point, again near the ground only, which should have been secured at the initial install of the unitThe cost of this call war $(see attached invoice)On December 7, the customer called asking for a routine tune up of their system At this time the customer did not state to our dispatcher that they were having any issues with their unitSince there were no issues reported by the customer we scheduled the call with our tune up special¡st (***) for December 8, [redacted] arrived and performed a routine tune up of the indoor and outdoor unitThe cost of this call was $- Mills' standard charge for a heat pump tune up(see attached invoice)Upon cycling the system he noted that at the indoor wall mounted thermostat the Auxiliary Heat was on all the time and after some limited troubleshooting ¡t appeared to be a possible compressor issueWhen a Mills tune up specialist discovers an issue they are instructed to contact the office and schedule a time for the sen¡or technician to review and diagnose the issue(s) Our dispatcher scheduled our senior technician (***) who is a Master Electrician and Master HVAC tech for December 9, The customer accepted this appointment and ¡t was added to our schedule[redacted] arrived on 12/9/@ 9:am and departed at 10:amHe noted on his service invoice that when he cycled the heat mode at the outdoor unit, not at the indoor wall mounted thermostat, that he discovered the electric heat was running without a call from the thermostat or heat pump, which is not operationHe traced the wiring and found the heat/cool mode wire and electric heat wires were not wired properly at the control box of the outdoor unit from the initial installationDuring his initial assessment he looked at the "splice repair' made by [redacted] and determined that this repair was performed correctly and properlyClarifying that these (2) wiring issues are at separate areas and are unrelated [redacted] contacted the office and reviewed the information from the previous calls and stated that this was not a Mills issue as this likely had been improperly wired during the installation of the unitGiven this system was installed in the summer, not by Mills Heating & Air, an Installation technician would have to turn the thermostat up high enough during testing as practice which would activate both stages of heatThis issue would not reveal itself if both stages of heat were running and/or system was in cooling modeIf the unit would have continued to operate as it was wired it could have placed excessive wear and/or stress on the compressor [redacted] did not charge any additional diagnostic fee due to it being a follow up to the routine tune upHe did however charge $for the time to correct the crossed wires(see attached invoice)Again this HVAC unit was not installed by Mills Heating & Air and until September 8, we only had (1) other service call related to this system on 08/15/that was the result of an extremely dirty filterGiven the incorrect wiring anytime this unit was calling for first stage heat it was running in cool mode Second stage would switch the heat pump to heat mode and bring on the electric heatIn heat mode this would result in more electric consumption especially in cold temperatures The amount of money ($1700+) that the homeowner invested in trying to "locate" the source of the problem was not the issue of MillsWe were their last call and only asked to perform a routine maintenance and the customer did not mention that they were having an issue with the electrical hill until we had completed the tune up and Mills noted there was a problem with the auxiliary heat The manufacturers require routine maintenance on these systems to ensure proper operationWith the system being years old and this being the first maintenance check that Mills was aware of or involved in led to us discovering the issue.The customer originally thought that we made both splices and d¡d not or would not accept that the ones at the control box was a field connection This bundle of wires comes from the factory ready for the installer to connect to in order to complete the wiring portion of the installationThe blue wire nuts and ties trap are ubiquitous to the HVAC industryStrapping up the wiring to the line set was Mills being thorough and does not indicate that Mills rewiredthe factory connectionsAs for the blue wire nuts not showing any wear or fading at the factory connect¡on, they are shaded by the back of the unit and are not exposed to direct sun We cannot comment on the performance of the unit prior to our visit and given the limited history that Mills has with this unit When reviewing the information sent to Mills by the customer the time period that is covered on the electric billing (10/16/- 11/17/14) was thefirst extended period of heating operation of which all heat pumps consume more power.The office administrator ( [redacted] ) did speak to the customer several times, in advance of receiving his letter, discussing the calls to his home and the tasks that each technician performed and charged accordinglyThe customers initial request was that Ms [redacted] speak with MsMills and review all invoices to determine if the work performed by the technicians was done correctlyDuring the reviewing process Ms, Mills spoke to each service technicianinvolved and determined that it was not a Mills issue hut an issue related to the initial installationWe contacted the customer and in an attempt to resolve the matter MsMills offered 1/off the initial invoice dated 9/8/($106.00) citing this could be a compromise on the amount of monies that the customer had to spend and taking our existing business relationships into considerationDuring this phone conversation the communication started breaking down when the customer became uncooperative, irate and threatening to slander Mills Heating & Air to everyone he knewMsMills asked for the photos to be emailed to her so that further discussions could be had with all of the technicians to verify all information once again trying to be fair and reasonable We received the information, had another meeting with those involved and telephoned the customer while [redacted] was still in the officeThe customeragain did not want to accept our response even after speaking with *** He insists that all of this began after the initial repair of the thermostat wire in September which is totally unrelated to the issue that was causing his electric bill to be higher than normal.In closing Mills Heating & Air Conditioning, Inccan only guarantee the work that we have performed on this systemWe addressed each need this customer contacted Mills about as well as found and corrected the situation of the incorrect wiring However, Mills is willing to compromise on the billings to salvage the relationship with this customer.We would be glad to offer any additional information that you may need to make a final decision or clarify any of the above listed details.Sincerely,Laura Mills, PresidentMills Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc