Cassandra Barton Evans, Attorney

In response to above complaint ID [redacted] the customer in the past has called about a mildew smell in the upstairs vents, one of our technicians talked to her over the phone on several occasions as well as went out on different occasions and never found a mildew smellThe unit and ducts were checked thoroughly as well as the coilBack in May she called on Friday the 29th and we scheduled someone to come out on Saturday May 30th to look at her unit that she stated that she wanted us to check for a leak as she was smelling a mildew smell upstairsAgain the technician checked again and noted that there was no mildew smell coming from the vents and he found no leak in the upstairs unitHe did find a copper pipe for the downstairs unit in the basement with a crack which was leaking Freon (not because of improper installation) however due to a weak spot in the copper lineHe informed her he would be back on Monday to fix it and he went back on that Monday to repair the crack in the copper lineWhen he left on that Monday the line was not leaking and unit was operating normallyWe never heard anything else from the customer to say it was leaking again or not workingWe did send her an invoice for a service call for checking for the smell of mildew as we had been out several times previously for the same thing and found no smell of mildew and found the unit to be operating normallyThe invoice was not paid and we attempted to call her as the bill was past due, due to no response we filed a warrant in debt on August 6, in the amount of the service call ($85.00)Once the warrant in debt was received by customer she then called the builder who in turn contacted the owner of Tropical Heating and Cooling, Incat which point the owner had the warrant in debt removed from the docket and marked the invoice paid in fullWe once again tried contacting the customer to let them know that we had removed the warrant in debt and had to leave a message on her voicemailOn Friday August 14th her builder contacted the secretary to see what we had decided as he had received an email from the customer on the warrant in debtWe explained to the builder that we had in fact contacted the court to have the case removed from the docket and that we had left a voicemail message on her phone to state this but had not received a responseHe instructed he would send her an email to let her know and advised that we should try calling another number that he had listed for her in which we did and also had to leave a message on that phone as well with no responseOn Monday August 17, at 6:20PM our on call technician received a text from our answering service from the customer stating that she had a leak again in same place as beforeAt 6:39PM this complaint was filed with the Revdex.com and at 7:20PM our on call technician returned her phone call in which she was very friendly and nice and explained the problem she was having and was requesting we set up to come out and look at it againThe on call tech told her he would give her a call between 8AM and 9AM Tuesday August 18, to let her know when we could come out as she stated she had a conference call starting at 9AM on the 18thI understand an hour wait time is a lot however if our “on-call” technicians are on a service call it is customary for a return call not to be made until they have finished that service call Our technician called her on Tuesday August 18, between the 8AM and 9AM time frame as promised the night before and scheduled for us to come out on Wednesday August 19, to take a look at the leak and figure out what the problem is so that it can be properly resolvedThe customer was satisfied with the scheduled time frameAt 930AM the secretary received a call from the builder as the customer had contacted him again and the secretary let him know that we had talked to the customer the night before and again that morning and we had scheduled to go out on Wednesday August 19, 2015, he asked that we keep him updated on what we find out as the customer had stated to him that this was a continuous problem that she was having We have every intention of taking care of this problem for the customer with the outcome of the customer being happy and the leak to be fixedOn Wednesday August 19, our technician went out to the customer’s home to check the system, he found another crack in the copper tubing in a different spot than beforeHe showed the customer the crack in the pipe he found and showed her the repaired crack that was repaired previouslyHe repaired the crack and made sure pipe was no longer leaking by putting a 300LB nitrogen test for minutesThis also helps ensure that there are no other leaks within the system The cracks are coming from weak spots in the copper tubing which is a manufacture’s defect not an installation defect and the reason we know this is because the cracks are located in the physical pipe and not in a soldered joint on pipeWe have no way of knowing that the copper line has weak spots until something like this happensThe technician explained to the customer the crack all of this as well as explaining that in order to replace the entire copper pipe we would have to cut the sheet rock in the home from first to second floorAt this time rather than tearing up the sheet rock we decided to repair the cracksWe hope that the customer has found this to be satisfactory to them and if not we encourage them to call our office to let us knowThanks,CJ Cyrus, OwnerTropical Heating and Cooling, Inc

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved
Regards,
*** ***

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
THE AIR CONDITIONER WAS REPAIRED BY ANOTHER COMPANY AND WAS WORKING GREAT UNTIL YOUR TECH TURNED THE POWER OF! I HAD TO HAVE ANOTHER SERVICE CALL TO DETERMINE THAT THE OUTSIDE UNIT HAD BEEN TURNED OFF BY YOUR COMPANY WHICH IS JUST EVIL! *** *** (BUILDER) GAVE ME THE NUMBER TO CALL YOUR TECH IS LYING
Regards,
*** ***

Customer did not call the office on Saturday July 1, 2017 as we have a live answering service that answers our calls when the office is not open. Our office number is ###-###-####. The number customer called was the owner of Tropical cell phone. Beings that this was a holiday weekend he didn't...

receive the message until the following day Sunday July 2, 2017. Once he received the message he sent one of our technicians out to check the unit. The technician tried repeatedly to reach the customer but received no answer. The technician had another service call in the same area and while there tried knocking on the customers door to see if anyone was at home. The technician noticed the coil in the outside unit was freezing up so he pulled the disconnect so the unit would stop running and thaw out so that he could come back and check the unit once getting in touch with the customer. We do sincerely apologize for this miscommunication. We do feel that if the customer had called our actual office this would have been handled on Saturday and all would be well. We do not feel that we are liable to pay the customer $500.00 however we do apologize as had the customer called the office the problem would have been resolved or if the customer had called our technician back he could have explained what he did while there and corrected the problem. Again we do apologize.

In response to above complaint ID [redacted] the customer in the past has called about a mildew smell in the upstairs vents, one of our technicians talked to her over the phone on several occasions as well as went out on different occasions and never found a mildew smell. The unit and ducts were...

checked thoroughly as well as the coil. Back in May 2015 she called on Friday the 29th and we scheduled someone to come out on Saturday May 30th to look at her unit that she stated that she wanted us to check for a leak as she was smelling a mildew smell upstairs. Again the technician checked again and noted that there was no mildew smell coming from the vents and he found no leak in the upstairs unit. He did find a copper pipe for the downstairs unit in the basement with a crack which was leaking Freon (not because of improper installation) however due to a weak spot in the copper line. He informed her he would be back on Monday to fix it and he went back on that Monday to repair the crack in the copper line. When he left on that Monday the line was not leaking and unit was operating normally. We never heard anything else from the customer to say it was leaking again or not working. We did send her an invoice for a service call for checking for the smell of mildew as we had been out several times previously for the same thing and found no smell of mildew and found the unit to be operating normally. The invoice was not paid and we attempted to call her as the bill was past due, due to no response we filed a warrant in debt on August 6, 2015 in the amount of the service call ($85.00). Once the warrant in debt was received by customer she then called the builder who in turn contacted the owner of Tropical Heating and Cooling, Inc. at which point the owner had the warrant in debt removed from the docket and marked the invoice paid in full. We once again tried contacting the customer to let them know that we had removed the warrant in debt and had to leave a message on her voicemail. On Friday August 14th her builder contacted the secretary to see what we had decided as he had received an email from the customer on the warrant in debt. We explained to the builder that we had in fact contacted the court to have the case removed from the docket and that we had left a voicemail message on her phone to state this but had not received a response. He instructed he would send her an email to let her know and advised that we should try calling another number that he had listed for her in which we did and also had to leave a message on that phone as well with no response. On Monday August 17, 2015 at 6:20PM our on call technician received a text from our answering service from the customer stating that she had a leak again in same place as before. At 6:39PM this complaint was filed with the Revdex.com and at 7:20PM our on call technician returned her phone call in which she was very friendly and nice and explained the problem she was having and was requesting we set up to come out and look at it again. The on call tech told her he would give her a call between 8AM and 9AM Tuesday August 18, 2015 to let her know when we could come out as she stated she had a conference call starting at 9AM on the 18th. I understand an hour wait time is a lot however if our “on-call” technicians are on a service call it is customary for a return call not to be made until they have finished that service call.  Our technician called her on Tuesday August 18, 2015 between the 8AM and 9AM time frame as promised the night before and scheduled for us to come out on Wednesday August 19, 2015 to take a look at the leak and figure out what the problem is so that it can be properly resolved. The customer was satisfied with the scheduled time frame. At 930AM the secretary received a call from the builder as the customer had contacted him again and the secretary let him know that we had talked to the customer the night before and again that morning and we had scheduled to go out on Wednesday August 19, 2015, he asked that we keep him updated on what we find out as the customer had stated to him that this was a continuous problem that she was having.  We have every intention of taking care of this problem for the customer with the outcome of the customer being happy and the leak to be fixed. On Wednesday August 19, 2015 our technician went out to the customer’s home to check the system, he found another crack in the copper tubing in a different spot than before. He showed the customer the crack in the pipe he found and showed her the repaired crack that was repaired previously. He repaired the crack and made sure pipe was no longer leaking by putting a 300LB nitrogen test for 15 minutes. This also helps ensure that there are no other leaks within the system.  The cracks are coming from weak spots in the copper tubing which is a manufacture’s defect not an installation defect and the reason we know this is because the cracks are located in the physical pipe and not in a soldered joint on pipe. We have no way of knowing that the copper line has weak spots until something like this happens. The technician explained to the customer the crack all of this as well as explaining that in order to replace the entire copper pipe we would have to cut the sheet rock in the home from first to second floor. At this time rather than tearing up the sheet rock we decided to repair the cracks. We hope that the customer has found this to be satisfactory to them and if not we encourage them to call our office to let us know. Thanks,CJ Cyrus, OwnerTropical Heating and Cooling, Inc.