Clark Heating and Air Conditioning

Review: Contractor has failed to respond to a warranty repair on a 1 1/2 year old air conditioner. They continue to stall or respond to repeated phone calls.

New HVAC system was installed in June 2011. The system failed to cool when turned to the air conditioning cycle at the end of April after less than two cooling seasons. We were informed by the Contractors representative on April 30th that there was a bad coil and that it would need to be replaced. This is where it got cryptic in terms of what the Contractor intended to do. The service representative indicated that he did not know what was going to happen with the manufacturer and that they had been having issues with these units. Given no clear path as to what would happen other than they were going to have a conversation with the manufacturer and get back to me. There was also a comment from Clark's representative that there would be additional costs associated with the repair. After two weeks and multiple calls to the Contractor, there has been no response or action. The service representative finally returned our repeated calls on Thursday May 16th and informed us that the manufacturer's representative was now responsible for ordering the replacement coil and that he did not know the status. Upon requesting the manufacturer's representative's phone number, Clark's service representative "could not remember his phone number" and would get back to us by the end of day. No return call was received.

Upon further research, we find complaints about the contractor's performance and their failure to have a final inspection performed on their work. We know that there were no inspections what-so-ever on the work performed. Input from a friend that is a licensed mechanical contractor informed us that there are code violations that should have been addressed during the initial installation. We now have considerable concern that our safety and security are compromised as a result of Clark's failure to meet basic safety standards and legal requirements.Desired Settlement: We expect that Clark will replace the faulty coil and bring the system into full compliance with all code and safety requirements. We do not expect to pay for anything associated with this repair unless it can be demonstrated that the costs are above and beyond what would otherwise be required to meet the original installation scope.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

This customer, [redacted], contacted our Company to schedule a no-cooling service call on April 25, 2013. Upon diagnosis of the equipment, we found that the indoor coil of the equipment he purchased in July 2011 had an un-repairable leak in it. We contacted the local distributor for the manufacturer the same day and the coil was ordered the very next day. The warranty coil has not yet come in and the customer has been very unreasonable (and irascible) about the time frame that it is taking for this to be done. There is nothing we can do about the manufacturer's time-frame, and the customer flatly told us that they did not believe us when we passed on the information that the coil could take up to a month to come from the factory. They requested direct contact information with the local distributer and have been just as informed as we have been, at times sooner, from the local distributor on the status of the incoming part.

The coil, as I stated, has not yet come in as of this time that I am writing this e-mail to you.

Finally, the customer also indicated in his letter that a Final Inspection had not been filed on his new installation. We performed the work originally and obtained the permit. We do not know what the customer is talking about regarding the inspection except that he may have neglected to call the final inspection, which we indicated to him at that time, he needed to schedule because it requires him to be home. We cannot, arbitrarily, schedule something for the customer. As you can see now, this customer is not very cooperative and it appears that he also failed to be cooperative then, about the permit, after the installation. It is our impression that this customer just likes to get other people in trouble for things that are outside of their control. We cannot force a customer to stay at home for an Inspector to arrive and sign off on a job, and the customer is, as indicated on the Permit itself (Sacramento County), the responsible party for making sure the inspection is completed. We made that very clear to him, as we do with all of our customers.

Clark has a 1-year labor warranty, as required by the State of California. As this equipment was installed more than 1 year ago, we informed the customer that there would be labor and material costs, not covered by the manufacturer warranty, which they would be subject to at this time. These complaints filed by the customer with you (Revdex.com) are erroneous and the customer is using your Bureau as pressure against our Company regarding this coil situation, which as I stated before, is covered under the manufacturer's warranty, not Clark's. They are using extortion to try to force us to do work for them for no-pay. They have even "harassed" the office girls to the point of tears.

We have fulfilled every obligation that we have to this customer and there are no grounds or basis for any complaint.

I would like to see this case dropped immediately, as everything that can be done has already been initiated by our Company. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me directly via e-mail.

Consumer's Final Response

Clark installed a new HVAC system in June of 2011. Clark was contacted when the system failed to cool when needed in April 2013. A bad coil in the new air conditioner was found to be the problem upon inspection. Despite a 10 year warrantee and less than two full years of use, Clark failed to stand behind their work and honor their commitment to replace the broken coil. Clark was unresponsive and placed all the blame on the manufacturer. Clark was not forthcoming on what additional cost would occur or what expenses would ordinarily be covered under a warranty repair situation. Clark did not provide any firm schedule for the repair but did attempt to charge us another $800 for a temporary fix. Clark ignored repeated requests to speak with the owner so that we could understand what they would charge for the repair. Clark did not contact us after the initial discussions nor did they track the shipment of the part, seek to expedite matters or show any particular concern for our problem. Seventy days later, one week after the replacement part arrived, Clark owner [redacted] finally had the where-with-all of speak with us when he told us to go find a different company to work with. This vindictive action was taken with full knowledge that a record setting heat wave was about to begin.

Clark showed up 5 days after we initially called. After diagnosing the problem, Clark's representative was very ambiguous as to the timing on the fix given a problem with the manufacturer. We were told it would be several weeks before we could expect anything. Clark's only solution was to recharge our broken system so that the Freon could leak to the atmosphere but that will cost you $800 and is not guaranteed to work.

After several weeks we called back to find that Clark knew nothing and had not followed up. We got the phone number for their supplier given they were not concerned with our problem. The conversation at this point became confrontational as we were not given the opportunity to discuss the matter with Clark's ownership. Instead we were only able to talk with the new receptionist who was not prepared to deal with the conflict. Clark's owners knew that we were upset but refused to call us back despite our repeated requests to talk with the owner. We just wanted to get an answer as to what the situation with the coil was and what Clark's intentions were as to charging for this work and what was under warrantee. We were told by the supplier that the expected delivery of the replacement part was in 2 weeks, June 7th.

So after waiting 33 days with no communication from Clark, we called Clark's supplier on June 18th. They confirmed our part had shipped and was due to arrive Monday June 24. At this point, given we've had no air conditioning this entire year; you would expect Clark to anticipate the part's arrival and schedule installation. Wrong! Again, we had to call the distributor to determine that the part had in fact arrived. The distributor immediately informed Clark of the coil's arrived and again we had to initiate the phone call with Clark to now schedule installation. Their response: "call our service department next Monday, in 6 days and "they will see what they can do". Their excuse this time was that the rain had messed up their work schedule. I told the receptionist, the only person I've been able to talk with, how disappointed I was and that for once it would be nice if someone from Clark could call me to tell me what's happening. Her answer was "I'll let them know".

Following their direction, we called first thing the following Monday morning. For the very first time we were able to speak to the owner. After the coil had been sitting in a warehouse here in town for a week, Mr. [redacted] finally has the courage to talk to me at which point he tells me that because we got upset with them and complained to the Revdex.com, they would not help us and that they had no contractual relationship. During this week period, temperatures reached 107 outside and 96 degrees in our bedroom. We are now seeking another contractor to help but given the heat wave, no one can show up for two weeks.

Had Clark's management been forthright with us, we could have secured another company to perform the installation prior to the massive heat wave we're experiencing. Instead they choose to act in a vindictive, unprofessional and negligent manner and make us suffer through the longest and hottest heat wave on record without air conditioning. Clark total lack of concern that they have our $10,000 and we have no air is a testament to the quality of service you can expect from this apparently desperate contractor. Clark is not interested in fixing the problem, just the blame. Buyers beware!!!

Review: On June 9, 2014 [redacted] from Clark Heating & Air conditioning repaired my air conditioner. On his receipt, it was stated "Parts covered by warranty (to be refunded to customer when credit received from factory) compressor, filter driver, & compressor wiring". That warranty amount was $618.71. The amount not covered by warranty was $837.48. I paid them a total of $1456.19 I was told the refund could take up to 3 months because it would come from back east. After 3 months, I called them and they told me that the company was laying off employees back east and that there would be further delay. Since then, I have called at least 3 times and each time they told me that they would email them and see what the status was. They have never gotten back to me. The person I talked with is [redacted].Desired Settlement: I simply would like amount covered under warranty be refunded to me ASAP

Business

Response:

I understand Ms. [redacted]', however, we have not yet received the warranty refund. Though it might seem absurd that the Manufacturer would take this long to process Ms. [redacted]' warranty claim it is, nonetheless, true. Unfortunately for Ms. [redacted], as was explained to her by Camille, the Manufacturer changed the Distributorship (formally known as Global HVAC Distributors) in the middle of this process and the new Distributor (Western Air Supply a Ferguson Enterprise) has been extremely slow in processing the warranties from the previous ownership.We have reassured that the warranty claim will be honored by the Manufacturer and the new Distributor but they have not yet promised us a date certain. As of January 21, 2015 a representative of the Credit Department for the Distributor, Western Air Supply a Ferguson Enterprise, confirmed in an email to our Bookkeeper, Camille, that: "You should expect to receive a check in a couple of weeks."As of today's date we have not yet received the check and we had planned on contacting Ms. [redacted] as soon as we have the check in our possession. This entire matter has been frustrating for us, as well as for Ms. [redacted]. However, we are only the Contractor and have no power to force the Manufacturer of the Distributor to act any quicker, nor to circumvent their internal company processes.Unfortunately, due to the mishandling of this matter by the Manufacturer and the Distributor, Ms. [redacted] has come to "blame" us. Please reassure her that we have been no different if anyone else had been involved. We understand that there are dozens of HVAC contractors and customers who have been involved in similar efforts to get their warranty claims processed by the manufacturing and distributing companies involved here.We hope to have a final resolution of this matter within the next two weeks. We are already scheduled to contact the Distributor next Monday, if we do not receive the check by the end of this week. I will contact you as soon as we have more information. I will also send a copy of this letter to Ms. [redacted] so she understands our position as well.Sincerely,[redacted]President

Business

Response:

Please find attached to this email our response letter to this complaint. Thank you, Sincerely, [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.