Climate Control of Harrisonburg, Inc.

Review: This is a copy of the letter sent to the owner of Climate Control Inc and still he refuses to respond to repeated requests to communicate with us, after repeated request to return phone calls. This letter was sent to him via Climate Control website and also sent to the Credit Card Company on 7/29/2013. This letter is to review all of the work performed by your company at my residence, together with your charges, in order to ensure that we both have the same understanding of where we are, how we got here, and what my intentions are going forward. Last fall, after reviewing several proposals from various HVAC repair providers, we chose your company based on your knowledge of our system and the recommendations you made. At that time, you agreed to repair our entire system, in order to get the output of both heat and air conditioning to match the specifications of the unit. From there, we were to decide whether or not we believed the size of the system was adequate for our home, and we would upgrade it if necessary. When you performed the work, the multi-day job was split between you and one of your employees. Our confidence in your employee was shaken due to his lack of focus, having to leave our home early on two occasions for some personal matters, and because he left early and left your equipment attached to our compressor units outside in the elements. After he left, nobody came back to finish the work until we called back and inquired about your return, and informed you that the equipment was left outside. Once the work was completed, we received a call approximately 2 weeks later from your office informing us that you were going to come by our home to pick-up the payment. At that point we had received no bill for the work performed; my wife requested that we get a formal, itemized bill to review, prior to payment as the negotiated contract agreed price was $2450.00, so that we could understand the exact charges for the work performed. Both my wife and I found it very odd that our request was received less than enthusiastically, as if we were being unreasonable. When the bill was hand delivered the same day the payment was also requested so a check was written in exchange for the invoice. The invoice was still very vague, but we paid it anyway relying on good faith that you would stand behind your work. Again, it was our understanding from several conversations with you that our system would be brought up to the original specs by replacing some of the parts (that you said were an incorrect match for our system) with the proper parts, and ensuring that the entire system was working properly for both heat and air conditioning. The heat worked okay for the entire winter season. When we turned on the air conditioning for the very first time in the spring, however, we immediately noticed that the system did not seem to be providing adequate cooling. It took extended periods to change the temperature in the home by even one degree. Since we did not run it much in the spring, we only had short periods to try to determine if there was, in fact a real issue. When we finally got some higher temperatures and tried to run the system, we were certain that there was a problem because the cooling just could not keep up with the heat. Shortly after discovering the issue, I also went into the HVAC room in our basement and discovered a pool of water had accumulated and was coming out of the main unit. At that time, I placed a call to your company to schedule an appointment. I could not get an appointment for several days, and had to shut down the air conditioning to prevent damage and further flooding in our basement. When your tech, [redacted], came out, he immediately suspected that the system had frozen due to inadequate refrigerant in the system. He checked the level, and verified that the system was down below half of the proper level. When [redacted] called your office and spoke with the secretary, he told her the problem and put me on the phone with her. I explained that you had just been out to service our system a few months back, and that we should not have to pay for this visit. Her reply was that you were out of town, she could not get you to respond to her messages, and that you left instructions that all service calls must be paid without exception. So I had no choice but to pay $235.00 dollars with a credit card over the phone to get the air conditioning charged, even though it should have been charged during the previous visit. [redacted] remarked that it was possible that the system had a leak, and that he did not have time to check for a leak that day. So I would have to schedule yet another appointment if this did not correct the problem. On the day of the appointment, your technician arrived promptly. He checked the level of refrigerant and stated it was still holding the full amount that he had added on June 5th. He also determined that the continual water leakage was from a cracked pan, which was presumably just replaced during your last visit with the new 35 ton Rheem coil (in October 2012 when everything was completely reworked). Since there was apparently no leak (as has been none in the nearly two months since, this result could only indicate the level was never properly added or even checked once the installation was complete with the new coil in 2012. Since the refrigerant was inadequate for the system, the first time or two that we ran it the water leaking into the pan expanded and cracked it, causing water leakage through the pan all over the basement floor. We vacuumed up 4 inches in a 12 gallon wet/dry vacuum, so this was a significant amount water running through the furnace room into the adjacent bathroom. The water also got underneath the bathroom vinyl floor causing it to bubble up from the adhesive damage. In summary, poor communication with your employee, combined with not performing proper checks of the system once you had finished the work, all combined to create a leak, which then froze and caused damage to our system. There is no way that you can dispute your negligence, as the refrigerant was not present in the system, and there is no leak and never was one. That was confirmed by [redacted], your technician. So the only conclusion is that you never serviced the refrigerant in the first place. Then, in order to correct the lack of refrigerant level that was YOUR ERROR, I was forced to pay $235.00 for the refrigerant and labor that should have been included in the previous servicing. I don’t understand that logic at all, and my wife tried to call you on numerous occasions to explain it to us. To this day, you have failed to return over 10 attempts to call and speak with you. Your assistant relayed to us that she had given you every message, and that it was your choice to not return our calls. On the final call my wife made to your company, she also said that you had refused to give us a refund, and had told her you would not return our calls. How fortunate that we called more than 10 times or we would never have found that out. Even prior to your secretary relaying your cowardly response to us, it was quite obvious that you had no intention of refunding our $235.00, knowing full well that this was entirely caused by your negligence. It is quite apparent to us, in spite of our conversations prior to hiring you, that you lack the character, moral fiber, and ethical behavior to ever do the right thing; conversely, you seem solely driven by money and getting away with the most profit for the least amount of effort and time. You don’t understand that repeat customers are much easier to retain than getting new ones, just by treating them fairly and honestly. You certainly gave it all the proper lip service, but your actions and deeds betray your words. You don’t even have the decency to return the phone calls of your customer, much less do the right thing when you are at fault for an installation gone wrong. You may recall that when we first spoke, I explained to you that we were looking for a professional that not only knew their business, but had good morals and sound business ethics. I told you directly that if you treated us fairly, you would have a loyal customer for life. Could I not make that any clearer? A simple apology and refunding our $235.00 would have retained our business and you would have earned that from us MANY times over in the years to come. Not to mention the good word of mouth advertising that we would have done for you. That initial conversation was borne out of several bad experiences prior to you, from which we were left very cautious and guarded. I thought that we were being thorough and very clear with you, but what we failed to do was check the Internet feedback on your company, which would have shown us several serious complaints about you, including one manufacturer pulling their business from you for cause. Once again, we have learned a valuable lesson, but it is not our fault for trusting, but rather yours for betraying that trust. A copy of this letter is going to the Revdex.com, our bank to request a refund, our local newspaper, and any other consumer advocate groups we can find through research, including those such as Angie’s List. My only hope is that we can spread the word about our ordeal with you, and prevent other homeowners from becoming a victim of your unscrupulous business practices.Desired Settlement: Refund of the $235.00 back to our Credit Card

Review: A few months ago Climate Control installed a new heat / air conditioning system in my townhouse. They also included a home humidification system. The installer insured that the humidification system would maintain the desired level of humidity during the coldest, driest winter months. I questioned him about this at length because of my need to have humidity control in my home. He said this unit , which added almost $ 1000 to the project cost, would generate sufficient humidity.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. When the outside temperatures drop below freezing the humidity in the house stays at around 30%, despite it being set at 45 or 50, the desirable level. I have called and e-mailed the company about this - all to no avail. They rarely rarely return phone calls, often miss appointments and don't even bother to call and cancel. They tell me the owner will call and come out to inspect personally but he never does. One time they showed up after missing another appointment the outside temperature had warmed up to over 45 so the system appeared to be working and needed no adjustments. They have billed me for this yet have done nothing to justify any additional outlays on my part.Desired Settlement: I would like the system to function as they told me it would. It it can't generate sufficient humidity I would like them to acknowledge it was not the right unit to install and to reimburse me for the added expenses. Since low humidity is bad for my health I would just like them to get the unit functioning as they said it would.

Business

Response:

On Wednesday January 29, 2014 this office spoke with Mr. [redacted] and assured him that the manager would be out to his home on Thursday or Friday of that week. After receiving notice of the complaint from Revdex.com this office again called Mr. [redacted] just to confirm appointment for Friday by noon. Friday January 31, 2014 [redacted], manager of Climate Control of Harrisonburg, Inc., went to the property of[redacted], Harrisonburg, Virginia [redacted] to resolve the issues Mr. [redacted] was having with his humidifier. Monday February 3, 2014 Climate Control of Harrisonburg, Inc. called Mr. [redacted] to follow up and make sure humidifier was performing to standards but was unable to reach him and had to leave a message. Since February 3, 2014 we have had no further correspondence to or from Mr. [redacted] so it is our belief that Mr. [redacted]'s complaint has been resolved.

If any further information is needed please let us know.

Thank you.

Climate Control of Harrisonburg, Inc.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], 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,

We are still in the process of finding out why the humification system is not working properly. Climate Control has responded to my inquiries and seems intent to get to the bottom of it.