Comfort Systems USA

Review: I recently bought a house and scheduled a check of my heating system for which I was quoted $142. This business sent me a technician who seemed to know nothing about my system. He asked to use my iPad to access the manual for it. He arrived at 9:00 am and didn’t t leave until 7:30 pm. The tech managed to add on charges that more than doubled the bill. First of all, he told me that the system was not working at all. He said he added freon and that there was a leak in my system. He said he had to do a leak check, which cost me an additional $100. Afterward, he told me there was in fact no leak. In the afternoon he told me a colleague of his had a spare part he needed and was in my town of Hamilton, so he needed to meet up with him to get it. He left and returned about 2 hours later. He never replaced the part he supposedly left to get. Finally around 7:30 he told me my heating system needed yet a different replacement part. He also said that the filter was so dirty that I needed to have the system run without one until he could bring a replacement filter after he ordered and brought the part he alleged needed replacing. At the tail end of the visit, I told him that my gas fireplace didn’t work. He spent about ten minutes on it, and scraped buildup off of a jet, after which it worked. He presented me a bill of $352. I couldn’t t really decipher the bill at that time and just wanted him gone so I could take off to do some errands. I never thought he would take up the entire day into the evening. My name is [redacted], and I noticed that the tech spelled it as [redacted]. He misspelled my last name also.

About a week later a different technician came out with the replacement part. He soon told me that the system was working properly as is, that I didn’t t need the replacement part, and that the technician they sent out was brand new in the field and should never been sent to service my system. He did not bring a replacement filter, saying he was not told to do so, although it was written on the original receipt. He put the filter back in and said it was not that bad. He said he would speak to the appropriate person regarding my inflated bill.

My check wasn’t cashed until about three weeks later. I had hoped that it wouldn’t be, and that I’d receive a lower bill instead. I immediately called the company and was routed to manager [redacted]. I explained to him why I felt the bill was inflated for the shoddy service I received. He said he’d talk to the tech and get back to me. He eventually did and in spite of all the mistakes and misdiagnoses the tech made, backed him up in every way. He also said that my small dog bit him, which was news to me. He said that the tech asked me to put my dogs in a room, which is a lie as I suspect the alleged bite is. He said the tech spent 45 minutes on the gas fireplace, because the part he scrapped was hard to get to, another lie. With this company, the customer is never right. He finally agreed to pay me back $70, which in my opinion wasn’t enough, but I agreed to it. After several weeks the check never arrived and I left [redacted] a voice message inquiring about it. [redacted] never returned my call and apparently was not sincere in his pledge to reimburse me in some small part. Other than having my gas fireplace jet scraped clean, which the tech charged me $120 for, I feel I received no value from this company since I cannot trust that my system was properly evaluated. The tech wrongly diagnosed that the system was not working at all, that it had a leak, needed two part replacements, and that it could run better without a filter than with the one I had that was not that dirty. (I’ve since got a new one.) This company gave me inferior service and inferior customer service.Desired Settlement: Please refund $300, since I still need to have my system evaluated by a competent technician. The remaining $52 more than pays for the scrapped clean gas jet, in my opinion.

Business

Response:

After learning about this complaint, I did some research and called [redacted]. Having prepared for the call with [redacted], I was familiar enough with the situation that we were able to develop a plan to provide the service [redacted] requested and agree to a fair price. The result was sending out a highly qualified technician to perform the preventative maintenance that was originally requested, which was performed to [redacted]'s satisfaction. We also wrote a refund check to [redacted] in the amount of $125. The net result is that [redacted] paid for her preventative maintenance on her heating system and a repair that was performed on her fireplace. We could have settled on a larger refund and not performed the work that [redacted] originally requested, but I am adamant that in the end we always deliver the service and/or project that the customer wanted at a fair price.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business' response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

Revdex.com,

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9979210 and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. The business bent over backward to make things right after learning of my complaint.

Regards,