Drake Mechanical, Inc.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to c*** ** ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meThank you for your help in this matterI will contact MrDrake after this to thank him for his personal attention to our issue
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*** was given a complimentary air conditioning tune up in January as a gesture of good will for having to wait a week on her furnace filters ( we were out of stock ) & told to call me for schedulingOn Saturday night around pm she called our on-call service technician demanding her "free"
air conditioning repairI returned ***s call & explained that the complimentary service was for a standard A/C tune up & not a free after hours repairI told her , again as a gesture of good will, that I would be happy to reduce our after hours service fee by half which is what our service plan members receiveShe called me a liar & became quite offensive so I told her it may be best to contract with another repair company, she said thats exactly what I will do & hung up on me

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:After reading the response from Drake, which is the first time there has been any response to my requests to revise the invoice to reflect the actual work completed.  I have attached the following documentation.   1)  Drakes signed Proposal of work  2)  The invoice of the 2nd contractor who was called in to complete the work.  3)  The final invoice from Drake.  Please note the disparity between the final Drake invoice and the technicians explanation.  It is clear from the invoice of the second contractor who completed the work, that the gas line required testing again, Drake installed no regulators, and the water line was not completed.    Drakes invoice combined with the explanation of the technician is without question an invoice for work and materials that was never completed. After this complaint finally prompted a response by Drake, It is our belief that all work was completed or duplicated by the second contractor with the exception of connecting the system to the meter.  In addition, there was no refusal to pay, only repeated attempts for explanation and resolution.  Since this was a new business start-up with bank supported financing, there cannot be multiple invoices for the same work.  Also, In my best effort to understand their charges, there were 8 1/2 hours of work at an average of $152.24/hour!   I don't dispute the time on the job, but I agreed to pay them for their services, not an employees hours.    It is our position that the charges for the services in the attached invoice are false and excessive.    Additionally, as described in the statement from Drake, they started the work on this project with complete knowledge that there was work done by the plant installers (run gas line from a boiler to be connected to the supply).  Every new and existing gas line in the warehouse building was plainly visible and fully exposed outside of walls.   As a business owner and not a mechanical contractor, I relayed the comments from the inspector who failed the inspection to Drake in an attempt to resolve the issues.  Both me and the inspector were puzzled by Drakes decision to leave the job 'as is.'   I would welcome any documentation from the city of Boise that the work 'looked good' on the failed inspection as the technician describes.  It would be a reasonable expectation that Drake would address any liability concerns with the out of state installers (licensed not in Idaho) before beginning $1,294.11 worth of work, leaving the project incomplete and delaying the start-up.   If their concerns are really as they described, they simply should have never written and signed a proposal and said 'we cannot do this job as you need it.'  In short, they never should have started the work.   Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted] My name is Nick Drake; I am the President of Drake Mechanical.  I was out last week for some time off for the holidays so until I got your message from the Revdex.com I was unaware of any of the goings on with this project or us giving you an estimate.  I have now...

made the connection as [redacted] called me and I sized the piping changes he wanted and put the price together for him as gas piping is not something that you can just put in a flat rate book pricing system as every application is different.  I want to offer my sincere apologies for you getting not charged once but twice.  We have sat down with the tech that was onsite and gone over the credit card app in further detail to make sure he understands how to use it correctly moving forward.  As far as you not being told about the $39.00 I listened to the phone conversation between you and [redacted] this morning and you are 100% correct.  [redacted] did not give you that information on the phone.  It is our company policy that unless we are quoting a whole furnace and ac change out where a salesman goes out rather than a service technician that we always charge the $39.00 as our basic service fee to get a tech onsite to properly diagnose the problem and then give you a proposal for the work that is to be performed prior to doing any work.  As far as [redacted] charging you the fee he is doing as he is instructed to on every service call he goes out on.  I have also had a long discussion with both of our receptionists and dispatcher and made sure that moving forward we don’t forget to tell each customer about our service fee.  As for the website I have never posted rates for anything on there so I know that you would not find it on there.  We are sending out a check to your address today and as I said before I sincerely apologize for the double charge and miscommunication.  That should never have happened but unfortunately we are all human and do make mistakes.  The pricing [redacted] gave you for the gas piping I am assuming as I was not there that he believed that he was to give you a price for all of the piping that you wanted to do in the future not just the one run and a manifold.  When he gave me footages and BTU loads I based the pricing off all of the piping that needed performed.  I am sorry that we are losing you as a customer but I do want to make it as right as I can and get you refunded and offer my best explanation of what happened.  If there is ever a chance to earn your business back, I would certainly appreciate the opportunity as my family has been taking care of peoples plumbing and heating since 1909 and what you experienced is not the way my family has ever or will ever do business.    Sincerely, Nick Drake   President

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Mr. R[redacted] continues his apocryphy and improves his verity. At no time did I call him a name. I pointed out to him that he was telling me two different versions of information and ergo, one was apocryphal. Mr. R[redacted] hyperbole is indicative of his skill and the company's ability to provide service. Drake needs to make this ineptness right by doing the right thing. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Here is what happened in the technicians own words.  I met with [redacted] owner and discussed the scope of work to be done.  It is as follows.  "increase the size of piping on the gas main coming from the main into the building, approx. 8-12 feet and tie into the existing system so...

that the meter can be increased from inches of water column to 2 lb gas".   I completed the work on the gas line increasing the size as asked by the customer.  (He even agreed to pay overtime and had me complete the work on a Saturday).  [redacted] had a separate crew inside the building working on completing inside service piping (natural gas piping) which I did connect to inside the building.  I finished my portion from the meter to the inside connection and put it on test and we called for a gas line inspection.    The inspector showed up on Monday - Tuesday of the following week and said my work looks good and is holding pressure.  He then asked me about who performed the work inside to which I said that I do not know but it was not Drake Mechanical.  He said he will not green tag (pass) the piping because it was installed by a non licensed contractor.  He then asked me if Drake Mechanical would take credit for their work which was not completed at the time.  I said we cannot do that as it is our license on the line if something happens and people get hurt and company policy prohibits me from taking credit for work performed by other people.  He then said that is fine then I have to Fail the inspection.  Later that day I received   a call from [redacted] asking what happened and I told him.  He  acted amazed on the phone that we would not take credit and liability for work that was installed by someone else.  He then said why not, the inspector said that companies do it all the time....  I stated that we do not and that it is company policy to not stand behind someone else's work especially someone who isn't licensed to install it in the first place.  Even if we would accept it our insurance company would have a fit.  If someone were to get hurt due to gas leaks or improper installations then we would be held liable and it is not an option.  He then stated that his guys will fix anything we wanted them to fix and I told him again that we cannot certify work not done by Drake Mechanical.  He then hung up on me.  I installed the tee in the water service inside the wall as asked by the owner of [redacted] and attempted to drill a hole to keep everything inside the wall into the next room.  After burning up 4 drill bits I told him there was an I Bean in the way and that we would have to come out into the room and go through the drywall to get the piping into the next room.    He then told me not to worry about it and that he would have his guys complete it.  End quote by Technician.   We then tried to collect for the work that was completed as we could go no further with it as he had another contractor onsite doing the work.  He has refused to pay the bill multiple times.  At this point yes we were forced to take another route as he has refused payment and we did send him to collections and added their fees and interest to the amount owed.