Fire Safety Systems Inc.

In response to the complaint of [redacted], Case Number referenced above for the contract disputes I would like to reply as follows.  11px;">Mr. [redacted], was never told by me or anyone in our Company that the whole process would only take one week tops. Justin [redacted] and Kyle [redacted], the technicians who were originally out to inspect Mr. [redacted]'s hood system told him that once the Permit Department received the plans it usually takes about a week, but could take up to two or more weeks. This inspection was included at the end of the day in an already full day due to Mr. [redacted]'s urgent request on July 9th. I, Daniel [redacted], am the only one qualified to draw plans. Unfortunately, my scheduled vacation started on the 1Qth of July. Because we had not received a signed proposal and 50 percent down payment that is required by our Company as of this time, and because Fairfax Plans and Review Department had not gotten back to me as to their permit procedure and every jurisdiction is different and we had not done work in this jurisdiction before. We did not receive the 50 percent down payment until the 23rd of July and it is Company practice to not perform work until those monies are received. Because of the following reasons I did not start the plans until I had returned from my vacation on the 23rd of July. As to the acqusation that we did not do the job correctly I would like to respectfully disagree. Mr. [redacted] had an existing system that was previously installed by another company. We were only contracted to re-route distribution piping for his new appliances and cover one exhaust duct that was not covered. Because we could not properly trip system on initial visit (because there was no electricity in building) Mr. [redacted] was advised that if any part of the system other than the work we were contracted to perform did not work properly there would be an extra charge to fix those items, as well as any part of the system that was not installed by Fire Safety Systems. This information was also documented in the plans packet that was submitted to Plans and Review Department in the City of Fairfax. The actual work was completed on August 4'h and the first system test was performed August 5th . The system did not fail because of the work that we had performed the system failed because fittings not installed by Fire Safety Systems and which had nothing to do with the work we did were not installed properly and leaked. This issue was discovered after there was power and we were able to actually trip the system. Again, we could not do this initially because there was no power to the building which Mr. [redacted] was aware of. The system also failed because the Fire Marshall wanted lights under the hood to shut off upon activation of the system. Because this is not a correct Code interpretation we did not give Mr. [redacted] a price to perform this work. As a matter of fact upon hearing this news I personally contacted the Plans and Review Department and explained that the Code did not require the lights to shut off and they reversed their decision which saved Mr. [redacted] a substantial amount of money. He demanded that we come and do this electrical work after hours on the evening of August 5th, which would have been at time and a half for the electrical rate starting from the time the electrician left our shop to the time he returned. Because the system failed for reasons out of our control Mr. [redacted] was advised that we could fix these issues, but starting from the time that the Fire Marshall left and we started the additional work it would be $85.00 per hour which is our normal fire suppression hood tech rate. Mr. [redacted] was told this multiple times by the technician, Kyle [redacted], Dan [redacted] personally, the Owner, and Sue [redacted], Office Manager. Mr. [redacted]'s response each time was that he understood and just wanted the job done. Kyle's time restarted Wednesday, August 5th around noon and he was there the rest of the day and returned on Thursday, August 5th for the better part of the day. I also had a service tech come in an hour early Thursday morning to recharge the bottles for the re•test. Then Kyle was back on Friday, August 7th for the re-test. Understand this job is an hour to an hour and one half one way depending on traffic from our shop. Mr. [redacted] was given an Invoice on Friday, August 7th upon passing of test by the Fire Marshall for the additional work which totaled $1 ,820.50. Again Mr. [redacted] was told multiple times by three different people within our Company that these fees were in•addition to the original proposed work. Kyle [redacted], the technician performing had an additional 12.5 hours of extra work at $85.00 per hour. In addition, to Kyles' work I personally had multiple hours on the phone with the City of Fairfax Plans and Review Department (it took two hours on the phone one day just to call in the final inspection for the 7th, which of course they said they were sorry for re-routing me to at least a dozen different phone numbers and people before I could get the right person). In addition, I personally drove to Richmond VA an hour one way after work in the evening to pick up a part that was needed for the test to help expedite the job for Mr. [redacted]. I also had plans overnighted at our expense and had other materials overnighted to try and help expedite the process for Mr. [redacted]. Once, Mr. [redacted] got his inspection he forgot about all the conversations that he'd had with the employees of Fire Safety Systems, including myself, regarding the additional fees. He stated that it only should be an extra $200.00, which totally contradicts his statement that nothing was ever said about additional fees. Then why did he think that it would even be $200.00. Mr. [redacted] called Fire Safety Systems yelling and screaming at the office personnel which was totally inappropriate to say the least. Because Mr. [redacted] was so irate and to be quite honest even with the additional money our Company was still losing money. I just wanted to cut my losses and get Kyle out of his business as he also had a difficult time with Mr. [redacted]. He was difficult throughout the whole process, calling multiple times a day trying to get us to ram-rod the process through. Even with these losses I agreed to cut an additional $800 plus dollars off of the bill if he agreed to pay the balance of the original quote and a $1,000.00 for the additional work, which he agreed to. I believe Fire Safety Systems has bent over backwards to meet his demands foregoing other scheduled jobs and tied up one of our technicians for four days so that he could open up his business as quickly as possible. I don't see where I could have been any fairer to him than I was. Thank you attention to this matter. Daniel [redacted] President/Owner

Review: I went into contract with this company for a certain price for a job to be done. The contract amount was for 895.00. Which we paid 50 percent before anything got started and remaining balance when the job was complete. First off it took them 3 weeks to get the job started when they told us the process will take tops one week. They did not do the job correctly to begin with, they did a quick get out the door job. When it was inspection time ( and inspection failed due to their mishaps). Per the contract and what was verbally told to us my the business owner( Son) of the company, that if the inspection does not pass we would come back and correct the issue. They never once stated that there would be extra fees associated with that. The company came back and fixed the issue (never once mentioning that it would be an extra charge), we scheduled the second inspection (it passed), when it was time to settle up the final bill which would of been 50 percent of the total bill of 895.00. We were shocked to find out that they are charging us an extra 1000.00 for the job that they never did right to begin with. On top of that they were charging us for phones calls etc.. And they nerve of them they told us if we don't pay them there techs, will remove the equipment they installed. We were strong armed into paying something we never agreed on because we were caught between a rock and a hard place.Desired Settlement: I would like to have the bill adjusted. I would like the company to apologize for black mailed and strong arming me into paying for something not agreed on because I was stuck in a hard place.

Business

Response:

In response to the complaint of [redacted], Case Number referenced above for the contract disputes I would like to reply as follows. Mr. [redacted], was never told by me or anyone in our Company that the whole process would only take one week tops. Justin [redacted] and Kyle [redacted], the technicians who were originally out to inspect Mr. [redacted]'s hood system told him that once the Permit Department received the plans it usually takes about a week, but could take up to two or more weeks. This inspection was included at the end of the day in an already full day due to Mr. [redacted]'s urgent request on July 9th. I, Daniel [redacted], am the only one qualified to draw plans. Unfortunately, my scheduled vacation started on the 1Qth of July. Because we had not received a signed proposal and 50 percent down payment that is required by our Company as of this time, and because Fairfax Plans and Review Department had not gotten back to me as to their permit procedure and every jurisdiction is different and we had not done work in this jurisdiction before. We did not receive the 50 percent down payment until the 23rd of July and it is Company practice to not perform work until those monies are received. Because of the following reasons I did not start the plans until I had returned from my vacation on the 23rd of July. As to the acqusation that we did not do the job correctly I would like to respectfully disagree. Mr. [redacted] had an existing system that was previously installed by another company. We were only contracted to re-route distribution piping for his new appliances and cover one exhaust duct that was not covered. Because we could not properly trip system on initial visit (because there was no electricity in building) Mr. [redacted] was advised that if any part of the system other than the work we were contracted to perform did not work properly there would be an extra charge to fix those items, as well as any part of the system that was not installed by Fire Safety Systems. This information was also documented in the plans packet that was submitted to Plans and Review Department in the City of Fairfax. The actual work was completed on August 4'h and the first system test was performed August 5th . The system did not fail because of the work that we had performed the system failed because fittings not installed by Fire Safety Systems and which had nothing to do with the work we did were not installed properly and leaked. This issue was discovered after there was power and we were able to actually trip the system. Again, we could not do this initially because there was no power to the building which Mr. [redacted] was aware of. The system also failed because the Fire Marshall wanted lights under the hood to shut off upon activation of the system. Because this is not a correct Code interpretation we did not give Mr. [redacted] a price to perform this work. As a matter of fact upon hearing this news I personally contacted the Plans and Review Department and explained that the Code did not require the lights to shut off and they reversed their decision which saved Mr. [redacted] a substantial amount of money. He demanded that we come and do this electrical work after hours on the evening of August 5th, which would have been at time and a half for the electrical rate starting from the time the electrician left our shop to the time he returned. Because the system failed for reasons out of our control Mr. [redacted] was advised that we could fix these issues, but starting from the time that the Fire Marshall left and we started the additional work it would be $85.00 per hour which is our normal fire suppression hood tech rate. Mr. [redacted] was told this multiple times by the technician, Kyle [redacted], Dan [redacted] personally, the Owner, and Sue [redacted], Office Manager. Mr. [redacted]'s response each time was that he understood and just wanted the job done. Kyle's time restarted Wednesday, August 5th around noon and he was there the rest of the day and returned on Thursday, August 5th for the better part of the day. I also had a service tech come in an hour early Thursday morning to recharge the bottles for the re•test. Then Kyle was back on Friday, August 7th for the re-test. Understand this job is an hour to an hour and one half one way depending on traffic from our shop. Mr. [redacted] was given an Invoice on Friday, August 7th upon passing of test by the Fire Marshall for the additional work which totaled $1 ,820.50. Again Mr. [redacted] was told multiple times by three different people within our Company that these fees were in•addition to the original proposed work. Kyle [redacted], the technician performing had an additional 12.5 hours of extra work at $85.00 per hour. In addition, to Kyles' work I personally had multiple hours on the phone with the City of Fairfax Plans and Review Department (it took two hours on the phone one day just to call in the final inspection for the 7th, which of course they said they were sorry for re-routing me to at least a dozen different phone numbers and people before I could get the right person). In addition, I personally drove to Richmond VA an hour one way after work in the evening to pick up a part that was needed for the test to help expedite the job for Mr. [redacted]. I also had plans overnighted at our expense and had other materials overnighted to try and help expedite the process for Mr. [redacted]. Once, Mr. [redacted] got his inspection he forgot about all the conversations that he'd had with the employees of Fire Safety Systems, including myself, regarding the additional fees. He stated that it only should be an extra $200.00, which totally contradicts his statement that nothing was ever said about additional fees. Then why did he think that it would even be $200.00. Mr. [redacted] called Fire Safety Systems yelling and screaming at the office personnel which was totally inappropriate to say the least. Because Mr. [redacted] was so irate and to be quite honest even with the additional money our Company was still losing money. I just wanted to cut my losses and get Kyle out of his business as he also had a difficult time with Mr. [redacted]. He was difficult throughout the whole process, calling multiple times a day trying to get us to ram-rod the process through. Even with these losses I agreed to cut an additional $800 plus dollars off of the bill if he agreed to pay the balance of the original quote and a $1,000.00 for the additional work, which he agreed to. I believe Fire Safety Systems has bent over backwards to meet his demands foregoing other scheduled jobs and tied up one of our technicians for four days so that he could open up his business as quickly as possible. I don't see where I could have been any fairer to him than I was. Thank you attention to this matter. Daniel [redacted] President/Owner