First Choice Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning, Inc.

I have used First Choice Plumbing for years now I am always pleased with their work Many in our family use them alsoJason is friendly doesn't stop working while explaining anything I have a question about, doesn't waste timeNever leaves a mess Couldn't ask for a better company to do business with

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/02/10) */
We would like to begin by stating that the customer has already complained to the Business Consumer Alliance and we have already issued him a refund of $200, mailed to him on 02/03/14. This complaint varies from his original because he is...

now using information that we included in our original rebuttal. He also states that our service tech told him it was an easy job and that he called [redacted] to have him lower the price and that he refused, and this statement is not true. He was never told this and there was never any phone call placed as stated. The following is our statement issued in response to the customer's original claim with the BCA: "Consumer called our offices on 01/18/14 to discuss repairs he needed for his floor furnace. After a 30 minute conversation with him, he determined that we wanted too much for the repairs that he described to us. He called back on 01/20/14 at 10:47am and wanted to schedule for us to go out and fix his heater for the quoted amount of $550.00 as per the conversation had with me. I went out to his home on 01/21/14 and arrived there at 9:39am. Upon arrival, an invoice was written up explaining what we would do for the amount agreed upon over the phone and had the invoice signed authorizing to do the work. My assistant and I crawled under the house even though the access space was very tight. We noticed that the unit was not accessible on 2 sides. Upon seeing this it was determined that trenching would have to be done in order to access the unit. The owner had the floor furnace running with plugged burners and no standing pilot. He had been directly lighting the burners, which is very dangerous. Visual inspection of the furnace discovered that the burners were running very low and smothering and the vent piping was off and needed to be reinstalled and rehung. The furnace had been venting under the house for days. Due to this, the crawl space had filled up with exhaust gas and was unsafe to work in since we were having trouble breathing by this time. We exited the crawl space and proceeded to tell the customer about what was going on under his home and what it would take to properly repair his current issues. The new estimated amount for the repairs would be $950.00. Consumer did not want to have the repairs done so I gave him and estimate to install a new dual wall furnace with vent piping and thermostat control. He did not want to do this option either so he was told that he would just have to pay the service call fee of $59 and we would leave. He and his wife discussed their options and he opted to have the repair done for $950.00 because his wife had just gotten out of the hospital and needed the heater to work. I turned the heater off in order to clear out the gases from the crawl space and explained that we would return the next day to complete the work as it was unsafe to continue today. We left his home at 11:06am. We returned the following day and arrived at his home at 9:31am. The repairs, including replacing pilot tubing and fittings for the floor furnace, were completed as agreed upon and went to collect payment. The customer asked for a discount and he was given a senior citizen discount of 5%. This brought his new balance to $902.50. He felt he was still being charged too much and stated that on the invoice which he signed and wrote that he was paying it "under protest" and that he was "quoted $525 only 2 1/2 hours of labor over charged $400". The homeowner thanked them and they left his home at 12:36pm. Between the two days we were at his home there was a total of approximately 4 1/2 hours spent with 4 men on his floor furnace. All of our trucks are tracked so this time is accurate. This is not including the 1 ½ hours to drive to and from our shop twice. Customer is stating that we took advantage of him because of his age and situation which is ABSOLUTELY not true. We have been in this industry for over 40 years and are proud to have a very large senior citizen client base. They use us because we are fair and would never take advantage of anyone. We charge fairly for the services that we provide. Customer agreed to have initial work done, signed for it and then when the estimate was revised he still chose to do the work after discussing it with his wife in front of the service technician. He signed the new contract and even had a whole day to call and cancel if he thought it was too much and could not afford it. We DID install new pilot tubing and fittings as specified in the invoice that he signed, as the repair could not be done without them. It was not until after the repairs had been completed that the customer suddenly had a problem with the price, and even then he still paid us and signed the contract for completion If the customer had a problem he could have handled the issues before the work had been completed or not have had the work done at all. As a good faith gesture, we would be willing to refund the customer $200.00."
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 12, 2014/03/26) */
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2014/03/21) */