HomePlace Furnace Ducts and Fireplace Cleaning

Homeplace has provided service to this home times in the last in the past years and will routinely call a previous customer every two years to remind them they are due for serviceThis is precisely what we did, and Mr *** set up a date and time to have his air ducts cleanedMatt, our lead
technician and a year veteran of Homeplace provided the service and did a remarkable job as usualAfter the service, Mr *** daughter called the office and was rather explosive with profanities and accusationsShe hung up on the owner, office manager and the asst office manager, who were merely trying to help defuse and explain the situationShe said that her father had memory issues, but at no time did we have any indication that he had memory issues and we provided the service as instructed.Homeplace is a business of compassion and trust, so we offered Ms *** a solution that we felt would be good for all partiesA letter was sent to the home, stating that we do not wish to charge her for the serviceAnd if she was willing to post a positive google review, the air duct cleaning would be free and they would owe nothing. But instead of being noble and accepting our offer, she decided to slander the business and accuse Homeplace of targeting the elderly, which is absurdIf we were targeting the elderly as she falsely stated, why would we offer to wipe the invoice clean and they owe nothing?

Homeplace stands by its original statement and will not engage in any further negativity Ms *** brings to this situation

I am rejecting this response because:this company took advantage of my dadThey took things out of his france and didn't replace the filter or put the dirty filter backThey did give him an eat of work They just came over supposedly clean my dad's ductsAnd gave him a billMy father didn't call themThey cold called a elder man with memory loss and sold him something we could have done ourselvesSo this company new what they were doingKnew they were speaking with a vulnerable adult and took advantage of thatWhat heating and company pulls things out of a furnace with no filter to put in itUnless they knew what they were doing could cause his france to breakThey were the company to fix my parents last furnace years ago

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/02/24) */
Service was provided on January 18th 2016. On Wednesday Feb. 10th 2016, almost a month later, she called the office and we discussed her concerns. She felt she was overcharged and I told her I needed to look into the matter, and would call her...

back. The morning of Friday Feb. 12th, she called and asked if I had made any determination and I told her that I was still reviewing her concern and promised I would call her back very soon. Sunday Feb 14th, she writes the review without giving us proper time to investigate and find a possible solution. Her service date was almost a month earlier, so I needed the original invoice from the accounting office. However, the flu had hit that part of our office hard and the two ladies working in accounting were not available to retrieve the original document, as it had already been stored away. After reviewing the concern, it was determined that she had requested an after hours service call and was informed of the hourly rates/charges and she agreed to them. When we do after hours service, it is common in the industry to begin the clock when the technician departs, and not upon arrival to the home. All of which was explained and agreed upon. Service during regular business hours, we begin the clock at the time of arrival. Further review of the service vehicles 'GPS time stamp' shows that the time technician departed and had been on site, was accurate and the customer was charged accordingly. Lastly, her technician is a HVAC Master License holder and has 36 years of experience. HOMEPLACE has operated for over 25 years with Integrity and honesty and will always place our customers first. It is disappointing that she felt compelled to write a review and not allow the time requested to investigate her concern . Its further regretful that she feels entitled to pay for only half the time involved and at regular hourly rates.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/02/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We were not informed of all the rates and charges in advance nor did we agree to them.
The only rate that was discussed was the after-hours rate. There was no disclosure or discussion of a travel charge from the previous job to mine and from my job to another nor was there disclosure of a $50 "truck fee". We spoke to Chuck the technician multiple times before meeting him at our house and this was never discussed nor agreed upon. Had I known that there was an over-time rate of 1.5 the standard hourly rate + a travel charge + a truck charge, I would not have used their services. Especially because Chuck mentioned that he was coming from a long distance outside of the cities before going to our house. I would have chosen a company that was focused more within the twin cities.
When I have dealt with other service companies in the past, they have disclosed when a trip charge applies if the clock starts from their office location or another job to my home or when there is a flat "trip or truck" charge. It is less often that both fees charged but it is the responsibility of the company to be clear, honest and direct about all fees that may apply.
I called their office the next day on 1/19 after the service call and asked Mike, the service manager if they billed in 15 min increments or whole hours and he said the first hour is whole, and thereafter in 15 min increments. I asked as a general customer - he did not ask me for my name and so he does not know that he was speaking to me. I then called Chuck that same day and asked why he charged us for 2 hours and it was at that time that I first heard that they begin charging from the time they leave the previous job site. He said "it is to cover the wear and tear on their trucks". If that is the case, why is there also a $50 "truck" fee on the invoice?
When I called back on 2/11, I again called their office as a general customer and asked Mike when the service call billing time starts. I asked if it starts from the previous job or upon arrival at the site. And he answered without hesitation, "it starts when we arrive on site". He did not say, it depends on certain circumstances or sometimes it starts from the previous site and sometimes we don't do that. When I told him that I believed I had been over charged, it was then that he asked me my name. Following that, every time I spoke to Mike, his answers changed about how they bill.

It was a few days after that conversation, after he told me not to call him, that he would call me back but he would not say when I could expect his follow up and a resolution. It was at that time that I searched for reviews about the company online and found a negative review about the same issue. Someone else had been quoted one thing on the front end then was charged more for the service time afterward. It was then that I posted my own experience. After posting my own review, Mike called me immediately the next morning and wanted to discuss the issue further. I requested a resolution to my bad experience and he offered a partial refund ONLY if I removed the negative posts. Even after he acknowledged the confusion with the travel fee, truck fee and after hours fee .
He was not interested in really resolving the issue because I had had a bad experience. His interest was ONLY that the negative reviews be removed and he needed confirmation of that before he would agree to a remedy. That is not "placing our customers first", that is bribery. I removed the online reviews but kept my complaint listed with the Revdex.com. Once Mike received the correspondence from the Revdex.com, he retracted the offer of a partial refund unless I again agreed to cancel my complaint.
I hired a second heating company to look at our furnace which still had the same issue. It took that technician 30 minutes onsite to diagnose the problem. Originally, he said there would be a flat service call fee of $95 but when we decided to proceed with him to do the work, he did not charge the initial fee and only charged us for the time and materials to do the work that was actually done. Chuck from Homeplace charged for 2 hours for only a diagnosis - no actual repair work totaling $455.
If Chuck is a master license holder, I would like to know his license number and the full name that the license is under. This is my right.
I was unable to find any mechanical bond on file or license # for the Homeplace company. I want to know who was working at my house and I still request a remedy for the confusion around the changing billing explanations.
Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 13, 2016/03/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I called the office the next day to inquire about their billing and have the phone record to prove it. Mike did not ask me for my name at that time so he has no idea. I called again 3 weeks later after having a completely different experience with another contractor which is not unreasonable. I never threatened to write a negative review unless he gave me money back. I was concerned that he was not going to resolve the situation in good faith, which he has not and I looked for reviews online from others. When I saw that there were other people with similar experiences - feeling that the fees were not explained on the front end and being charged more afterward, I wrote my own review. He called me immediately in response to the reviews, not to resolve the issue. He said very specifically that he would only work with me if the reviews were taken down. That is making resolving a customer's issue contingent upon satisfying his own interest. That is not good customer service nor an example of doing good business. Although I shouldn't have, I did remove the reviews. But one was reposted by the company because he responded to it. He said he would give me a partial refund, then he decided not to issue the refund as promised until he received confirmation that all reviews were removed - that is bribery and his message is saved in my voicemail. Companies resolve issues with customers because it's good business. When you do good business, you don't get negatively reviewed. Both times I called his company, he gave me different answers then decided later to justify how the billing happened. This is not straight forward and honest. $455 is an expensive "assessment" of our problem - no actual work was done. We were never told that they start charging from a previous job to our house then the clock continues even after leaving our house, according to Mike. Nor did we know about the $50 "truck" charge. We never would have agreed to that had it been disclosed on the front end. He is welcome to refuse a partial refund, even though he agreed to do it. People make mistakes and miscommunication happens - you fix it and make it right with the customer. It is obviously worth it to him to leave this situation unresolved and have an unhappy customer and it is my right to share with others my experience. It is unfortunate that this whole situation was handled poorly from the beginning and it feels unscrupulous.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2016/03/18) */
All we asked was time to review the situation and to get back to her. Since the service call occurred a month earlier, it will take a bit of time to review. Two business days later, she goes on a smear campaign, writing poor reviews in numerous locations. We were prepared to meet her demands of charging reg hourly rates, even though it was after hours service. And we were only going to charge her for about half the time as she further demanded. She agreed that it was unfair to write the reviews and would remove them. I told her that I would let the accounting dept know to issue her a check for $186.00 and to call me to verify that she had indeed removed them. She did call and said they were all removed. Upon checking, we found that she lied and did not remove them. Simply put, we were willing to accommodate her demands, and part ways. But one cannot expect to write so many negative and untruthful reviews and still expect a refund of virtually half. You cannot have it both ways. We are at an impasse with this customer and have parted ways.