Howard's Construction & Home Additions, Inc

COMFORT AIR, INC.                    P.O. Box 527         Clemmons, N.C.  27012   Phone: 336-[redacted] Fax: 336-[redacted] Email: [email protected]   ID...

#12663343 – [redacted] February 8, 2018   Hello Melissa,   I received the complaint from your office for Lolita [redacted]. Let me begin by saying although I am representing the Company in this response I am a consumer also and understand her frustration in this situation because I have encountered similar situations at my home. Our Company, just as the Revdex.com and other Companies, operates with procedures and a protocol. This enables us to give the best service we can although sometimes it does not meet with the customers time table or needs. In this situation we had a contract with [redacted] Homes to provide a HVAC system in the home the customer bought. In our contract we offer a one year labor warranty and the factory or manufacturer of the equipment product offers a 5 year warranty on all the parts of the system. That can be extended to a 10 year warranty if the customer registers the equipment with the factory which I think the customer did. In short we are saying we will provide the labor to replace any defective parts and the factory will provide those parts to us. Our permit to do this job was pulled in 2013. We started the system in 2013. Mrs. [redacted] moved in May of 2016. We started her warranty at that time regardless of the fact the system had run for almost 3 years without any problems and so she received the benefit of a full warranty from us. We are showing one call to her house during the warranty period. It was a complaint about a noise issue and we adjusted the charge on the unit, checked it out and left it running fine. We then had a call from her in May of 2017 and it turned out to be a bad compressor which we changed under warranty even though her warranty was over and had her running again the next day. We did not hear from her again until August of 2017 and we once again went out and repaired a bad capacitor, after her warranty was over, at no charge because she insisted this problem was related to the others. She then called again in December of 2017 saying her system was not working. At this point she was very disturbed and wanted a new unit. We went out and found a bad defrost control, fixed it free again even though she was out of warranty because she still insisted this was all related and should not cost her anything. The system was running fine when we left it. During the process of her services she was intent on getting a new system. We explained that was not our decision to make and gave her the number of the [redacted] customer service so she could call and make a request to them. Generally [redacted] will take her request and then call the installer to get information on what has been done and determine if it is bad enough to replace the system. If they deem it is they will in most cases pay us to replace it and it will not cost her anything. In some cases they will ask another tech/company to go out and look at it. I have no way of knowing how her conversation went with them or what they told her. I just know what their procedure is in every case we have ever had in situations like this. Our Company installs close to 3000 systems a year. I have been in this industry for over 45 years. We have 8 service techs and do work in North and South Carolina.  Several of my service techs are NATE certified, which means they have been tested in their knowledge of service. This is something that is hard to get unless you have a good understanding of what you are doing. I tell you this so you may get an understanding that if we were not a reliable Company you would need an extra file cabinet for all the complaints you would get with that many installs out there done by us. We try to go the extra mile with our customers as we did with Mrs. [redacted]. We had a lot of expense sending people out to her house to help keep her happy. Many of those repairs were out of warranty calls. I feel Along with her frustration Mrs. [redacted] was also a little impatient with the procedure and protocol of getting her system replaced or fixed. She replaced a system that could very well have lasted her a long time or could have been replaced by the factory if she had followed the procedure to get that done. She still had a lot of warranty left on the parts in that system. I have seen [redacted] replace systems just to keep customers happy, but there is a procedure to get that done. We responded every time she called and feel we did everything according to our commitment. As far as going 4 weeks with no heat she should have called us.  I don’t think many people would sit in a cold or hot house without calling someone to fix the problem. I hope this has helped you to understand our position on this matter. Unfortunately our industry has what we sometimes call predators that are happy to go in and take advantage of a situation and criticize the original installer hoping to get a sale out of it. This looks like one of those situations.      Sincerely,   Comfort Air, Inc. Rodney [redacted], President

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
Complaint: 12663343
I am rejecting this response because: I may have had a lot of time on the warranty and the work done may have been done at no cost (the multiple times you've come out) however the system sat for nearly 3 years prior to my purchase of the home - was the system maintained or serviced during this time? My answer would be no because no one lived in this home prior to me! As explained in the original complaint, I did have another contractor take a look at the unit and he reported his findings. I also gained another contractor opinion that found the same issues as the first. Being in a new home, the HVAC should have been the least of my worries. I went through all the channels I was given and was not satisfied with Comfort Air nor their customer service. When a request is made to fix something, you don't expect to have to call again and again. I am in no way what you refer to as a 'predator' - I just want Comfort Air to offset some of the expense I've incurred due to the HVAC replacement, whether it be the parts or labor.
Regards,
Lolita [redacted]