International Shipholding Corporation

I am sorry it has taken so long to respond but I was on vacation last week and just read the complaint late yesterday. I was called by this customer on Friday afternoon 6/12/stating she had no water and that she had an electrician check it out and was told the wire was either bad or broken where it went through the cement casing. She indicated the well was deep in the ground and she wanted us to come repair the problem. I told her it would be the first of the week before we could get out to check it out and make the repairs. I called her on Monday morning, 6/15/15, and she indicated she still wanted us to come out. I asked her about her well and she thought it might be 150-180' deep but did not know where her pressure tank was located. We loaded up our pump puller, various size pumps, wires, and materials to pull the pump out of the well if we needed to. Our two service tech's arrived at her home at 8:am and introduced themselves to her. She explained that someone else had checked the system but didn't know what was going on and for us to check it out. Our service tech's found that the pressure tank was a basketball size tank located inside the well tile which is around the well. The pressure switch was about 5' deep inside the well tile which was only 24" in diameterThis made it too small to work in while standing in the well tile and too deep to reach from the top. While barely being able to reach the pressure switch he tested the wire coming to the well from the breaker box and found they had power at the switch. They then checked out the pump by putting an amp gauge on it and found the pump was drawing high amps and locking up making it unable to start. That determined the pump was defective and needed to be pulled out of the well. This was an absituation because of the way the pump had originally been installed. We would need to bring our excavator to dig up the well tile to get to the well to be able to pull the pump. After diagnosing the problem, the service tech explained what was wrong and what we would likely have to do to make repairs. She then told him she would like to have an estimate of what it would cost. This was the first time she had mentioned an estimate. The tech then called me to explain the situation and to determine how we would go about making the repairs. He then explained our decision in more detail to her. He told her he would go back to the shop and we would figure an estimate and call her back. She indicated she needed to call her brother because he was helping her pay for the repairs and wanted to know how soon we could make the repairs. Our tech told her that afternoon if she gave us approval. She asked what the charges were for what they had already done. The tech told her that we would wait until the work was completed and add it in with that. She agreed and they left the job site at 10:am, hour and minutes after arrival. We figured up the estimate and I called her around 11:am explaining the situation and what the approximate cost would be. She indicated again that she had talked to her brother and he was going to help her pay the bill and he was to talk to her at lunchtime and she would then call us back. I asked her if she could get in touch with him now so we could have time to get the job done that day. She said she would try and would call me back as soon as she could. We proceeded to get our materials and equipment loaded preparing to return to make the repairs. Not once did she indicate they would be getting any other estimates. We did not hear from her so we tried calling her 2-times but never got an answer. We unloaded at 12:and left to go to another job. Approximately pm her brother called and said they were going to get a couple estimates but we were the best so far. We asked him to please let us know either way so we knew how to plan. We never heard from either one of them again concerning the well. After several days I sent her an invoice for hours(9-12) and a $service call. On 6/23/she called and left a heated message on my answering machine. I returned her call when I came in. She proceeded to tell me how appalled she was that I would send her a bill. I tried to explain my side and she wouldn't listen. I didn't think I was rude and abrasive but I was defensive of my explanation. I told her to settle with $and she thought that was still ridiculous. On 6/30/a different brother called to discuss the job and he was very kind and understanding. He asked me to settle for hour and I declined. He said he would pass it on to her. I apologize for this misunderstanding and will agree with her terms of settlement to drop the case As of August 18, the consumer has not made any payment to us

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. I agree to pay the $75.00 service...

fee.
Regards,
[redacted]