Kelly Company

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2014/10/20) */
Dear Revdex.com ([redacted]
My name is [redacted] and I am the owner of Kelly Company HVAC in San Rafael. I have been in business for over 25 years. My business is built on the word-of-mouth of satisfied customers and...

therefore I have never needed to advertise (hence, at present I do not have a website as mentioned in this complaint). Whenever there is an issue of any kind, which any project may have depending on various factors communication being a critical one I have always listened respectfully to my customers and found civil and satisfactory methods to fairly rectify. The [redacted] are the first case I have ever experienced where a customer has lodged a complaint of any kind. There is a long email thread that I am also willing to share with you showing my many attempts to make my customer happy. However, I now feel that my good name and my business are being libeled, as the [redacted] have also uploaded a very negative and untrue review on YELP, which I will also be dealing with.
For now, I will respond to this complaint, number by number, but please note that there have been four separate visits to the [redacted] home, the fourth of which was never invoiced and the second of which was never paid. Additionally, a refund was made for that visit on good faith that the [redacted]'s had paid. They are saying that they have paid me $900, which is absolutely false. I have attached three invoices and one proposal for work they had requested on the fourth visit, which I never invoiced them for.
Here are their points (and my responses in RED)
1) that we were overcharged because we looked at the clock and his two hours was certainly NOT even 90 minutesand that happened twice; When I complained about this, Mr. [redacted] responded, "You seem to feel that you were overcharged for 2 appointments but we have always clarified that we have a 2 hour minimum." After this statement from an email, I went through every invoice and combed his website as well, and found NOTHING about any two-hour minimum.
This was visit #1 and [redacted] Company assessed the work and made repairs. Again, it needs to be stated as a point of order that [redacted] Company does not have a website, therefore it is impossible that the [redacted]'s read anything about my company online. As to the 2-hour minimum, attached please find the first invoice submitted to the client, [redacted] in the amount of $157.50 dated 2/25/13, which clearly shows 1.5 hours labor billed, not 2 hours.
2) the service repairman did not inspire confidence in any way; in fact, he really didn't seem to know what he was doing. We have been homeowners for many years, and there are times when one can tell that someone is not really sure, and that was the case here.
[redacted] Company technician ([redacted]) has been an HVAC professional his entire career and actually grew up in the profession as his father was also in the business. He is 54 years old (Mr. [redacted] referred to him as being "40 at best and still learning the work while still in his diapers" in one email exchange) my most senior employee and has worked impeccably for [redacted] Company for the past ten years. I do not need to defend him or his work. He found and addressed all issues on the first and second visits, as the second visit required a special order part.
3) The first and second repairs were within a month of each other.
The first visit was in mid-February to assess and repair a furnace. As stated in invoice #[redacted] (dated 2/25/13), we found 2 zones not communicating to the proper thermostats. We switched the wiring (FROM THE PREVIOUS CONTRACTORS INSTALLED DAMPERS, NOT OUR WORK) to the board and the system was working properly when we left. We also fixed the pitch of the furnace flue. And, at that time, we found a crack in the flue inducer motor, and it was leaking WHICH WOULD HAVE CAUSED FURTHER DAMAGE IF LEFT UNREPAIRED. We informed the client and they requested this additional repair work and approved the part to be ordered and installed on a subsequent visit.
Which brings us to visit #2, which took place in mid-March. And it should be stated that there were no communications nor complaints regarding the urgency to return any sooner. We made the repair to the flue inducer motor and invoiced this additional work on 3/22/13 (attached invoice [redacted] in the amount of $210). Not only did the customer never pay this invoice, but we never heard from them again until November 2013.
In November 2013 we received a call that one of the zones on their furnace was not working properly. We scheduled an appointment and upon assessment found that one of the PREVIOUS CONTRACTOR'S 12" DAMPERS was faulty. We replaced with the only model that [redacted] Company uses, the 12" ARD and completed the job with the unit working properly. The customer was invoiced for this visit (attached invoice [redacted] on 11/22/13 in the amount of $323.03). This applies to the following statement by customer and my recent response...
In fact, I think our 6-year old heater was still NOT really responding properly after the first repair of the thermostat and the second repair also didn't really do ANYTHING, and then there was the long time between end of March and November when we DIDN'T USE the heater, and then we had to call AGAIN. I feel like in fact, we paid a lot really to have another repairmanfinally!seem to repair the damper issue. Yet in a recent email, this is what Mr. [redacted] had to say about this damper issue:
"The furnace isn't ancient you are correct, and everything that we did should be covered under warranty from your original installer. Instead it looks as though you are asking us to warranty the original work done. The modulating dampers that we replaced have never given us anything but problems; we stopped using those years ago. We only use ARD by Honeywell full open full closed dampers. The third visit also by the 1st technician found a second defective zone damper."
We paid almost $900 for three visits to address this damper issue!!
HERE ARE THE ACTUAL INVOICE & PAYMENT & REFUND AMOUNTS:
691.53 Total amount invoiced
481.53 Total amount paid by customer
210.00 Amount refunded (ALTHOUGH NEVER ACTUALLY PAID and this part was not billed as [redacted] Company got the part under warranty)
271.00 Total paid by customer
Oh, and now we have found out from the new HVAC company that we are working with that we will need a new damper system!
Again, [redacted] Company did not install the damper system in this customer's home. On the third request for repair, we did indeed replace a damper with our ARD and we are not responsible for the equipment failure of previous contractors.
When I spoke with Mr. [redacted], he eventually sent me back a check for the amount that I pointed out had been overcharged to us because of his supposed two-hour minimum, which he apologized to us for not having made clear anywhere. In a following email, he made the following statement:
"If fact because of your dissatisfaction with [redacted] Co and the services we provided I've decided to refund all of your money for any labor provided by the first tech onsite, [redacted]."
I did say this, referring to the labor costs on the first visit. The mistake I made was to send them the amount for labor on the second visit, $210 (check #XXXXX), without checking to see that they never actually paid it in the first place. Had I refunded the labor for the first visit, the check would have only been for $157.50. But, at this point I just wanted to make the customer happy, which is why I have been able to be in business for 25+ years without incident.
Finally we were called again for a fourth visit in the first week of July, 2014, this time about the air conditioning not working. I sent a different technician to the customer's home to assess. On that visit, we facilitated a full service call and found that they had no outdoor air conditioning condenser or indoor evaporating coil installed. We did, however, find some problems with the modulating zone board system (NOT KELLY COMPANY WORKPREVIOUSLY INSTALLED CONTRACTOR'S WORK) and made repairs. My technician was there for 1.5 hours and this work was never been invoiced. We were asked to quote an A/C unit at that time and on July 10th we sent the attached proposal.
We have reported to him twice that we have not received that check, and the first time he said that his bookkeeper was on vacation; the second time, about a week ago, we received no reply whatsoever.
CHECK #XXXXX HAS BEEN CASHED BY THE [redacted]'S AND I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM THEM THANKING ME ON AUGUST 1, 2014.
We are happy to forward the entire email thread from both sides about this.
I am also happy to share the emails that have gone between us, knowing that this further documentation should make clear the fact that the [redacted]'s have only paid [redacted] Company $271 in total and were treated with every consideration and with professionalism in each instance.
I remain very unhappy that he installed dampers that he himself says are not trustworthy. If he or his repair people had ever told US that, we could have discussed how to proceed.
Again, the dampers that I said were not trustworthy were the ones that were installed previous to my company's work. I recommended ARD for the third repair, which we installed. HOWEVER, ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMPERS AND EQUIPMENT ARE NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY OF [redacted] COMPANY.
I very much appreciate your consideration and help in rectifying this issue. Please feel free to call me on my cell phone at [redacted]
Sincerely,
[redacted]
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 12, 2014/11/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There are too many fallacies in this reply to be accepted by us.
1.RE PAYMENTS Mr. [redacted] conflates a visit for a bid with a service visit. We did not pay for a bid because 1) we were not presented with any bill and because 2)bids are normally NOT paid for. Additionally, the invoice he says that was unpaid [redacted] dated 3/22/13) was INDEED half paid (check [redacted] dated [redacted] because we had disputed the time chargedagain, being charged for two hours when the service rep was on the job for 65 minutes (at $105 per hour!). Mr. [redacted] DID state in an email to us "You seem to feel that you were overcharged for 2 appointments but we have always clarified that we have a 2 hour minimum." But there was no written statement of that nor was it stated verbally!
He also misrepresents the amount we paid:
157.50
105.00
324.03
-210.00
=376.53 paid, not 271.00.
Yes, a refund check was cashed, but the email thread that is referred to also includes his later offer to return ALL money, at least 262.50, paid for [redacted] work, not just 210.00. He should not have offered that extra refund if he was not going to follow through! That is discussed in the back-and-fourth email thread [redacted] mentions.
2. RE SERVICE We had THREE service calls on a 6-year old [redacted] heater in under nine months from 2/25 to 11/22 in 2013, the first two visits in under one month, and from March till November, we didn't even USE the heater. So basically, in three months that we used the heater, we had to make a service call every month. That might make anyone wonder what was going on with their diagnostic identification of the problem(s).
3. While it seems that we did not pay much money out, our concern is in the way that he does businessa two-hour minimum that is not stated;
repeat service calls; promises that are not kept.
We would like to submit the email thread as additional information to review as not an official part of our response. Thank you.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2014/11/18) */
Dear Revdex.com,
Clearly we have a difference of opinion and our records are in conflict. The customer initially claimed they paid over $900, which they have no record or factual documentation to prove. And as you can see they are claiming to have paid less than half of that. They continue to slander my name and reputation. I have never had my work or company questioned or publicly libeled in 25+ years of business. The number of hours I have devoted to defending myself against this claim costs my business greatly, in addition to the work that was completed for the customer. Therefore, I am forced to close this matter without fair or equitable resolution. I will write a check to the customer ONLY under the conditions herein:
1) They must remove their YELP complaint
2) They must confirm that this Revdex.com matter is closed.
3) They must NEVER make inflammatory comments about Kelly Company in the future...either verbally or in writing online.
According to their last comments, they want the difference between the refund of $210, that they received and the total for [redacted]'s labor = $262.50. I will issue a check in the amount of $52.50 once I receive their assurance of my points above.
Respectfully,
[redacted]
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2014/11/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Mr. [redacted] cannot buy our silence. Let him keep his money. He may have bought others' silence to keep his good record; we stand by our complaint and our Yelp review. And we have already experienced FAR better service from the company that we had originally meant to call, Kelly Heat. Too bad we were confused by the very similar name!
Thank you for your efforts on our part, Ms. [redacted] This matter will not be resolved, but we are ready for it to end.
Thank you,
the [redacted]