M. Corp

Review: I own the duplex at [redacted] development in [redacted]. When A/C stopped working at one of the apartments, I called [redacted], because their office is across the street and I was [redacted] customer before. They responded fairly quickly, on 5/19/14 it was determined that the problem is non-operational fan motor; it took about 20 min to determine that. When I requested about the cost of the diagnostic visit, I was told not to worry and that will be dealt with later.

On 5/20 the technician replaced the fan motor and capacitor. I was charged for 2 hrs of work @ $125/hr when installation took 45 min which came as a surprise. However I paid the bill.

Since then I noticed that heat pump excessively vibrates. Excessive vibration is certainly not good for the fan motor and will shorten its life.

I called the office three times, spoke to Laura and asked someone to come out and take a look at it and give me a call. Nobody bothered to call me back. After I called Laura third time I was told that technician went there and looked at it but it vibrates "because the unit is old" when in fact it's only 6 years old and still under warranty.

My understanding is either the new fan motor was not balanced or the fan blade initially needed a replacement too. I believe a skilled technician could have determined that during one of two visits that [redacted] did to my property.

I have been trying to resolve the issue with Mike Stoughton, operations manager, via e-mail. He promised to take care of it numerous times but hasn’t actually done anything. Nobody called me back to resolve the issue either.

I had to hire another company to replace the fan blade, the vibration immediately stopped.

On the web site [redacted] claims that "whenever possible, we'll tell you the price before we begin any work on your HVAC systems. We charge by the job, not by the hour and we don't charge for travel". However, in my case that didn't apply.Desired Settlement: Refund in the amount of $192.50 that includes cost of labor of replacing the fan blade ($147.50) and $45 excessive charge for initial diagnostic.

Business

Response:

[redacted] had called [redacted] Mechanical to come and diagnose a no AC issue at his rental property. We responded very quickly and diagnosed a bad fan motor and also made note that the fan blade was in good condition and did not warrant replacement. We do not replace working parts on our customer's systems or charge them for service that is not necessary. The service call fee for coming out to diagnose on 5-19-2014 was $75.00 diagnostic to cover the first half hour and then $60.00 per half hour afterwards with a minimum of 1 hour time. This is very standard in the industry. That would have brought the service fee on 5-19-2014 to $135.00. [redacted] was charged only $120.00 for the visit on the 19th. We returned with the motor on 5-20-2014 and replaced the motor. The charge was $185.00 for the motor and another 1 hour minimum at $120.00. The total invoice to [redacted] was $425.00, which covered two hours of labor at $120.00 per hour, 1 hour each day, and the cost of the motor. There was no travel charges associated on this call, nor did we charge him to procure the motor. [redacted] states that he was charged $125.00 per hour which is not true and it is right on his invoice that the total labor for both days was $240.00. I believe and stand by the charges that were billed to the customer. These are more than fair by industry standards. I find it very hard to believe that [redacted] was not provided a cost for the work when asked. We have not had any issue previously with any customers that say we refused to provide them a cost to do work or to provide upfront service rates when the customer asks. If [redacted] was uncomfortable with continuing work without a cost associated to it, then he could have easily not scheduled the work until he had pricing, which I had in the office as soon as the technician diagnosed the issue. He was contacted to set up the appointment for the following day and if there were any issues they could have easily been resolved at that point. I was not part of that contact, so I cannot say if he was provided those costs or if he had asked for those costs to be provided. Another technician was sent out days later to look at the excessive vibration on the system and he made some adjustments but also noted the unit was not in great condition despite being 7 years old. The customer was not charged for this visit. The system is not still under parts warranty as the customer stated. It is a 13 SEER York system that carries only a 5 year parts warranty. After a couple phone calls and emails, [redacted] and I agreed that we would come out to replace the fan blade, however at the end of that conversation, [redacted] stated on the phone and on multiple emails afterwards, on 6-25 and 7-8 that he would refuse to pay for any further labor to do this. While we are in business to satisfy our customers, we cannot do it at no cost. When a customer refuses to pay for any further service and makes that known to us, we cannot continue to service that customer at any stage of the job. I would have happily scheduled a technician at the rental property to complete the work and charged for only labor expended, but not at no cost. [redacted] is looking for refund in the amount of $192.50 for replacement of a fan blade, $142.50 and reimbursement of $45.00 excessive diagnostic charge. As stated above, there were no excessive charges on the initial visit. He paid another company to do further service work and paid them. Had the customer been willing to pay us to do this work, we would have done it with no issue. The customer made a choice to go with another contractor and we are sorry to lose that work, but do not feel it warranted to reimburse the customer for labor and materials that would have needed to be paid for by the customer regardless of who did the work or at what stage in diagnostic it came. We stand by the fact that our initial charges were not excessive and that the work performed by another contractor, was not completed by [redacted] because the customer documented that he would not pay for additional labor to get it done. Thank you.

Consumer

Response:

[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]

Review: [redacted]

Based on the facts and supporting documents mentioned below, I reject the response from the business.My complaint is based on these facts:[redacted] employee didn’t provide me with upfront pricing as they claim on their website. [redacted] employee spent less than half-hour during initial visit on 5/19/14 to diagnose the problem. According to the fee schedule I should have been charged $75 instead of $120, I consider the difference to be the excessive charge in the amount of $45.When I inquired about the cost of initial visit [redacted] employee told me “Don’t worry we will deal with that later”. The fact that I paid for initial visit afterwards could be confirmed by 2 hour charge @ 120/hr on the follow-up visit work order when in fact the follow-up visit took 40 min.[redacted] employee failed to diagnose the problem with damaged fan blade during initial visit. I believe a skilled professional could have determined that fan blade needs replacement along with fan motor by seeing the fan blade itself and the damage done to the coil surface by the fan blade (see attached picture).[redacted] employee failed to identify the problem with excessive vibration after the work has been completed.[redacted] failed to return my phone calls after I discovered the problem with excessive vibration of the unitI called [redacted] three times in attempt to resolve the problem however Michael Stoughton, operations manager or any [redacted] employee never returned my phone calls. I used e-mail as my only mean of communication with Mr Stoughton.[redacted] wanted to unreasonably charge me for third visit to fix the problem that could have been easily diagnosed during the initial visit and corrected during the follow-up visit.In my e-mail to Mr. S[redacted], I agreed to pay for materials (fan blade) but refused to pay for the labor because I should not be responsible for company’s failure to diagnose the problem initially.I found out later that the fan blade (and possibly fan motor) could have been replaced under warranty (see work order from C & C Heating and Air Conditioning) which [redacted] employees failed to identify either.My complaint is supported by these documents:The photograph showing damaged coil surface done by the fan blade. The skilled technician seeing this damage and the blade itself could have determined that fan blade needs a replacement.Work order in the amount of $147.50 by C & C Heating and Air Conditioning showing their diagnosis:Found outdoor unit vibrating due to a bad fan blade. Replaced fan blade to solve vibration problem

Regards,