Miller's Upholstery Studio

I am rejecting this response because:The video of my encounter at Fred Hill Mechanical shows the rudest individual I've ever encountered, quite a statement considering 46 years of commercial flying.The video I made with my iPhone clearly is at variance with the business' version of the encounter, as does the saved portion of my security cameras' log of the employee's activities in the backyard when he alleges cleaning the outdoor compressor and its fan; when the employee showed up with "the owner" at my residence, he can clearly be heard to contradict himself not once, but twice, in his explanation of what he did in the way of work and how it was done.A different air conditioning contractor came to the house and, at my request, made entries in their inspection report of the equipment, clearly showing the level of work done is far below minimally-acceptable standards — to include noting that the compressor coils were covered with a long-term accumulation of silt, and that several inches of leave debris and dirt, accumulated insect debris and plant material, had accumulated within the compressor and covering the coils in part; the inspection report also detailed the failure to change the a/c filters as I'd requested the Hill employee to change, a minimum standard of work detailed by Modesto Irrigation Didtrict of recommended contractors. I fail to find any integrity, fairness, or honesty of the "owner" and his failure to inspect my copies of Hill Mechanical servicing my a/c and heater since 1989, and find their concluding statement a bit disingenuous, if not outright deceitful, for the purpose of their rebuttal of my report.one only has to watch the DVR record of the Hill employee to see through their rebuttal.

I arrived at Mr. [redacted] house on the afternoon of May 15 to inspect and service his air-conditioning system.  I knocked at the front door and Mr. [redacted] opened the garage door and let me in that way. We went inside the house as he closed the garage door and he showed me to the...

thermostat. Once in the house I noticed that all doors had keyed deadbolt locks. I set the thermostat to cool and checked to see that the system operated. The system did not come on either indoors or outdoors. Mr. [redacted] escorted me outside, bringing a hose along with him and showed me where the condensing unit was located. I briefly checked the outside unit and disconnected power so that I could focus on why the indoor unit wasn't running. I removed the thermostat cover to find that the thermostat was not wired in a conventional manner. Normally thermostats are wired so that the red wire goes to the R terminal, the yellow wire goes to the Y terminal, the white wire goes to the W terminal and the green wire goes to the G terminal. The only wire that was conventional was yellow wire. I asked Mr. [redacted] if his air conditioning system had been operating and if any other contractors have been working on his system as this call was taken as a check and service, not a repair. He stated that “on his honor it was working the day before”. I asked him to clear out the crawlspace closet so I could access the attic located furnace. He unlocked the dead bolt on the closet and removed its contents. I checked the wiring at the furnace and it matched what was at the thermostat. I temporarily exchanged the yellow wire with a spare brown wire to try and determine if the yellow wire had become disconnected at some point. The system still did not operate so I reinstalled the yellow wire. I remade the thermostat wire connections at the circuit board and at the thermostat to ensure that all connections were making contact with their respective positions. After doing this, the system still did not operate. I believed that the system was not operating due to the thermostat failing. I began to ask Mr. [redacted] about what type of thermostat he would prefer either programmable or non-programmable and during this time the system started operating on air-conditioning. I went outside and restored power to the outdoor unit to observe its operation and found the condensing fan motor not operating. I found that the dual run capacitor that serves the compressor and condensing fan motor had failed on the condensing fan motor side. We subscribe to a nationally recognized flat rate pricing system and I provided Mr. [redacted] with a price to replace the foreign made capacitor with two single purpose USA made capacitors as well as a price to wash the outdoor condensing coil. Within this price I’d allowed enough time to be able to check the system once I had it running properly. I also informed Mr. [redacted] that I had added to the evaluation fee to cover my initial extended evaluation time. I explained to him that I could not check his systems freon level at this point because I would have to get the system running first. He agreed to the charges and I proceeded with the work. I installed the two capacitors. I picked up a hose that was already attached to the hose bib located in the raised planter on the back of the house next to the fireplace. This hose did not quite reach the outdoor unit so I connected it to the hose that Mr. [redacted] had brought to the backyard and I washed the condensing coil. When I was done I returned each hose to its original position. I operated the system on cooling using the thermostat. I checked the compressor and condensing fan motor amp draw's and  found that the new capacitors and existing condensing fan motor and compressor we're operating properly at this time. I then went back inside the house to check the indoor temperature differential between the return and the supply. I found that the differential was 4°. I told Mr. [redacted] that I needed to put my refrigeration gauges on his system to see how low the freon level is. Upon placing my gauges on the service ports of the outdoor unit I found what I believed was a system that was between two and three pounds low of R-22. I quoted Mr. [redacted] the price to add freon to the system and said I believed it would take between two and three pounds. He agreed once again to the charges. He then stated that “I needed to make sure that my charges would withstand the scrutiny of his accountant”. Having never had a customer speak that phrase to me before I asked him what he meant by that. After a brief conversation I proceeded with the work. I added a total of 3 pounds of freon to the system and rechecked the indoor differential. The differential was now at 20° and my outdoor suction line had become cold and sweaty which is a visual indication of a correct freon charge. Through the duration of the service call his existing thermostat continued to function. I collected my tools and returned with Mr. [redacted] invoice. He stated that he did not have that much cash on hand and needed to go to the bank. I had other service calls to do that day and asked if we could return the next day and collect from him. He said that would be fine so I had him sign the bottom of my tag as well as a statement that he would pay tomorrow. The next day I was on an all day job and couldn't return so I asked another member of our staff to go by and collect from Mr. [redacted]. He called Mr. [redacted] around 11 o'clock that morning and Mr. [redacted] stated angrily that he had not been to the bank yet. Our staff member said that he would like to come by around 4:30 to collect from him and Mr. [redacted] agreed. When our staff member arrived at his house shortly after 4:30, Mr. [redacted] did not come to the door. I left two messages on May 17, reminding Mr.  [redacted] that he had given his word he would pay and I expected him to honor his word. He did not reply that day. On May 18 he came into the shop to talk with the owner. Neither the owner or I were there at that time and Mr. [redacted] was instructed that the owner or I would call him when we returned. We scheduled a time for both myself and the owner to go by Mr. [redacted] house on May 22. We arrived at Mr. [redacted] house and again were greeted by the garage door opening and followed Mr. [redacted] into his living room. The house temperature was abnormally cold and the system was operating. Mr. [redacted] said that he had a problem over the weekend with the system overcooling and that now it was stuck on. I began to remind Mr. [redacted] that while I was on the initial call the thermostat may have been not operating properly and that's why I was in the process of quoting him a thermostat when it came on. He stated that I needed to be careful what I said because he had all of our conversations recorded and videotaped. I asked him to go ahead and bring out the recording. He did not produce any recordings or video. We went outside to check the condensing unit to see if it was operating and found that it was. Mr. [redacted] said that he “did not believe that I had washed the condensing coil”. I tried to show Mr. [redacted] that there was still some moisture left on the ground around the condensing unit from when I washed it. I had showed him where his hoses were located. Both hoses had been moved since the initial call. He still insisted that I never washed the condensing unit. As that conversation ended Mr. [redacted] became very forceful and confrontational. The owner, Laird asked him what he wanted us to do and Mr. [redacted] stated" I think we're done here." We we're lead back through the house and into the garage as Mr. [redacted] began to get a ladder down. Laird could see that Mr. [redacted] was completely unreasonable and told Mr. [redacted] that he would give him the entire service call at no charge as I pushed the garage door button to get out. We have a 100% satisfaction guarantee and did not collect any money from Mr. [redacted]. We then left Mr. [redacted] house. We will not be returning to Mr. [redacted] house under any circumstance. In summary, we absolutely did not originally install this equipment. It appears to be the original equipment that was installed when the house was in construction. We have not worked at this address since 2009 if ever, according to our current computer system.  This service call was taken as a check and service not as an air conditioner not operating. In our opinion due to the conditions, this unit could not have been operating the day before. This system was operating when we left but apparently with an existing control issue that was intermittent. Our staff was never rude or disrespectful and handled the situation as professionally as possible. Due to the confrontational nature of Mr. [redacted] we felt it was in both our best interest to perform no further work and implement our policy of 100% customer satisfaction and give the entire call of $ 651.78 to Mr. [redacted].