Southeastern Comfort

Took my job then never answered phone and never returned phone messages. Never did work they were hired to do. Very unprofessional business.On 7/29/13 I called my home warranty company to notify them 2 air conditioning units at my home were not working. On 8/1/2013, a South Eastern technician arrived at my home to assess the 2 air conditioning units. Upstairs unit required a part to be ordered. Downstairs unit had a locked up compressor. After the technician left my home, I called the home warranty company and asked if my work order could be split from one order to two. (I live in the Memphis area, and it's the middle of summer so going without a/c is very uncomfortable). The home warranty company said this would be fine, so I called South Eastern Comfort to ask them to split the work order (and get my downstairs unit fixed asap, understanding the upstairs unit would take longer). The receptionist at South Eastern explained I would have to pay an additional $65 service fee. I replied this was understandable and I was fine with paying two service charges (here was my reasoning - it's hot...let's fix what we can right away, getting at least the downstairs a/c unit to work). The receptionist replied that she would get back to me. I then went to a business meeting, and when I returned I saw that South Eastern called my phone but left no phone message. I called them back. No one answered the phone so I left a phone message. That was Friday, 8/2. They never bothered to return my call. I have called them 7 times since and still, no one bothers to return my phone calls. I was trying to move the process on to the next step (getting the less damaged unit fixed first). I am baffled at this level of unprofessionalism.I paid South Eastern $65 for the initial service call where they assessed what was wrong with the 2 a/c units. They also wrote on the invoice that "all 3 units need to be cleaned". I had all 3 units cleaned the very next day, on Friday 8/2. I used a different vendor to do the cleaning, because I was able to get a price that was $175 less than the quote South Eastern passed along to my home warranty company.Today, 8/9/13, I received a phone call from the home warranty company informing me that South Eastern told them they "can no longer service my account". So now I still have 2 broken a/c units and need to "start from square one" with a new vendor. In my opinion, here is what should have happened - the receptionist should have returned my phone messages and informed me of one of the following:(1) We will be at your home on xxxx date to service your downstairs a/c unit, or (2) For xxxx reason, we cannot split your work order, even though your home warranty company called us and said this would be fine. (Note - my home warranty company told me left a phone message for South Eastern saying fixing the downstairs unit first would be fine.(3) We are very sorry but we will not be able to get to your home until xxxx date, and here is why.That is a minimum level of customer service, and what any company should provide. Desired SettlementI would like: 1) a refund of the $65 service fee I paid South Eastern on 8/1/2013 as I will now need to pay this fee to a new vendor who is scheduled to arrive at my house Monday afternoon. They are starting at "square one" and will do an assessment. Since South Eastern dropped my account, they should refund work I am now forced to have repeated by a new company. 2) a refund of the $125 service fee I paid to another company to have my air conditioning units cleaned. I only had the units cleaned because South Eastern told my home warranty company it was needed. What if the new company coming to my house next week makes a whole different assessment and requires other/different kinds of work? Business' Initial Response We received the claim from her home warranty company on July 29th. We arrived at the home on August 1st and found 3 systems. 2 of the 3 systems were not working. One system was found to have a bad capacitor and possibly a bad condenser fan motor, the other to have a bad compressor. We also found that all 3 systems were dirty and needed to be cleaned professionally. It is extremely likely that the failures on these 2 units were due to lack of maintenance. We quoted her $99 per system. We also explained that she use any licensed HVAC contractor for maintenance and that maintenance should be done on all systems yearly. She chose to use another contractor to do these cleanings since we could not do them that same day or the next day.As explained earlier, we received this claim through her home warranty company. When we receive their work orders, there are certain procedures that we follow and unfortunately, they take time. First, we have to call in a full report to check contract coverage. We purchase small parts, but the home warranty company is responsible for equipment purchasing, such as the compressor. Once we call in a report, an order is generated with their supplier and the equipment is shipped to our shop. At that point, there is nothing further we can do until we receive the equipment. This had been explained to the homeowner several times by us and also by her home warranty company. As far as the other system with the bad capacitor and possibly bad motor, we are allowed to collect one service fee for repairs of both systems. Since we are only allowed to collect one fee, it did not make good business sense to make several trips to her home for one payment on multiple systems. When we perform work through a home warranty company, they are our customer first and foremost and the homeowner is our customer second. That is how it has to work since the home warranty company makes the decisions on the work performed. We explained this to the homeowner and she grew upset because we were not able to fix her air as quickly as she wanted. As previously explained, there are more steps involved to repair her AC that we cannot control.On August 6th at 8:51pm, she called our office after hours and left a disturbing threatening voicemail in which she screams and raises her voice uncontrollably and makes unnecessary demands. On August 7th, we contacted our regional director to let them know of her behavior. They stated how this is not acceptable from their contract holders and granted our request to have her claim sent to another contractor. We have the right to refuse service to anyone and decided it best for our company to have nothing further to do with her and her claim.On August 9th, we are contacted again by the homeowner and this time an even more disturbing voicemail was left, swearing included. As of August 7th, we had nothing further to do with this claim. If there were issues she thought unacceptable, it would have been wise for her to talk to her home warranty company about it. Calling a place of business and acting out is completely inappropriate and can be deemed as verbal harassment. We still have both recordings of her behavior, as well as documentation on when the claim was placed under another contractor on August 7th (before this complaint was filed). We will NOT be refunding the $65.00 service fee . We scheduled an appointment, we arrived within the timeframe that was scheduled and we diagnosed both the units. We have not been paid for anything that we have not done. We will also NOT be paying for the AC units to be cleaned. It is every homeowners personal responsibility to keep maintenance up on all appliances in their home and whether she chose to have a licensed HVAC company do the job properly is completely her choice. Once again, we feel that we moved as quickly as possible and handled this claim as professionally as possible. As mentioned before, we do not have the power to purchase equipment through home warranty claims which is the true reason the homeowner was upset leaving unacceptable voicemails, which led to our right to refuse her claim. Consumer's Final Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I am very disappointed with this response. However, the warranty company sent another firm to my home and both units were fixed within 2 business days (and that's with a part being ordered). And as for those maintenance cleanings? I used another (licensed and locally reputable) company because they did the job for one-third the price quoted by South Eastern. As a consumer, I can compare prices if I wish. My phone calls were the result of frustration that was caused by poor customer service. If you don't tell the customer what is going on and then refuse to talk to them on the phone, it's very possible that customer is going to get upset with you. (By the way, the warranty company told me it was fine to call the company directly, so in my mind I was doing nothing wrong). That the company has chosen to keep my $65 payment is a shame. For me, this has been a frustrating process but I am relieved the replacement vendor worked out so well. While I don't find the business' responses acceptable, I am comfortable closing this case.