Southern Services of Lexington, Inc.

We always take pride in responding to our customers needs in a timely fashionAs a business owner with over 6,customers it is very difficult for me to respond to every call that comes into my office every daysome days it may take or days to respond and if I am unable to respond in a
timely fashion, I always ask a member of my team to reach out to the customer so we can address their issue as quickly as possiblewe have never disputed that this homeowner had an issue but we had to do our due diligence to make sure the complaint was validonce we found out that the complaint was in fact valid we quickly reached out to the individual and made certain that the necessary corrections were made to solve this issuewe then researched why did it take so long for us to find out about this issue. we had an employee that is no longer with the company that was working the after hours calls during the dates that the owner called inhe did not contact her and we were unaware of this issuethe employee has long since been terminated and we now have parameters in place to make sure this occurrence does not take place in the futureI just wish the homeowner had continue to reach out to us when they did not receive satisfaction earlier so we could have resolved this for them soonerthe check for $was dated 3/1/and was missed in going out in the mailthe check was mailed on 3/6/we do regret any inconvenience this has caused the customer and look forward to taking care of their equipment for years to come

[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]
Complaint: 12393371
I am rejecting this response because: I contacted the business on 11 September 2017 and was told that someone would contact me with dates so that we could schedule The visit. I never received a call. I called today (27 September 2017) after seeing their reply that they were waiting on me when to set up he visit even though they told me that they would call with dates . This continues to show me that they do not communicate within their organization. On my call today they said that someone would call me back with possible dates.  I still see this as a stall tactic as I have a little more than a month before I've had my system a year and fall out of their 1 year satisfaction warranty.  I have even emailed them and they do not respond. I am doing all of the work to get them to try and figure out the issue as they only have a reactive response. You would think that a customer that is having problems that even purchased an addition 10 year warranty that they would want to make sure they are satisfied. They are more of a take your money and run business. 
Regards,
Ryan [redacted]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  Check was received 3/10/17 and was postmarked 3/8/17 the day after I contacted the Revdex.com so many thanks to you. The check was dated as stated 3/1/17 and we are grateful the matter is finally resolved.  
Regards,
[redacted]

Good afternoon and thank you for bringing this to my attention. I spoke with Donna our Service Dispatcher to understand all of the details surrounding this customer. We at Southern Services have utilized flat rate pricing for our repairs since mid 2007. The price is the same for the...

repair regardless of if it takes 30 minutes or if it takes us 2 hours. Another thing we did is we started using Ipads with our flat rate pricing loaded into them to create a cleaner more professional product in 2013. Sometimes if we are having a issue with technolgy we have to resort back to handwritten paper tickets. I have attached 5 pages of documentation to support our reason for our pricing of our services. We had a service technician arrive on 12/1/2015 at 9:20 and was there until 1:00. as you can see by the handwritten ticket he performed quite a bit of work. The charges for this day were a total of $240.00. The second page is the total bill for both visits for a total of $444.00 This is when the second technician performed the actual motor repair on 12/3/2015. He was at the customer's home for an hour plus there was 30 minutes of travel time from the previous customers home to Mr. [redacted]s home. All of these costs are factored in to our pricing. The 3rd page is an actual page out of one of our flat rate book that we use to price all jobs. This is the actual repair for an in warranty motor replacement for $204.00. The fourth and fifth pages are prices of motor repairs for The Trane Brand equipment for a motor replacement that is out of warranty. As you can see by the supporting documentation our employees followed every process and proceedure that we use every day with every service customer we interact with. While I understand where a homeowner can sometimes have sticker shock for an item we try to maitain competetive prices within the marketplace when compared to a similar sized business with 12 total employees and all of the other expenses and overhead associated with it. We are always striving to be the best heating and air conditioning provider in the Lexington market.       
 
Terry *. C[redacted]
President
Southern Services of Lexington

I do apologize that the owner does not feel like we have responded in a timely manner but I have requested Lennox to come out on numerous occasions and today was the 1st time they actually gave me dates to work with. we were waiting on the owner originally due to him being enrolled in school and not wanting to take time from class. I fully agreed with this because I know how important an education is and I have been requesting dates from Lennox to accommodate his schedule. we have October 12th as the day we are to meet with the owner and Lennox at his residence to address this issue and try to figure out a resolution for this problem. it has never been the intention of anyone at Southern Services to not address the owner's issues but somethings are outside of our abilities as a mechanical contractor and we have to ask for support from outside sources that we can only work with the schedule they provide us with.

Good afternoon and thank you for bringing this to my attention. I spoke with Donna our Service Dispatcher to understand all of the details surrounding this customer. We at Southern Services have utilized flat rate pricing for our repairs since mid 2007. The price is the same for the repair...

regardless of if it takes 30 minutes or if it takes us 2 hours. Another thing we did is we started using Ipads with our flat rate pricing loaded into them to create a cleaner more professional product in 2013. Sometimes if we are having a issue with technolgy we have to resort back to handwritten paper tickets. I have attached 5 pages of documentation to support our reason for our pricing of our services. We had a service technician arrive on 12/1/2015 at 9:20 and was there until 1:00. as you can see by the handwritten ticket he performed quite a bit of work. The charges for this day were a total of $240.00. The second page is the total bill for both visits for a total of $444.00 This is when the second technician performed the actual motor repair on 12/3/2015. He was at the customer's home for an hour plus there was 30 minutes of travel time from the previous customers home to Mr. [redacted]s home. All of these costs are factored in to our pricing. The 3rd page is an actual page out of one of our flat rate book that we use to price all jobs. This is the actual repair for an in warranty motor replacement for $204.00. The fourth and fifth pages are prices of motor repairs for The Trane Brand equipment for a motor replacement that is out of warranty. As you can see by the supporting documentation our employees followed every process and proceedure that we use every day with every service customer we interact with. While I understand where a homeowner can sometimes have sticker shock for an item we try to maitain competetive prices within the marketplace when compared to a similar sized business with 12 total employees and all of the other expenses and overhead associated with it. We are always striving to be the best heating and air conditioning provider in the Lexington market.       
 
Terry *. C[redacted]
President
Southern Services of Lexington

We have had to make a couple of visits to the complainant's home for various issues and have addressed each of those individually and as quickly as time would allow for a heating and air conditioning contractor. We have requested for the owner to provide us with dates to bring Lennox out to try and...

get to the bottom of the issue as I personally have explained to the owner that I do not believe that his new HVAC system or our installation is due to his high power bills. he stated that his power bill was lower last month but this past August was one of the coolest on record. until we have been given an opportunity to bring Lennox and our team out to further investigate this issue and know for certain what the root cause of this power consumption issue. We await his response to the request for some dates for us to schedule to come out. we do need some advance notice as it does take some orchestrating to make sure all parties can fit his schedule and meet our needs.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  When I called and spoke to Donna and asked why I was being charged $204.00 on the second day for 45 minutes of work.  She replied that they charge for a whole hour even if thet are only there for part of an hour.  I replied that I understood that , but since their hourly rateis $80.00 why was I charged $204.00.  She said that even though the motor was under warranty she had to to pay for the freight cost to get the motor. She said it was about $23.00. I then replied why was I not charged $103.00.  She said they had to tie up their money to buy the motor and would have to wait to be reimbursed. I told her that that was a new one for me, she then said that they were a flat rate company. That was just what they charged.  It seems to me that Southern Services charges what ever they feel like at the moment.  I used them because I felt like like they were a reputable company.  I have no problem with the $240.00 I was charged the first day. The technician did a great job and fixed some problems from the initial installation.  The second day a new technician was here for between 30 and 45 minutes.  I have yet to receive a printed copy of the bill for the second days as I requested of the technician. I do not mind paying for quality work. I was not having sticker shock, I knew it was not going to be cheap. Based on my experience Southern Services was a "flat rate company" when they could no longer justify their prices.
Regards,
[redacted]

Review: Southern Services came to my house to repair a heat pump under warranty. They determined that a fan in the outside unit had gone bad. It was removed and taken in to be replaced under warranty. In addition they re-wired the inside unit to fix the emergency heat. The cost for this was $240.00. They had to order a new fan. They came back today ( Thursday Dec 03) and installed the new fan. The technician was here 30 to 40 minutes. The charge today was $204.00. I questioned why I was charged this amount. I was told they had to charge for the freight to ship the fan and they also had their money tied up in the fan motor which the Trane Corp. would reimburse them. I feel the labor cost are unwarranted and I was over charged.Desired Settlement: I feel that I was over charged and should be reimbursed for the excessive labor charges.

Business

Response:

Good afternoon and thank you for bringing this to my attention. I spoke with Donna our Service Dispatcher to understand all of the details surrounding this customer. We at Southern Services have utilized flat rate pricing for our repairs since mid 2007. The price is the same for the repair regardless of if it takes 30 minutes or if it takes us 2 hours. Another thing we did is we started using Ipads with our flat rate pricing loaded into them to create a cleaner more professional product in 2013. Sometimes if we are having a issue with technolgy we have to resort back to handwritten paper tickets. I have attached 5 pages of documentation to support our reason for our pricing of our services. We had a service technician arrive on 12/1/2015 at 9:20 and was there until 1:00. as you can see by the handwritten ticket he performed quite a bit of work. The charges for this day were a total of $240.00. The second page is the total bill for both visits for a total of $444.00 This is when the second technician performed the actual motor repair on 12/3/2015. He was at the customer's home for an hour plus there was 30 minutes of travel time from the previous customers home to Mr. [redacted]s home. All of these costs are factored in to our pricing. The 3rd page is an actual page out of one of our flat rate book that we use to price all jobs. This is the actual repair for an in warranty motor replacement for $204.00. The fourth and fifth pages are prices of motor repairs for The Trane Brand equipment for a motor replacement that is out of warranty. As you can see by the supporting documentation our employees followed every process and proceedure that we use every day with every service customer we interact with. While I understand where a homeowner can sometimes have sticker shock for an item we try to maitain competetive prices within the marketplace when compared to a similar sized business with 12 total employees and all of the other expenses and overhead associated with it. We are always striving to be the best heating and air conditioning provider in the Lexington market.

Terry *. C[redacted]

President

Southern Services of Lexington

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: When I called and spoke to Donna and asked why I was being charged $204.00 on the second day for 45 minutes of work. She replied that they charge for a whole hour even if thet are only there for part of an hour. I replied that I understood that , but since their hourly rateis $80.00 why was I charged $204.00. She said that even though the motor was under warranty she had to to pay for the freight cost to get the motor. She said it was about $23.00. I then replied why was I not charged $103.00. She said they had to tie up their money to buy the motor and would have to wait to be reimbursed. I told her that that was a new one for me, she then said that they were a flat rate company. That was just what they charged. It seems to me that Southern Services charges what ever they feel like at the moment. I used them because I felt like like they were a reputable company. I have no problem with the $240.00 I was charged the first day. The technician did a great job and fixed some problems from the initial installation. The second day a new technician was here for between 30 and 45 minutes. I have yet to receive a printed copy of the bill for the second days as I requested of the technician. I do not mind paying for quality work. I was not having sticker shock, I knew it was not going to be cheap. Based on my experience Southern Services was a "flat rate company" when they could no longer justify their prices.

Regards,