Steve Bailey Air Conditioning & Heating

Review: 7/6 called for service because AC was not cooling. Steven came by on 7/8 to change the battery in the thermostat and said everything is fine, sent me a bill for $75. But until the next day, the AC was still not cooling. I emailed the company on 7/10 and got reply on 7/11, saying it was because we don't know how to work the thermostat. Steven gave instructions and asked us to follow and see for a few days. However until 7/22, the AC was still not cooling. I had to email the company again and Steven came, then told me it was a bad compressor problem, which would cost about $2500 to fix.

Since the initial problem was not solved, I have not paid the $75 bill. On 9/25, I received a reminder email asking me to pay for the $75 battery change. I emailed the company explaining the initial problem was not solved at the visit, but Steven did change the battery and went out there, so I proposed $35 to compensate his time and gas. The company replied "absolutely not", and "“The system already had a hard start kit. Whether it went out 2 hours later, 2 days later or 2 weeks later is not his concern. “ I replied back asking why wasn't I told the first time the system was having a problem and seems to be failing? He said he checked everything but he didn't tell me about the hard start... and most importantly the air was still warm even after the battery change. I asked them to reconsider my offer, their reply email came quick and said "He's really aggravated by this. We went on your call during a peak hot season. We could have said no, that we were too busy and gone to another customer who will pay their bills but we jumped right on it and handled it for you. If we don't receive the check in the next week, we will pursue a small claims case against you. We've already put way too much time into arguing with you."

I feel it was very rude and unprofessional to handle such issue. I have always paid on time and this time they are calling me a non-paying person and unreasonable.Desired Settlement: I would like a proper apology from the company for sending me such unprofessional emails and imply I am a non-paying customer and for threatening me to take me to court.

Business

Response:

This was only the second time we had done business with [redacted] in a 2-year period. Both times, the batteries were dead in the thermostat. The tenants do not speak English so communicating with them on how to work the thermostat was difficult. After installing the batteries, the air conditioner came right on and was blowing cold. [redacted] called us back a few days later stating that the air conditioner was once again not cooling. I went back to the job site and spoke to the tenant's son who does speak English. He informed me that the air conditioner ran for a few hours after the battery change, then stopped cooling. I then went up on the roof and checked and found the compressor had shorted out and would not start at all. At that time is when I told [redacted] that someone had previously put a hard start on that compressor so it obviously had previous problems. Since it was so new, I advised her to contact whoever had originally installed the unit since it was new.