Stockmeister Plumbing Heating & Cooling

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below While Stockmeister's response is fairly accurate, it is slanted towards their viewpointMy contention is that crisscrossing plumbing in the manner as shown in the attached picture is an unacceptable practice for 'certified' plumbers and while they offered to 'uncross' them, it was never stated that there would be no chargeAlso, their offer to uncross the lines was not a means of correcting the problemI originally paid the $to correctly provide a solution; what they did instead was to provide a short-cut solution and take advantage of my lack of knowledge at the time of the actual workWhy would I want them to come back and provide yet another unacceptable solutionI have since paid another company to plumb the lines correctly.I maintain the work performed would not pass a plumbing inspection and that they took advantage of my ignorance at the time of the work Regards, [redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 13, 2016/10/05) */
***Document Attached***
First, let me apologize for the fact that this complaint has not been attended to soonerAccording to the Revdex.com timeline, the complaint was filed on 8/10/I find no record of having received any contact from Revdex.com
by e-mail until 9/29/I was traveling on business last week, but have now researched the situation
I do find a service ticket from 1/28/where we pulled & reset the toilet and researched the leak in questionI think that a quote was never generated because my technician failed to note that one was expected (see attachment)Please don't interpret this reason as an excuseUltimately this falls back on me as the business owner and general managerThank you for bringing the situation to my attention and giving me the opportunity to make it right
Per your request, I am authorizing a refund of the $fee that was charged to research the leakAs this was paid with a credit or debit card, we will have to issue to refund to the same cardOur system only stores the last digits of the card number for security purposes, so we will need you to call in with the full card number in order to process the refund

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2017/06/29) */
We initially evaluated the situation on March 28, 2017, and found that the initial issue was that the control board on the air handler had failedThe customer was quoted the cost for and declined a complete evaluation of their system
The
part was on back order from the manufacturer, but was received and installed on April 17, Upon replacing the control board, it displayed an error message indicating that there was an additional problemIt is likely that this additional problem would have been revealed had the customer authorized the complete evaluation of the system
I personally discussed the situation with *** *** on May 4, and advised that I would be willing to put in writing that our findings were consistent with damage from an electrical surge so that they could pursue reimbursement for repairs from his homeowner's insurance companyI also informed him that the *** they had paid for the repair to the air handler would be included in the quotation that I provided to their insurance company as that was likely related to the same electrical surgeMr*** indicated that he was going to contact his insurance company and get back with meThis complaint is the first contact that we have received since that conversation on *** 4,
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 12, 2017/07/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
*** never declined anything that was offeredWe also called on numerous occasions after the may 4th incident trying to figure out why our system isn't running right stillApparently we were told to contact out homeowners! Why would we? We never knew they extent of the issueWe had several companies come out to double check their work and that's when we were told that it was fried and needed the whole system replacedWhy is it we found a company that didn't need to replace the whole system but just the part that what brokeWe were never told anything from this companyLike I said we tried many times to contact the owner and he never called us back to resolve this issue
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2017/07/03) */
Our phone system automatically logs all calls (both incoming and outgoing)Using the number we have on file for *** ***, the last time he called in was 5/4/@ 2:27pmThat call was returned at 2:42pm the same day and lasted for 13m 38s
When discussing the situation with *** *** that day, I informed him that the resolution was to replace the compressor on the Lennox heat pump and quoted a price of *** which was in addition to the *** already paid for diagnostic and replacing the control board on the air handler in the atticThat is when I advised that the damage was consistent with an electrical surge and suggested that contacting his insurance company to check coverage under their homeowner's policyAt no time did I advise that the entire system would need to be replaced
We may have been able to provide an enhanced customer experience had we made attempts to follow up on our recommendations and quotations, though I will say that many customers would find such follphone calls annoying in and of themselvesAs such, we do not feel that failing to do so constitutes grounds for a refund for services that were quoted for and approved up front and rendered in fullWe consider this matter to be closed

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/11/03) */
Upon arrival, our technician [redacted] found the situation as Mr. [redacted] describes it: the fuse on the control board was missing and when replaced, would blow immediately upon a call from the thermostat. After an extended period of time spent...

diagnosing the situation, it was found that the root cause was that the thermostat (not installed by our technician) had been wired incorrectly.
[redacted] corrected that issue, and then found that the control board and one of the high temperature limit switches had failed. Unfortunately there was no way to determine that this was the case before correcting the thermostat wiring issue. As per our procedures, he quoted Mrs. [redacted] up front before proceeding with the replacement of the control board and limit switch.
After completing these repairs, he was running the furnace through its paces and found that the gas valve was not opening when it was supposed to. Due to the fact that cascade failures of this type are quite uncommon, he asked the customer if they had experienced any power surges recently. It turns out that they had. At that point, [redacted] suggested that it may be in the customer's best interests to think about submitting a homeowner's insurance claim and possibly replacing the furnace.
As the General Manager, I was in contact with [redacted] throughout the service call and concur with his findings and assessments. I was also the one to quote Mr. [redacted] on a new furnace and offered to credit the entire amount of the repairs [redacted] as [redacted] of the total bill was for enrollment in our Maintenance Plus Discount Club which affords the customer routine maintenance services and an additional [redacted] discount on everything we do including the repairs already performed as well as the replacement of a furnace). After consulting with the customer and his insurance company, Mr. [redacted] informed me that he was going a different route certainly within his rights.
At this point, I find that my technician followed all of our procedures by quoting the customer in advance for all repairs and advising a different course of action when it became evident that further repairs were likely to be needed. In the interests of resolving this issue, however, I am willing to make the following concession:
1. We will refund the [redacted] Maintenance Plus Discount Club enrollment fee, less the [redacted] fee for early termination as stated in the terms and conditions.
2. We WILL NOT back-charge the [redacted] in Discount Club savings that was applied to the approved and completed repairs.
This will result in a net refund of [redacted] to the customer. As this invoice was paid by credit card, and our system retains only the last 4 digits of a credit card numbers as a security measure, the customer will need to call us with the complete card number in order for us to process the refund.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/11/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
As I stated I owned a large electronics repair shop many years ago and we would run into similar situations many times. Sometimes caused by customer misuse and abuse and other times caused by lightning or voltage surge. As a technician you have to use common sense and know when to pull the plug on the repair if after a certain amount of time your not successful. As I stated you can't just keep working on a product and running up a bill without getting approval from the customer, which in this case I was the customer. If this is their remedy it is a very poor way to conduct business. Would you pay [redacted] to a service company and have the same results you had when you called them out? I would split the difference. But you won't build a business by leaving customers with those type of results. In the future if their company is not familiar with the product, maybe it would be better to refer the customer to another service company. Just a foot note But when I called in I made the guy aware in the office that the unit has a ten year parts warranty. In which case the gentleman on the phone did not give me a definitive answer. I hope that this will be a learning experience for myself as well as Church. Sometimes we would take on equipment that we were not factory authorized for and end up with problems. They told my wife if we didn't sign up for their planned service the bill would have been much higher, as a former businessman I don't feel that is an ethical manner to conduct business.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2016/11/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I understand the service industry very well and I'm not out to be a throne in the side of any company. In fact I'm more understanding than most customer since the service business has many similarities.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/11/04) */
Based on what my technician is telling me, the repairs were quoted to and approved by Mrs. [redacted] before anything in excess of the [redacted] service fee was charged. And just as you suggest, we did halt work and recommend replacement once it became evident that more and more repairs would be necessary.
As to the factory warranty, unfortunately repairs required due to a power surge are excluded from coverage. I understand how frustrating that can be, but I think that as an electronics technician you would agree that damage due to a power surge is not a quality defect, but rather an "act of God."
In the interests of resolving this issue, we will "split the difference." Mrs. [redacted] approved repairs and a maintenance plan membership totaling [redacted] we will issue a refund to the customer's credit card in the amount of [redacted] As stated before, the customer will need to call in with their full credit card number in order for us to issue the refund.

November 28, 2017   Ms. Lynne Prescott Revdex.com Serving Southern **io, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana 1 East 4th Street Suite 600 Cincinnati, **  45202 ###-###-#### ###-###-#### Fax [email protected] Revdex.com.org/Cincinnati [email protected]   RE  ID #[redacted]...

  Dear Ms. Prescott:   Our company is in receipt of Ms. [redacted] T. [redacted]’s complaint #[redacted].  Ms. [redacted] requested that her water heater have a drain pan installed under it.  The water heater was disconnected, a drain pan was placed under the water heater, a T&P valve was replaced, and the water heater was reconnected.  In reconnecting the water lines to the water heater, it was discovered that the hot and cold water lines to the heater were plumbed in reverse order by another contractor.  When technicians turned off the cold water to drain the tank before moving it, the tank kept filling from the “hot side,” which in this case was the cold side.  This was explained to Ms. [redacted] at the time of service.  To remedy the problem, the lines were crisscrossed so that the hot and cold lines were in the correct position on the water heater.  The crisscrossing of the lines was explained to Ms. [redacted] before the work was performed, and the work was reviewed with her after it was performed.   Ms. [redacted] contacted our company about the crisscrossed water lines because another non-plumbing company told her that this was not correct.  Both the service technician who performed the work and I spoke with her.  The service technician reiterated to her why the lines were crisscrossed.  The cold water should fill the water heater on the right side and the hot water draws out of the tank on the left side.  This allows the water to enter at the bottom of the tank and hot water to draw from the top of the tank.  It is not conventional to have the cold on the left and the hot on the right, but this was the way another contractor plumbed the lines to the water heater when the house was built.  At this point she complained of all the things that the builders had done incorrectly when building the house.    Our company offered to un-crisscross the lines at no charge.  She declined, indicated that the crisscrossed lines were fine, and asked that we return to reinstall the water heater after the drywallers disconnected and move the water heater for drywall repairs.  We told her to call our office when she was ready for the water heater reinstallation. A picture of the crisscrossed lines is included with this letter.   As for a vent on a drain pan, no vent is required because the drain pan is open to the atmosphere.  Our company has a long history of standing behind our work and being fair with our valued customers.  We take pride in this history.  Likewise we appreciate our customers being fair with us.  Ms. [redacted] has paid for the requested work that was performed.  We are more than willing to meet with Ms. [redacted] to review the water line connections and un-crisscross the lines if she would like.   Please let me know if you have any questions.     Regards,               Gail A. Ball President     cc:        [redacted] T. [redacted]             [redacted]             [redacted] ###-###-#### vt[redacted] Tell us why here...

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
While Stockmeister's response is fairly accurate, it is slanted towards their viewpoint. My contention is that crisscrossing plumbing in the manner as shown in the attached picture is an unacceptable practice for 'certified' plumbers and while they offered to 'uncross' them, it was never stated that there would be no charge. Also, their offer to uncross the lines was not a means of correcting the problem. I originally paid the $742.03 to correctly provide a solution; what they did instead was to provide a short-cut solution and take advantage of my lack of knowledge at the time of the actual work. Why would I want them to come back and provide yet another unacceptable solution. I have since paid another company to plumb the lines correctly.I maintain the work performed would not pass a plumbing inspection and that they took advantage of my ignorance at the time of the work.
Regards,
[redacted]