Ted Thompson Heating & Cooling

Review: We had been loyal customers for years, however our recent experiences have been awful. On 5/28 we contacted Ted because our air conditioner wasn't working. The unit was serviced the following day; no issue was identified so Freon and dye were added at a cost of $174.95. Three days later, the pipe that enters the house was frozen. We called for service on 6/1 and the unit was serviced on 6/4. At that time we were told that we needed a new coil. It was replaced at a cost of $1295.A week and a half later the pipe was frozen once again. We placed another call for service on 6/16 and service was scheduled for 6/17 between 3 and 4:00. As of 4:30 that afternoon no one had called or arrived. We had to cancel the appointment due to another commitment that evening. It was instead rescheduled for 6/18 at 5:00 pm. On 6/18 a different technician diagnosed the problem as a loose connection with the new coil. Freon was added and we were told that the pipe had been set up with a trip wire (to shut the unit off should the pipe begin to freeze again). Five days later, the pipe was frozen again; the unit had never shut off. We called Ted and left a message on 6/23 at 3:30 pm. We received a call back from Ted at 10:00 pm that night complaining to us about the cost of Freon and the inconvenience of having to return to our home again. He also indicated that we had routinely received same day service; this is not the case. At that time we decided that it was in our best interests to end the call and this business relationship. We have since had another HVAC service to the house and we had to have the unit replaced. They were stunned that you recommended a new coil for an air conditioner that was 20 years old. They also had to correct an issue with the furnace installation that you completed on 1/16/2012--the pieces of PVC exhaust pipe from the furnace that run through our crawl space to the exterior of the house were not connected together with adhesive.Desired Settlement: In the course of these issues we had to take two days off of work, accommodate a missed appointment, pay nearly $1500 for service that failed to correct the issue, and suffer through a phone call in which you complained about the inconvenience of having to provide us with these services. And in the process we spent much of June 2013 without a working air conditioner.We were sold a coil that didn't resolve the problem and believe that the $1,295.00 should be refunded.

Business

Response:

We have received your complaint and would like to take the opportunity to respond.

We were called to [redacted] on 5-28-2013 late afternoon for a No Cooling call. I sent a serviceman to their home on 5-29-13. The unit was low on R22 refrigerant. My serviceman added 3 Pounds of R22 refrigerant and a capsule of dye into their system. Typically when a unit is low on refrigerant there is a leak in either the outside condenser or inside coil. We put dye into the system to be able to locate a leak if problem reoccurs so that a customer isn’t spending hundreds of dollars every year on recharging. It's a 2 servicecall process. The dye needs to run through the system for a few days before checking with a UV light.

We were called again on 6-2-13 (Sunday) for the same problem, A serviceman was sent to their home on 6-3-13. Our serviceman found that the refrigerant was low again and proceeded to check the dye for a leak. The outside condenser was checked and did not show a leak at present time. A leak was found in the inside coil.

A price to replace the coil was given and the customer agreed to the work.

The coil was replaced.

On 6-16-13 (Sunday) we received a call that the same problem was occurring and an appointment was made for 6-17-13 between 3 and 4. It is very hard to predict how the day is going to go and estimate how long each call is going to take. We try our best to be there in the desired time frame but sometimes unforeseeable events such as traffic prevent that. Mr. [redacted] called at 4;30pm to say he had to leave. My secretary told him that our men were within 10 minutes away but he had to leave. We rescheduled for the following day 6-18-13 at 5:00pm. Mr. [redacted] was adamant that this would be done at his convenience and we were more than happy to oblige. I had a serviceman waiting to be there at exactly 5pm the following day. Unfortunately it was low on refrigerant again. The only way to determine where it was leaking was to add more dye. After adding refrigerant and dye my Serviceman went over all of the connections to tighten anything that maybe had been loose. Again, he really couldn’t be certain about the nature of the problem until the dye could be checked again. I also instructed him to put a freeze stat on that automatically shuts down the unit if it begins to freeze to avoid damage. All of this at no charge to the customer.

On 6-23-13 (Sunday) I did receive a very angry message on my voicemail from Mr. [redacted]. Because it was Sunday and I was not in the office the call did get returned late. When I called he was very upset and my comment was " Believe me, I want to get this resolved as much as you do especially with the price of refrigerant today."

I certainly didn't mean that I was angry with him or that any of this was his fault.

Every time we had ever been there we recharged his unit to try and keep them cool. I completely understand their frustration and I was 100% willing to get my men out there the next morning to resolve the issue. If our coil had been defective or anything about our installation I would of happily taken care of it.

We just weren't given the chance.

As far as another companies opinion, of course they want to sell you more. It's funny that we are being criticized for not trying to sell you more. I am not one of those aggressive companies recommending that things be replaced just because they are older At the time of service no leak was showing in the outside condenser so I didn't suggest replacing it.

The A/C is made up of 2 parts.

An Indoor Coil and an Outside Condenser.

There's really nothing silly about replacing just one of them . Even if we recommended replacing the entire Air Conditioning system the coil would have to be replaced. If anything it's an uninformed silly remark.

As far as the furnace installation, If the PVC was disconnected we would of been more than happy to reconnect. We leave them unsealed due to birds and small animals that tend to get stuck in the pipe. It makes it easy to unclog if necessary. If we cemented them we would have to cut away at the pipe if needed. Again, all minor issues that we certainly could of addressed if given the chance.

I feel as though I have gone to every length that I was able to accommodate the customer as best as I could. I provided next day service always, After the initial service call, I always recharged their unit at my own expense, I worked around their schedules giving them very small windows that we normally don't do and I would of gone further had they let me. I don't feel that I should have to refund money for an installation of a coil because they had to buy an outside condenser. One doesn't really have anything to do with the other.

Again I am very sorry that it has come to this. My staff and I aren't perfect and sometimes we do make mistakes. I just feel it is only fair to be given a chance to fix it.

I have always been willing to go any extra mile to ensure my customers are 100% satisfied and it's no different with The [redacted]'s. I would of welcomed the chance.

I would be absolutely willing to talk to either of you to reach a solution in this matter.

Please feel free to contact me at anytime at my Office at 412-343-0521 or on my Mobile at 412-403-4696.

Thank you so much for your time to review this matter.

Sincerely,

Ted Thompson

Consumer

Response:

After receiving and reviewing your response to the original complaint we are compelled to reject it and make a rebuttal.

You are correct, we did agree to the coil replacement—because your serviceman diagnosed it as the problem. However, following its replacement the unit failed two additional times. Clearly, then it was an incorrect or incomplete diagnosis.

We can not manage to be grateful that on the fourth visit to our residence a freeze stat was installed to automatically shut down the unit in order to avoid damage, especially since it did not work. The unit continued to run with a frozen pipe on 6/23. We had to manually shut the machine off after we recognized the problem.

It is apparent that you feel magnanimous for having the unit recharged with each visit. We can't help but point out that your servicemen could have utilized a far more effective approach—correcting the root cause of the problem and eliminating the leak. Something you might want to consider for the unfortunate folks that you service in the future.

We can not agree that all of this was at no charge to us—we paid a very high price with our time and discomfort, not to mention the inconvenience of dealing with repetitive service visits and the persistent failure of our air conditioner.

Your reference to a "very angry" message on your voicemail is a gross exaggeration. It was certainly terse, because this was the fifth time that we were contacting you in three weeks time because the air conditioning was not functioning (which meant that our home was hot... again).

We don't understand how you can assert that we were unfair and did not provide you with an opportunity to fix your mistakes. We called you for service five times and your technicians visited our home four times within a three week period. How many chances do you require to fix an air conditioner? Do you usually need more chances when it's for equipment you have just installed? We apologize for our lack of patience, but we weren't willing to suffer through another month without air conditioning while waiting for your technicians to make the right guess about how to fix it.

We assure you that we would have been thrilled to have the problem resolved at a lesser cost, but there is no savings when you are charged for work that fails to correct the issue. We do not believe that is "silly" to think that throwing away $1,295 is a waste.

We can appreciate why you would criticize your competitors, but the fact is that three days after calling one of them we had a functional air conditioner (and incidentally they did the work right the first time; they did not require any extra chances to fix it, it's been working ever since).

If you will not consider a refund we can't imagine what there is to discuss, because we are no longer interested in what passes for "service" at Ted Thompson Heating and Cooling.

We are not surprised with this outcome—buyer beware—but we will do everything in our power to caution others and spare them from suffering a similar experience.

Ted and his crew went out of their way to accomodate my family. I was referred to TTH&C by word of mouth and Im glad we called them. They were fair, honest and stood by their contract. I had a full replacement done and couldnt be happier with the results, Also the peace of mind knowing that they stand behind their work is something seldom seen these days. Much appreciated TTH&C. I will recommend your company in a heartbeat.