Thermo Tropic Services Inc.

Poor customer service from ICP AND Thermo-Tropic

I purchased an ICP EcoTemp A/C unit, with a 10-years parts warranty, for our house in February, 2013. Last week, our A/C stopped blowing cold air, so I tried calling the installer, Thermo-Tropic from Debary, but was unable to contact them, as their phones were down. I then contacted another company that diagnosed the problem and replaced the run capacitor...a $40 part. I then contacted ICP directly to file a warranty claim for the capacitor and, after speaking with a customer service rep, I was transferred to Stephanie, a Senior Customer Service Rep. She explained to me, in a very defensive manner, that ICP had no obligation to honor the parts warranty, that was clearly stated on the bill of sale, as I was not an installer or distributor. I explained to her that I was unable to contact the installer, and explained to her that I just wanted a replacement part for the capacitor, so that I could have a spare in the event this problem happened again. She told me to call a qualified installer/dealer as they were the only ones that could file a warranty claim. Upon calling another qualified installer, they wanted to charge a service call and time/materials to "diagnose" the problem. I explained that the A/C was already fixed and I just wanted a replacement part for the capacitor...they still wanted to charge upwards of $200...for a $40 part.

When I finally was able to reach Thermo-Tropic, Brian became very adversarial and could not understand why I was bothering him for an issue that was already fixed and why I was hung up on a $40 part. I explained to him that I just wanted the part replaced under the 10-year parts warranty, and I would be happy to mail the defective part to him. He repeatedly asked me why I was so hung up on a $40 part, and I explained to him that I wanted to have a spare for future issues, which he said is likely to happen because capacitors go out all the time. In fact, he "carries a bunch of them in my truck because the go out so frequently".

It is sad that I spent over $4,000 for a unit that comes with a warranty, that I am unable to use because of extremely poor customer service. ICP and Thermo-Tropic has lost a future customer, and anyone that asks me about an A/C unit...over a $40 part.