W.V. Alton, Inc.

Review: We have received the enclosed invoice from your office. There are several things that we would like to address at this time.

#1 first appointment that was made was a “no show” and I had to make contact with your office to reschedule.

#2 [redacted] responded to the call the next day. [redacted] did show up on time a little early infact. I explained to him what the issue was that we were having at the time.

#3 He was not even here 15 minutes and he informed me that the Condenser had no Free-on in it, advised that he needed to put a pound in, in order to charge and run system to see what was wrong. I did not see him put anything in the system, nor did I once see him even take the top off the condenser or anything.

#4 Advised that we had a leak however he was not able to tell me where the leak was actually. Made suggestion that it could be in the walls and would not be able to find. I did ask him about putting Dye in the lines to see if the leak could be found. He stated that it would cost $150.00 never once did he ask if that is what we wanted to do or anything.

#5 He did go up in the attic not sure what he actually did while there.

#6 Came down went back outside, I went outside a few minutes later and he was packing up his tools, advised me that he could not even get the condenser to take 3oz of Freon and told me that we needed a complete new system. He stated that it would cost approx. $5,000 to replace and that I could contact the office to discuss the purchase. I advised [redacted] that I would need to speak with my husband. He packed his tools and left.

On the invoice he states he was here for 1.25 hour [redacted]e was here for under 1 hour. He states compressor not taking refrigerant (possible bad valves)

He never once mentioned the valves, nor what was wrong with the system just that we needed to purchase a new one.

Needless to say I was taking a back that he was here less than an hour never really saw him do anything nor did he tell me what was wrong and/or why it needed to be replaced. The system is only approx. 10 years old.

After discussing this matter with my husband I made additional calls and it was strongly recommend that we get a second opinion.

I made an appointment with [redacted] Heating and Air, due to the fact that we were running in the high 90’s to over 100 degrees we had to wait over a week.Desired Settlement: I have enclosed a copy to the invoice showing what they did. As you can see to our surprise he had no PROBLEM getting the Freon in the system. The system is infact up and running at this time. There is no problem with the valves as [redacted] stated.

I’m a bite confused what [redacted] actually did besides tell me we needed a “new system” and what services the billing is for.

I was also informed by [redacted] that if the valve(s) were bad (which it was not) those can be fixed/repaired/replaced.

I have also filed a complaint with the Sacramento Revdex.com regarding this matter.

If you would like to discuss this matter further feel free to contact us [redacted]

Sincerely,

Consumer

Response:

Dear Sir, I have received your letter for the above account. At this time I have received a call from [redacted](owner) of W.V. Alton Inc and we have discussed my letter that I have submitted to you and him.After our talk we have come to an agreement regarding the services and billing.My complaint was handled very promptly and in a professional manner on their part.At this time per my conversation with the owner this matter is completely taken care of no payment is due V.W. Alton from me account balance zero and closed.Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

We have been using W.V. Alton for the past 10 years and have had the best service and prices that we could find. Their tech's are very responsive and explain exactly what is wrong so you can understand what you can do to keep your HVAC unit running properly. They are the best, believe me, we have had the worst customer service from other company's. Alton's take care of their customers.

Review: Dear Sir or Madam:

On January 10, 2016 my heater quit working completely. Thinking it might be a pilot light, I called [redacted]. truck and crew arrived the next day and diagnosed the problem as the “blower wheel being badly warped and rubbing on the blower housing.” They indicated that it could be easily repaired as the motor was working well. They suggested that I contact a dealer to do the repair work. (See attachment).

My brother-in-law, Dr. [redacted] contacted the M. V. Alton, Inc. company on my behalf, and [redacted] came to look at the problem. He verified the diagnosis made by [redacted]. and the next day [redacted] (with 27 years experience in the business) appeared at my door to repair the heater. He almost immediately told me he would need to order another blower wheel and that it might take a few days to get it. My sister, brother-in-law and I all waited 3 weeks to hear from them, but we received NO WORD from them! Meanwhile, the weather became colder and colder, I felt as if I were freezing, no matter how many layers of clothing and blankets I wrapped myself in. I became ill with the flu, developed a terrible cough and was completely miserable. The space heater my sister had purchased for me was simply not producing heat to help much.

I finally called W. V. Alton, Inc. and left a message asking for [redacted] to please return my call. I thought surely he would, but after two days he had not, so I called again asking to please have [redacted] return my call. He never did do so. My sister, [redacted], felt there was something wrong going on with that business, so she and her husband began making calls asking for return calls. They never did receive a call back. It was now near the middle of February.

Suddenly, one day about this time my brother-in-law received a somewhat cryptic message from [redacted] stating that the blower wheel had been ordered, and that it would arrive in ten (10) days.

Ten days came and went, NO blower wheel, no call from ANYONE at W. V. Alton. I had become “frozen to the bone” by this time. Miracles of MIRACLES, I made one last attempt to reach [redacted] or [redacted] and [redacted] himself answered the phone. I asked him if he wanted me to have someone else do the heater repair work for me? He replied that he really didn’t care what I did…that he couldn’t care less!

On February 22, 2016 at 9:30 am a very “grungy” looking man pounded on my door, said his name was [redacted], that he was a private contractor and that he was here to repair my furnace. He had made no phone call to inform me that he was coming, had no business card to give me and I was still quite ill and running a temperature. Obviously I was not thinking and I mistakenly let him through the door.

He used a pocket knife to “dig” holes in the walls to push thermostat wires through to attach those wires to the furnace, completely irresponsible and incompetent. Also I guess he connected the wires incorrectly because the heater never did turn on! His words were that he “modified” the blower wheel…which was a complete and “bold-faced” lie.Desired Settlement: I had to hire another reputable and competent company to clean up after the horrid mess that the W. V. Alton, Inc. people left for me!!!

I refuse to pay the several hundred dollars W. V. Alton, Inc. is charging me for service I never received. However, I am willing to pay the wholesale price for the thermostat they left here.

Yours very truly,

Business

Response:

In response to the complaint, we responded to [redacted]s call about the blower wheel. We explained to her that the unit is 30+ years old and that parts would be hard to get, however we would do our best to get a replacement wheel. We found a vendor that could get the wheel and that it would take a couple weeks to get here from the factory in the mid west, [redacted] had her brother-inlaw call me to go over the details with him. I offered them the option of replacing the entire unit rather than trying to fix a unit of that age, they decided to proceed with the repair. The new wheel arrived and we immediately had our service technician go to install the wheel, the wheel was not the correct one for the unit, we contacted the [redacted] furnace factory and explained that this wheel was wrong, they informed us that the correct wheel would be shipped out and that because of the age of the furnace a lot of the parts are no longer even in there system. We informed [redacted] and her brother- inlaw of the situation, they agreed to wait for the correct wheel to arrive. We received a call from another HVAC contractor in the Colusa area informing us that [redacted] had contacted him and told him to replace the entire furnace, I immediately called [redacted] to find out what was going on, she did not answer. I then called her sister [redacted] to find out what was going on, I asked her if [redacted] was having a different company replace the unit that we had all agreed to try and repair (per the customers request), She informed me that [redacted] had called another company. I was frustrated at this point that they did not contact us to let us know this, we were trying to fix the unit because of [redacted]s "fixed income situation". At this point I was frustrated with the situation, she had called my office manager "incompetent" over the phone, she called my service tech at 8:30pm at night slurring her words and making no sense at all (drugs or booze?) I don't know. Then this whole complaint arises, as far as im concerned she is not being truthful with you on the facts in her letter and is looking to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Regards, [redacted]