Yellow Dot Heating & Air Conditioning

The 1st repairman caused additional damage when trying to fix my furnace; while the 2nd misled me that the damage was not covered by their warranty.I am living in a newly built house the HVAC of which was contracted to YellowDot. According to their staff, the 1-year warranty covers everything except damage caused by extreme weather. I am OK with this term but I feel the company abused that against me. Below is what happened.On 2/19 when it was extremely cold, my condensing gas furnace stopped working. The next day 2/20, when a YellowDot technician came and figured it was because the drain line for the condensing water had been frozen, he asked me to prepare a pot of salty hot water and then he poured that water into the pipe next to the furnace which connects to the drain line. He explained this should melt the clogged ice inside the drain line, and asked me to wait for a while and then he left before my furnace could restart, thinking this method would solve the problem.However, my furnace was still not working, so on 2/21, I had to ask another technician of YellowDot to come. He diagnosed that it was because too much water in the induced motor, and he charged me a total of $389 for diagnose and repair, saying that was caused by the "weather" thus was not covered by the warranty. I immediately pointed out that the water could be probably from what had been poured into the pipe by the 1st technician the day before, but the 2nd guy denied that. At that time, I was so lack of HVAC knowledge and I felt I could not prove it was not because of the condensing water accumulation due to the clogged ice in the drain line. I also specially asked him if there was a device on my furnace that could prevent overflow condensing water from harming the furnace, such that when too much condensing water was generated the furnace would stop working to produce even more, and he said no. This technician was so pushy that I could not think more, and based on his misleading answer I tended to think it was my bad luck and I had to take that.However, a few days later I learnt by chance that there was a condensate safety switch Safe-T-Switch SS2 installed on my furnace, which was exactly what I asked him about but was denied. That switch is designed to "detect down stream clogs in condensate drains and interrupts the thermostat circuit to shut off the unit." So with that in mind, my argument is that the result of "excessive water in the induced motor" can only be caused by the following two reasons, and neither of them should be my responsibility: (1) if the condensate safety switch was functional and installed properly, when the drain line was clogged by ice, the overflow condensing water should have caused the switch to shut off the furnace so that no more condensing water would be produced. Therefore the water inside the induced motor had to result from the 1st technician's pouring more hot water than necessary by mistake. Then this was not an unfortunate accident caused "by weather" but "an additional damage when trying to repair", and having the problem fixed should not be my responsibility to pay; (2) on the other hand, if there was already excessive water in the induced motor before the 1st technician poured hot water into the pipe, that could only happen when the condensate safety switch failed at one time, such that when the condensing water was already accumulated too much the furnace still continued working and generating more water, and eventually led to the result of "excessive water in the induced motor". If this was the case, then that was a part failure at first, then severe results happened consequently when "bad weather" came. I felt that should be covered by the warranty and I should not have the responsibility to pay either.When dealing with this company what I felt most unacceptable was that some of their technicians used their expertise against the customer by failing to tell the truth. I knowing nothing about HVAC does not mean he can cheat me when I asked questions. If I had not happened to know that Safe-T-Switch was installed I would have simply let it go.Desired SettlementBased on the argument above I felt I did not have responsibility in any way to pay for the service I received, I requested the whole amount of my payment to be refunded, unless the company can propose a third convincing possibility which could lead to "excessive water in the induced motor" and which was neither due to their employee's mistake nor the part failure in the first place. I also want that Safe-T-Switch examined to figure out whether it had failed, and if it did fail I want that problem fixed at no cost of mine.Business Response /[redacted]Let me apologize again for the delay in our response to the complaint filed by [redacted]. We have been able to speak with everyone in our business that was involved with these service calls and believe we can provide a conclusive explanation for the events that took place. When [redacted] originally called into our office to report a problem with his heat, we informed him at that time that we would schedule his call and let him know when we were on the way. We also shared with him that we were aware of some other customers that were also experiencing similar issues with their heat due to unseasonably low outdoor temperatures resulting in frozen drains. He asked us if there was anything that he could do, and we told him that he could try to clear the ice from the drain outside, and if that did not work, he could pour some hot, salty water down his drain in the attic to help melt any ice that had formed in the drain line. When the technician arrived at [redacted]'s home on 2/20, he noticed that the inside of the furnace was extremely wet and the drains were frozen. He asked [redacted] if he had tried to clear the drains, and [redacted] told him he had poured hot water down the drains as directed by our office. He then showed our technician what he had done, and rather than pouring the hot water down the drain line, he had poured the water into the combustion air inlet on top of the furnace which then went directly into the inducer assembly of the furnace. Our technician showed him the correct drain pipe that he should have poured the water into and then asked [redacted] for some hot water. Mr. [redacted] gave our technician a small cup of hot, salty water, and we poured that down the drain. Unsure of the amount of ice present, we asked the homeowner to give it some time to work and to call us back if it did not clear. The following day, 2/21, [redacted] called us again to report that his heat was still not working. Since this was a weekend, we were unable to send the same technician out to his home. When our technician arrived, he noticed an abnormal amount of water in the furnace and the drain pan beneath the furnace. When we asked [redacted] about the water, he told us that he had added more hot water to the drain to clear the ice. This water had backed up and overflowed into the furnace and the drain pan below. We cleaned up all the water in the furnace and the pan and then cut the drain line to clear the remaining ice. Once the furnace was able to run, we quickly realized that a pressure switch was not working in the inducer. Upon further inspection, it was evident that this switch was full of water, which more than likely occurred when [redacted] poured the water into the combustion inlet rather than the drain line.Here at Yellow Dot, it is never our goal to take advantage of a situation or treat a customer unfairly. In this case, we strongly believe the damage to [redacted]'s pressure switch was inadvertently done by him, but we do feel our guidance from the office may have led him to do so. We would be happy to refund [redacted]'s money for the repairs hoping he can understand the position our technician took at the time of the repair.[redacted] also questioned the operation of the SS2 safety switch that is installed in his system and why it did not stop the water from overflowing. This switch is installed on the cooling side of the system at a higher point than the connection of the furnace drain. Its design purpose is to detect an overflow from the primary evaporator coil drain that spills into the secondary drain and to shut off power to the system stopping any additional condensate from coming out of the coil during the cooling cycle. To answer [redacted]'s question, the SS2 is not designed to protect the system from this failure during the heating mode. The pressure switch inside the inducer is responsible for this, and it did its job. However, we would be happy to go out to [redacted]'s home at no cost to him and test the SS2 switch and to confirm its function.Thank you,The Yellow Dot Management TeamConsumer Response /[redacted]/Yesterday afternoon, the general manager of Yellow Dot HVAC, [redacted] called me and we were able to talk through the whole thing on the phone. Clearly there was some miscommunication, partly because English is not my native language, but I believe after the talk we should have cleared most of them. Before I filed the complaint on Revdex.com, I did send an email to the customer relation manager of Yellow Dot to discuss this issue but I did not get any reply. I know calling them might be a more direct way and sending email may not be as effective as it may be ignored if they have too many emails to read, but the reason I did not call was because it was so long a story that I was unsure if I could express myself clearly on the phone. From the way we talked yesterday on the phone, I can feel how Yellow Dot value their customers and I have a feeling that if we could get in touch directly earlier before I filed this complaint with Revdex.com, we still have a good chance to resolve this matter in a smooth and favorable manner for me. Anyhow, I truly very appreciate Revdex.com's effort and help.On the phone, I believe we managed to clear some miscommunication, including that I made it clear to [redacted] I did not, before or after their technician came, pour down any water through any pipe of my furnace in the attic. Before the 1st technician came I did not even know there was a pipe in the attic that connects to the drain line. What I did was only to pour hot water onto the drain line outlet outside of my house on the first floor. It was a pity that their staffs thought I had told them I had poured excessive water into the wrong pipe by myself when [redacted] investigated this matter, and I had to say that was another unfortunate miscommunication that they may not understand well enough what I had said when they came to help fix my furnace. (And you see that is exactly the reason why I wanted to avoid phone call when trying to contact them. By email/text it can be more certain that both parties are on the same page.)With all above being said, I am very satisfied with [redacted]'s talking to me himself, which reflects the exceptional attitude how Yellow Dot value their customer's opinions and feelings. I am also very pleased with their proposal to resolve this matter. Again, I appreciate Revdex.com's help and effort on this case. Final Consumer Response /[redacted]/