Response from M & S Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.
On May 16-2011, we serviced the AC unit per their club membership, and had to add one (1) pound of refrigerant for a total of $32.88. The member paid the invoice per credit card. On 5-20-2011, she called because of no cooling. Our technician found the unit tripping the breaker and found the compressor windings shorted to ground and made a note on his ticket that they wanted a new HVAC system. They wanted our technician to do a sales call for them so he did; he is one of our selling techs. We have 8 pre-packaged systems available when we run sales calls, 4 systems that are non-tax credit eligible and 4 systems that are. We always ask which systems they want to look at (they saw all 8 systems from the plain basic to the best we have), in this case they chose the tax credit eligible systems to look over and also in this case where the furnace sets in the living area where noise can be a issue, we will make a recommendation that is all they look at (tax credit eligible system furnaces are the quietest furnaces on the market), after that it is up to them to chose the system. We also have loaner AC units available for our customers who lose AC during the hot weather to get them by with AC until we can schedule to install the system properly. We do require a $500.00 deposit to install one of these units, but that check is never even cashed if they purchase a system from us within 7 days of the sales call, we just give it back to them. They chose to have us install the loaner and she signed the loaner agreement, our technician spent the next afternoon, on a Saturday installing the loaner unit for the members so they would have cooling during the hot weather we were having. In this case, they chose to look at the 4 Tax Credit Eligible systems we have available and they chose the Supreme and neither they nor us ever changed anything about which system they were going to get. Just a note, 3 of our 4 tax credit eligible systems have the 2 stage 95% efficient furnaces in them, the other two are just made by HEIL. They chose our Supreme Tax Credit eligible Total Comfort System which includes a 95% 2-stage variable drive furnace, 14+ SEER AC, Hepa class filtration system and UV light system. A whole house humidifier is usually installed with one of these systems but we had no place to mount it so it was deducted from the system. They did see the other 3 HVAC systems but stuck with the Supreme System. We do not carry any brochures for any equipment right now because they are changing the models so fast it is hard to keep up with and the brochures become obsolete almost immediately. All information about our systems can be easily found on the manufacturer’s websites, and is more current and up to date. Because of heat and a busy schedule it was about 9 days before we could schedule to install the Supreme Maytag system and they chose to wait another day to start. We started the installation of their chosen Supreme Maytag HVAC system on Wednesday June 1, 2011. If time allows, we will pick the equipment up a day or two before we install it, but this was the case, and our installers went to pick up the system the morning of June 1, 2011 and probably did not get to their home much before 9:30 AM. Since the temps that day were supposed to be at or near 100 degrees, the priority was to get the AC back on as soon as possible. When we have to do it this way, our schedule of procedures for the installation are changed somewhat. Our installers got the AC back on about 2:30 – 3:00 the next day and their next step in the installation was to install the new PVC intake and exhaust, but being that it was near a 100 degrees outside, we do not want our technicians working in any attics since they will be approaching 150 to 170 degrees and are unsafe, so they left their home about that time on the second day and came back to the shop and made the new supply plenum so it would be ready to install the following day. So while they were not at the their home after 3:00, they were in the shop making ductwork for their installation. About 9:00 the night June 2, 2011 I got a call from our answering service telling that she was on the line and wanted to talk to me, so I had them patch her through to me. She told me she was unhappy with the blower noise the system was making and wanted it fixed, she also told me she had a list of about seven things she wanted taken care of. I told her to hang onto the list and I would come over first thing in the morning to go over it with her and her husband David. My technician that sold them the system also went over with me, the installers were waiting outside during this meeting. Before we even got there, she had called the office and said she wanted the system removed. They both told us the same thing when we first got there so I asked what their complaints were. She did have the list handy, but her husband did most of the talking before we ever addressed the list. Every concern they told us about, I told them this is all done at the start-up and check out (tweaking) of the system and we would not be at that point until later in the day. You can not do start-up and check out (tweaking) until you are done installing the whole system. Since their main complaint was the blower noise, my technician Erik went ahead and set it up to their system and not the factory default settings which it was set at. This satisfied both of them at this point and they allowed us to go ahead with the installation of their Supreme Total Comfort System, but our installers were getting off to a late start since this meeting took about 2 hours. On Friday June 3, 2011, our installers finished the installation of their Supreme HVAC system late morning. Our technician Erik was sent over to do the start-up and check out (tweaking) right after lunch. During start-up and check out, this is when we go through the thermostat and get into the installers setup and set it to their system. Gauges are put on the outdoor unit to measure for proper refrigerant levels, superheat and sub-cooling are checked, the temperature drops across the supply and return are done and all this repeated until we get the unit set (tweaked) as close as we can to the manufacturers recommended settings for the system. Erik then went over everything with them. On Monday June 6, 2011, she called in and said the supply plenum was sweating. We sent our technician Erik back over that morning to see what was happening. Since the furnace and water heater room is extremely cramped, he added a register to the supply to temper that room which stopped the sweating. Later that same day she called because the unit was not cooling, again we sent Erik over to see what was happening. He found the AC condenser fan motor froze up (it did not blow up). The distributor for their Maytag system is in town so Erik called to see if they had a new OEM fan motor and they did not, but they did have a brand new display model of an AC exactly like theirs so they just took off the whole top and gave it to Erik to install. So from the time she called in with no cooling till she had cooling again was a time frame of about one hour. This was unfortunate but it was a manufacturer warranty issue and not something we did. On Tuesday June 7, 2011 the member called in and said they are still unhappy with the system and told us we did not put in an OEM fan motor since the new motor had foreign writing on it, but it was an OEM part off of an exact Maytag display model like we had installed in their home. They had called into Maytag and kept getting referred back to us since we are the Maytag dealer in this area. They also said it wasn’t registered yet, which we had filled out their paperwork and what they want us to fill out, we have to mail it and Maytag hadn’t received it yet. She also accused us of forcing them into keeping the Supreme HVAC system, which we did not; we just tried to address her issues. We called Maytag to schedule to have a factory rep come out and meet with them which they were fine with and we scheduled that for 8:00 AM Friday June, 10, 2011. They canceled this appointment on Wednesday June 8, 2011. On Thursday June 9, 2011 they called and said they wanted Erik to come over again and do the sales presentation over again. At this point we suspected a little buyers remorse, and I instructed Erik that if they wanted us to put in a lesser system against our recommendation of staying with at least a 95% 2 stage variable we would not do it (we have two other systems they looked at that have the 2 stage 95% variable furnace in them, but they were not interested in them). Their main complaints early on with the system were noise and any lesser furnace would increase the noise they were complaining about. Erik met with the members that night for about 2 hours. They told him they would let us know the next day what they were going to do. The next day Friday June 10, 2011 they called and said they wanted the system removed and that they were going to have another company install a different system for them. They wanted us to remove the system as quickly as possible, that day if possible. Again we were booked and could not get there that day. It was scheduled for Tuesday June 14, 2011 after lunch since we had another installation scheduled for Monday June 13, 2001 through about noon on Tuesday June 14, 2011. They also wanted a paper stating we were going to remove the system and give them their money back. I told them we had to have this paper since we could not go remove the system without a written authorization. On Monday morning, June 13, 2011 she came to our shop to review the paperwork. The Supreme HVAC system they chose to purchase was originally $10, 596.00, from that we deducted the service call to add the refrigerant of $32.88, we also deducted the second half of the club membership $77.70 they had purchased earlier in the year, and we deducted $555.00 for the humidifier we had no room to install, so their total purchase price was $9,930.42, which she paid by credit card on Friday June 3, 2011 after our Technician Erik was finished with the start-up and check out (tweaking). On the paperwork for the removal of their chosen Supreme Maytag system we showed a refund balance of $9,930.42. Since they were not going to keep the Supreme HVAC system we had just put in, they were billed back the $500.00 for the loaner unit we had put in to keep them cool until we could properly install the system. She called her husband to discuss this and signed the removal agreement. She then told Jana how she wanted the refund and charges back done, which was a full credit back to their credit card in the amount of $9,930.42, and then another transaction to charge their card the $500.00, which we did. Due to a change in our schedule on June 13, 2011 they were called to see if we could go over that afternoon, which they agreed to. We did send 3 men over to expedite the removal the new Supreme HVAC system and it took them about 1½ hours to totally remove the new system. Matt wandering around their home was to re-install the AC breaker we had changed out so the system would pass the code inspection. The husband asked Matt where he was going and Matt said he was going to the garage to put the old 40 amp breaker back in and take back the new 20 amp breaker we had installed. If there was any damage to their home which I doubt, her post on Angie’s List is the first I have heard of it. She has not said anything to anyone in our office about it.