Southtown Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electrical

Description of Work: .

Description of Work: .

Description of Work: .

Description of Work: Southtown Heating, Cooling, Plumbing & Electrical put in air conditioning and furnace.

Description of Work: F irst of all i wasvery pleased with their punctuallity and they were very professonal. They fixed several leaky pipes and a toilet for me. iam a senior citizen and it is a delight to know that i can recall them and get the same service. I will recommend them to any one.

Description of Work: I had contacted Southtown Heating and Air come to my home to run a diagnostic test on my furnace and heat pump to make sure that my 1 year old system was hooked up and working properly. This was due to extremely high electrical bills even after my 97% efficient system was installed. I had informed the woman at Southtown that I set the appointment with that I had a Goodman heat pump and air handler and that I had a 10 year warrantee on it. When I got off of the phone, my wife had asked me how much this diagnostic test would cost. I said that I had forgotten to ask and my wife promptly called Southtown back. My wife was told that the diagnostic fee would be $84. She said thank you and hung up the phone. When Southtown came for the appointment they spent 3 1/2 hours at my house, concluding with the diagnosis that the board was causing the variable speed motor fan to run too fast causing the temperature to be too cool, a condenser trap was not installed and a sensor needed to be replaced on the heat pump. After this information was given I was handed a bill for $336. I informed the technician that I had a warrantee and was told that he believed that most warrantees only cover parts. I showed the technician my paperwork that showed a 10 year parts and labor warrantee. He agreed that it was valid and called his supervisor on the phone. His supervisor told him that Southtown was not a Goodman Good care warrantee provider and the bill needed to be paid. That if I had a problem that I should call Goodman directly. I wrote the check out for $336 feeling that at the time there was no other option. I was told by a Goodman representative after contacting them that I should call the service manager of Southtown to complain about what had just transpired. I contacted the service manager of Southtown and was given the run around, claiming that this was their going hourly rate, and the woman that I had set the appointment up with did tell me that it was $84 per hour and they did not honor Goodman warrantees. I explained that i would have t be an idiot to have received that information and still agreed to have them come to my house for this diagnosis test. I was told that all heating and air companies in the area charge by the hour for diagnosing these systems. Before the end of the conversation the manager had asked if he could call me back after he had a chance to talk to the technician and look over his work ticket. I explained that there was no work done and it was not an issue of quality of work but the fact that I was being charged by the hour after being told $84, and they never explained that they did not provide Goodman warrantee work. After this conversation I took it upon myself to call 6 other companies in random order for the yellow pages to ask if they charge a flat fee or hourly fee to come and diagnose a system like this. All 6 companies claimed they charge a flat fee, whether it takes 1/2 hour or 3 hours. I called back Southtowns manager with this information and was told that he didn't believe what I was telling him and there was no way for him to confirm this, that their rates are very comparable with other companies in the area. My wife and I had decided to put a stop payment check on the payment until we got to the end of this issue. My wife had called the next day to talk to the service manager’s supervisor and was directed to the next manager. My wife was told in a rude and abrupt manor that her service manager is very capable and she trusts his judgment. My wife asked if she could speak because the manager would not let her get a word in. My wife was told "NO" she could not speak that she has all the information that she needs. My wife was then told to pay the bill or else they would turn us over to legal. Over the next week my wife had attempted to contact the owner and explain the situation but his direct number was not given and he had not returned any phone calls. During the following week we had called another company after making sure that they provided Goodman good care warrantee work. They told me that they would charge a flat fee of $89 to diagnosis the system and if any work needed to be performed that that fee would be thrown into the warrantee work and it would cost us nothing. That company came out to the home and spent 2 1/2 hours running the same type of tests on the system. They found nothing wrong with the system what so ever. They looked at the Southtowns technicians notes from the receipt and explained to me that he was wrong on his diagnosis. We did have to end up paying the $89 because there was no work that needed to be performed. Since then the only other action that we have taken was to send a check for $84 to the owner directly with a note attached that explained that this money is to cover what the agreed price of the test and if he wants to discuss the matter to call us directly. Our phone number was attached but to this date has not received a call. I do want to make it clear that this is not an issue with trying to get out of a bill that we cannot afford to pay for. This is over a company misrepresenting itself and trying to push around the consumer. I should have been told from the begining that they did not provide warrantee work for Goodmans and that they charge an hourly rate to run diagnositic test (correctly diagnoised or not).