Commonwealth Duct and mold

If you ever see these names 'Commonwealth Duct & Mold', 'Commonwealth HVAC' or 'Larry and Victoria Bryant' - take my advice and run screaming in the opposite direction. Commonwealth Duct & Mold 'picked up' my contract from the newly defunct & fraudulent Virginia Air Mechanical aka Superior Mechanical Services in January 2012. They claimed that they would be able to get my deposit back from Superior and complete the originally contracted work. In fact, they wrote up a 'brand new' contract with their company and upped the price for the total installation of two zones for 2.5 heatpumps including duct work in my 1950 home. It wasn't until March 2012 that anything started to happen. Larry Bryant called me and claimed that they would get the job done the week of 3/15/12, but could I please pay a partial deposit of $5,000 since they were tied up in court trying to get my deposit with Superior (so they said). I complied. I am in $11,600 in the hole at this point so what the heck, right? About a month later, they had installed all of the vents in the floors and ceilings and as far as I could tell, it looked okay. All of the ceiling vents were connected to flexible duct, but only about half of the floor vents were connected. Of course, they installed round vents in all of the ceilings because they let me choose round or square, never mentioning the lack of efficiency of the round. Months and months of infuriating and unsatisfying phone calls and emails ensued. Then on 8/16/12, they said that they REALLY wanted to finish. They had started on the electrical earlier in July, but made a mess of it, lost their first electrician, and had to come back in to rewire part of the panel to bring the house up to 200 amp. They only made these changes at the panel, and never budgeted for this in the beginning even though they had full access to everything in my house in drawing up the contract. So, cha-ching, add another $3,300 to my cost, which I paid - which I've learned is an absolutely criminal amount to charge someone for a panel upgrade. I am fearful of my current electrical situation, since the panel is in UPSIDE DOWN, but the City Inspector and Dominion Power signed off on it and connected me to the line, so I suppose it's compliant. Once Dominion signed off, they said that they were now REALLY REALLY ready to finish the job, and they had my equipment in their warehouse. Could I please pay the balance so that they could pay their workers and they'd be done in September. You know I paid... I have sucker written all over my forehead. I have to mention that these people are very very convincing. Most con artists are.... I'd like to mention that after I paid them the final installment, I never heard from them again. I begged, pleaded, threatened... and I finally had to call my attorney. Just so you know, I won a $25,000 judgement against them in Chesterfield County Criminal Court for Fraud and Misrepresentation. They never showed up for court. We can't find them to try to collect, and my attorney now has to go after the Virginia Contractor's Board. A true nightmare. But what I can tell you is that there are really wonderful, honest HVAC services people out there, and I've met 4 so far who have come out to give me estimates to finish this job. And I'll be paying AFTER the work is completed.

ON November 4, 2011:Mary B Childress signed a contract with VA. Air Mechanical which included a 20 Kw Generac Generator, including gas piping to 15 feet, outdoor pad, Transfer Kit, interstate battery, 1 yr. Maintenance, labor to install, 1 yr. Labor warranty, 3 yr. Parts warranty, permits, inspections, set up, set up and demonstration.She wanted a 'whole house' generator that would run most of the house, including air conditioning in rooms she uses daily.The work never passed inspection. It was terrible workmanship.Mrs. Childress paid $7800.00 for this.The Richmond Times Dispatch and NBC news picked up on the story of VA Air since so many people were effected (over 1500) "Some of the most dangerous work inspectors had ever seen.)Larry and Victoria Bryant, of Commonwealth Duct and Mold Services were hired to finish Va Air Mechanical's work.Larry signed a Contract with M. Childress April 2, 2012.Larry reassured Mrs. Childress that he was going to "take good care of her".Mrs. Childress recovered her cost to VA Air from her credit card company.Commonwealth Duct and Mold charged her the SAME price, ($7800 BUT downsized her to a 10 Kw Generac, using the existing transfer unit. And told her it would do the same thing the 20 K would do. He did not specify that it would be a unit half the size she then had.)He was hoping to have the 20 K that was still in yard. But the credit card company picked it up.He said the work would be completed , the landscaping done to her satisfaction, by April 23, 2012. We were expecting to go on a trip and he assured us it would be done when we got back.Large , dangerous holes were dug all around her back door. Left for 2-3 weeks with no provision for anyone falling in and no work done.Finally, the job appeared complete.They may have put up to 7 working days in project over several months time.First storm of June 29th took out the electricity. The generator came on for about 4 seconds, then went out. Could not run by self.Someone from Commonwealth came out the next day. Said it was electrician's fault. Electrician came out a few days later, said it was a 'bubble' in line. The generator could be started but then would not run on its own after a few seconds.. Larry said he needed to replace the generator. Mrs. Childress was then told "that it would NOT run the air in her house except for the sun room, "where she spent all her time. And this had been explained to her.". She does not spend hardly any time in her sun room and would not have agreed to this. She had wanted a unit that would run most of her house most of the time. And was told when contract was signed that it "would do everything the other one would do". She was not told what size he was getting.Although Larry was aware that the generator was NOT working and that she had no back up power, he did not answer her calls or do anything to try to fix it until Mary Graham called him August 1. He sent an electrician over. The electrician started it up but it would not continue to run.Another Generac installer came to look at the connections. He said he was never connected correctly or set up correctly and this was why it could not run. He has always been a generac installer and not a mold and plumbing guy.Larry comes to the house Aug 2 and meets with M Graham, saying he will replace the 10 K with a 20 K. But then he needed to replace the transfer box (which he never paid for in first place) for $1800 because as of April 1 (note that his original contract was dated April 2) it was not in code. (we are now up to $9900 excluding the gas line for $1500) for what he essentially is hoping to pay out for a 10 K unit --which he wants the company to replace for 20 K with no cost to himself, a new box, which was not paid for in initial $7800 to him, and his labor).Mary Graham said all she wanted him to do was replace 10K unit for 20 K unit and that someone else would do hookup.It is August 11, 2012. 4 months, 1 week after Mrs. Childress signed a contract with Commonwealth Duct and Mold. She has paid him a total of $8100. The job is much neater than the original, but she does not have a working generator. Larry has been trying to get Generac to replace the 10 K for a 20 K at no expense to himself for the past week. Time goes on. And if Mary Graham did not call every day, he would let it slip. But he is "on our side" and "has worked his butt off on this job".When a call is made to the office, the message box is full. When a call is made to Larry's cell, the message box is full. He says he is coming by and does not.We, Mary Childress/Mary Graham (daughter) want a Generac 20 kw in Childress' back yard in place of existing (non working) 10 K by Thursday, August 16, 2012.We want $300 for the 1 year maintenance paid back to Mrs. Childress so we can contract someone else to do this.At that point, no further expectations, other than the warranty on Generac, are required from Commonwealth. M. Childress does not want to have to deal with Larry Bryant or Commonwealth after they have replaced Generac and repaid her $300 maintenance fee. He has greatly diminished her faith in man -kind.IF commonwealth feels that 4 months and still- not- working generator is reasonable and they have done all that should be expected and there is no agreement to this or no 20 K, then:We will notify and send a copy of this letter to:Credit card company for a refund.BBBLawyerAny and all reviews on Angie's List, Facebook, all Internet sources for reviews, Zachary Reid (wrote original article in Richmond Times Dispatch about how Commonwealth had come to save all the customers of VA Air Mechanics) Laura Geller from NBC news --who did a report on the original generator scam, Generac distributors, Roger Robinson , chief Inspector for Chesterfield County, and any one else that would be interested in this complaint.If you think you are in a position to 'go to court', go right ahead. We are hoping to do this with the less strain on my mother, M Childress. But if this is the way you want to go, I will be there.Besides all the complete frustrations Mrs. Childress has gone through, she has also lost her husband of 47 years, and had a stroke. Her health has deteriorated greatly having to deal with the stress caused by the lack of follow through on this job. We are getting ready to go through hurricane season. If she has to go to a hotel because she has a non working generator then the cost of this will be added to what we expect back from Commonwealth.It has been more than any reasonable person would expect. And I will assign any further health deterioration of M. Chldress to be responsibility of Commonwealth if this is not done to our satisfaction (as stated above) by August 16, 2012.Mary Childress GrahamMary B ChildressUpdate: (August 16, 2012)Wed, 15th, Larry of Commonwealth Duct and Mold, called me, Mary Graham. He said I knew he better than to think a threat would make him react. However, (and he was quite friendly ) he thought so much of my mother, he was going to replace the 10 K Generac that he had installed with a 20 K Generac, and pay the difference.. Whether he connected it after that or not , he just wanted to have a good repore. He had tried to get Generac to pay for it and they would not, but would give him a refund on the 10 K.He was getting ready to send a contract off to me but wanted to have a little more time. I asked him how much time was he talking about, knowing that that could be a long time. He said he was going to call the Generac dealers back and let me know in “20 minutes”. This was around noon on the 15th.At 2:23 he sent a text saying he was waiting on shipping people to call him back and the call me back. At 2:40 he called me back, wanting to know my e-mail address so he could send me a copy of contract. He had ‘it taken care of it”. At 5 pm I sent him a text saying I had not received the contract. His text reply was “about done at office. crazy here.”This was the last I heard anything from Larry and I never received his ‘contract’ or date of a delivery. Friday at 3 pm I sent an email to my sister to please check our mother’s house and see if generac had been exchanged. I sent a copy of this to Larry. If not I would begin making calls.This has gone of far longer than necessary. I have tried to give Larry a chance to “make good.” he has once more gone on his ‘salesmanship” of unmet promises. We think this is enough.