Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/29/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We are upset! I am currently a renter at my property. Part of my lease agreement is that I am the onsite point of contact for any repairs work to be done on the house. 3 summers ago our 3.5ton AC unit cooling our then 12-year-old home gave out. It was able to keep the 2300sqft downstairs of our house cool no matter what - until it gave out. Air-serve installed a new 4ton Lennox unit - home owners purchased 5 year warranty through aire serv. It has not cooled correctly since and this summer has been the worst. It appears to be an intermittent problem. But there have been weeks when the temperature outside has been between 80-95 and the house will not get below 76 despite the thermostat being set to 72. While multiple techs from aire serv have seen this behavior, the unit is measuring correctly and they will not look into the issue further until the house is above 80 inside. There were a couple of days that we met all those stipulations and called in, but aire serv did not answer the phone. This last time a technician was scheduled to come out - not because their was a problem - but because aire serv front desk was trying to be proactive and catch a problem. When problem was not occurring, a few minutes later a large man in gym shorts and another technician show up at the front door. I invite them in for the large man to tell me - without introduction - that there is nothing wrong with the unit. He pauses and I begin to say politely (all of this recorded), "All week it has been below 90..." I was cut off but I was going to say the house has not been cooler than 76. But instead the large gentleman raised his voice to re-assert the unit is functioning properly, he makes a couple assertions that aren't true. I inform him politely that if he continues to talk to me in that manner, I'll have to ask him to leave. He cut me off again and continued with raising his voice further. Long story short, he would not leave until after being threatened with police multiple times.

  Business response

  12/05/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/30) */ Contact Name and Title: Jordan ***** Contact Phone: ************ Contact Email: ***************@gmail.com We would like to thoroughly apologize that your experience with Aire Serv hasn't met your expectations but we would like to take this time to dispute a few of your claims. We originally installed your unit in August 2020 and we did discuss the benefit of installing a 5 ton unit as opposed to a 4 ton unit for the square footage of the home but the homeowner (your grandmother) decided that she didn't wish to incur the extra charge that would come with updating the duct work, etc. so she settled on the 4 ton unit. We have been to your home more than 6 times this summer with the claim that your home isn't cooling below 80-degrees, however when our technicians arrive, the temperature has been as low as 68-degrees on a 98-degree day and the highest temperature our tech recorded was 74-degrees on a day when the outside temperature was 110-degrees. We do have pictures to show the temperature inside the home each time a technician has responded. Our owner decided to respond himself to make sure that our technicians were doing everything in their power to fix the issue but he was immediately met with hostility and resistance from someone other than the homeowner but at no time was our owner or any of our technicians ever a threat nor were we ever caught "red handed" for any behavior while in your home. We are a small business and we take our customer care very seriously however when our technicians come and the claims are unfounded, it does make it a little more difficult. Our technicians also took the time to use a thermal image around your windows and doors to show you the temperature of the air coming through those areas was as hot as 87-degrees and unfortunately that does factor into the homes ability to keep cool but nothing to do with your unit itself cooling. So once again, we do apologize that we have been unable to identify a problem, however since the issue seems non existent when the techs arrive, we truly feel that we have done everything in our power to help the situation. I have attached pictures that technicians have taken of the thermostat readings when we have been to the home. One picture is of a different thermostat because earlier this year they had the thermostat changed to the Ecobee (Not by our company). We had them switch it back to the Lennox thermostat we had originally installed with the system. With temperatures getting into the upper 90's and 100 degree weather, it is normal to see a unit not keep up at 68 or even lower 70's. We typically do see a 5 ton/2300 sq ft but for us to go from a 3 1/2 ton system to a 5 ton system we would have to redo the ductwork, which is an additional cost for which your grandmother did not want to do. This is why we went with the 4 ton system. Consumer Response /* (3000, 8, 2022/09/01) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Yes, the unit was installed in summer of 2020. This is the 3rd summer it has been operational. We are the onsite contacts for the property owners who we rent from. We do not want a cold house. We just want the house at about 72 like the old unit used to do. We understand that the unit is having problems intermittently. That makes it difficult to troubleshoot. We have patience for that. You all have come out voluntarily a couple of times when we did not report the unit having problems that day just to check on it (thank you). Some of these images (the one where it shows the temperature at 68 and the one of the ducting in the attic) are not even from our house. I have NEVER had a beauty ring installed around the Ecobee thermostat. The roof line does not **** up against the duct-work like that. You all must be getting your files crossed or you are being intentionally deceptive. Therefore, I cannot be sure that any of these photos are of our house. The house has never been below 72 degrees during the day this summer. Nor has it been set below 72 aside from the couple of days the technicians told us to set it at 65. You are correct in that you have never witnessed the house above 80 degrees in person. However, when the unit was acting up and the house was above 80 degrees, it was in the low 90's out, and the thermostat was set to 72, you all did not answer the phone. However, there have been multiple times that the technicians Jordan and Dan were onsite and witnessed the unit only cooling the house by about 15 degrees when the temperature was around 92 out and the thermostat was set to 72. Both of those technicians noted this was not normal behavior but needed to come back out another time to troubleshoot it further. When the interior was a few degrees warmer. Regarding the claims about a 5-ton unit: we were encouraged to go with a 3.5 ton unit and were bid for a 3.5 and a 4 ton unit. A 5 ton unit was discussed but we were told it was unnecessary. The 3.5 ton unit we had previously was able to keep up with temps over 110. So, it does not make any logical sense that a 4 ton unit cannot keep up with temps around 90 degrees. We had to ask for a 4 ton unit as you all were initially just going to sell us a 3.5 ton unit. If the very unprofessional guy in the gym shorts is the owner, then I am so sorry for the employees that work there. #1. He did not introduce himself at all. He paraded right on in. We had no idea who he was or why he was there. That is super unprofessional. #2 He was not met with hostility. We were extremely amicable. We let him talk despite him cutting us off repeatedly. We did not cut him off. We never raised our voices at him during the bulk of the discussion although he raised his voice at us. #3. He came in accusing us of being dishonest instead of trying to understand/resolve the problem. What intention could we possibly have of being dishonest? We don't want technicians in our home. We don't have anything against Airserv. What would we even gain by being dishonest? We just want an A/C unit that works. #4. There was hostility from us, but that was only after you all were asked to leave for being so rude and refused to leave. I think that is a perfectly reasonable reaction when 6 people (3 of which were not invited in) are refusing to leave a home. Again, we ask for an apology for the way we have been treated and that you all continue to troubleshoot this problem. We will wait for another day that meets your specs (outside below 95, inside at 80 or higher). Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2022/09/09) */ After looking at the pictures attached we do apologize for including the Ecobee with the beauty light, that in fact was not your home, we do take a lot of pictures of our work and that one was selected by accident so we do apologize for that, however all other photos were taken at your home (crosschecked with the phones geo-location and your address just to be extra sure). One of our owners, Jordan is now in contact with the homeowner and we have been informed that we will be dealing directly with them going forward so we look forward to resolving the issue with them.

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