Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Affordable Arctic Air & Heat sent a technician yesterday to install a couple of thermostats and check out why my AC has been only working intermittently. One smart thermostat was installed and the HVAC unit was observed to be frozen up prior to installation of the thermostat. Checks were run and determined freon was determined to be low and was topped off. Was assured this was the cause of the issues with the AC not running reliably. AC continued to not run correctly overnight and company was contacted multiple times via phone and text beginning the following morning asking them to honor their 30 day call back guarantee. When I finally spoke to someone they blamed the issue on the new thermostat I had them install and refused to return to address the ongoing issue. Payment has been stopped on the check until the guarantee on the work has been honored and the HVAC unit is properly functioning. Company has indicated they intend to respond with a mechanics lien on the property.

  

  Business response

  07/13/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/06/17) */ The customer contacted us for service on his older hvac system. we advised different thermostats to resolve the problem he was extremely abusive to the staff on subsequent phone calls, swearing and shouting. he stopped payment on the check he paid for services that were provided and threatened to malign and defame our good reputation on social media we will put a contractors lean on his property for the check he stopped payment on Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/06/21) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The continued claims that the thermostat was the issue is absurd and merely highlights the laziness and incompetence of the company. As explained repeatedly to them, smart thermostats have been installed in this house for over 3 years (they were insistent that both the old as well as the new thermostats were the problem simply because they were smart thermostats). I also pointed out that my HVAC systems were explicitly noted as compatible with these thermostats and both the old and the new thermostats are highly reviewed. Spending 2 minutes on Google confirms that the only way the thermostats could be causing the unit to freeze up is if they were causing the units to run constantly (never the problem) and even then would only freeze up when temperatures were relatively low which has not been the case for months. When Hiller came out to work on the units they literally laughed out loud when they were told the verdict of Affordable Arctic blaming the thermostats for the issue. They were able to immediately narrow down the possible culprits to one of a few coils having failed. Ultimately they discerned that it was one of the indoor evaporator coils that had failed and upon replacing the coil the system has run perfectly. Hiller also confirmed that the freon that Arctic had topped off had been overfilled (after over a week to have further leaked) demonstrating that Arctic had intentionally overfilled in order to overcharge for the top off. The worst part for us was that this left us in dire straights of having to leave our children with a babysitter while we had to be out of town with no cooling in the house apart from a small window unit in an upstairs office. Due to this they all had to hide out upstairs in the only place the house was being cooled the entire weekend while we were away. At the end of the day Arctic has shown a shocking degree of laziness, incompetence, and unprofessionalism. They failed to call back following the original call, they failed to return after their initial visit, they failed to properly diagnose the issue, they refused to call back or respond when it became clear they had not fixed the issue the very next morning, they refused to honor their 30 day call back guarantee and come back out to determine what was actually going on when their original assessment proved incorrect, and they put my family in a difficult position right as we were leaving town. For all of these reasons I vehemently do not accept their response, I will do everything in my power to ensure future customers are aware of what to expect when working with Arctic, and I will drag out and make as difficult and expensive as humanly possible the battle over the lien they are placing on our house.

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