Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  So our furnace went out the day after mothers day called Apex and had them come out and look at it as we've only been in our house less than 2 years on a new build. They came out on the 23rd. The Tech looked at it and said it was the motherboard needed to be replaced. He noticed there was water Residue coming from the top of the furnace and you can see Where it was coming down. He told me that it may be a **** homes problem. There might be something leaking up top. I had **** homes Come out and look at it and they told me there was nothing wrong with up in the attic above it. They told me it was a Apex problem and that it was building up condensation. And leaking down into the electrical I reached out to Apex once again and told them What was going on and that we feel like We Should not have to pay for the part which was $494 That had a parts warranty on it that they collected on and we had to pay for! Told Apex what **** Homes told ** and that It needed To be insulated due to condensation build-up. I told apex What are we supposed to do if this happens again. they're only answer Was this was not within the one year warranty time frame! This company when they install the furnaces knows that this is happening and they're not willing to fix it unless it's in the one year warranty. But This is not happening until after the one year warranty is already up. They know this And this is how they're scamming people to get business knowing that this is going to happen. Our house is not even two years old this should not even be happening! If the company wants to make this right They will refund our $494 and I'll take care of the issue myself!

  

  Business response

  06/14/2023

  Our service manager has contacted ****************. We have an appointment with the homeowner on Friday June 16th to inspect his system and attempt resolution.

• Initial Complaint

  12/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 12/3 we called to have a furnace they installed 3-4 years ago looked at as it stopped working properly. We were told that there was a $300 trip fee because it was the weekend and we accepted that. At no point did they tell us there was also a 1hr minimum at a rate of $465/hr. Not before they came nor before they started service. The tech admitted to us that he should have told us before he started. He advised us we should be be able to come to a resolution. The owner however declined the resolution we had discussed with the manager. We asked to pay the trip charge that we agreed to, but rather than the weekend hourly rate to pay the normal Hourly rate as no one told us about ANY hourly rate nor that there was a 1hr minimum on top of the trip

  

  Business response

  02/02/2023

  Thank you for reaching out regarding our interaction with this customer. 
  
   
  We went out on one of the coldest weekends of the year to a "no heat" call and got the system up and going. We are one of a handful of companies in the area that provide an after hours emergency service on the weekends. This comes at a high cost to us as it requires multiple people working overtime during the weekend. We do not schedule routine service calls on the weekends; weekend appointments are reserved for emergency calls and warranty purposes for our builders. 
  
  In all honesty, our tech did not inform the customer of the hourly labor rate before starting the repair. This service was for the father of the complainant, and his system had not been routinely maintained. The father wrote a review on ****** shortly after the call, and 1 hour after that he edited it to raise the dollar amount and shorten the time of the call.  When our service manager ******* called the customer on Monday to try and offer a resolution, he spoke with a woman, either the wife or daughter,  who also left a bad review and was not even present at the appointment.  As he attempted to offer a resolution she became belligerent and unreasonable with him, and every other word was f*** you and f*** this.  We value our employees' mental wellbeing and will protect them against unnecessary work stress. At this point of the nonproductive conversation, the owner of our company told ******* that he doesnt deserve to be treated like that and we will no longer attempt to offer a resolution. 
  
  It is extremely hard to find talented and qualified laborers in our current economy that are willing to work on weekends. We respectfully stand by our choice to not allow customers to curse at our employees, and furthermore we don't want to be bullied into giving a refund through bad online reviews. Below are some screen shots from the online reviews they left us. For reference, our after hours emergency hourly rate is $465. Our regular hourly rate is $275.  Below are some screen shots from the ****** reviews. 
   
  
   
   
  
  
  
  *********************************
  Controller
  

  
  

  Customer response

  02/03/2023

   
  Complaint: 18528349
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  It does not address the problem.  We tried to call on Saturday to resolve it right away and when being told that we would not be helped till monday a review was left by me, not my father.  And yes, review was edited when more info was given as I was not present so I went based on the time that I receive phone calls which was not the full story, so I updated to be truthful.  Just because it makes it sound worse doesn't mean it was less true.  And here is where we take great exception to the business practices and where my wife became outraged.  The theory here is cause we left a bad review, we don't deserve for things to be made right.  Because we edited it, we must be lying. Calling it bullying is just reductive.  I stated clearly that the work was done, and the tech was nice, but we were not made aware of costs before the service was performed and the extent of which it cost.  I get they don't like a bad review but when it was written we weren't being helped and told to wait and see.  If ******* was trying to resolve it, he sure didn't make that clear.  What he was making clear was that it is Apex's policy to not disclose their rates.  My wife brought up that we were not told so our choice was taken away.  When we called all was told to us was a cost to roll a truck which we accepted.  We never got told that there was a 1hr minimum and what that rate was.  We did not need it fixed right away.  We could of waited and had my father stay with us in our guest room.  We could of called around to see if there were other rates.  All this was tried to be shared with ******* and his response was merely they do not disclose the rater and it was their policy to not do so.  Which seems like a terrible business practice and was infuriating. Yeah, my wife got out of hand with the use of ****, in her country it isn't seen as so rude and offense and she slipped back when ******* seemed to be putting the problem on us and not being transparent or honest.  Doesn't make it better and I agree no one should be cursed at especially when just doing their job.  Once ******* seemed to agree there was a mistake that all stopped too as we finally felt heard.  

  Every service I have received I get told the rater before work started.  I assumed the rate told to roll the truck was what I would pay.  If I was going to be expected to pay more, that should of been disclosed before I incurred the cost.  In this case there was a minimum of 1hr at the time the truck rolled so I was now having to pay for an hour that I was not told about at a rate I was not told about and I am not allowed to tell others about that when it does not seem like someone is going to help resolve that and when I get called back 2 days later I am being told that is normal and the expected practice of the company, even though the tech said they should of done otherwise.  We offered a solution and when called back just told nothing they did was wrong, how we would take that as trying to work it out would require ESP. We said we would pay the increased truck roll fee, as we agreed to that.  We asked to merely pay the normal rate and not the after hours rate. so we weren't even asking to not pay.  So yeah, we left a review with what happened so others knew what to expect.  Maybe they would ask upfront for the real costs and be able to make a decision,  Yes I edited the review afterwards when I learned more facts.  If they called back and said yeah, hey we made a mistake I would have edited it to reflect that new information as well.  

  If someone complains and the business response is I will deal with it later, how do you think it makes that person feel.  That doesn't feel like someone cares about my issue.  If someone complains and get told that the business feels they did nothing wrong, how are they to believe that they are trying to correct the customers issue.  If someone complains and gets told because they did so where others can see, the business won't do anything, how does that sound?  

  We can admit where we made mistakes and offered a reasonable resolution.  

  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩