ComplaintsforAdvanpro Furnace & Duct Cleaning

• Initial Complaint

  09/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Hello,We hired Advanpro to service our furnace and clean our fireplace. They called on the scheduled date of October ****, 2023 and asked if they could arrive early to do the service. I told them we are not home but allowed them to enter the house under the condition they clearly communicate when they arrive and leave and what they were doing. The workers arrived at our house at **:22 pm and left the house at **:39p.m which is a total of ** minutes spent at the property. They then proceeded to charge my credit card the full invoice for a full service even though it is impossible to fully service and clean the fireplace in ** minutes. I have been trying to obtain a refund for the furnace tune up but Advanpro has offered only **% or an agent to return and redo the job. We do not trust this company to redo the work since the first worker told us the furnace is in great condition and all he did was "run the numbers and they came back fine." I would like to see a refund of minimum **% of the invoice we paid for the tune up. It is not fair that we pay full price for a service that was not completed.

  

  Business response

  21/11/2023

  Hello,

  This has been resolved directly with the customer, how do we go about getting this closed?

  Thank you,

  Customer response

  21/11/2023

  Good day,

  We did receive a refund of our requested **% invoice from Advanpro. I had told them I would let BBB know once the payment is confirmed by my bank as there was a hold on it. The hold has been removed and you may now remove the report- we are satisfied with the settlement. We are grateful for your support in this!

  Thank you so much!

  ******

• Initial Complaint

  09/08/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Advanpro sold me a new Lennox 13ACX compressor for $2,064.30 on June 22, 2018, but used the old aircon lines and evaporator coil because they wanted my business and told me it's the most cost-effective way and I fully trusted them at the time. Last summer, my aircon failed. Their tech diagnosed the problem as coil leak. On July 20, 2021, Advanpro said they will contact me to resolve but they never did. At the time, I also had serious health issues requiring hospitalization and the matter was then dragged on until now, all the while Advanpro never contacted me, unfortunately I wasn't in good health to follow up either. After taking months to recover, finally this summer, I contacted Advanpro to insist on resolving this, and I also called a certified ********************** (from Lennox website) to check my aircon. I was told the premature failure of the unit was due to poor and improper installation by Advanpro. My old aircon line set and coil used R22 refrigerant, and Advanpro installed a new aircon that used 410A refrigerant. These are incompatible. ************ etc. had corrupted the new condenser via the old pipes and coil. The old evaporator coil also had a different SEER rating to the aircon Advanpro installed. It is unscrupulous that they had installed a new aircon on incompatible old lines/coil in order to give me a competitive price when they wanted my business, leaving me now to deal with this premature failure. On Aug 9, 2022, They offered me a more costly and refurbished aircon model and quoted me $5,195 to replace my aircon system. They also pretended to offer a discount of $1,699, so I would pay $3,670 after tax. I made a phone call to another Lennox dealer and got a quotation of only $4,250 for the same unit but comes NEW & fully installed. Obviously, Advanpro bloated the price to $5,195 and then gave me a false "discount" on a refurbished unit. I asked them for options because I don't want the more costly model, but was told to take it or leave it.

  

  Business response

  24/08/2022

  Although we understand **** frustration and sympathize with him on a personal level with his health situation, we have been trying to work through a fair resolution with him for some time. We feel that what we have offered is very reasonable and unfortunately what he is demanding is unfeasible. 

  Here are the events that have led to today:

  Last summer we received a call from customer indicating the ** was not working. We established that the coil which we did not install or replace was leaking last year (we went out to diagnose this at no cost to the customer, despite this normally being a chargeable visit). We provided price to replace it. He chose to go with another provider (presumably who was cheaper).We heard nothing from the customer until July of this summer. He indicated that the condenser had likely failed though presumably had run for about a year after he had the evaporator coil replaced by another contractor. We suspect based upon description of issue, the unit failed because it was run with low or no refrigerant due to a leaking evaporator coil prior to or after the coil was replaced.

  Regardless we are not responsible for the failure of the unit as it was caused either by another companies faulty workmanship or a part failure that we did not touch or install.

  We have offered *** several solutions to the issue but he has rejected our offers

  To this point;  

  We have offered to diagnose and fix the unit under warranty,with parts covered (labour would be chargeable for replacement of the failed parts and the diagnosis). This was declined.

  We offered to install a brand new system and credit him the payment he already made against a new unit. The cost of the system at our current competitive market prices. This was declined.  

  Essentially he wants a full refund for a condenser installed 4 years ago which ran fine until a component in the system, which we did not touch or could be held responsible for, failed. Alternatively, he wants us to install a new system at a price which would mean we are doing the work at a loss. We would be happy to have further conversations with *** about this but there needs to be some compromises made.

  Thank you,

  Customer response

  25/08/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I reject this response because they failed to mention an important fact leading to failure. In June 2018 their Sales offered to install an aircon compressor without replacing the old lines and evaporator. He **** that installing a partial system was most cost-effective. His also quoted 10 year warranty. When I registered my aircon, I was told my aircon is missing an AC coil. I told **** and he said I should get proper warranty once I entered the serial nos. of the "evaporator coil as part of the A/C system." His email acknowledged a proper aircon install comprises BOTH condenser and coil. But he didnt even know his staff only put in a new condenser without a new coil. My old coil used R22 refrigerant. The new condenser used 410A refrigerant. Both are incompatible which eventually led to contamination and premature failure. By refusing to address this fact, they tried to deflect blame. The aircon failed just 3 years after and not 4 as alleged. I was also frustrated with their service person **** who came but said he needed to return later to diagnose, but he forgot.Eventually he did return weeks later after I complained. He said the old coil was leaking. He quoted a price to replace the coil, which I thought was excessive since poor workmanship led to it. I wrote to **** on July 13, 2021. **** replied a week later saying he will get back to me with new pricing. He never did. It turns out even a new coil couldnt save the condenser because it was contaminated from their bad initial install *************** confirms this).**** offered costly refurbished (not new) unit that nullified any credit that they claimed they were giving me. He then speculated (his own word) the reasons for failure without having to perform a proper diagnosis, while refusing to acknowledge the improper installation in the first place. I have lost confidence in Advanpro. I asked for a reasonable refund on Aug 9, 2022,not full refund as falsely alleged.

• Initial Complaint

  03/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Advanpro came January 13, 2022 to perform a Furnace Tune Up on our 10 year old furnace.The tech took a cover off and said you have a leak. There was some moisture and rust visible from the clear collector box. The tech said if this strong metal is damaged like this, the metal behind there is aluminum, not as durable and it would be wet behind there and trashed also. We were surprised but trusted him and he proceeded to give us a quote for a new furnace ($7k). The tech did not use any tools or do anything to the furnace. Just the visual of that leak and a quote for a new furnace and we paid $104.95 for the visit.We proceeded to get 3 more quotes and one of the companies that came to provide a quote asked why we were replacing a 10 year old furnace. I told him what we were told by the tech from Advanpro and he said no that is incorrect and proceeded to show and explain to me why. He explained that the clear collector box in this furnace is known to leak. It isn't a matter of if they will leak, it is a matter of when. He said it hasn't been leaking for long and examined it further. He explained that the aluminum part behind (the part that Advanpro said was trashed) is meant to be wet because our furnace is a condensing furnace and it was functioning fine. He sourced the part and sent a quote the same day. The new furnace company replaced the part and said it is a known issue with these furnaces. The new collector box is black and not clear. They also used a camera to inspect the secondary heat exchanger. It is functioning and there is no sign of leaking from there. They checked the operation of the furnace and it is all ok. I called Advanpro on January 17 and the sales manager called me back. I explained our situation and he was surprised and apologized for their tech not doing "due diligence". He said he would talk to the admin about a refund. *** ran out of space to continue.

  

  Business response

  03/03/2022

  As per *************** complaint, We did attend her home on January 13th to perform a tune-up. When our technician opened the furnace he found a significant amount of water and rust. Due to the amount of rust it is apparent that this had been leaking for quite some time. Our technician brought this to the attention of *************** who at this point refused the tune-up. Based on the visual assessment of the furnace and amount of erosion in the furnace our technician felt that the best option was to replace the furnace, but he did also give her the option for repair. Based on the state of the furnace ************** told our technician that she just wanted a quote for a new furnace, which he then provided to her. When there is a leak in the furnace there *** be significant damage to other elements that *** not be apparent right away. Part of the tune-up process is to check elements of the furnace such as igniters,flames sensors and amperages on the blower and inducer motors. Had we had the opportunity to proceed with the tune-up there is a good chance we would have been able to provide further diagnosis. It is not an uncommon practice for companies in our competitive industry to use a scenario like this as an opportunity to secure repair work by going into a home and condemning what the company before them had done or said. Ultimately we were called out for a standard tune-up which lead to us finding a major issue with the furnace.Because *************** decided against the tune-up she was charged only our minimum call out fee  Please see ******** photos of *************** furnace at the time of our visit.

  Customer response

  04/03/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  In response to the reply received.   The tech opened the furnace and based on his visual inspection ONLY and recommended complete replacement.   He said  (and I will paraphrase here) I could proceed with the service but what is the point, you can't polish a ****   That stuck with me as I thought it was an odd thing to say.    Based on the opinion of the so called professional from Advanpro we took their word for it, didn't argue and proceeded with obtaining quotes for a new furnace.    

  
  

  In summary another furnace company who I called for a quote (and who could have simply quoted and also got our business), said wait this is a known issue with these furnaces.    It is not a matter of if they will leak but when.    They dug deeper to ensure there was no there was no other issues.   They used a camera to verify the furnace was ok.    I have ******** a photo of the invoice to provide evidence of the work that was done and a photo just taken of our functioning furnace.    Advanpro states that competition is a factor.   Competition happens in any industry but had their tech took the time to look past the leak; if he had the knowledge to know this is a common issue and used a camera perhaps they would have found the same thing.     I spoke to Advanpro's sales manager prior to submitting this complaint.   He even said it sounds like the tech jumped to that conclusion and didn't do his due diligence.     He was very reasonable and understood the concern and issue at hand.    I have ******** the documentation to show the Advanpro tech did not show due diligence in recommending a new furnace.   We had no trouble replacing our furnace but why, if you can fix a well known issue with the product instead?     
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

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