ComplaintsforHorsetooth Heating and Air, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Second service from horsetooh 7/21/23 First notice of invoice 8/23/23 I had two service calls with horsetooth. The first call was to diagnose and issue with my AC system. The first invoice that I paid was for $846. The second service call to my home is where the issue came up.The same tech came out to the house on the second visit the tech explained that he believed that the leak was coming from the coil. He went on to tell me that he is going to look into something and give him some more time. After some work, he said he could get to it if he just goes through the drain pipe. I asked him how much everything would cost and he replied with i know you have already spent 800 some dollars. After he got the coil out, he determined the leak was in an unrepairable location.He explained the repair cost were getting into the same cost as a new unit. I was asked if I would be interested in someone coming out and doing an analysis. I agreed, and thanked him. I went and got my credit card ready to pay him for the service fee and waited for him to finish. The tech came up, I thanked him for being so transparent and walking me through everything. I went to hand him the credit card and he told me that he wasn't going to charge me the service fee today.I must have thanked him two or three times before he left. My fiance was even in the room and heard everything as well.Even though that was a long explanation, the main points are pretty simple and straightforward. My interactions with the tech were not vague, not misunderstood, they were straight and to the point. I always asked him about the cost for everything and he was super helpful. Then i was presented with the invoice a month later from the employee who came out and did the cost on a new unit. I told him everything about how i shouldnt be getting charged for the second visit. He told me he is passing it along to the owner **** and he would get back to me. He never got back to me or replied to my emails.

  Customer response

  08/30/2023

  I tried to shorten up the email i sent to **** for the submission to the BBB. I left off one of the key interactions with the tech off the submision. I attached the non shorted email that I sent to **** that explained this.

  line 5 should of read as:  I asked him how much everything would cost and he replied with i know you have already spent 800 some dollars. I'm just going to charge you the service call fee today.

  Thats why i got my credit card ready to pay the service fee after he had finished up. That he then said he wasnt even going to charge me. So when I got the invoice from *** a month later with "time and materials" at a quantity of 2.5 equalling $312.50 plus $89.00 service fee. Thats where the issues come up.

  

  Business response

  10/10/2023

  Good Morning,
      Im just getting through emails. I've been in and out of town for the last few weeks.  I've looked into this and our standard policy is to charge labor for a follow up and if that leads to replacement the labor charges are waived. *************** declined the replacement quote which made the charges valid. Look at my techs notes this could have been explained a bit better and due to being out of town I haven't followed up on this  as quickly. Mr  ****** paid the bill today which seems to me that he sees the bill for what it is. Let me know. 

  Customer response

  10/10/2023

  Complaint: 20533756
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  
  Let me first start off by saying I honestly have no idea what you're talking about when you said I paid the bill today. I paid the first invoice on the same day it was presented to me. This whole complaint is based on the second invoice that your company gave me.

  
  When you just quote some policy, as your response after 40 some days. It seems to me that you didn't read my complaint or just dont care about it. The fact is your technician did not act on any policies that you may or may not have. If you had read my complaint or the email I sent you (that you never responded to), you might of seen this point. Ill reiterate for the sake of clarity on the main point of why we are even here. I asked the tech on his second trip out what it was going to cost for him to do some investigating into the coil. His reply was that he would only be charging me the service call for today. I then told him ok to do the work. As he was leaving, I went to pay him for the service that he told me he was going to charge me for. He then told me that he wasnt going to charge me. He said something along the lines of I know you already paid 800 some dollars. I thanked him repeatedly.
  Then a few weeks later I received another invoice for that second service call. This invoice had tacked on charges, materials, ect that was 400 something dollars. That brings us to the heart of the complaint. Its not about your policy, its not about your high prices, its solely based on what your tech told me that day and what your business charged me weeks later without merit. 

   

  Regards,
  
  ***********************

  

  Business response

  10/27/2023

  Hi *****,

  
  Thank you for reaching out again.  First and foremost, I apologize for the experience you received working with our company.  The major breakdown that occurred was the lack of communication between ************** and the office.  In my previous response, I was referencing our policy as to why we initially sent you a bill for the second visit to your home.  I realize that wasnt written out clearly and I apologize for that as well. 

  
  Typically, when a customer has had a service call that then turns into a need for replacement, we will waive service charges if they accept a quote for a new system.  If they choose not to move forward with a replacement quote, then those service charges are not waived and a bill for services performed is then sent to them. 

  
  In this situation specifically,from my point of view and the offices point of view, this was the scenario we were currently working in.  However, when your complaint was received it was at that point I and my office staff became aware this was not the case.  The technician did not relay the conversation you both had to me or to my dispatcher, who would have been the one to inform our accounting team.   After the project manager informed us that you had been unresponsive to his attempts to reach out regarding moving forward with the replacement, by both email, text messages, and voicemails, that prompted our accounting team to send you the invoice for the leak search and additional service call.  As you had signed our easy seal waiver, it was assumed that you were aware of the upcoming charges.  Naturally, that assumption led to us sending you an invoice and then leading to your confusion. 

  
  When I received your complaint, that prompted me to speak with my dispatcher and the technician who performed your call.  Still, at this time, the technician did not communicate that he had said he would waive the charges and instead told me he informed the customer the charges could be waived if we replaced with a new system.  Since this was mostly hearsay and I had no reason to believe you were incorrect in what you had heard,I decided to err on the side of the technician not being clear in his communication to you and asked my accounting team to waive the charges. That was completed on September 11, 2023.  Once this occurred, I had filed it away as handled in my mind and, unfortunately, I did not follow through on the response to your email.  I can give many reasons as to why, but ultimately this affected your experience and again I apologize for that.  

  
  This has been a great learning experience for me and my team and has allowed us to put into place a better process for this type of scenario.  Weve established a weekly meeting with our field staff so that we can continue to inform and train how to clearly communicate to customers while they are servicing their HVAC equipment.  Weve also updated our process to collect all service charges at the end of the service call, even if they are receiving a quote for replacement, and then discount the service charges from the accepted quote.  This will ensure that the experience you received wont happen again in the future.

  
  I appreciate you bringing to our attention the gaps we had in our processes and giving us the opportunity to correct and grow. 

  
  Thank you,
  *********;

  Customer response

  10/30/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  

   

  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

  Customer response

  10/30/2023

  I do appreciate you taking the time to write out that explanation.

  I do agree that most of this complaint can come down to hearsay. However, I really did feel that your tech was upfront with me and I actually comunicated with him way more then I normally do with other contractors. I really thought he was upfront and a good guy for taking the time to explain everything to me.

  One last thing that doesnt seem to be matching with your account of the events. When you say I didnt respond to attempts to get a hold of me. I didnt reply to emails and text while I was out of town on vacation. When I got back, I did speak with *** on the phone and thats when he gave me the quotes. Then when I didnt accept them he then sent over the invoice that I didnt know was coming.

  Best regards

  ***********************

*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. ↩