Comfort Systems USA Midatlantic

Ella L.

On 02/21/20, I contacted Comfort Systems USA, as my heat went out and to their credit they promptly sent out a serviceman, to fix it. The serviceman did come out, quickly find the problem, in 15 minutes, and ordered the part.

I am handicap, elderly, and my son talked to the serviceman. However, I was in the next room listening. My son asked how much it was going to be for the initial diagnostic. The serviceman specifically told him, that he would not know that until the part came in. Thus, we waited for the part to arrive, and on 3/4/20, the serviceman did arrive with the part in hand.

I wanted to make sure that we could afford the service, and sent my son to inquiry about how much the total estimate would be. The serviceman came back with a figure somewhere between $580.00 and $600.00. I refused, as I thought that price was outrageous. However, I believe in being honorable and told my son to ask how much we owed without fixing it. I heard the serviceman tell my son that it would be around $140.00 for the diagnostic, and we agreed to pay for his service by check the $140.00 for his services. Thus, I sent my son with a check for $140.00, it is at this point, when the situation turned sketchy.

My son approached the serviceman check in hand, to pay for the service, and the serviceman began to haggle with my son for his services. I heard him say, ""We'll how much can you afford."" This should of tipped me off, to exactly what type of people, I was dealing with; however, when the price came down to $400.00, I agreed to pay, because I just wanted my Heat/A/C unit fixed. Also, the serviceman said that, ""they guaranteed their work.""

The serviceman took about an hour to install the part, got paid by check, $408.00, and left. The heat worked for fine for at least 6 days, and then went totally out on 3/10/20. I had my son contact them the next day on 3/11/20. My son told me no worries, as it was probably something simple, and that the serviceman had guaranteed the work.

Needless to say this was not the case, as they refused to even look at it. They told my son that it was ""$140.00, every time the wheels of a comfort systems truck moves."" That guaranteed would guarantee their work but we had to pay the ""$140.00 for the trucks to move."" I thought to myself, this is some sort of scheme, that is; ""how is it a guarantee, if we still have to pay for another diagnostic?"" Also, ""how can they guarantee it is not a workmanship issue, without even sending someone to look at it?"" My son pleaded with them over their legalistic word games, and lack of empathy, business ethics, and professionalism. After all, the only thing we wanted was to see if it was a workmanship issue before moving forward.

The Comfort Systems guarantee of workmanship, comes at an additional $140.00, and in reality was no guarantee at all. That is they refused to come and even check it out til they were guaranteed $140.00. Thus, our only alternative was to contact a totally non partisan outside serviceman to check to see if it was covered under their nonexistent guarantee.

I contacted an HVAC expert, who came out, and he quickly determined that the 9 point connector switch, had been reinstalled incorrectly, and that is why the A/C, kicked the power off to the system. I thought to myself, maybe this was done on purpose, to get back the $200.00 that the Comfort Systems serviceman haggled with us over.

The expert serviceman said, that he did not believe this to be the case. That in reality, their was no reason to even mess with the connector. That sometimes inexperienced serviceman, get in an hurry and move the connector to get the job done quickly. I wanted him to just go ahead and fix the problem, but he told me that he could not guarantee that further damage had not been done to the system, and he suggested to just have Comfort Systems come out and fix the problem.

He did not want to worked on it, because he worried that might void any guarantees from Comfort Systems. Also, he assured me based on his 20 years experience that it was a workmanship issue. Also, to attest to his character, he only charged me $40.00.

Thus, my son once again contacted Comfort Systems, with the knowledge that it was a workmanship issue. The manager avoid my sons calls, and finally a different manage called, and my son only had a simple question, where they now going to honor their guarantee?

First, he tried to convince my son that the work was done 2/21/20, and not on 3/4/20. This was a lie, as the part was installed on 3/4/20. Long story short, he still would not move the trucks, unless he got paid $140.00. Thus, unless you want to be harassed by hard sales tactics, overpay inexperienced serviceman, and have to call someone else to fix it, I would strongly urge you to contact someone else for your HVAC needs.

All names withheld, as was told by a manager, that this was just Comfort Systems Policy