Very poor customer service. The manager yelled at me over the phone because I questioned the invoice.
In an emergency situation, no one followed up and returned calls. In the middle of winter with no heat, I had to wait the next day until I was able to reach a company representative. I then had to wait several more hours for someone and diagnose the problem, and wait one additional day for them to come and fix it.
No breakdown of costs (labour vs. parts) provided to customers. Asked for a breakdown of costs and was not provided one. I called the furnace manufacturer to find out the cost of the part and figured out that I was charged close to $1000 for labour to replace a part which took less than 15 minutes to be replaced.
Every time the company comes to diagnose a problem, the customer is charged $139, however, no one informs you before they come over.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,800.00
- Company Response
Good Day Ms. I. R. and Ms. J. K.,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the Homestars community. Although we do not like negative reviews, your review highlights the authenticity of all our stellar “”10” reviews. It also gives me the opportunity to share with the Homestars community, the full story and the true cause of your anger and frustration that is so evident in your misleading review.
On January 29, 2019 you called our office at 9:30AM requesting a service call because your 2 year old NTI heating boiler was not working. This boiler was not installed by our company. Since we always try to save our customer’s money, our Service Coordinator, Rico, suggested that you reach out to the installing contractor who might be able to provide the necessary repair under warranty. You told him that you have been trying to reach the installer since the day before but he was not responding to your calls. So when you write “In an emergency situation, no one followed up and returned calls.” You are being very misleading because it was your installing contractor that did not return your calls. Our technician was in your home at 11AM, only 1.5 hours later. We did not charge you $139 as you write, “Every time the company comes to diagnose a problem, the customer is charged $139” rather you received our WeCare 20% discount and was only charged $111.20. Again you misrepresented the facts.
Our diagnostic charge includes a full diagnostic by a licensed technician. We tell you what is wrong and we quote you on the cost to repair. This is your fixed cost so there is no risk to you. Your control board had failed and was the cause of your boiler not working. We quoted you $1,681.25 and discounted the price by 20% due to your WeCare customer status.
Since the cost of this repair was significant, you did not initially approve this repair and decided once again to try and reach your installing contractor for warranty. Again he didn’t call you back.
You called us back the next day on January 30, 2019 and authorized the repair and its associated cost. We immediately ran across the city to our supplier to purchase the part and repair your boiler with no delay. Your boiler was operational by NOON. Within 3 hours of your approval. So when you write “and wait one additional day for them to come and fix it.”, it is also highly misleading because it was you who waited overnight to authorize the repair.
We charged you the exact prices that we quoted to you in advance of our work and not one penny more.
So to summarize, we responded to your initial call within 1.5 hours, we delivered an accurate diagnostic and price to repair on the spot, we responded to your approval to repair instantly and completed the repair within 3 hours including driving across the city to get your part, and then we billed you exactly as quoted and approved.
Regarding parts and labour breakdowns, our staff does not have access to this information because we use industry standard flat rate pricing which puts the onus and risk on us to deliver the service efficiently based on a flat rate price that is dictated to us through an industry pricing book. It also allows us to provide pricing instantly by referencing this flat rate manual so our customer doesn’t have to wait for us to calculate pricing.
I was standing right beside Rico when he spoke with you and although you were quite irritated and confrontational on the telephone, Rico kept calm and remained polite and professional. I guess since your were so upset you might have projected your mistreatment of Rico on him, but the reality was not that way.
I am not upset with you for this bad review, rather I feel bad that your installing contractor let you down when you needed him most. I just feel you were unfair by unleashing your frustration on our company while we were the people that helped resolve your “no heat” crisis.
We are always there for all our customers and should you need our help in the future, please feel free to call us and we will always do our best to help.
Wishing you a wonderful and comfortable winter!!
Joe Simon