Furnace & A/C Replacement headaches
Our first home, so I did check around about 12 or more companies. Choose them since they only had one BBB complaint and it was resolved! So there was hope. First install went perfect with Ali in Oct 25/08. Rebate from York never came, started chasing both Kimberly and York, found out that my unit was rejected because serial# was already claimed with York USA offices. Kimberly said not to worry and fudge some thing on her end, and the cheque for $1500 came in late May, 2009 after submitting complaints to BBB case #1195524. I thought things cannot get worst.
In October 2009, Min came out for regular maintenance check and discovered we have a cracked heat exchanger that Yuri from York insisted it has to be replaced. Min assured there is no cost as I have 10 yrs labour & parts warranty and that this regular maintenance call would not be charged as the unit needed to be replaced. Fast forward to Jan 25 2010, after email customer service at York Joel & Barb assured that there are units available at there Oakville warehouse and that what Glen was saying it being not instock was not honest. Take note as other have also said in previous post. Another excuse which is understandable that other customer are suffering from no heat so my issue was not a priority! But look at the time line Oct 2009 - Jan 2010 and I paid $8000(sorry forgot to -$1500 cash rebate from installer, -$1500 from York -fed & prov'l, net should be $4000).
Well Jan 25 2010, installer came took out old defective unit but when they (can't remember their names)started they fail to secure the existing duct work, using some aluminum wires with holes they drilled into the duct work and suspended the a/c coil unit. This is a heavy unit and it partially rip the duct vent. I brought that up with them and they assured me that they will fix it when they get the new unit from Oakville. While they were gone I cleaned up as much after them and notice the strain was ripping down the cold air return as well. Believing what they later said that side of venting is not critical and let it go. When the got back the assistant was reparing the vent with those aluminum channels that join these sheet metal together. I remember they were commenting how bad Ali install was because it had so much aluminum tape all over. I laugh to myself as it was me who did it in the first place when Ali was installing the a/c after he finished with the furnace in 2008. Then they said we won't be doing that for sure. Well they did just that and left after making sure the unit is working. Within 15 minutes of them leaving the furnace started to vibrate like car with bad muffler. I remembered right away about other people with similar issue from researching on the web that installer did not aligned the unit properly causing the air intake fan manfold to be at certain degree causing the fan to die prematurely if not fixed. Well I called service right away to have these guy return. Couple minutes later they came back and started to look for bandaid solution instead of addressing true matter.
Part of this problem is that the original furnace was sitting on cement and I had tiled installed right to the border of the old unit, this York YP9C model has a bigger foot print and hence it was not perfectly aligned. Ali the first installer had ask and I provided some small left over tiles from the bathroom, in which he laid them out in 3 seperate area to prevent the slight slope causing vibration, hence the defective unit hardly hummed at all, even less noisy than my computer. Eventually, the two installer insisted it is the ElectroAir Media filter is the cause of the vibration. So to prove them wrong I went to Home Depot and Lowes but neither store carried the brand nor the size of this filter, though I did buy 3M version which left such gap that I had to return it. While I was gone they ripped some copper pipe foam insulation that I bought to insulate the pipes and stuffed it underneath the furnace to prevent vibration. In the end I decided that these two installer had no interest fixing the true problem and I would have to call Glen to deal with this vibration. They came to the conclusion that the air filter is the cause as when we took out the filter the vibration stopped. I check with a neighbor whom I did not know at the time that he own his own furnace & A/C company and he did say it is a problem with rookie when then run into issue like this. When I called the manufacturer ElectroAir in Vaughan they assured me that the filter has nothing to do with it. In fact it is suppose to seal that compartment so the air intake fan churn and suck air into the furnace, the tighter the fit the better, and vibration is caused be installer not doing setting furnace in proper place. After chasing after Glen for weeks and noticing that the installer did not leave his name & license number I contacted TSSA for inspection as I was waried about this install since I found holes all over the duct work using a kleenex test. My wife and I were also having more headaches as well. Rest assure when Paul came he opened the unit and showed us that the pan underneath the furnace which manufacturer made it removable for unit that are install on top of duct work would not required installer to cut out from left of right side of furnace is the cause of the vibration. The reason that it vibrate is also when this unit kicks in 2nd gear so to say as this unit is variable unit so it spin very little but when it needs to will spin alot faster. Paul assured that carbon monoxied was not leaking and that the unit will not fuction as efficiently as it should since the duct work has so many leak, though these leaks are there they are not life threatening. Ironically as I am typing this Paul called when he received email that I had just sent to BBB, York and Active Temps. That is great following up customer servicing.
I will upload picture later since they are on another pc to illustrate the alignment issues and holes.
If the owner Farzn [last name removed -- Ed] can keep great staff like Min, Ali, and Kimberly then maybe this company has a chance but expanding too fast as this rookie who did my replacement said we are installer not servicing company. It is so true! I believe Min also said that their bread and butter is installing not servicing. But to bill me $131.20 for something that Min already said it is covered under warranty is ridiculous!
I will update both rating and experience as it come! Oh my, another 9 yrs to go!
03/05/2010
Just got off phone with Kimberly, she assured me things will be taken care. She needs to talk to the owner, so I know things will be done. I was told my call for crack heat exchanger & regular maintenance was put off because it is not an emergency so when the technician came out after the one yr period it is a cost I must pay, but if it was done before one yr from installation then it would have been free. So the fact that Glen put it off for 2 wks because they were swamped with emergency calls cost me $131.20. In light of this Kimberly will check the logs to see if I did call or not and possibly get that amount reduced. This is some what reasonable for me.
But it is up you to decide who will support your household.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $8,000.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Have better trained installer, more staff as it is too stressful for Kimberly(she was great to deal with till I reported with BBB, then she had melt down. I had agreed with her in many ways about customer service till then).
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Avoid this company like the swine flu