Rta Mechanical

Extremely unprofessional. I hired them to fix my A/C. The co-owner came to my house. After removing my thermostat and replacing it with one from his truck he suggested that my problem was a bad control board in my furnace. I agreed to pay for a new control board to be installed the following day. I requested that the technician bring the board with him (to keep labor costs down) and to call me when he was on the way to my home. The co-owner agreed and left my house, taking my thermostat with him.

The following day the Technician showed up without the control board as agreed upon. He then left to get get the board. When he returned to my home and installed it he found that it didnt fix my problem. According to him, next he went to the thermostat that his boss had installed 12 hours prior. After messing with the thermostat for a while he decided that his boss must have installed a bad or broken thermostat the previous night. He supposedly didnt have a thermostat on his truck and needed to go get one. So he left my house again...

After returning with the thermostat and removing the defective one that his boss had put in, he installed the new thermostat and according to him, again discovered that this too didnt fix my problem.

After almost 5 hours at my house he apparently found a broken wire that runs from the furnace to the condenser (the wire in question is right in front of your face when you're looking at the furnace, you dont even need to take off the cover or anything like that to see it. I personally inspected this wire prior to having his boss out in the first place. When his boss showed up HE also inspected the wire.)

Anyways, apparently he found a broken wire....he then left my house AGAIN because he didnt have any wire connectors to tie a wire together...not joking...someone who does low voltage electrical work for a living apparently didnt have the means to connect an 18 guage wire???

After he had supposedly invested 5-6 hours of labor into my job I FINALLY recieved a very brief phone call where he was extremely nondescript about what he had been doing all this time or what kind if bill I was looking at (Because I believe he was out driving around town at $95 an hour)

Bottom line...I expected a professional who would show up with the materials required to do the job quickly and efficiently (especially since I had worked it all out with his boss the night before)

What I got was an inept technician who wasted several hours driving around town on my dollar to get materials that any HVAC technician would be expected to have (like wire nuts, a thermostat or the control board that was the reason for the visit in the first place)

After getting a bill for almost $1000, I called their office and complained. I was told that they would remove the $123 thermostat and 30 minutes of labor. (Keep in mind my original thermostat that the owner took with him was just fine and 123 dollars for a basic thermostat is outrageous in the first place)

I told them I shouldn't have to pay for anything over the cost of the board, 1 hour of labor and a trip charge. At the point in time that the tech installed the board and it didnt fix my problem, I should have received a phone call, which I didnt. I was told by the co-owner that he agreed with me that his tech was extremely unprofessional and that he would "have a talk with him" but that I would still need to pay for 4 hours of labor, the control board (that he personally suggested but apparently wasn't my issue at all) and a trip charge. Which was still over $700.

I will still gladly pay for the board because I agreed to it with the owner based on his recommendation (which was apparently wrong anyways). I will gladly pay for 1 hour of labor. Which according to the owner, an hour is more than enough time to install a control board and one additional 18g wire. I will gladly pay for the trip charge. I get it, gas is expensive.

What I wont gladly pay for is the other 3.5 hours of labor that I never authorized while he made 3 separate trips around town to get things that he should have arrived at my home with in the first place. Or the time he spent on a faulty thermostat that I only had because his boss installed the night prior, right before he took my perfectly good thermostat.

I feel that It's not my fault he didnt show up with the parts as agreed upon with his boss. It's not my fault they installed what they later admitted to be a faulty thermostat. It's not my fault he didnt have a thermostat or even wire nuts on his truck like any self respecting HVAC tech would. Why should I have to pay $95 an hour for him to run his errands and stock his truck?

They're either completely incompetent, or they go out of their way to waste time and rack up the labor hours...I'm not sure what's more plausible.