Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/12/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I hired Tony R*** of Air-Tec Mechanical to replace my water softener on 12/6/22, and he promised to do the work on 12/9/22. Tony quoted the sum of $1058.40 for the work and immediately requested a deposit on $758, which I paid via ***** Pay on 12/6/22. See the attached ***** Pay receipt. Tony insisted that my water softener was bad and needed to be replaced when I told him via text that there was brown water in the unit. He never saw the unit to diagnose the issue personally. Nevertheless, I went along with his recommendation and agreed for him to replace it. However, Tony never showed up to do the work as promised on 12/9/22 and at least on six other occasions that he rescheduled for. After one week of Tony’s misleading and unreliable cycle of promising to perform the work and failing, I requested my deposit back. Afterall, I was not certain that my water softener needed replacing as all the brown water had now disappeared, and I told Tony this. Tony refused to return my deposit, claiming implausibly that he had bought custom items for the work. See the attached text message history between Tony and me. Tony has done some other work for me previously. He replaced my water heater and fitted a whole-home humidifier in my house. He originally came to my house under the auspices of ****** **** ******** to do work under my home warranty contract. However, I have had to pay him out of pocket for all the work that he has done for me thus far because the warranty company denied coverage on the work. Tony replaced my water heater on 11/22/22 and I paid him $3456 for that work. As part of that work, he was obligated to remove the old water heater. He has failed to do this despite numerous promises to do so. The old water heater has been abandoned and is constituting unsightly litter outside my house for over one month now. Because of Tony’s unprofessional breach, I have had to hire another company to haul and dispose of the old water heater. See the attached invoice from the haulage company. At this point, I am demanding a return of my deposit ($758) from Tony R***/Air-Tech Mechanical, as well as reimbursement of the $500 that I had to expend on haulage services for the material that Tony abandoned on my property.

  Business Response

  Date: 01/27/2023

  Good afternoon,  Billy was a client of mine for several projects we installed a hot water heater and a whole home humidifier, upon completion of both of these projects Billy was satisfied with no complaints, Billy then asked me to look at his water softener about a week later I took a look at it and I gave him my professional option that if it were me I would replace it with a new home filter softener, by no means did I say he had to do it I simply said I cannot repair it I would replace it, to which he replied ok what is the price and let’s get it done. I informed him that I would need to order this and I would have it in a few days so I would need a down payment as it was an order item to cover the material cost. On the day of install he informed me that he had to leave by 1pm that day it was not enough time to complete the install so we reschedule for another day, the next schedule day I had an emergency call for an elderly woman with no heat that I had to take care of that job ended up going on for a day or two. Billy then got aggravated and said he was canceling the job, I informed him again that was ok but the material can not be refunded as it was a special order, I would drop the material off to his house when it came in and we could cancel the project. That is how we left it, the allegations by Billy are false we did not return to the get the old water heater because he told us not to return to his property and in no part of the contract does it say I am liable to haul away the water heater. At this point I feel as though this matter is resolved on our end he canceled-the contract we can provide him with the filter system. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 01/30/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 18724391, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Tony R*** is a fabricator and immensely unscrupulous in his dealings. He never physically diagnosed my water softner as he claims -- he capriciously recommended replacement over the phone. He was supposed to come install the water softener on 12/9/22 at 10 AM; he said he needed 2 hours -- see the attached text message history between us. However, he never showed up and promised and failed to show up on at least 6 occasions subsequently -- contrary to his claim -- as the text message history shows. Tony was supposed to haul away the old water heater (this is not even in dispute as the text message history shows). Again, he promised to do it on numerous occasions and never did. On his text message to me on 12/17/22, he was still promising to collect the old water heater from my backyard, as well as drop off the so-called materials that he claims he bought and cannot return. He did neither. He now fabricates that he did not do it because I told him not to return to my property. His level of professionalism and pattern of fabrications are truly troubling.

  Additionally, since my complaint, more details of Tony’s unprofessional and illegal work practices have come to light. On 1/11/23, the piping on the new water heater that he installed on 11/22/22 randomly dislodged and dropped to the ground. The pipes are PVC pipes and connect to the water heater and go outside the house for the purpose of venting. 
  I called a licensed plumber/HVAC company, who was able to come to my house on 1/13/23. They were appalled at the setup of using PVC piping to connect to the water heater, which is against manufacturer's guidelines, professional standards, and safety codes. The connection using the PVC pipes was not only immensely sloppy and unprofessional, but dangerous. It created a very serious health and safety hazard in my house because it caused deadly fumes to be emitted into my house. PVC pipes are not meant to be used with my type of tankless water heater, what was needed was concentric two-pipe venting. Additionally, the pipes were not glued together but were attached together sloppily with foil paper. The plumber immediately shut off the water heater to prevent the dangerous emission of carbon-monoxide from continuing. The plumber said that cross-contamination had occurred with exhaust fumes being brought into the intake and the water heater.  Based on this and the piping system that currently exists, they said they would have to install a new tank water heater for me. The so called new tankless water heater that was installed by Tony was rendered unusable. 
  I called another HVAC company for a second opinion; they came to diagnose the issue on 1/14/23 and confirmed what the first company stated. They were equally shocked at the dangerous installation method employed by Air-Tec Mechanical, which created a health and safety hazard of very serious proportions. The water heater could not be used, and my family and I were left without hot water for days. Ultimately, I had to install a new water heater in my house on 1/16/23. Against this backdrop, I am also seeking a full refund of the money paid to Tony for the water heater ($3456) as it was a dangerously defective product/installation.

   

   

   

  
  Regards,
  
  Billy Enobakhare