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:05/27/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore 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 had an encounter with service on our heat pump from Colonial Plumbing ****************************************************************. Their technician came to our home on March 19, 2025, to perform a routine maintenance on our heat pump and he told us that the fan was defective. He said that he had located a replacement fan and after he installed the replacement fan at a cost of $814.56, it did not work on the air condition setting. We could only partially cool our home with ceiling fans and the additional heat was affecting my wifes breathing. Colonial Plumbing **************************** sent a different technician to our home on, April 24, 2025, to check our heat pump and he told us that the fan was not our problem but the compressor was bad so he recommended that we replace the heat pump. His company quoted two different replacement heat pumps and both were not competitive so we chose a replacement unit at a much lower cost from a competitor with better technical expertise installing new units.The lower cost installer of our new heat pump removed the fan that Colonial Plumbing ********** installed in my heat pump and I carried it back to their home office. Their reception saw that I was walking with a cane so she came out to my vehicle to carry the fan into their office. While we were at my vehicle, the new manager of Colonial Plumbing ********** walked by and I told him that his technician installed a used fan in my heat pump and it did not work so I was returning it to him. He said that he was not going to do anything about what occurred. I explained to him that I never witnessed anyone treating customers in this fashion with his kind of attitude. His father had recently turned the business over to him and I know that they have experienced a lot of employee turnover. I am not sure that all of their technicians are properly trained. On the brighter side, I would like to say the receptionist was professional, very respectful, and a plus for their business.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 05/27/2025

  Colonial Plumbing, Heating and Air (Colonial) visited the ****** home on 03/18/2025 under work order (WO) #****** to perform a system cleaning and during the visit found the fan motor to be faulty. The technicians entered notes from that day state: The outdoor units fan motor is not running despite receiving power and having a working capacitor. When it receives power,the motor seizes up despite the contactor working properly. From this diagnosis a price to replace the motor was given of $814.56. There was also a diagnosis of a failing capacitor at this time with this entry: The outdoor units capacitor (rated 40/5uf) is at 7%/1% variation from the labels rating and replacement is recommended over 6%; replacement is quoted at $366.64 (or $219.62 if the work is done at the same time). The same technician returned 03/19/2025 to replace the fan motor upon ******* approval. The replacement fan was purchased on 03/19/2025 from a local supplier (R. E. ******). Reference Vendor Invoice # ********* and Colonials PO# ******. This is relevant to the claim that the fan we installed was used.

  On 04/21/2025, 34 days after the fan motor replacement, Colonial received a No AC call from the ****** family and scheduled a different technician to visit the home on 04/24/2025. This was the first time Colonial heard from the ******* that they were experiencing any issues. Colonials technician found that the fan motor that we replaced in March was still functioning and was not the cause for no AC. During this visit Colonial determined that the compressor had failed and recommended replacement of the system due to the high cost of compressor replacement. To be clear, the compressor was working properly in March when the fan motor needed to be replaced. The *** ****** notes Found that the compressor is bad on the outdoor unit. Recommend to customer to have a estimator to come out. There was no charge for this visit.

  On 04/25/2025 Colonial had the **** estimator come out and put together an estimate for replacing the system. This was the second time in the past several years that Colonial had presented an estimate for replacing the **** system to the ****** family. The first estimate was given on 03/17/2020. The estimate was generated with the software that is used for all **** system estimates with set pricing that cannot be field adjusted. This is relevant to any claims that the pricing was out of character for any other estimates presented by Colonial.

  The system that all this work was done on was installed in 2002. Unfortunately, as equipment gets older it is common that additional repairs will be needed, sometimes right after making the original repair. Had the issue found on 04/24/2025 still been the fan motor, then our labor and part warranty would have covered the issue however the new issue was not related to the fan motor that was replaced but a new component that had also failed.Colonial finds this component failure to be due to the general old age of the system and failing components. No refund was given for the fan motor that was replaced in March which is the pertinent issue for *** ******. In response to that, Colonial provided a quote for a specific issue we diagnosed as failed and once that repair was made additional repairs were needed. Due to the age of the system we found that the cost of replacing the compressor not reasonable and thus recommended system replacement. Even in cases such as these Colonial must still collect for the original repair. We made efforts to be as amenable as possible in ways such as not charging for the secondary visit on 04/24/2025 and moving around schedules to respond as quickly as possible to this issue. Colonial also communicated when providing the estimate to replace the system that Colonial would be willing to credit some of the recent repair costs to lower the system replacement estimate. This was all explained to *** ****** prior to his visit to our office over the phone with management.

  It is our regret that *** ****** was dissatisfied with his perception of our service but Colonial finds every choice made in this encounter to be fair and reasonable in business.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/29/2025

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  
  Please review the attached quotes which show non-competitive prices. You can see included in the quote was the repair to my heat pump which was still not competitive as a credit.

  Note: What is our next step?

  Regards,
  *** ******