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:03/18/2025

  Type:Billing 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 have attached the back and forth emails with this company as well as 2 invoices. I finally decided they must have me confused with another customer. I called and spoke to *******. She put me on hold and supposedly spoke to the employees again. Came back and said the same thing. She insisted they were here and did not leave. When the 2 guys arrived, they pulled down the stairs to the attic. Discovered the HVAC unit beside the frozen pipes. Came right down and asked if it would be ok for them to cut a hole in the HVAC so the heat would help unfreeze the pipes quicker. I said of course. They said they had to go back to the shop to get something and would be back. They left!!! I saw them drive away!!! I was working that day and kept wondering when they would return. They were absolutely gone over an hour. They came back. One guy went up the pull down ladder, cut the hole, came right back down, turned on all faucets, turned the heat up on high and left. That's it!!! The following week a 3rd guy came back with a roll of duct tape. He went up the pull down ladder, put duct tape on the hole and came back down. The end. They adjusted the bill as you can see but but continue to say the story their employees are telling is the truth and that the amount of time spent at my home is correct. IT IS NOT!! I pride myself in being honest. I have no problem paying my bills. I just cannot tolerate a situation like this. It is just plain dishonest! Please advise/help. The bill is due tomorrow. Thank you.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/18/2025

  There was no repair really. Just duct taping the hole in the HVAC. Water pipes were frozen. Just a matter of heating with air from hvac and leaving the faucets open. I would like the bill to match the time spent at my home. I want honesty.  I asked if I was being charged for the time the guys were gone which although would not be fair but could explain the hour and 28 minutes stated by the company. I was told they didn’t leave. That is NOT the truth.  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 03/22/2025

  Ms. **** called us while there were freezing temperatures in the area and we were able to get her scheduled relatively quickly due to her having no water.  Our techs got there and had to take the time to diagnose the problem.  In this area, not a lot of pipes run through the attic so that is not the first place we check to see what the issue is.  Once they were able to diagnose that there was not another problem, just frozen pipes, they had to find the pipes to be able to allow heat to get to the frozen pipes.  After figuring out where the pipes ran, the technicians went into the attic and discovered that a heat duct needed to be cut.  They then cut the duct and opened all the faucets, at which time they explained to her that until the water was running continuously that the heat needed to be turned up pretty high.  According to our technicians, they never left the property.  There is no tracking devices on our trucks and Ms. **** has provided no video footage to show our technicians leaving the jobsite.  They explained to her that until the water was flowing freely, the heat would need to be turned up and we would return once that happened to seal up her ducts again.  There was some sort of misunderstanding, as Ms. **** called the office Friday afternoon (same day the guys were there) saying that it would be expensive to leave the heat on and that she had turned the heat down but that she still had no water.  One of our office staff told her that until the water was no longer frozen, the heat needed to stay on and that we would not return to complete the job until that happened.  Another technician returned a few days later, once her water was no longer frozen and free flowing, and taped up her heat duct.   According to the timers our employees are required to keep - which in this situation is the only proof of the length of the job - two of our technicians were there for an hour and 28 minutes.  A second technician kept a timer for 19 minutes.  Our service call fee is $85 no matter what the job is but we do NOT charge a second service call fee if it is a continued job, such as this one.  We then charge for 2 technicians at a rate of $125 an hour, that is prorated by half hour increments - in which case, she was charged for an hour and a half since that would be the half hour increment.  Our 3rd technician that was on the job for the second part of this job is a rate of $75 an hour.  Looking at the original bill and the edited bill, Ms. **** was never charged for the second trip or labor or the price of the heat tape that was needed to seal up her heat duct, which could have been charged for since that was material costs on our part to complete the job.   David Stephens Plumbing & Electrical feels we have been more than fair to help Ms. ****, even though that meant going against honest employees who have a different story as to what really happened that day.  Unfortunately, we have no camera footage from her house or tracking devices, but we did feel that we accommodated her requests that our bill was incorrect.  We have discounted her bill, even after not charging the complete amount that should have been charged from the beginning.  Ms. **** also left a review of a 9 and told us "The guys were great. The work ended with the right result."  We feel that this bill should be paid as it is due to all the fairness we have treated with Ms. **** and have then discounted her even more.  We have not called her or our employees dishonest and would like to just have this bill paid and moved on.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/24/2025

  I have reviewed the response offer 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.
   ?I said in my letter the guys were good.  Gave the 9 star rating before getting the invoice. It is clear they are going to stand by their lie. They will have to live with it. I will not.There is no need to repeat myself. Every single word I said is the truth. I already paid the bill the day it was due because that is what I do.  Even with this mess still up in the air. It’s just very sad on their part. I suppose all I can do is feel sorry for them and hope no other customers have to experience such dishonesty.What would make me think to make up something like that in the first place? It makes no sense. They. told me to my face that they had to leave to go back to the shop to get something - the tool or saw to cut the hole in the HVAC. AND THEN THEY LEFT!!!!   As I said previously, honestly is the most important thing to me, much more than money, but apparently it is just not something that is a priority or even matters to the people at this company. Thank you BBB for your effort to help with this.  Obviously they are a lost cause when it comes to honesty,  I just hope this can be posted as folks need to know what they could be dealing with.
  
  Regards,
  
  **** ****