ComplaintsforCaswell Heating & Air LLC

• Initial Complaint

  06/19/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In *** ** ****, I purchased a brand new AC Unit from Caswell Heating & Air. He ripped my ceiling while putting the unit in and left my ceiling damaged. Since this time my unit has failed multiple times and each time **** has come out to patch the unit. He's replaced both brand-new thermostats that originally came with the unit, replaced all the fuses and the unit is back to not cooling as of *********. He has done just enough repairs until the labor warranty ran out so he can charge us for the repairs on a brand-new unit that has been failing since ******* ****. His workmanship and customer service is poor. We literally were in the cold during the week of ********* and had to spend money to buy heaters to heat our house while he tries to figure out what's wrong with the unit. He fixed it long enough to get from under his labor warranty and wants us to pay him to continuously make repairs to it. Previous visits to repair unit: -******* (AC unit was not cooling - Owner patched the unit) ********* **** ( Unit was not heating-Reason given Low voltage short from thermostat wiring to the outdoor unit) -******** **** (Unit back off - Owner patched unit) -******** **** (Emergency heat off - Owner patched unit) -******** **** (Unit off - Owner patched unit) -******** **** (Unit off- 3 power surges - Owner patched unit) -******** **** (Unit own but not heating the house properly - Owner waiting on part) -******** **** (Owner rewired the unit) -******** **** (Unit off) -******* **** (Unit back off - sounded like a lawnmower - Owner came out and patched the unit, stated he fixed the wiring and it has nothing to do with the unit itself) -*** **** (Unit not cooling - Owner stated the unit is no longer under labor warranty)

  Business response

  06/25/2023

  Good afternoon, 
  
  
  I would like to give an overview of the situation as a whole and then dive into the details of the complaint regarding Mr and Mrs *****' air conditioning complaint.
  
  
  The ***** family reached out via website submission on ********.
  
  
  This system was quoted out to the *****’ family back on ******** they were in a rush to get a system replaced.
  
  
  The quote& terms were agreed upon, and the work was scheduled and completed on ********.
  
  
  The trim around the attic access was removed on the installation day due to the width of the equiptment not being able to fit between into the attic. That day, I stated I would have a guy come out and work on it and get it back installed. 
  
  
  The ***** family were not happy with the repairs due to the paint needing to be painted around the trim to finish out the job and they stated they will handle it due to not being happy with the guy who reinstalled the trim/caulked the edges.
  
  
  Fast foward to the repairs on the new system that took multiple trips, countless hours of diagnosing, and many calls with the a representative for the ***** manufacturer's technical support to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
  
  
  Overall, there was an intermittent low voltage short in the red wire leading from the indoor air handler to the outdoor unit.(The air handler is in a vertical position in the attic above the second story, and all of the thermostat wiring, copper lineset, and drain all ran from the indoor unit in the attic, across the attic to the left side of the home where it entered into the cavity of the wall, went down two stories, and exited down close to the ground and tied into the new outdoor unit.
  
  
  The red wire inside the wall had shorted to some form of a ground intermittently to either another low voltage wire within the wiring, or a nail in the wall from vibration. 
  
  
  *This wiring is original to the home, it was not replaced, quoted to be replaced, nor ever had a reason to be replaced at the time of replacement on ********. 
  
  
  This wiring is nearly 13 years old. 
  
  
  I want to be very clear on the symptoms of the system and why it took as many trips as it did. 
  
  
  The symptoms of this "failed unit" were:
  
  
   upon arrival for the first few calls, the system would be running just fine due to a level 1 short sending the system into a loss of 24v, but would be working perfectly fine after resetting the system.
  
  
  We would look for a grounded wire, clogged drain, loose connection, possible failing zone control board, intermittent thermostat failing to send 24v calls, or possibly stuck damper motor causing an intermittent issue,but the system after being reset would run perfectly fine for anywhere from 8 hours straight perfectly fine to sometimes 3-7 days without any issues. So a process of elimination was our only choice.
  
  
  After multiple trips of finding no problem we began to isolate the thermostats by replacing them with new ones off of the truck, we then would isolate the zone control board by leaving the damper motors in the open position and wiring the system as a single zone system to diagnose any possibly damper or zone control issues. Of course, this takes multiple trips and we informed the ***** family if you have any troubles let me know and I will make time for you as fast as I can.
  (Every time they called with an issue, as you can see in the pictures, I politely responded and made time for them for same day service in my booked schedule every time they called or text. During weekdays, weekends, holidays including ********* *** in the middle of the night I was there. There was not one time to my knowledge they went 24 hours without me showing up no matter how busy my schedule was. I was available to them every single time without any hesitancy.
  
  
  These warranty labor calls were always free, whether it was after hours, weekends, holidays, ect. Not once did they pay for my labor.
  
  
  After about 3 to 4 calls to the home I called and spoke with a tech support guy from wittichen supply on the issue
  
  
  And how to effectively and quickly find the intermittent issue without their new central hvac system. 
  
  
  We previously replaced both thermostats and isolated the zone control board and damper motors. The tech support guy helped with verifying the defrost cycle and the white wire to the heaystrips in possibly being an issue, or if a sensor in the defrost termination was bad, so we replaced the defrost control board. We then looked into the option of the heat strips, possibly shorting out low voltage intermittently, so we had to isolate those as a problem. We then cycled all defrost controntrols constantly were homing out the low voltage for anything grounded but found nothing. 
  
  
  Every single time we would return, the system showed no signs of any low voltage wiring or component being grounded. At that point, we had to reset the system. It would come on, run for over an hour perfectly fine, cycling on and off as normal for hours and days until it would randomly cut off.
  
  
  We eventually were advised to add inline fuses in between each individual low voltage wire at the air handler. One fuse inline with the R, C, G, Y, O, W2 wiring with a 3amp fuse.
  
  
  We let the system run in hopes that when it blew, we would chase down which wire caused the short.
  
  
  Next time, the ***** family called the fuse and was blown on the board inside the air handler, which did not lead us in any direction.  So we increased the boards fuse to a 5amp and left the low voltage wiring fuses to 3 amp fuses. 
  
  
  Following that call the red fuse on the wiring has blown. Now did it come from the air handler red or did it come from the outdoor red? 
  
  
  We would every single low voltage wire to ground every time we went once we found the fuses started blowing and it took a few more trips to isolate which where it came from, which side of the unit it came from, ect.
  
  
  We then decided to add fuses in between all three red wires to isolate where it was coming from. One fuse between the zone control board and the air Handler, one fuse between the air handler and the transformer, one fuse between the outdoor red wire and the air handler.
  
  
  Eventually, the fuse between the outdoor unit red and the air handler blew, and we finally found a fully grounded red/hot wire that was permanently stuck to whatever nail, copper line, or other metal object inside the wall cavity between the condenser and the air handler in the attic.
  
  
  Once the problem was finally found and fixed, we watched and tested the system again and made sure everything was hooked up as normal. 
  
  
  Describing the issue to the homeowner that the problem was actually never the system that was installed and still to this day is very, very difficult. They do not understand the repair and that the original wiring for the low voltage never gets replaced unless brought up from a previous issue or found needed at the time of estimate would require us to do that. The client believes the system caused all of these breakdowns, which is not what was the actual problem the whole time. 
  
  
  In the end I spent nearly 8 to 10 trips to the home to work on the unit within 24 hours everytime I recieved a warranty call on my system. 
  
  
  I never brought up payment even though the fault they were having was never caused by the new hvac system no matter what company installed it, what brand they used, or how knowledgeable and thorough of a technician they were. Repeating these faults was impossible and only time between cycles and vibration would cause this low voltage short intermittently. 
  
  
  We constantly apologized for the inconvenience and let them know if they had any troubles at all to call me. 
  
  
  I stood up for my 1 year labor warranty like I promised and advertised even though that was not a warranty repair. 
  
  
  The ***** family has also left out a few of the messages regarding me standing behind my work and I will always do what is right. 
  
  
  As far as the last calls from the ***** family, they called me on a Saturday on 
  *** **** ** ****** 
  
  
  I spoke with them and let them know that before I go out to repair your unit the 1 year labor warranty has expired. I was very upfront, clear, and honest that I would be happy to go out there to work on their unit that same day but I would need to charge a service call. 
  
  
  Due to the dates of the labor warranty being over by just a few days, I offered to cut the Saturday service fee in half for them and only have a $125 service call and diagnostic fee to go to ****** **** which is about 30- 45 minutes away on a Saturday just before 5pm. I felt that was honest, reasonable, and upfront. 
  
  
  They complained stating I'm not standing behind my work and I should do what's right and fix it for free, and on and on and eventually they stopped texting me.
  
  
  About 5 days later I got another text randomly complaining that I'm a poor business and I do not treat my customers well, that I have poor service, and I do not do what's right. Which, in my personal opinion is far far from the truth. 
  
  
  The ***** family is difficult to deal with due to them not understanding the equiptment was not at fault for the repairs I constantly went back on. There was no charge, I was out in the cold, on ********* ***, I made room in my schedule 8-10 times for them consistently and proved my value as a responsible contractor who stands behind his work. 
  
  
  But, here we are, the family wants to have more free services and more free repairs and I took care of them just like I promised and I apologize I will not go out for free for the life of the system to do free repairs everytime there is a breakdown. 
  
  
  I will always stand behind my work, I am passionate about my business and will ALWAYS  do what is right. No questions asked

  Customer response

  07/02/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because I have had a representative from the ****** ***** ******* and ********* ********** services come out and inspect the wiring on the house in separate occasions.  The outcome from both licensed professionals is that there in nothing wrong with the wiring inside the the house nor is there anything wrong with the wiring on the outsides of the house.  

  The gentleman stated that he came back to run diagnostics on the unit several times on the faulty unit, that's to be expected when someone pays for a brand new air conditioning unit.  The issues that we are having out of this unit should not be happening at all!  My family should not be coming home to a house at the tale end of June with the temperature being 80 plus degrees when a "brand new" unit was installed one year and a month to the date.  

  Our family is all for supporting small business because we are also owners of a small business and we stand on and behind the work that we do!   I am not going to have a choice but to seek council to see how my family can get this issue resolved because we refuse to have our children in a smoking hot house in this smoldering heat that we call the valley of Georgia and Alabama.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *****

  Business response

  07/09/2023

  I want to be 100% clear. The issue was in the low voltage (24 volt) wiring inside the wall on the exterior of home on the left side.  The issue was fixed the last time I was there and the power company or any electrical company would not find an issue that was already repaired. There is also no way they would find an issue on a working hvac system when they came by, nor would they dig into it because that is not their profession and will not be liable nor responsible for touching equiptment they are not licensed to touch.

   

  This issue was resolved within the 1 year free labor warranty.

  This issue was free to the customer even though the system did not cause the problem(which isnt a warranty repair).

  This issue was not due to the new hvac system and was not inside the indoor unit nor the outdoor unit that was replaced. 

  I came immediately every single time. I stayed in contact with the client, I went until the problem was resolved. 

  We are here today because the system is out of the free 1 year labor warranty and the client wants more free labor and repairs after the contract stated a 1 year free labor warranty and we declined the free labor and repairs after the 1 year labor warranty ended.

   

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