ComplaintsforArt Douglas Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning

• Initial Complaint

  08/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am writing on behalf of my 94 year old uncle, Donald *******, who has dementia. He discovered his heater would not come on and called Art Douglas. Two workers made a service call which costs $120.00 They checked the unit and said it needed a new thermostat. They installed a simple non-programmable unit on the wall. For this they charged my uncle $200. Thus, the total bill was $320. Simple wall heater thermostats are available for less than $25 at home improvement stores. I contacted the business and was told that they had given him a senior discount, implying he should be thankful for that. They also said there are industry standards for how much to charge for various jobs and they had followed the standard. I had never heard of this before, aside from car repairs. If true, the standards are ridiculous. My feeling is that $200 to replace a simple thermostat, on top of the service call fee, is excessive. I asked for a partial refund of $120 and it was declined. Had my uncle not been suffering from impaired judgment, he never would have agreed to pay this price. My uncle was also duped into getting solar by a door to door salesman a few years ago even though he lives alone and uses very little electricity. I am getting fed up with the manner in which old people such as my uncle are being treated these days.

  

  Business response

  08/04/2022

  Correct we charge $120. service call plus repairs for HVAC. Mr. ******* has been our customer for several years and it saddens us to learn of his dementia, he as always been very engaging and friendly. We don't don't take advantage of the elderly in fact we has discounts for our seniors. All pricing is Flat Rate, Up front pricing so there are no surprises for the customer it doesn't matter if they are 34,64 or 94. I am more the happy to refund the service call. Obviously our people had no way of knowing his capacity as he didn't act as if there where any issues.  

• Initial Complaint

  06/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I called art Douglas plumbing To repair an issue issue I have with my toilet that it's not flashing. So they sent me an employee that employee inserts his equipment they call a snake to my butto my wife from outside and His snake Went through my pipe And break it. So he called another employee saying that they want to make sure why the toilet still plugged. He did not inform me that he broke my pipe. The other guy came king and they claimed in the beginning he in the beginning he is the supervisor then they said he is the owner of the company. They said that there's a big this the big toy is the stock inside The pipe Instead of saying that they broke my pipe. So they went inside my home and they have A machine to detect the locate of the camera that they insert earlier after he broke my pipe. But he did not tell me that this machine is to locate the camera instead he told me that this machine is to locate a toy that has a stock inside your pipe. So I told him if this toy is so big for the bike how could it went through a toilet. Sir he was angry and and then they charged me for the service after after I denied them then cutting through my tile a tile and opening my floor to cut the pipe and replace it. So they want to charge me for thermostat without telling me I'll telling me that they made a mistake. After they left I called another company that the company came wiwhen he came with their equipment equipment and they insert a camera and here we found that art Douglas Plumbing broke my pipe and left The tip of off their snake stop in my pipe after they broke it. I called art Douglas plumbing In the beginning he wasn't sister it was a toy and then after I told him I hired another company he confessed by saying that no the snake is holding to your bike and I have a camera I have a video I have everything approving that they are lying after I told him that he hanging up in my face I tried to call the Co operate office the hanging on my face.

  

  Business response

  06/02/2022

  As we have explained several times. We did not break *****'s drain line. We even ran the camera at no charge and showed the toy or what ever the foreign object was. We will not be doing any further work at this property. I find it ironic that Nigla wants an apology considering how she treated our Staff. I won't allow my people to be treated with disrespect and false allegations by someone with no integrity. 

  Customer response

  07/18/2022

  Hello miss ******.

  I had problem with the toilet so I This couple of companies. Some of them were busy and the other was Not giving me a fixed price until I until I called art Douglas they told me they will do the service for for 140. They came but because their equipment was bad their equipment was stuck in my pipe. after that they where saying that we will nun a camera to  See where's the problem. They did not saying that their retriever head which mean The head of their equipment was stuck in my pipe and it's the end of that they said that that my pipe pipe have a toy and they need to cut through the floor in order to get out the toy. So they charged me 125 and they did not fix the toilet. After they left I called another company named big Joe they came run their snake they said no there's something big there we cannot pull out we need to run a camera. They ran a camera and they charged me for it and they found that there is a head of a snake which is retriever for a company came earlier than them and I catched a video with that. Also I attached a screenshot of their letter from big Joe company explaining what they found when they run the camera. I called art Douglas and I have a video of that they they in the 1st time hang up in my face and why rude to me the 2nd time he confess that there's a retriever and holding to the toy but as you see in the video there is a retriever holding to my pipe. 

  So I paid around $6000 just to fix the floor. Plus the camera the other company who came and fixed it. To now I want from Art Douglas to pay me the 6000 dollars.  and I will not accept their apology anymore. 

   

  I will send another email that have more videos please 

   

  thank you

  
  

  

  Business response

  07/21/2022

  Drain cleaning equipment can not break the line, We also ran the camera For Free and told her it needed to be dug up. She knew she had an issue when she called. This is an obvious attempt to get someone to pay for the issues she knew she had. 

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