ComplaintsforPatriot Pros Plumbing, Heating, Air, Electric

• Initial Complaint

  05/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am writing to file a formal complaint against Patriot *********** regarding their handling of a recent service call for my furnace. On Friday, March 16, during a cold snap in ****************, my furnace malfunctioned, leaving my home without heat. Desperate for assistance, I contacted Patriot Pros after seeing their advertisement for emergency HVAC repair services.Despite their claim of providing 24-hour emergency service, Patriot Pros failed to promptly address my urgent situation. After initially indicating they might be able to send a technician on Friday evening, they repeatedly delayed their arrival, ultimately arriving on Saturday evening. Upon finally arriving, Patriot Pros technicians performed a cursory inspection of my furnace, failing to conduct necessary tests and instead immediately recommended a costly replacement, citing exaggerated concerns about safety. Their quote for a new furnace was exorbitant, far exceeding industry standards. Dissatisfied with their service and suspecting their motives, I sought a second opinion from ***** ***************************** Unlike Patriot Pros, Bergs promptly identified the issue with my furnacea faulty universal control boardand resolved it efficiently at a fraction of the cost proposed by Patriot Pros.I am deeply disappointed by Patriot Pros' lack of integrity, and disregard for customer well-being. Their actions resulted in unnecessary discomfort. I demand accountability for their deceptive practices and reimbursement for any fees incurred.Attached are relevant documents, including communication with Patriot Pros, invoices from Bergs **************************** for the repair, and evidence of the reasonable cost of a replacement furnace. I trust that the Better Business Bureau will thoroughly investigate this matter and take appropriate action to protect consumers from similar experiences in the future.Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to a prompt resolution.Kind regards,***********************

  

  Business response

  05/17/2024

  I have read her complaint and have reviewed our notes regarding the service we had provided her. I was also the one that had responded to her call at her home.
  
  As to when we were able to get out to her home was the time we had available. Every potential client that calls in for a service request is always explained how our process works which includes how we take the necessary time with all of our clients and we dont make it a point to rush so we are properly allowed the necessary time to evaluate, and discuss with our clients what is happening, why its happening and what can be done about it. We also take the necessary time with all our clients to explain and answer any questions they might have for us which makes it almost nearly impossible as to how long we will be at any given job. The $189 that was explained when the Griers booked with us was the trip fee and the standard diagnosis that would have been reapplied towards any repairs beyond the diagnosis. What we do with all of our clients on the Queue waiting for service is explain to them our process and to properly provide every way possible to properly communicate with them as to when we will be heading over to service their needs as long as they provide with us how much notice they will need so they dont feel like they will need to sit around and wait for us and allow them to go about their day as normal. We have found this works well with most clients and have been doing so for many years. 
  
  I ended going out to their home the following day on Saturday (After Hours and normally the fee would have been $289), because I wanted to make sure they were getting serviced and we had no one else available, so I responded and was greeted by her husband. *************** was sitting in the living room couch while her husband had accompanied me into their crawlspace after I had explained our process. ************** had explained to me everything he did to try to get the system to turn on and at best got it to only get it to turn on for a little bit before it finally shut down. He then explained to me the error code that was flashing on the control board and we went through the system together. I did also found that the control board was flashing error codes and in fact it was flashing several different codes and I did explain to him that the control board was acting like it had lost its mind. I also explained to him that in many cases if the system is doing a lot of On and Off because of other issues with the furnace or something related to the furnace it can make it possible that it would have cause the control board to go out. In this particular case the furnace was 28 years old and had not been properly maintained. On average a typical system last ***** years old with proper maintenance, and this does not mean a furnace will not last 30 years, nor does it mean a system will make it past 5 years. Much of this has to do with proper maintenance, proper sizing for the home and sometimes just simply the shear luck of the draw. All this was explained to both of them. Realizing that the control board was acting up I continued with the evaluation which does include safety concerns after all a working furnace can be more dangerous than a furnace not working since it does produce the risk of carbon monoxide and fire danger. I immediately noticed rust produced from carbon monoxide on the inside burner compartment and rust cracking spots on their exhaust. I took a great deal of time trying to educate both of them of the dangers involved and even showed them both what I had found. I asked them what options they wanted me to provide them with in which I did after I had explained the concerns I had. They opted to think about it and it appears like they had another company go out and repair the symptom.  
   
  As to Mrs. ****** remarks of us working outside of industry standard in regards with pricing is a foolish one. What makes her the expert? There is no such thing as a suggested retail price on anything we do. It all has to do with individuals operating cost that are very unique with many different variables to all businesses, nor is there any convention that tells us what we need to charge as an industry. This would be considered price fixing, a form of monopoly and totally against the law. What we are very good at however is making sure every one of our clients knows the full price in advance before we do any work to make sure there are no surprises. This is the only fair way to do it. 
  
  It seems like they are questioning my integrity and my professionalism due to the other companys response.  I am a Master Mechanical License holder with several other Masters Licenses in other trades. I have been performing this type of work for over 30 years. I started Patriot Pros and we have been in business for over 27 years, we have always maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, Have received numerous awards for excellence in customer service and have even won the small business award from the chamber of commerce. This however doesnt mean we never get complaints, it just simply means if and when we do we go out of our way to make things right when we are in the wrong. Most contractors doing this kind of work we have found they are all too often fixing the symptoms because either their lack of understanding or just simply not caring to do it the right way being concern they may lose a sale by not telling the clients what they want to hear. At Patriot Pros we feel we have an Obligation to do the right thing by keeping everyone safe and sometimes that means having tough conversations with the clients in their home going out of our way to make sure they understand the pros and cons of fixing their systems. This is what most clients appreciate about us. Some people hear what they want to hear and its unfortunate, but it is what it is. Im sorry we didnt have better news for the Griers, but I did report the facts to them and did it in what most people would consider a professional manner. I provided them with the services they paid for the $189. Another thing to mention is that all of us at Patriot Pros wear body cams ( the same ones the police department uses) and we have been wearing them for the last decade to help avoid confusions like these. Everything from the phone call when they first called and from the moment I said hello to them in their home, as well as the entire service call is on our service body cams if you need them to help clear the air on what actually happened as well as pictures taken of the concerns we found. Please let us know and we will be happy to forward them over to you. 
  
  Please let me know if there is anything else we can do for you. Thank You.
  
  ******************************, CEO
  Patriot Pros Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric
  

  
  

  Customer response

  05/21/2024

  To whom it may concern, 

  The only foolish decision I made was reaching out to Patriot Pros in the extreme cold, seeking help with an inoperable furnace based on a ****** search indicating their company offered 24-hour service. The first contact with Patriot Pros began on Friday night, March 15, around 8 pm. In my initial conversation with a support representative, I was informed about the $189 "dispatch fee" (called this when collected by ***** on Saturday at 4pm) and assured that this charge could be applied toward a repair or replacement. Please note, there was never any discussion around an afterhours fee of $289, as referenced in the response from Patriot Pros. As a consumer, I have the right to expect that every effort would be made to diagnose the actual problem and provide an option to complete the repair, not merely provide a sales pitch for a new furnace. Unfortunately, the latter is exactly what occurred from the beginning when they knew the age of the furnace,as referenced in Patriot Pros' response. 

  During my ****** searches, I came upon the Patriot Pros website which has a section for service and repair clicking on this is exactly what displays there Heating Repair & Maintenance: We know how it feels when your heater isnt working. Were here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days of the year! Our certified technicians will come to fix any problem you might have with heaters fast and efficiently.  This information, along with the 24-hour service claim was a driving factor for reaching out to Patriot Pros. Based on my experience, these claims are false advertisements. 

  Here is how the entire process unfolded: during that initial call, they told me a crew was on a job and might be able to come to my home that evening. They did not. Then on Saturday, *****, a representative from Patriot Pros, reached out to me at 7:09 am, indicating the crew was finishing an installation and would be out shortly. There were multiple text messages back and forth, including one at 10:33 am, leading me to believe they would come shortly after noon. However, noon came and went. At 1:27 pm, there was another communication indicating a further delay of another hour and a half.After 3 pm I reached out, and received a text stating they were 100%getting to you. The next communication indicated technicians were dispatched to our home at 4 pm. They did not arrive until close to 5 pm. In my attached documents, you can see I even turned away from other companies, expecting to have already arranged a repairwith Patriot Pros. They kept me on the hook all day long until it limited my options of collaborating with another company.

  Upon arrival, my husband entered the crawl space with Mr. and *******************. During their evaluation, it became evident that Patriot Pros never intended to conduct any repairs or even diagnose the cause of the inoperable furnace. Their aim, based on the age of the furnace, which was known to them prior to arriving at our home, based on the qualification questions in the initial call, was to sell us a new furnace. I am confident that the body cameras they wore can provide additional proof of this fact, as they made no attempt to diagnose the issue causing the furnace not to work. This is also evident in the response provided by the merchant in reference to seeing lights on the system control board.  After seeing these blinking lights,they did not make any attempt to evaluate this abnormality. With thirty plus years of experience, why didnt they use a multimeter to evaluate the control board's functions? No testing was performed on the system control board during the visit by Patriot Pros.

  My husbands attached note provides more insight and a firsthand account of what occurred while they were in the crawl space looking at the furnace. However, I have provided evidence that the furnace was, in fact, repairable and was repaired by Bergs with the attached invoice for payment for the replacement of the system control board on Monday,March 18, 2024. Patriot Pros claimed safety concerns but did not assess for carbon monoxide emissions or gas leaks. Instead, their inspection was only take pictures of the furnace, consistently pointing out the age of the furnace.

  As a consumer, at any time, and even during an inconvenient situation in the cold, I have the right to expect that when securing a company that advertises, they provide 24-hour service, that they will make a valiant attempt to inspect and determine the cause of my inoperable furnace. I also expect that they will meet the claims they advertise on their website. Instead, Patriot Pros unfairly represented their services as a repair company and used deceptive practices to charge a dispatch fee allowing me to think that they would make an effort to repair and instead made a sales pitch, under the guise of safety concerns and during a challenging environmental circumstance. They made zero attempt to find an appropriate solution to bring our services back online, as their website claims, instead they left us in the cold. Patriot Pros made false representations of the services they offered. I believe my expectations are reasonable that when calling a 24-hour service company offering repair services, they would exhaust all options for repairs, which was not done in this case. I have provided proof the furnace was repairable with a paid receipt to another certified HVAC technician. As a moot point, my safety was not compromised, as I have lived to write this letter. Having almost been a casualty of carbon monoxide poisoning from an inoperable furnace, I do not take lightly the effects of unsafe conditions. However, companies that use that scare tactic without even testing for emissions of these unsafe gases are unethical.  It is unfathomable, to have Patriot Pros charge me $189 dispatch fee, under false pretenses of offering repair services, as was my expectation based on consumer research and the dialogue with their representatives. I find this unacceptable, especially when the furnace was repairable, even at the age of 28. I am requesting a full refund for the 'dispatch fee' of $189 based on the unfair representation of the services provided by Patriot Pros, they made no attempt to determine the root cause of the problem and used the age of the furnace, which they knew in advance, and the unfortunate circumstance to try to sell us a furnace.  
  
  Kind regards,
  ***********************

  Customer response

  05/21/2024

   
  Complaint: 21700466
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  The only foolish decision I made was reaching out to Patriot Pros in the extreme cold, seeking help with an inoperable furnace based on a ****** search indicating their company offered 24-hour service. The first contact with Patriot Pros began on Friday night,March 15, around 8 pm. In my initial conversation with a support representative, I was informed about the $189 "dispatch fee" and assured that this charge could be applied toward a repair or replacement.Please note, there was never any discussion around an afterhours fee of $289,as referenced in the response from Patriot Pros. As a consumer, I have the right to expect that every effort would be made to diagnose the actual problem and provide an option to complete the repair, not merely provide a sales pitch for a new furnace. Unfortunately, the latter is exactly what occurred from the beginning when they knew the age of the furnace, as referenced in Patriot Pros'response. 
  
  Even the review of the Patriot Pros website from the ****** ad indicates linking to the website which states Heating Repair & Maintenance: We know how it feels when your heater isnt working. Were here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days of the year! Our certified technicians will come to fix any problem you might have with heaters fast and efficiently.  This information, along with the 24-hour service claim was a driving factor for reaching out to Patriot Pros. Based on my experience, these claims are false advertisements.

  Here is how the entire process unfolded: During that initial call, they told me a crew was on a job and might be able to come to my home that evening. They did not. Then on Saturday, *****, a representative from Patriot Pros, reached out to me at 7:09 am, indicating the crew was finishing an installation and would be out shortly. There were multiple text messages back and forth, including one at 10:33 am, leading me to believe they would come shortly after noon. However, noon came and went. At 1:27 pm, there was another communication indicating a further delay of another hour and a half.After 3 pm I reached out, and received a text stating they were 100% getting to you. The next communication indicated technicians were dispatched to our home at 4 pm. They did not arrive until close to 5 pm. In my attached documents, you can see I even turned away from other companies, expecting to have already arranged a repair with Patriot Pros. They kept me on the hook all day long until it limited my options of collaborating with another company.

  Upon arrival, my husband entered the crawl space with Mr. and *******************. During their evaluation, it became evident that Patriot Pros never intended to conduct any repairs or even diagnose the cause of the inoperable furnace. Their aim, based on the age of the furnace, which was known to them prior to arriving at our home, was to sell us a new furnace. I am confident that the body cameras they wore can provide additional proof of this fact, as they made no attempt to diagnose the issue causing the furnace not to work. This is evident in the response provided by the merchant. After seeing the blinking lights,they did not make any attempt to evaluate this abnormality. With thirty plus years of experience, why didnt they use a multimeter to evaluate the control board's functions? No testing was performed on the system control board during the visit by Patriot Pros.
  
  My husbands note provides more insight into what occurred while they were in the crawl space. However, I have provided evidence that the furnace was, in fact, repairable and was repaired by Bergs with the attached invoice for payment for the replacement of the system control board on Monday, March 18,2024. They claim safety concerns but did not assess for carbon monoxide emissions or gas leaks. Instead, they only took pictures of the furnace,consistently pointing out the age of the furnace.

  As a consumer, at any time, and even during an inconvenient situation in the cold, I have the right to expect that when securing a company that advertises, they provide 24-hour service and repair services, that they will make a valiant attempt to inspect and determine the cause of my inoperable furnace and meet the claims they advertise on their website.Instead, Patriot Pros unfairly represented their services as a repair company and used deceptive practices to charge a dispatch fee allowing me to think that they would make an effort to repair, citing safety concerns when they did not even test for unsafe scenarios. Under the guise of safety concerns and in a difficult situation they took the opportunity to pitch a sale on a new furnace,instead of finding appropriate solution to bring our services back online, as they claim. Patriot Pros made false representations of the services they offered. As a consumer, I have the right to a reasonable expectation that when calling a 24-hour service company offering repair services, they would exhaust all options for repairs, which was not done in this case. I have also provided proof the furnace was repairable with a paid receipt to another certified HVAC technician. To have Patriot Pros charge me $189 dispatch fee, under false pretenses of offering repair, when only offering me a $16K furnace is unacceptable, especially when the furnace was repairable.   I request a full refund of the $189 dispatch fee as the repair services expected were not were provided.
  
  Kind regards,
  ***********************
  

   

  Customer response

  05/22/2024

  Good morning,

   

  Thank you for your response as a neutral third party.  I understand your response. 

  I ask that you consider a negative impact to the BBB rating for this company, as the practices used by this company are unfair to the consumer who elects to do business with them. My account of the actions of this company should be readily available to other prospective consumers. 

  Kind regards,

  Alesha

   

*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. ↩