ComplaintsforPinnacle Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  02/17/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My complaint is regarding a faulty HVAC system that we bought through ***** for $17K, who subcontracted Pinnacle Heating & Cooling for system installation. Over the past five years, the system has been highly dysfunctional. I've had Pinnacle out for service with every change of season, with the exception of the recent few years due to COVID precautions. Some of the problems that we have experienced include an unresponsive thermostat, no heating or cooling and water leakage seemingly from condensation gathering inside our walls. We've had to resort to window AC units and space heaters, so we're essentially paying for a system that is unusable. Recently, I had Pinnacle come out to repair the system, and they discovered corrosion in some of our copper pipes they installed which was caused by the insulation they used in the install. They mentioned (and confirmed via email) that the insulation used is faulty and causes the pipes to corrode, and took several pictures of the damage that I requested but am yet to receive. So they were aware of the faulty insulation, but did not come to resolve the problem proactively for our house (or at least come to inspect), but rather let the problem cause damage to the system. Pinnacle is asking us to pay in full for repairs, which I am not comfortable doing given that they are responsible for these problems and should pay to resolve them. My largest concern is that the wall units that they installed on our 2nd floor leaked condensation into our walls. One of them leaked enough to trickle down into a large puddle on our first floor. I cannot be sure whether this issue caused significant water damage without ripping into my walls. If there is damage, Pinnacle should pay for these repairs as well.

  Business response

  03/14/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2022/02/24) */ My Applogies for the frustration around the system which was installed in October of 2016 which we provided a 2 Year labor warranty on. In September of 2017 we recieved a call for the system not cooling and we made repairs to a refrigeration leaks at two locations. We performed a pressure test which held and placed the system back into operation. All at no charge due to the system being under warranty. In July of 2018 there was a service request by the owner for the system not cooling. We found that we had to reprogram the system addressing and were unable to determine why this was needed. Most likely this occured due to some sort of power outtage/failure. In October of 2018 there was a service request by the owner for the system not functioning in "heating" mode. The owner was attempting to operate different units in different modes, heat vrs cool, which was causing the system to stay stuck in cooling mode. Upon changing all thermostats/units to "heating" the system operated correctly. Not until January of 2022 did we receive a call from the owner that the systems were not functioning. We are 3.5 years past our warranty coverage. We performed a service call and determined the system was low on refrigerant. Upon inspection we found the insulation material on the exterior refrigeration piping was deteriorated and corroding. We explained to our customer what we found. We reached out to our manufacturer of the piping, *******, which said they would warranty the piping material. We provided a proposal for the work at a reduced labor rate, no charge for a 2nd technician. We are in talks trying for the manufacturer to possibly cover some of the labor expense. The conversation with the owner was left off with our proposal to complete work which was no longer in warranty coverage by 3.5 years. No previous signs were present at the time of our service call in 2018 that there may have been issues with the product. The maunfacturer has not provided us specific failure dates on their product or admitted there is a definitive product. They proivde us material under warranty and that is it. I want to stress the customer did NOT contract pinnacle for maintenance to do semi annual inspections on the system. If we were contracted during 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 it would have been very likely for the problems to have been found during routine maintenance. At which time minor corrective actions could have been taken. We do provide warranty coverage for the terms stated on the contract. We have attempted to make the repairs at a reduced price. We have not and were never notified of any condensation leaks which can definitely occur due to not having maintenance performed. I understand an additional year of coverage but 6 years after the instllation with no maintenance or annual inspections is asking us to take ownership regardless of the customers actions. If additional conversations would be helpful we are open to communicating to help resolve the matter and we will continue to attempt to push the manufacturer to covering part or all of the labor expense. Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2022/02/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Hello, I appreciate the detailed response from Pinnacle. Some follow up questions/requests for them: (1) Please provide documentation that we signed off on a 2-year warranty (2) Please provide documentation that we signed off that a semi-annual inspection is recommended (3) I did not receive the proposal with reduced labor that you are referring to. The last correspondence I received from Pinnacle was on 2/2. I'm also not comfortable with the following: (1) Being held responsible for a known flaw in the insulation because I didn't request regular inspection. I still believe this should have been resolved proactively by Pinnacle. (2) The response around the water leaking due to "not having regular maintenance" is very unspecific and not satisfactory enough to convince me that this wasn't due to a flaw with the installation. (3) After the Oct 2018 service visit, the AC stopped working again late summer 2019. We got through the rest of the season with window AC units. In the winter 19-20, the heat worked ok, although it seemed weak, but we were able to manage. Then COVID hit, and when the AC continued to not work in spring '20 and heat didn't work winter 20-21, we just got by with window units and space heaters. I have two little kids and a wife that is high risk for COVID, so I wasn't comfortable calling for service until beginning of this year. Main point here is there is rationale for us not reaching out earlier; think the response from Pinnacle puts too much emphasis on the timeframe and not on the issues we've experienced since the install. So I am not yet satisfied with the response. Would appreciate additional follow up with Pinnacle. Thank you. Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2022/03/08) */ Our proposal to ***** which whom you have a contract with stated 2 year labor warranty. I do not have access to your contract with *****. We simply provide a quote to them and they excute the contract. Our proposal was sent to your ***** Sales person on Sept 1 2016. 8:53 AM which i verified stated 12 Year ********** Equipment Warranty and 2 Year Labor which was 1 year addition to our standard warranty coverage. We did not have a sign off on preventative maintenace during the time of your installation. For this very reason we have changed processes and paperwork to request sign offs. At that time we just discussed this during startup and completion of the work I can revise and resend but we have a second technician not being billed for on the repair quote. There will need to be 2 techs onsite to replace the piping. If our time comes in less we can reduce pricing as well. Unfortunately the infomation provided from our manufacturer of the piping was and has been limited. They are not giving concrete dates on product issues and were not covering any expenses other than product materail warranties under their 5 year warranty on the product. As i mentioned We are still working with the distributor to try and get assistance here for partial or full coverage. A lack of maintenance can cause condensation issues along with other problems. All we are noting is we have not been notified of condensation leaks which we would have been more then willing to investiage and address accordingly. Holding us accountable for something which we dont know the cause is unreasonalbe. If you would like we can look into the problem. Several different factors can cause condensation problems and in general customers contact us or a professional when they have problems. Moving forward you can choose one of the following options. We can perform the repairs and maintenance services at the cost we have proposed which we will collect payment for at the time of the service. We will extend a 1 year warranty on the entire system if we perform all the necessary work. We will perform a 12 hr pressure test on the system with start and end photos showing a holding pressure test to ensure and document no leaks. If you choose for us to only make the repairs and not perform the maintenance which i would understand we will provide a 30 day warranty on only the work performed. The second option is to wait and see if we can obtain credits from the manufacturer to help cover or offset the repair cost. All work above will be identical but your out of pocket expenses would reduced or potentially covered. I apologize for the inconviences caused. It is not our intention to deflect this problem in any way or pass the entire burden on the customer but it is unfortunate to have several years pass. Which puts the problems further and further out and makes it much more difficult to recoup expenses from a supplier or manufacturer. Addressing this in 2018 would have been a much more reasonable time frame when the problem first occured. There were still 5 months prior to Covid becoming a problem and case rates in the summer months were just as low if not lower then where they are now. We have had other high risk customers make arragements for repairs as well. I will continue to see if we can get a response from the supplier in regards to labor coverage and will notify you when we do.

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