ComplaintsforHelt Heating and Air Conditioning

• Initial Complaint

  05/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Had the business come out due to unit not cooling like I thought it should. He sent an employee out who looked at the unit and determined it was low on Freon. The unit is still under warranty. The employee allegedly put 5lbs of Freon in the unit and asked me if I wanted dye put in to determine where the leak was. I said yes. He said he placed dye in and charged an additional $45. I called the owner and asked how that worked the next day and he said they would charge another house call to determine the leak and another to fix it. I decided to call another company bc his price per pound of Freon was $95 and others were $41. Another guy came out and did a pressure test to determine if there was a leak. He determined there was not and that there was never an indication of dye being put into the system or that the system couldve ever been that low on Freon. I called another company a few days later for another opinion, who came out, and determined no dye was ever put in, but did his own dye test, which we watched at this point. He also determined there was no leak.

  

  Business response

  05/10/2024

  We did indeed come out and work on this customer's equipment. Before we begin any work. We explained the cost to the customer. While the manufacturer does warranty the equipment, it does not cover Freon or dye or labor. We do not manufacture the equipment so we cannot do anything about this. This was explained to the customer before we began work. Our employee found that the unit was 5 lb low on freon. Because the unit was that low and because the unit ordinarily holds 10 lb of freon, our employee thought it would be prudent to put dye in the unit to try and search for a potential leak. Our employee explained to the The customer that we would have to return to find the leak. We do admit that it could have been better communicated what the process was for finding the leak and we are working to rectify that with future customers. The customer did contact our owner and our owner explained that we would have to come back out to find the leak after the die had gone through the system to accumulate at the leak point. Rather than calling us back out or allowing us to follow up after the die had run its course, the customer contacted another company to come service the unit.

  The Customer left us a ****** review which we responded to with the information above. The customer contacted us to tell us that they had found someone that provided ***** at a lower rate than we do. We do not price compare to our competitors so we cannot speak to another company's price. We told the customer what our prices were before we began work and the customer approved that. The customer left us a ****** review including that information in their review. 

  The Customer took to social media to get input from the community about our service and our rates. We also responded to that communication many times.

  We did put dye in the unit to check for a leak. We are glad to know that there was no leak found. It is possible that there was a fitting loose on The unit that could account for the leak but as we were not called out for the return, we cannot verify this. Our employees clean up after themselves at the job site so there would be no dye outside of the unit unless a leak was found once it had run through the system. We cannot speak to what anyone else told the customer, but we can say that our employee did put dye in the unit to check for a leak. 

  We are sorry to hear that this customer was not satisfied with our service. We do try to provide good service to all of our customers. We are sorry that we were not able to come a happy resolution with this one. We have however, tried to communicate with this customer and have responded to all communication requests thus far. We do not feel that there is anything at this time that we can do that will improve the situation. But we wish this customer the best in all of their future endeavors. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  09/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Residential AC stopped blowing cold air week before last. Wanting to use someone local who I felt could be trusted I called Helt Heat and Air at the recommendation of father-in-law who had a good experience. Steven answered, was nice and was willing to have technician check out the unit the next day, which was a Tuesday. Technicians told my wife, who was home at the time, there was a freon leak and that "the remaining freon was separating", so they had to take out all the remaining freon and replace it with new freon at $100/lb. They said they were able to repair the leak and add new freon and charged 2-3hrs of labor for a total of $1000 for a leak repair and 5lbs of freon. Seemed high for a leak and I questioned the freon separation but the AC was blowing cold air so we paid the bill. Come Friday of the same week AC is not blowing cold air. Called Steven and ask how the system was confirmed to be leak free. He said they normally add dye but the technician admitted he did not use dye because he had "a good feeling" the leak he found and fixed, fixed the problem. You can imagine the awkward silence which followed that explanation. I was told they could not come back out until Monday and made the appointment and arrangements to be home during the scheduled appointment. No one showed up on Monday nor did they call. I suppose most folks reading this can understand my frustration. If the check was not already cashed I would cancel it.

  

  Business response

  12/29/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2022/10/10) */ Helt came out to work on a piece of equipment for this customer's wife. She was informed that the repair may or may not hold due to the age of the equipment. The repair did not in fact hold. The customer's husband contacted us to return. An appointment was made and though we were not able to keep that timeslot, we did call upon realization that we had not made the appointment. Arrangements were made with the customer's husband to return on an alternate day but this complaint and the google review had already been made. We did return to the customer's home and were able to evaluate the equipment. Unfortunately due to the age and the state of the equipment, a repair is not possible. We recommend a replacement. We did however refund the customer the original repair price. Customer stated at the time that he would remove the complaint and amend his google review. The amendment to the google review has been made. Please see the quoted text below and contact us for any further inquiry. "We prefer to use small local businesses and were recommended Helt by family members, who used this company and were very happy with their service and pricing. We have an older unit that we were hoping to repair for one more season before having to replace the entire unit. It was blowing air that was not cooled. Helt's techs came out with this understanding and did their best to patch a leak so that Freon would no longer be leaking out. They also replaced the Freon. They felt confident that this repair would allow us to continue to use the unit, from up to a few months (to get us through the last of the hot weather) up to 1-2 more years. The unit began blowing hot air again a couple of days later. We called back, and after a few conversations, the owner and one of the techs came back to check out the unit and confirm that the weld patch did not hold. Helt refunded the check we had written to cover the initial labor, supplies, and Freon. We appreciate that even though the repair didn't hold, Helt's company provided fair customer service by coming back out to reevaluate the issue and by refunding our total cost so that we can instead put that amount toward a new unit. We also were impressed by the friendliness and professionalism of the two techs that came out initially." Consumer Response /* (2000, 12, 2022/10/10) */ I heard from the owner of this business shortly after the complaint that I filed with the BBB. He called and apologized for the no call no show, agreed to return to my home and reassess the problem. He returned to my home determined that the repair that was made failed and refunded our payment in full.

*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. ↩