ComplaintsforAshton Britt Service Co. Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  09/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 6/19/23 we were scheduled to receive yearly maintenance on our upstairs air conditioning units. The appointment was for 2:45 PM. The service person showed up at 9 AM and I was unprepared but I didn’t want to mess his day up so I let him in. I took him up and had to excuse myself to go feed and put the pets away. I was downstairs for less than 10 minutes and when I returned He was in an area of the room he should not have been. He said he was done and went outside. He was out there about 5 minutes. He then took a check for $145.00 and left. Approximately 3 weeks later We began to miss items in both of the rooms. It is just my husband and I that live here and no one else has been here to visit. We believe the that the service person took the items. I called Ashton Britt and reported to them what happened and the units had not even been cleaned. ******* ****** the general manager came over. I explained to him what happened and he was apologetic and said he would investigate and get right back to me. The more items that I found gone is when I notified the Sheriff Department and they took my statement. The detective said that would try to find him.. He quit the job and disappeared. The general manager told the detective he would call us and make it right. That was over 2 weeks ago and I have not heard a word as to any compensation for what the man took and even they came out and cleaned the filters he told me he would let me know when someone else would come out and finish the job. That hasn’t happened either. I do think they should be responsible for our loss since that man was on the job when the theft occurred.

  

  Business response

  10/12/2023

  10/12/2023
  To Whom It May Concern:
  Good morning! My name is ******* ******, and I am the Installation and Service Manager of Ashton Britt Service Company in Jefferson City, TN. This is our response to the complaint made by one of our customers, ******* ********* on September 8, 2023. The Complaint ID is ********. I have read **** *********** Statement of the Problem very thoroughly multiple times and from that I have decided there are definitely two-sides to every story. Below you will find our recollection of events leading up to **** *********** complaint last month in September.
  On June 19, 2023, our maintenance technician,, had five maintenance calls scheduled for him on this specific day. On average, the number of maintenances he did every day varied from three to six. Every afternoon before I leave for the day, I always set up the order on the schedule of the maintenances and service calls that we have the following day for our technicians. I do this to try and keep our techs in the same general area each day as we have a broad service area, or I set them up for optimal logistics as fuel costs are skyrocketing. With that said, we do NOT ever promise our customers an exact time, as we do not know how long each call will take. We cannot predict that in this industry. However, we do always call the customer when our technician is leaving the previous job site and heading to their address. On June 19th, Mrs. ********* was called by our former dispatcher to let her know that we were ready to come out to complete her maintenance. She politely responded with excitement as she stated she assumed she would be later in the day since they lived so close to our shop. I explained to her about how I keep them in order like above and she was jubilated that we were going to be out there so early. Our technician completed her maintenance on 06/19/23 along with four more.
  Now, please fast forward to 07/28/23. Over a month had passed, and Mrs. ********* called back into the office and mentioned that she did not feel the technician cleaned the units very well and she asked if she could speak with someone in management. After speaking with her and discussing what she had said about the maintenance with my boss, I decided to go see for myself and I left to visit Mrs. ********* at her home. Upon arriving, I introduced myself, I looked at the units our tech cleaned, and decided to act myself.  I called another technician and had him also come out to the job site. As I was waiting for him to arrive, I spoke to Mrs. ********* again. At this moment, for the first time, she mentioned items gone missing. I asked her to show me where because she stated that the items were taken from an area that our tech should not have been. When she showed me both rooms, she mentioned that items were missing from had systems that our tech had to clean, so he should have been in those said rooms. Also, at this time, she only mentioned two items to be missing and that she had not seen them since our tech was over there even though he had not been at her address for over a month. Along with that, she told me that the only people that ever were at their home were her, her husband, and her grand kids, which means there are more people there than she has made it out to be in her complaint. Moving on, my technician cleaned her units again while I was there, and since Mrs. ********* had already paid, I did not charge her for what our technician did that day and I also told her that I would speak to my boss again about the entire situation and get back to her. She left me with this, “If you want to make it right, just fire that technician as he should not be in anymore homes” and if I did not, she would no longer be a customer and that she would make sure this got around by word of mouth. I did not consider this a threat and I spoke with my boss when I arrived back at the office. We agreed on a plan for how we could evaluate our technicians’ maintenances and follow up with our customers in the future. We also agreed to give her the next maintenance free of charge because we always strive to keep our customers satisfied.
  I did not have the opportunity to let her know the plan we drew up, however, because upon me leaving, it seems she immediately called the Sheriff’s Department and informed them of the situation. The following Monday, July 31st, I spoke to our maintenance technician and informed him that I would be completing evaluations on his maintenances moving forward as it was necessary for us to determine his status for a raise. On Tuesday morning, August 1st, around 7:30 A.M., ******* arrived at the shop, turned in all his uniforms, tools, van keys, invoices, etc. and left the premises. It was my assumption he decided to quit because of the upcoming evaluations or that he thought he deserved a raise anyways. Not because he was a thief as I not one time mentioned to him anything about Mrs. *********. On Tuesday, August 2nd, Detective ****** ***** stopped by the office. He explained to me what Mrs. ********* had noted to him in their initial conversation, even down to the detail of how Mrs. ********* had no receipts for the items taken, that she created some of the items in question, and that she had no way of proving the correct value of the items she deemed were missing. We cooperated fully by allowing the detective to take a copy of ********* address, driver’s license, and other information he thought would be useful to his investigation.
  A few weeks later, on August 22nd, I spoke with Detective ***** again via phone. He informed me of everything he had tried to do for Mrs. ********* in getting to the bottom of her missing items. He checked addresses, made multiple phone calls, and visited several Pawn Shops and he was not able to come up with anything. He also stated to me that he had tried to contact Mrs. ********* to let her know as well, but that he was unable to reach her. He asked me if I would be willing to call her from the office, see if she answered, and if she did, if I would ask her to give him a call. Without hesitation, I called Mrs. ********* back as soon as I got off the phone with Detective Price. Mrs. ********* answered. I explained to her that the detective was trying to reach her, and he would like her to call him. I also asked her politely to call me back when she had finished that conversation so I could tell her that we had already waived the cost of the maintenance in question and that we will be giving her the next maintenance for free. When she did not call me back, I let the detective know what we had done already and were willing to do, and he told me to give him a call back if I ever needed anything regarding this again. I had not spoken to either of them since that day or about this situation since that day, until I began this response. I have now contacted Detective ***** again and he informed me that if we needed any of his notes on the matter or if he could help in any way with this response to the complaint to let him know and he would be happy to. We have done everything that Mrs. ********* has asked of us regarding this manner and are still willing to do more if given the opportunity. We do not see how it is our responsibility to pay for missing items, however that was not proven to be taken by anyone associated with Ashton Britt Service Company.
  
  Thank you! 

  Customer response

  10/18/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* *********

  i was never notified that ******* would be coming early.  He just showed up at the door.

  As to me not calling Mr ****** back the detective said he would call him and tell him to call me.  The detective could not reach me because he was calling the wrong area code.

  I waited almost 3 weeks before I filed a complaint.  I have found Mr ****** is not a man of his word.  He told me right after he was here to check the work ******* ******* did not do, he said he would call me and keep me informed on the status of what happened.  He did not.

  As to me not being able to verify a ***** on the items stolen.  They were things given to me by my late husband or were purchased many year ago.  That does not mean they have no value.  I know what they were purchased for and conveyed that to both Mr ****** and the detective.  

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