ComplaintsforChampion Services

• Initial Complaint

  02/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On February 19th I came home to no heat. Called Champion Services and they came right out to help. Once the technician got here, he looked at the furnace and diagnosed it as needing a Draft Inducer priced at $628. I paid for it because I have children in the home, and we need heat. Once it was put on, the furnace fired up but wasn't blowing hard, so the technician thought it needed another part for the blower motor, he put that on at no charge and furnace turned on and he left. after leaving, i realized the furnace wasn't working like it should so I called to have the technician come back. He came and told me after looking at it that it needed a Blower Motor but did not have one on his truck. He said they could order one and left me 2 heaters to use. I asked for a refund on the Draft Inducer, and he said that they could give me a $500 voucher to use towards a new furnace but couldn't refund the money. Monday, at 8 am we called and was told that we needed to come up with $5,999 for a new furnace and that they would take $2500 down to get on the schedule to to get one put in. We needed time to come up with the funds. Once we had the funds, we called back to make the payment, but the person didn't know how to take the payment and said someone would call back. No one called so we called again and the person able to was in a meeting. This all took until 4:45pm and fearing we were going to be without heat longer, we decided to call another company for a furnace, and they came next day and installed. We asked for a refund on the $628 part because we didn't use it and they refuse to refund our money because the part was taken out of the box and is now considered a used part. After doing some research online the part is an $50 - $80 part. We were severely over charged for the part that was not used. I believe I was over charged and taken advantage of by this company. Also, the owner said he would've refunded us the money, but we pissed him off by posting on ******** about our experience.

  Business response

  02/24/2023

  As you can see in *******'s letter we provided excellent service for her and her family on a Sunday afternoon. As with all our customers we provide guaranteed up front priced options from replacements to repairs. Once we have done this its 100% our customers decision what option they choose. In this case ******* made the choice to replace the inducer motor that was not working. With *******'s authorization and signature approving the work and price our expert replaced the inducer motor. The furnace started up and begin heating. Our expert found an additional issue with the blower motor and made an attempt to repair it as noted at no charge as the furnace was to old for us to have the blower motor stocked on our van. As with all customers with old units we provide what we call a Homeowners Certificate for up to $500 back towards repairs made which is good for one year towards a new furnace. ******* situation would qualify for the $500 discount towards a new furnace for up to one year from date of service.          

  At 10AM PM on Monday February 20th on a recored line our operation manager (Nate) talked with *******'s husband and they want to go ahead and replace the unit. After discussing our policy that requires 50% downpayment to get the replacement on the schedule and the remaining of the payment at the completion of the installation. He informed Nate that he was going to have to makes some phones call to gather the funds for the unit. 

  ******* is correct she called back and talked to Amanda which is a new hire and was not authorized to collect payment. She informed Nate that ******* had called and they had collected the down payment. Nate again on a recorded line made two phones call back attempting to reach back out to ******* for the down payment with no success. Our office manager Rachael left a message with the husband at on a recored line at 4:42 to please call us back. 

  When we finally made contact with each other again we where informed they had made the choice to go with a different contractor and have already had the unit replaced. At this point ******* wanted a refund on the inducer motor we had installed on Sunday. It is our policy that once we install and run a part in a unit it is not refundable as we can not sale or install used parts. However the Homeowners Certificate would have paid them back $500 of the $628 which they where informed on the phone call with Nate the day before. Had Champion replaced the unit we would have happily refunded the additional $128.   

  As for as the comment about bashing on facebook, my comment was "don't you think you should hold off on bashing our company until after asking for a refund".  

  ******* and her husband had the opportunity and was told about the $500 refund and made the choice to not take it and go with another company. By not moving forward we never had the opportunity to discuss the additional $128. 

   

  Customer response

  02/25/2023

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I feel like I was taken advantage of. I was at home without heat and felt like I had no other options than to pay for the part the tech told me the furnace needed. When told how much the part was, the $628, and not knowing anything about furnaces and trusting the tech would be able to fix it, I hesitantly paid for it with 3 forms of payment cause I didn't really have the money but needed heat. The owner told us he only marks up his parts 10%, but after pricing the exact same part on Amazon and other sites I realized I was ripped off. He marks his parts up 80% which in my book is a scam or fraud. I understand he has a business to run but that's ridiculous. 

  He did tell us about the $500 voucher but after getting the run around all day trying to talk to someone with knowledge of the situation, we did decide to go with another company. It's in the middle of winter and a major storm was moving in the next day, I have 2 children and fearing we would be without heat during the storm we felt we had no other choice. 

  The part was literally on the furnace for 5 minutes and is still brand new. Please just refund our $628 for the part! You can keep the $289.00 emergency fee and $25 travel fee. I will bring your part back to you and it can be used on the next house. Please do what's right.
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** *******

  Business response

  02/28/2023

  We stand firm in our response we submitted. In that response you see ******* had the opportunity to recover the cost and made the decision to go a different route. Secondly,  In investigating further I have found that our expert Cody did recommend to her waiting until she could get in touch with her husband before making the decision to install the part. He was out ice fishing. She said no she wanted it fix and authorized us to move forward. We have been in business for 40+ years with a less than .5% unsatisfied rate. Over 100,000 house calls made. It's very obvious We don't take advantage of people. Everything we do is up front guaranteed not to change pricing, backed by a five year labor and parts warranty, and signature authorized up front. We are at no fault in this situation. Again ******* and her husband was given a choose to recover the cost and they made the decision not to do that. 

  To show my willingness to work with *******. I will offer a credit of $628 on her account towards any work she may need in the future. Electrical, Plumbing, Drain Cleaning, HVAC, Water Treatment, and other services we offer.       

          

  Customer response

  02/28/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** *******

*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. ↩