I am compelled to tell you of my bad experience with the company's new management. I have only had my gas fireplace serviced by Alpha & Omega. I was amazed at the increased price of a service call. Formerly a house call was $150 but today, the company has "levels" of maintenance. I chose the Level 1 service as I thought my fireplace needed cleaning and it had stopped working. The charge would be $279. The original Alpha & Omega company's name and customer base was purchased by a new company that has retained the name.
The hand control which the company sold to me no longer worked, and in order to start the fireplace, I had to flip a switch on a box wired to the inner mechanisms of the fireplace. To get to it more easily, I had to pull it out in front of the fireplace. Now the switch wasn't even working. I told the company I wanted the fireplace to work and for the handset to work once again as well.
In addition, part of the Level 1, $279 maintenance visit was to include a chimney inspection of the inside of the chimney. I told the scheduler that I didn't think the chimney needed inspection because it was lined specifically for the fireplace insert.
The chimney also has a cap on it to prevent birds from coming in, so the chimney inspection was once again, is unnecessary. Even so, the technician said he used a drone to inspect the OUTSIDE of the chimney and it looked OK. That is not what I was told I was paying the overpriced Level 1 charge for, in my estimation. The charge and service rendered proved again that the charge of $279 was inflated. I felt the service was "padded" with the requirement.
By the end of the service call, Dave, a very nice, polite and courteous technician and his "helper" Butch, had done a reasonably good job but had not met my objectives. The fireplace worked. Dave found the problem. It was a broken wire, likely broken because I had to pull the on/off box out in front of the fireplace. He fixed the broken wire. The fireplace ignited, and once we had replaced the batteries in the remote control, and it was reprogrammed to connect with the on/off box, the remote control worked. The problem was that the remote control had to be held about an inch or two from the box to work. The remote control certainly could not be used remotely.
Since very little chimney inspection had occurred, and since I bought the failing remote control from Alpha Omega, I hoped Alpha Omega would honor some sort of warranty or at least give me a discount on a new one. The technician told me he'd check but he was not authorized to do that. He also told me the original remote control I'd bought from Alpha Omega for $150 (at the time a price I thought was high) WAS NOT EVEN THE CORRECT REMOTE for my kind of fireplace.
Whose fault was that?, I countered. I trusted the former technician from Alpha Omega to help me make the right decision on a remote control when I agreed to get one. The new remote control would cost me a mere $495 MORE. I was outraged at the price and said the company was gauging a long-time customer. I told him I thought it an unfair price and I believed I deserved a discount. At cost would be nice since the company's predecessor recommended THE WRONG REMOTE CONTROL.
Two managers on duty, not the boss who could offer discounts over $50, offered a $50 discount. A pittance. To add insult to injury, I was told the COST of the new remote control was $150 to the company. The rest of the $495 price tag was for THE SERVICE CALL. That would be another $250 over the original $297 service call. A total of $495 for the INSTALLED NEW REMOTE. Exorbitant! And by the way, even though the technician offered to stop back after his last call and on his way back to his home base in Williamston, I would probably have an ADDITIONAL $50 tacked on for the return visit. The $50 discount both acting managers offered to me would be eaten up with a $50 cost of the return call today.
I offered to pay the COST of the new remote control device which was $150 and $50 for the return visit. Basically an additional $200. Fair in my book. NOPE. The acting manager told me that he would have to decline that offer and that if I felt I needed to give their company a bad rating, I should go ahead and do that. He would not be asking his boss for more.
So here it is. You can decide if YOU want to be an Alpha & Omega customer. They don't want to keep me as their customer, apparently. So be it.
If Alpha & Omega honor my offer to pay $200 for the purchase and activation of a new remote control that costs them $150, I will gladly take this negative review down.
Nuff said, as my Mom used to say. Thank you, read more