Where do I even begin?…read more
My first interaction with this company was actually pleasant. Promising, even. Spoiler: it did not stay that way.
Call #1: My propane logs wouldn't turn off. Ice storm coming. I panicked. Joe showed up that evening, pointed out the knob inside the fireplace (since the remote switch box had likely died), and I happily paid the $125 service fee. No complaints. This visit isn't even part of the real problem.
Five days later: I come home to a thermostat reading 57 despite being set to 70. I call Joe again. He shows up the next morning, finds exploded batteries in the thermostat, replaces them, and says it might need replacing eventually. I pay another $125. Still fine. He even signs me up for the semi-annual maintenance plan. Great! Future business! Everyone wins, right?...Right?
Two days later: Thermostat drops to 65. I go buy a new one at Lowe's and call Joe back. He installs it, but when we try to register it, we get an error. "Already registered to another owner". Honeywell is closed. Joe removes the new thermostat, reinstalls the old one, tells me to call Honeywell, and I pay yet another $125. Annoying, but whatever.
I finally reached Honeywell later in the day and they inform me that registration only matters for app control, the installer could've fully installed it. I could've cleared the previous owner later. "The technician should have known that," they said. Okay. Honest mistake...maybe.
Two days later: Joe comes back to finally install the thermostat correctly. It works. I pay another service fee, but this time he gives me a "discount" and only charges me $62.50. This is visit #3 for the same issue, but sure. I pay it, despite being told that he should have known that he could have installed the thermostat initially. I digress...
Three days later: My heat is reading 68 while set to 70. Again. Joe comes back. This time, FINALLY, he crawls under the house and discovers the actual problem: a bad wire. The unit is 5 years old and 100% under warranty. He says he'll "only charge me the service call fee," like he's doing me a favor.
At this point, I push back. He told me during visit #2 that you only pay one service fee for a single issue until it's diagnosed--then you pay for parts. Well, we're now at FOUR service fees for the same problem, and he never once went under the house until now.
I ask him why I should pay anything when it's under warranty--and more importantly, why he didn't check the wiring in the first place?
He gets furious. Tells me he'd have charged someone else $300+, and filing a warranty claim is "too much paperwork" for a "simple fix." Then he tells me, and I quote: "never call me again for anything."
WOWZA! Gladly.
I told him I promise I will never, EVER call Joe at Fire and Ice again. And honestly, unless you enjoy paying 4-5 service fees for someone to repeatedly NOT diagnose the problem, you might want to take my advice. Maybe this is their business model? Hard to say. But I won't be finding out.
Oh, and Joe? Remove me from the semi-annual maintenance list. Thanks.