If you need AC replacement, Mark will be at your door in no time, and everything will be fine until you have a problem. Fine is a relative word because Mark likes to close customers by reminding them that they get a rebate from Duke on new AC units. Not true. They are no longer on Duke Energys approved companies because they n
o longer provide workmans comp. We made an issue on this because we felt it was unethical and Mark should have known better. He refunded the rebate amount back to us rather than face us directly.
Next we had three internet connected thermostats installed with the new units and all three needed to be replaced over the first year. Not really Ocean Breezes problem, and they did replace them, but it was not a smooth process.
Apparently Mark is trying to sell the business, which is probably a good thing. Hopefully whomever buys it will try to run it with more than one employee working the field. Ocean Breeze problem appears to be that there are three people. The owner Mark who is out making the sales calls and install work. Someone working the phones and then one guy doing the lions share of the service calls.
Jump to more recently, and our upstairs split unit isn't working correctly. I call and for a $69 service call, the usual guy shows up and says they have to replace the damper controller board and it costs $450. So a replacement board goes in and he leaves. System still isn't working right. Turns out the board that went in isn't a new board. Dont know if it's used or just old, but for $450, you gotta wonder. So this time when I called them back, Mark had to come out and now says that the damper itself needs to be replaced. I had to call a couple times to find out when they were putting the damper in. I wasn't paying the bill until they fixed it. I also questioned if my original controller board was going to be returned so it could be ruled out as the problem through fault isolation. So basically, they want to be paid for a part that they put in that doesnt fix the problem and now they want more money to reace the damper itself. All total, we are looking at a $700 bill. We pay it, and they finally come out and replace the damper.
Problem is that the system still doesnt work correctly. The thermostat in the FROG room calls for cool air but gets little to none. The damper isn't functioning correctly, so most all that cool air goes to the rest of the upstairs, making it way colder than it needs to be. I call and leave a message that we still have an issue. No return call. I dont call every day. I call at the beginning of the week and wait for a return call. None comes. Next week, call again. No return call. Week 3, call again, leave message, no return call. Week 4. Same thing. Week 5, with no return calls, so I call ARS of Wilmington. They fix the problem in less than five minutes. One wire not connected properly. If Ocean Breeze was taking it's time to fault isolate problem and double check their fixes, they might not have issues like this.
This is one small business that ends up being the bad ape that pushes me away from using small businesses. Hope you have better luck, but is it really worth taking the chance? read more