I contacted Williams Plumbing 2/12/18, spoke was directed to Amy in the Service Department.. I explained that a friend had tried to fix it, replaced some parts, but it would shut off when it went below the temp setting. She said they had an opening between 8-10am for a service call on 2/14 and explained the $120/flat fee for 1hr that would also include the drive time for the technician. Jeff showed up at 8:30, went into the crawl space, was there for about 20min. came back up and said that I needed a part and went to go look in his truck. He then came back in and said he needed to leave and go to his shop to look for this mysterious part and On/Off switch. He came back about 9:15am and said he didn't have the part, because mine went vertical and others have an elbow shape. He said it would have to be overnighted from somewhere and Amy could order it in. I said ok. As he was walking out the door he said, the part is $3.50, I said $3 dollars and .50cents? (because I had just replaced the flame sensor, timer all from Ambient for about $15-$25.00) He then said, no $350 for the part and with the labor it would be about $750 total. He then said do you want me to order this? (Meanwhile it's supposed to be below 0 for the next week and I am a single woman) He also says, your friend jury rigged stuff and it was loose? So, I thought wow this is an expensive part and my friend messed up. He left after I said, ok. After a 1/2 hour of pondering this really expensive furnace fix, I contacted Amy at Williams as she is in the service dept. and was supposed to be ordering the part. I told her Jeff had just been here and had said he was ordering that $350 part. Could she tell me what the part is? She said, Oh, our technicians order their own parts, we don't do that. I said well, he said you were ordering it and wouldn't you know what transpired during his service call and the part he ordered. She said no, you would have to call him. I called Jeff, left a vm to ask him about the part. I called her 3 times for information on the part and service and she had not info. Jeff never called me back. After thinking about this whole interaction and the lack of transparency, I contacted the MSU Weatherization Center and asked is there really an on/off switch for a York furnace that would cost $350? And then tack on another $400 to install it? They said that was out of line and to contact Ambient and Campbell. I contacted Williams and said, you people are unethical and trying to rip me off and I am reporting you and will not be using your services. She just said Ok, I have not heard a peep from either of them. Ambient was able to come by the next day, Thurs. 2/15/18, Jimmy met me and went down in the crawl space, noted that Jeff left it a mess, door off stuff all over. He went through blower tests said valves were all fine, switches were fine and spent about an hour testing all connections which he said were good and nothing was loose. He then noticed the wires were crossed for some reason and fixed that and then it worked, took about an hour. I didn't need any new parts and he was appalled at how Williams was trying to take advantage of me. I paid him $120 for his professional service and I will be contacting Williams to complain about the gouging they attempted on me. It's unfortunate that some companies make this world a bad place. They owe me $750, for my waste of time, work and the anxiety of thinking I had to spend that much $. Other people don't have the time or knowledge to research and I'm sure have been gouged by this business. They suck! read more
