ComplaintsforCosmos Electrical Co

• Initial Complaint

  19/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I called Cosmos electrical on September 11th to repair the exhaust fan in my condo unit. The lady said the service fee will be $200+ and the motor fix will be $400 and I agreed with that. Later in the same day, John called me. He stated that the fix for the motor will actually be $1200+ instead of $400. I was super confused at that point as he started to preemptively think that the motor is going to be the issue - which indeed turned out not to be the issue later. I said “Well, it does not make sense for you to assume the motor is actually the problem, how about you do some inspection first and let me know. We can work from there”. Also, as since I will not be able to accompany the fix myself - As the unit is being rented out. I sent a message to John the same day “I wont be there myself tmr but my tenant will be helping with all cases. You can just call me when we reach out to any decision points.” For the repair day-Sep 12th.To my surprise, I did not get A SINGLE call that day from anyone at Cosmos. I had to call my tenant myself at 2pm to check with what’s going on there. He told me that the repair worker had already left at 1pm. I am utterly confused at this point as I thought they were supposed to reach out to me during the fix to make some decisions on the moves going forward. Then I gave a call to John immediately to ask what’s going on. He then called his worker and literally just threw a random number to me “yeah, it will be $900 you know?” At this point, I felt robbed as the fix was completed without giving me the exact cost upfront. Also the issue does not match to anything we have discussed prior and he can technically throw any number to me at this point. Then I called John to ask for an invoice with a detailed breakdown of the work. Two days later, I got the invoice from Cosmos. And of course, there is no detailed breakdown of the work. It just stated that “the entire work is $900”. I have already paid the service fee but not the rest.

  Business response

  16/11/2023

  On Sept 11th I took a call from **** to get an estimate to repair the ERV / Exhaust fan in his condo.
  
  Our number was provided to him by his condominium property manager or superintendent because we are the buildings electrician
  Our company has been in buisness for 49 years and servicing this particular building for the past 5 years
  This is the first complaint on BBB that I have had to respond to unfortunately.
  I told **** that unless he was ok with a repair cost of up to $1250 + HST to repair the exhaust we would not be able to send our technicians out. I know this is how much these cost because we do repair many and we had just completed the same type of repair in another unit a couple of weeks earlier.
  He asked what could be wrong with the unit so I said that it could be the ERV’s electronic circuit board, the motor, the timer switch, or it could be a power problem. 
  If it was only a power problem then the service call would have been billed out at our minimum service call of approximately $250.00.
  These systems are complicated and are not easy to access where they are located above the washer/dryer.
  When my technicians were on site they troubleshot the ERV and needed to replace the wall mounted electronic Timer switch which turns the EVR on and the capacitors on the motor. 
  The total cost of the call and what was invoices to **** before taxes was $900.00 + HST which is less than the estimate I had provided with parts prior to agreeing to send my electrician to do the repair. 
  **** was ok with the price over the phone and wanted to schedule the work to be done
  We completed the work Tuesday Sept 12th
  Unfortunately **** was unhappy because he wanted to be told by my electrician or myself what was happening each step of the way during the repair. 
  This would’ve been easier if **** took time off to be at the apartment while the work was being done. 
  **** to date has paid $300 and is waiting for a judgement call from BBB as to whether he should be required to pay the balance given the order of operations of what sequence of events occurred to have his ERV repaired in the condominium that he owns.
  
  To summerize I feel we provided excellent service and did what we were tasked to do so In turn deserve to be paid. 
  
  My employees have be paid and our materials are installed and everything is 100 percent operational. 
  
  Please help me by telling **** he should pay his bills. 
  
  Warm regards, 
  
  John Gaidatsis
  General Manager
  Cosmos Electrical Company

  Customer response

  16/11/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  First of all, I did not say yes to the estimation over the call. I literally said "How can you know the problem without even checking and started giving me some quote for replacing the motor, please let me know what's the issue during your inspection and we can go from there".

  I do recall you said it's going to be 1250+ if we replace the motor for the fan. But is that what actually being done in the end? If it's something different, I have the right to know what's going to be performed and acknowledge the price ahead of the fix. Especially I told you so through the phone and text message. After all, all your team need to do is to give me a simple call that day. Instead, I did not receive any call or other form of communication that day and I had to call you myself in the afternoon to know exactly what's going on. I dont think this is a good service by any standard.

  My point here is if you quoted something and end up fixing something else. You simply let your customer know that ahead of time(what kind of effort that is going to take to be honest? you have my number and my tenant is there as well). You cant just give a higher end estimation and assuming your customer is ok with paying any number below that for other services. I have consulted paralegals, friends and colleagues to check my sanity, none of them acknowledge this process and feel like its a ****(again, it might not be but it surely feel like one).

  Sincerely,
  
  ********* ****** ****

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