ComplaintsforFalite Bros., Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  02/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We have a service contract with Falite Brothers for AC and this year for heat. Had maintenance visit in fall reported excessive water leakage, told it was faulty sensor replaced but no change. Scheduled to return 1/31/22 for reevaluation. Woke up 1/29/2022 to no heat temperature 54 in house Furnace which is new Had red alerts and would not fire up. I placed 4 calls to the emergency service line without response. 4 hours later received a call saying technician on call would not be able to help me. Manager would call me back but had not responded to answering service calls to him. Eventually he called back saying they could not give me any advice but would be out on Monday 1/31/2022 to service furnace. Was able to get another provider to diagnose a faulty sensor bypass it and get furnace started. Without that pipes would have frozen My husband who has Parkinsons and is home bound had to be transported to a place with heat. On Monday 1/31/22 Falite brothers came out for scheduled service for water leak but ignored the more major issue of furnace heat failure AND AFTER WORKING ON THE FURNACE THEY LEFT IT POWERED OFF SO THAT WHEN I ARRIVED HOME THE TEMPERATURE; WAS 62 I called the office twice on 1/31/2022 and was told someone would call me on 2/1/2022. No one called. I called twice today and was told someone would call me back in an hour. It is 5 hours and no one has called. I am a doctor. If one of us had forgotten to turn back on the respirator what do you think the consequences would be. If we had failed to respond to a patient in desperate need of help and to whom we had an obligation that would be viewed as reprehensible and malpractice. The service from this company is the same reprehensible and malpractice. They should not be allowed to service the **** needs of the public Any customer should be aware of their gross negligence and disregard for their customers safety. ********************************

  Customer response

  02/15/2022

  I have not heard from the business in response to my complaint.

  

  Business response

  03/04/2022

  To whomever it may concern, 
  
  First and foremost, **************, I apologize for the delayed response to your emergency service request.  The direction I give our emergency service technicians is, do not respond to an emergency service request until youve finished your current call. Unfortunately, the volume of calls we receive makes it difficult for our technicians to focus on the job at hand while also answering each call that comes in.  We do our best to return calls in a timely fashion, however, we do not always meet our customers expectations, and for that I apologize.
  
  According to our records, ************** called at 8:09am, and at 10:35am our Operations Manager, ******, connected with her to discuss her request. While I understand the timeframe is not what ************** considered to be acceptable,our emergency service technicians had a very busy morning, and although more time than should have had passed, I was glad to see that a member of our management team noticed the unresolved request, and reached out.  Moving forward, I have implemented policies that are intended to ensure no customer waits more than 1 hour before receiving a response in the future.
  
  According to ******, and verified by our records, one of our senior managers,Matt, reached out to ************** at 11:26am, and spoke with an individual who was on site at her home, and had diagnosed the issue with her system.  From what I have been told, this individual had determined that ************** high limit sensor had failed, and that this was the issue preventing her system from running.  This individual wanted to know whether or not he/she could safely bypass this safety device, and the answer we provided was no. 
  

  Unfortunately,the particular failure that took place only had one solution; the part has to be replaced.  This particular component, when failed, creates a "hard louckout" within the system that prevents the system from running until the issue has been corrected, and manually reset. A hard lockout, according to almost all HVAC manufacturers, signifies an unsafe condition within the system;its a design feature that is intended to prevent more serious issues than a nonfunctional system would present. 
  
  While I do understand and appreciate the difficulties that result from a heating system failing during the winter, I stand by my teams decision to not recommend bypassing the high limit sensor within **************' system.  To bypass such a device would be, in my professional opinion, reprehensible, and while I'm sure ************** was grateful to whomever bypassed that device, and restored heat to her home, the solution she was provided would never be supported or recommended by the manufacturer of her equipment, likely voided any warranty she may have had on her system, and was not the proper course of action.
  
  While on site on 1/31 Falite Bros., Inc. confirmed that the source of *************' issue was the failed sensor, and we removed the system from operation.  As previously stated, safety devices should never be bypassed,and any time a Falite Bros., Inc. technician finds a bypassed safety, they are instructed to remove the means with which the faulty part was bypassed, as well as to remove the system from operation until normal operation can be restored.  Unfortunately, ************** was not home when this happened, and no member of my team able to connect with her to discuss the seriousness of the issue.
  

  On 2/1,after my team was unable to reach **************, I personally followed up with a phone call and an email, and never heard back,(see attached).  I'm still more than willing to have a conversation with **************, should she still desire to do so.
  

  If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly at **************.
  

  Thanks, 
  

  ***************************
  General Manager
  Falite Bros., Inc.

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