So, since getting the system up in 1/2005, the air conditioning broke twice in the summer of 2005, the heat broke in the winter of 2005, the heat broke again in the winter of 2006, and the air conditioning broke in the summer of 2007, and now the heat broke again in the summer of 2008. Now, this system was installed by people hired by Virginia Design Builders/ Dan Lopez of Laurel, MD. The contract price was $10,000 for the upgrade (as one stage of a $72,000 job that cost $84,000 or so). It pretty much took 3 or 4 men a week to install it. For multiple repairs, the repairman has not understood what has gone wrong, but just happened to make it work again. Supposedly Dan Lopez has retired, but his children are running his company in Maryland. Beware. I expect such incompetence in managing a project to be hereditary.
December 3, 2007
JOURNAL: HOUSE: Heat broke again. System installed by Virginia Design Builders / Dan Lopez, of Laurel, MD.
Posted by Clint under Carolyn, Clint, Companies That Screwed Me Over, Complaints, House, Journal, People[36] Comments
December 3, 2007 at 11:50 AM
I’d be interested in knowing who the people hired were, so I can avoid them when I get my AC replaced.
December 3, 2007 at 1:10 PM
So would I. So would I.
December 4, 2007 at 8:43 AM
if you were in canada i’d tell you to call mike holmes ;P
http://www.holmesonhomes.com/
December 4, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Well, A.R.S. (American Residential Systems) came and went. Three hours later, guy still couldn’t figure out how to fix the heat. He didn’t charge me, and said they would send a senior person to look at it. He acted like it would happen today, but I severely doubt that.
December 4, 2007 at 4:09 PM
What brand is your furnace? I recently got my furnace replaced(it was 53 years old). I had CroppeMetcalfe replace it. I had several people look at it, and they seemed the most competent and better priced. Haven’t had any issues yet. Some of these dad/son operations seemed a little clueless.
December 4, 2007 at 4:10 PM
Ruud.
December 4, 2007 at 4:11 PM
My furnace (heat pump, actually) is 3 years old and has had 5 repairs — every 6 months except for one summer.
December 4, 2007 at 6:10 PM
I meant to sat 35 years old. I don’t know if they work on Rudds, but they do do repairs. My point is, I would recommend them. Unless of course, your pump is still under warranty, but then again, that doesn’t seem to be turning out so well.
December 4, 2007 at 6:56 PM
Well, after A.R.S. sent two technicians, the senior tech (who really just wanted to go home, but had other calls tonight) basically said: A.R.S. can’t fix your problem. We wont charge you. Here’s another company I know with another guy I worked with. Check them out.
I then called Dan Lopez again (shudder), and of course he swore up and down that the wiring is perfect.
Except the A.R.S people tell me there is definitely a short. About the only way to work it out is to cut every wire and re-wire the whole thing again. He said it’s going to cost an arm and a leg.
Now, shouldn’t these costs be something I pass on to Dan Lopez, since it was the faulty wiring they created in the first place? Warranty-be-damned, if you don’t do it right, you’re responsible.
Dan Lopez said he would send me the names of 3 companies that would be qualified to fix this tomorrow.
Do I even trust him? He can get a buddy who owes him a favor to cover for him, basically. I’m almost thinking I’d be insane to use his recommendation.
December 4, 2007 at 7:10 PM
I definitely do not think we should use his recommendations.
December 4, 2007 at 7:47 PM
I don’t know why you would need to cut every wire. They could take a continuity meter and just check which wires are shorting. Then just replace those. Which shouldn’t be that big of ordeal with some fish tape. Or, since there is some wiring already in place, some good old duct tape. Simply attach the new wire to the old wire with duct tape, and then use the old wire to pull the new wire through the existing conduit. Should take an hour at most.
Note to self:
Do not call A.R.S.
December 4, 2007 at 7:50 PM
Hey Chriggy, come fix my heat! I’ll pay you.
Oh yea, the transformer is blown (again) too. It’s gonna need a new (4th) one.
Starting to sound like my car’s alternator! (I’m on the 5th alternator).
So, it shouldn’t necessarily cost “an arm and a leg”. But the problem is… I can’t negotiate a fee ahead of time because I NEED HEAT. So… it’s always puzzling to me how to control the amount of money spent, and how to keep from essentially writing some company a blank check…
December 5, 2007 at 7:31 AM
So are you guys completely without any heat at all?!
Maybe in the interim of getting all this straightened out, you could get a space heater. It would suck to be cold all the time at home.
December 5, 2007 at 8:42 AM
Of course we have many space heaters and always have… we did have no heat at all for 3 or 4 winters.
December 5, 2007 at 9:53 AM
Oh look, an A.R.S. complaint:
http://www.syix.com/emu/html/ars.html
December 5, 2007 at 10:06 AM
Unfortunately, CroppeMetcalfe is “not doing non-contract calls, even emergency, until next week at the earliest”, which isn’t exactly acceptable to me. I actually dislike the concept of service contracts, and especially hate it when you have to “join their club” just to have the *privilege* of being able to pay for repairs.
December 5, 2007 at 10:32 AM
Just called the guys A.R.S. recommended (hehe), “Arlington, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.,”
“Serving the Northern Virginia area since 1944″
http://www.arlingtonheating.com/ServicesRed.html
703-671-2288
Lady said she’d call me back in 10 minutes.
I’m just going to keep commenting on this thread until I get heat, so as to have an automated log of calls and such.
December 5, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Arlington, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., will come tomorrow, with 30-minute-notice. Most likely after 12NOON. Last call is 6PM.
Now, the average person who says this type of thing is wrong on the average case. Do I call someone else and schedule them as well? Capitalism *IS* supposed to be about competition.. . .
December 5, 2007 at 11:24 AM
I’m not too fond of service contracts either, unless they save me money. FYI, they did not try to sell me a service contract, nor did I buy one. In fact, the salesman flat out told me, probably not worth the money.
Just one thing to consider, it is winter. Most good HVAC people are going to be pretty booked. A week is actually not that bad. Keep in mind that those who do have immediate availability, may have that due to lack of business. IMHO, not a good sign.
December 5, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Yea, I’m going to call them back and make a next week appointment. I hope I don’t have to wait that long…
Anyway: How ethical is refusing payment demanded if someone comes and can’t fix it?
A.R.S. didn’t charge me their $104 “getting to your house” automatic fee. If someone else comes and wants to be paid for not fixing it, do I do that?
December 5, 2007 at 12:19 PM
Oh actually, I already filled out their webform request for service. I forgot.
December 5, 2007 at 12:21 PM
I was reading through this and only saw that you’ve gone through *5* alternators on your car? When you get it repaired, do you use junkyard parts or get a new factory alternator? From my own experience, on my Prelude my alternator went and I opted have a rebuilt one installed and it lasted 6 months tops before the car broke down on Constitution Avenue at the Einstein Memorial (a night I will never forget). After that I opted to get a brand new one installed and the entire repair was pretty costly costly but I never had to get a new one and it was still going strong when I traded that car in about 2 years later.
In short, stay away from the rebuilt ones if you end up getting another alternator. You pay more for a factory one but it should last you *at least* 100k miles.
December 5, 2007 at 12:25 PM
They’re new. Carolyn’s uncle installed the last one. They only have 2-year warranties for a reason. Obviously there is some other electrical issue going on — I’d guess improper subwoofer installation by the retarded monkeys at Best Buy.
December 5, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Okay. Crop Metcalfe called me. He actually asked, “How much money do you got?” He said it’s not going to be cheap … $300 – $1,000 just for the diagnostic. $100 to show up, and $120/hr after that. They are coming Friday afternoon, hopefully earlier because we have somewhere to be at 8. Argh.
Sounds really expensive.
December 5, 2007 at 4:36 PM
Let me know how it goes. FYI, other people to avoid:
Cosmos Heating and Cooling
I wanted to get my old furnace serviced and the pilot light relit, cause we had had some CO problems during the summer(while running the AC). I found them through ServiceMagic, and they were the cheapest. Guy couldn’t find a problem with the CO, and after relighting the furnace(ok, flames did shoot a couple of feet into the room) refused to service it due to age and risk. Ok, I’ll give him credit in that he did say, I really don’t care if you go with us or someone else, just get that thing replaced NOW! Got an estimate from him. Then called CroppMetcalfe after checking out the furnace manufacturers website. They were more recommended, and the quote was about $400 cheaper(and they had suggestions on my CO problem: go to home depot, get this tape, seal these ducts, and don’t seal those other ducts). Anyways, my bill from Cosmsos: 80 some dollars for the servicing(which he didn’t do), and another $80 for the diagnosis of the CO problem, which he didn’t find, and which I had thought would be part of the “servicing”.
December 6, 2007 at 1:36 PM
Well, Arlington, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., are here.
Guy says, just like every guy, that it was not installed properly. But apparantly the courts favorit businesses in this situation, and you need like THREE people to say it’s fucked up to really win in court, which of course would cost like $500+ more.
Considering they are charging $280 just to find the short.
And probably along $300 just to replace the transformer.
And then whatever it costs to fix the short…..
My parents (dad) are still adamant that I shouldn’t sue, and absolutely refuse to financially back us for court costs if we lose (loser pays BOTH lawyers). Of course, they gave my sister something like $200,000 to help her with her problems…. Real fucking fair. Real fucking fair. I woudln’t be here in the first place if they were so selfish as to refuse to let me buy my grandparents’ house. Nooo, they had to sell BOTH houses to get a super-unnecessarily-big-for-2-people house with a 110-ft hallway and a $400/mo heating bill. And now they want to build a fucking addition on THAT. I’m sorry, but I think they’re fucking selfish. They have >$1,000,000.
December 6, 2007 at 3:15 PM
$280 to find a short? It’s trivial. Disconnect thermostat. Buzz out wires. Diagnosis should be 1/2 hour max.
Note to self:
Don’t call Arlington, Heating & Air conditioning either.
December 6, 2007 at 3:20 PM
Of course, if you do sue, you could try to recoup your diagnosis expenses at that point. Also, I’ve never heard about the loser having to pay BOTH lawyers fees. Except in cases of frivolous lawsuits. And this one certainly doesn’t sound frivolous.
December 6, 2007 at 3:45 PM
No, actually, I would say: *DO* call Arlington, Heating & Air Conditioning. The diagnostic fee was $95. The guy was here about 3 hours.
Most heat pumps energize the reversing valve for refrigerant during cooling; Ruud units energize the reversing valve for refrigerant during heating. They are unique like that.
According to this guy, who successfully got our heat working again, they simply wired t the way “most” units are, not the way Ruud units are. (Ruud units are the most expensive, he said…)
He also said the transformer was put in a stupid place, right by the blower, which is probably why it shorted out 3 times — overheating. That, and the guys never put a $1 fuse in front of it to protect it. (Though, when that was finally done, it still didn’t protect it — which would indeed point to overheating and not shorting.)
The guy found no shorts. Which is probably why the other guys couldn’t in 3 hours either. There might not be any.
He reprogrammed the “internal programming” of the thermostat to properly energize the refrigerant reversing value.
I also got a free thermostat upgrade, as the original thermostat Virginia Design Builders put in for us is now FINALLY BACK IN, after like 3 years. (And we only got it back due to it being an item on our legal settlement with Virginia Design Builders — but I refused to put it in until the warranty was over!)
Programmable thermostat upgrade costs $325 from ARS, so I sort of got a free $325 work too.
Things he did:
* replaced broken transformer
* relocated transformer
* checked wiring for short – found nothing
* rewired low voltage from thermostate, air handler, heat pump.
* cycled heat pump
* reprogrammed thermostate internal programming
Diagnostic fee: $95
HE7203 Transformer: $159 (I’ve paid $300 or so to replace it in the past)
short search and rewire: $280
Total: $534.
Now, Croppe-Mectalfe, on the phone, quite literally asked me how much money i had, and mentally prepared me for it costing “an arm and a leg”, and plied me to have me acknowledge in advance that a diagnostic would cost $300 to $1000.
I think MY mental note is: Don’t call Croppe-Metcalfe unless you have a service contract or want a whole system installed.
I’ll actually call Arlington Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., next time there is a problem!
December 6, 2007 at 3:46 PM
Oh, loser pays lawyer fees is a standard part in many contracts. Nothing to do with law; if you agree to it, you do it. Also, if a case is dismissed with prejudice, a motion can usually be made to compel the plaintiff to pay for the defense. Sometimes,when forced to pay the others legal fees, you only have to pay as much as you spent on your own lawyer, not the total.
But above all:
DO NOT EVER ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WHERE LOSER PAYS LAWYER FEES. It favors whoever has more resources, which is always the corporate entity over the citizen.
December 6, 2007 at 6:10 PM
Hmm. I guess if I need a repair I’ll put them on my list. Good to know.
As far as entering into an agreement where the loser pays the fees, caveat emptor. I’ll make sure to read the fine print, and cross that section out before signing anything. Also good to know.
December 6, 2007 at 8:58 PM
Caveat venditor!!
December 7, 2007 at 11:24 AM
As another follow-up:
The heat is heating like its never heated before. The house temperature can be raised 2 degrees in about 10 minutes.
Previously, powering up from 55-75 would take MANY hours. Like 10. Now it’s more like 1.
This supports the service technician’s assertion that we never actually had heat pump heat at any point since the heat pump was installed.
(which was 2004/2005 — the exact year escapes me at the moment and I’m too lazy to check my records)
December 7, 2007 at 11:58 AM
@#33 (Clint): Damn! Well that’s good to say the least. You should compare your electricity bill next month with the one from the same period last month and see how much this saves you on heating.
December 7, 2007 at 12:47 PM
You must mean last year. Next month’s will likely be higher because we historically use a lot more heat in Dec and Jan than in Nov and Feb.
December 7, 2007 at 1:01 PM
Oops, yeah, that’s what I meant. Compare the bill that covers Dec 07 usage with the one that covers Dec 06 usage.