Complaint Review: AC4Life

This blatantly untrue complaint was fraudulently posted by a competitor by the name of Wade Helms. He runs a company called Edd Helms Group in south Florida. Their website is www.eddhelms.com. One of their services is air conditioning and heating. This is the identical business that we are engaged in. They appear to be a perfectly legitimate company and our attorney and we cannot figure out why he would resort to this tactic.

Wade Helms has admitted filing this report and has further admitted he is a competitor, which makes his actions all the more baffling. We did absolutely nothing to this person or his company and do not deserve this sort of underhanded dirt slinging. We have filed a lawsuit against Wade Helms and his company. A copy of the suit and complaint is available to anyone who would like to see it. Our website is www.acdirect.com.

His actions can only be described as puzzling. It appears he filed this untrue report in an attempt to gain an unfair competitive advantage for whatever reason he feels it is necessary. We could have chosen to file an untrue report against his company in response but we instead chose to pursue this matter in a fair and legal manner, and that is in the court system.

We take our reputation very seriously as we do our customer satisfaction levels. Our real interactions and reviews are available here:
http://www.customerlobby.com/reviews/6416/ac-4-life/

These are verified reviews conducted by an independent company. We do not have access to or editing capabilities of any kind with these reviews. These customer comments are complete and unedited.

Wade Helms' retraction falls far short of mitigating the damage he has imposed on our business and reputation. I will update this post when I have more information concerning the outcome of the suit against Wade Helms and his company, Edd Helms Group.

Michael Haines
President
AC4Life

Additional Background on my May 25th Report: While researching internet sources for consumers to directly purchase residential air conditioning equipment for do it yourself installations I came across a website in Florida named www.ACDirect.com . Their website looked inviting but there was a difference between the website URL and the AC4Life company name in the banner, and Google search results on ACDirect.com included a number of review postings. Like many review postings, some were good and some were not. I noted that the comments included complaints from customers living in California, Illinois, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, and Florida. Clearly I had found an internet source of residential air conditioning equipment who was shipping across the US. Google search results of AC4Life seemed incomplete. So I searched on the address shown on the www.acdirect.com website of 127 W. Fairbanks Ave Suite 517 and it came up as The UPS Store in Winter Park Florida. Next, I found the website http://www.myorlandoairconditioning.com/ linked to the www.acdirect.com website. My internet research had come across an internet source of residential air conditioning equipment sharing the website of a company who had customers from across the United States ordering equipment from them, who had multiple consumer complaints, who had filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and now seemed to be doing business under a new name.

The first review posting I read was www.ripoffreport.com which included a review first posted Jan. 2010 and last updated Dec. 2010 from Jjthejetplane Wylie Texas U.S.A. . That report included information that AC Direct, Inc., has filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division on January 5th, 2010, and has been assigned Case Number 6:10-bk-00080-ABB.

My curiousity got me so I searched www.sunbiz.org which is the State of Florida Division of Corporations document search site for AC Direct, Inc. and saw their last Event was Cancel Admin Diss/Rev in Nov 2009 and their Agent and President was Michael L. Haines at 1212 Aloma Avenue. I again searched www.sunbiz.org by Officer/Registered Agent Name and received 13 matches including Michael L. Haines at 1212 Aloma Avenue listed in Jan 2011 as Manager of AC Repair LLC. , and in April 2011 Registered Agent & President of AC Direct, Inc., and in March 2010 as Registered Agent & President of Air Conditioning Now, Inc. . Based on these public filings, as of May 2011 Michael L. Haines was involved with these multiple air conditioning related companies. Further internet searches revealed consumer complaint filings against companies associated with a Michael L. Haines in Arizona and California. Was this the same Michael L. Haines who was involved with AC consumer complaints from customers in California, Illinois, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, and Florida?

The AC4Life website at www.acdirect.com has a different look than the AC4Life website at
http://www.myorlandoairconditioning.com/ , and it has the common thread of Michael L. Haines. State of Florida Division of Corporations document search confirmed an April 2010 Ficticious Name Filing electronically signed by Michael L. Haines that AC Direct, Inc. is the owner of the AC4Life name.

One of my google search results for AC4Life showed trusted and verified reviews available for the company at www.customerlobby.com . Who better to answer these questions than Customer Lobby, an independent business based in Berkeley, California. According to their website, Our products and services enable companies to enhance communication with and among their most important resource their customers. Although customer reviews are linked to and accessible directly from the website of the company being reviewed, the reviews are hosted and maintained by Customer Lobby. Customer Lobby guarantees that: Customer reviews are never edited; The publishing policy (click here) is strictly applied to all reviews that are written for each company. Reviews that are published on a Customer Lobby review page are written by customers of the business being reviewed. To maintain their privacy, we do not publish the last name of the reviewers unless the reviewer writes or approves the listing of their last name in the main body of the review. Customer Lobby periodically calls customers of the businesses being reviewed to request a review and transcribes the highlights of those conversations into reviews. We are eager to hear from you! So on May 25th I submitted the results of the above research and this is the almost immediate reply I received:

On May 25th I was contacted by Michael Haines with this email: "I suggest you tread very carefully whoever you are. We (and you) know that you are not now and never were a customer. In the highly unlikely event that you were a customer please call me at the number shown below and I will resolve any outstanding issues with you. If I do not hear from you it can it can only be assumed you are a local competitor who operates a competitive web site. In light of your compassionate complaint and apparent desire to help not only yourself but others as well, a prompt phone call from you should be quickly forthcoming. If (or more likely, when) you do not attempt to contact us, then of course the true value of your review will be readily apparent. Our independent review company will not post this review or any others you post as you claim to be a "we" in your review as opposed to a customer who actually made a purchase. Non-customer reviews of any kind (good or bad) are not published. All unedited reviews posted are from verified customers only.

Michael Haines
President
AC4life.com
407-951-8908

My email reply was: Michael, It should take you about 30 seconds to find out who I am. Google Edd Helms Group Miami at your convenience. With such an impressive website as you have, I was embarrassed to see a fellow HVAC contractor in Florida with your unresolved complaint history. We do business all over the State of Florida.
Wade Helms
President, Edd Helms Group
Miami, FL
www.eddhelms.com

On May 26th, Mike Haines email reply was:
Mr. Helms

I left you a voice mail about the libelous email and review that you attempted to file. You obviously have some sort of ax to grind and have failed to keep yourself up to date concerning the 18 month old old complaints that have all been resolved. These are the statements you made where you are going to incur the most problems:

Mike Haines is running from hundreds of consumer complaints in Florida, Arizona and California. Despite phone calls attempting to secure refunds, customers were advised AC Direct filed bankruptcy and no monies were recovered. This Consumer ripoff continues with AC4Life .

I hope you're prepared to to back up these statements but the facts will not support your statement that the "ripoff continues" and that I "am running from hundreds of complaints" and "no monies were recovered". These accusations are made without any attempt whatsoever to ensure that you are completely, or even somewhat factual in your statements.

These and other statements you made are false and we have proof filed with the courts and local BBB in our resolution of this matter. If I don't hear from you within 48 business hours I will forward your written and obviously false and libelous statement to our law firm for their review. As I'm sure you are aware there are legal protections provided by the courts to protect against unfounded and blatantly outrageous statements that are designed to harm others unfairly.

It is my belief you have no interest whatsoever in resolving anything as indicated by your harsh rush to judgment, but I will take your phone call if and when you decide to speak with me. Anyone can hide behind emails and reviews but it takes strength to face the truth. We shall see if you possess it.

Michael Haines
President
AC4Life.com
407-951-8908

My May 26th responds by email to Michael Haines was:

Michael,
If what you say about the resolution of consumer complaints is true, I stand corrected and will advise any AC Direct or AC4Life customers I come into contact with to contact you directly. I have no desire , interest or motivation in making statements harmful to you or your activites and consider this matter closed. If my judgment was too harsh, I apologize. Good luck in your business endeavors.
Wade

What I was unaware of was that my posting to www.ripoffreport.com was picked up by several other consumer sites, and Michael Haines must have come across one of those reports after my May 26th email and likely on June 5th:
From: Mike Haines <mikeh@ac4life.com>
To: Wade Helms
Sent: Sun Jun 05 12:46:37 2011
Subject: revised

Wade Helms,

I just read your outrageous and blatantly untrue rip off report where you make unfounded allegations about another business you claim I owned in Arizona and California. You have stepped over the limit and I intend to pursue legal damages against you and your company. If you have any sense at all you will immediately remove the report and apologize on the same page. It won't really matter from a legal stand point but may mitigate to some degree the damages I intend to collect from you for your unfounded statements. The report as it currently appears has been converted to a screen shot as preservation and a permanent record of your actions.

My attorney will be in touch in a few days.

Michael Haines
President
AC4life.com

In this final email below, based on the email statements from Michael Haines to me, I promise Michael I would withdraw my association of the consumer complaints in California and Arizona, and update any posts I have made on this topic. Guess the post hit a nerve with him sufficient for him to tell me he has resolved all complaints with the BBB and the Courts, and that if I were a customer please call me at the number shown below (407-951-8908 or email mikeh@ac4life.com he will resolve any outstanding issues. My hope is that he is telling the truth.

-----Original Message-----
From: Wade Helms
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2011 5:14 PM
To: mikeh@ac4life.com
Subject: Re: revised

If you note the date of the report you will see it was prior to our communications. Following those communications I requested the report be deleted immediately. I will follow up with the thread host on Monday.
Sent from wade's blackberry