Complaint Review: Air Quality Control Agency

I am the service manager at Air Quality Control Agency and would like to respond to this complaint.  First of all, this is a good example of why we try to avoid performing service work on systems installed by other companies.  The sump system was not installed by us, but we were asked to work on it by installing a seald cover to assist in reducing the radon levels.  The technician that performed the work has 10 years of experience and we've had nothing by raving feedback about his work. 

The technician briefed me on the situation when he returned from the service call.  According to him, the sump pump that was in the crock was very cheap, flimsy, and brittle.  Where normally solid welds would hold metal pieces together, this pump had a couple of small ties (thinner than chicken coupe wire) holding the parts together and keeping the float in place.  As soon as he lifted the float arm to install the grommet, the entire mechanism fell apart in his hands.  This was not a pump that we installed, so we have no warranty on it.  Given the fact that the pump was made of cheap plastic and pieced together with small plastic bolts (in which some were loose or missing), we assume that whoever installed it did not provide a warranty either.  The technician explained the situation to the homeowner and recommended that he contact the original installer of the pump to find out if it has a warranty since it appeared to be a fairly new pump.  Rather than trying to re-attach the float and installing the sealed cover, the technician recommended that the homeowner have a more reliable sump pump installed prior to us installing the cover to avoid a potential flooding issue in the future when (not if) the cheap sump pump falls apart again.  Although the problem with the sump pump was outside of our control, I did reimburse the customer for the service call in light of the situation.

Nobody was "ripped off" in this case.  In fact, whoever sold this customer this cheap "Harbor Freight" sump pump was the rip off artist.  The service call had gotten processed by our billing department and the customer was charged for the visit.  However, after being made aware of the situation and realizing that the service could not be completed as anticipated, I refunded the customer's money. 

We are always disappointed to find out about an unhappy customer and will alway do whatever is necessary to satisfy them.  We hope that readers will understand that we are the largest radon company in the U.S. (and have been for over 20 years.)   We work with over 10,000 homeowners per year, so there is bound to be someone who is unhappy with something.  In this case, we feel that the problem may have been pre-existing, but we took a loss anyway to satisfy the customer.  Unfortunatly, you don't always hear about the thousands of raving customers who refer everyone that they know to us for radon mitigation; you only hear about the few who had problems.  We couldn't have stayed in business since 1988 if we were "ripping people off."  If you are considering using our services, we would be happy to provide you with hundreds of references from satisfied customers that you can contact.  Also, you can view testimonials from customers here: http://www.mitigationsystem.com/testimonials.html.  Thank you for allow us to address this issue.

I had to write an update, because this company did the right thing and reimbursed me for my pump and the charge for the service call.  However, I am still without a sealed sump crock.