Christian Brothers A/C Plumbing Electrical Took advantage of 91 yr. old woman, who has dementia, for $8,415. Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale AZ, CA
On Aug. 29 of 2017 Christian Brothers was called to my mother's, 40 year old, mobile home, in Glendale, because air kept blowing from the vent. After given 3 Options....Least costly repair: clean drain line and replace blower motor $526. Next would be the same as the first plus replace a 240 volt transformer $1,109. Mostly costly is to replace air and heating units for new $8,415. The last choice would be to do nothing. The salesman told my mom that R22 was being phased out...... She told him to go ahead and replace everything.
CB would like others to think they showed great care with my mother by explaining the situation to her several times and asking if she needed help making this decision or should they call one of her children about this matter. She said no. I did have financial POA for her at this time. I don't believe CB would go through this kind of questioning because I would come across as "normal". This is only the beginning of the horror story.
Mom had just bought a new heating and coil unit on 7-21-2010 making it only 7 years old and an air conditioner on 3-23-2015 making it only 2 1/2 years old and still under warrenty. My mother had no rememberence of when she purchased these last two units. Christian Brothers new what they were doing because everything is date stamped and they would of known the ages of these units. To make matters worse they showed her a multi page, small printed loan document from Synchrony Financial, that would allow her to pay $106. a month at 9.99% interest. She would end up paying a total of $14,078. and would have to live to be 101 years of age before it would be paid off. Christian Brothers received a kick back from Synchrony.
On Aug.31, 2017 these new units were installed. Late in the day my sister and I show up to visit mom. She lives 20 miles from us. She tells us of this new purchase and the price then adds, "I just have to pay CB a $106. dollars a month." After inquiring as to where the papers were, I find the loan papers and ask mom about them. She vehemently says she signed no such loan papers. It was also in this drawer that I found the receipts of the 2 previosly purchased units and how new they were!
I sent CB and Synchrony a copy of a Neurology report and the receipts of the purchases of the 7 and 2 1/2 year old units. Even when presented with these items they were standing by what they had done. I emailed CB my POA for my mom and said I don't want you or anyone involved with your company to talk with my mom unless I have given my permission and know what is happening. They honorerd my POA. They did call me and ask if their service man could go over and show my mom how to operate the new themostat again? I said ok. He made two other trips to explain and leave her notes and still had to replace it because my mom could not understand the workings of a digital one. This is elder abuse of the worse kind. My mom had been living with me from Feb 2018, then in a care facility, and most recently transferred into a memory care unit. This whole thing just sickens me. Who's next?
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Donna
Scottsdale,Arizona,
United States
Christain Brothers A/C & Heating financially abuse and mislead 91 year old woman with dementia
#3Author of original report
Fri, December 28, 2018
Mistakenly mixed up the dates on this complaint. The dates were A/C installed in 2010 and Heating in 2015 still under warranty. Christian Brothers did received copies of these receipts. With respect to the R22, and the unit installed in 2010, it was a good decision to replace the A/C then, because R22 had not yet been banned in new units. If you have an older unit you can still have R22 gas put into it. So, the replacement of the A/C unit was legitimate with respect to the R22 in 2010.
What is most interesting is neither CB or Synchrony, or yourself ever address the dates that are marked on all products sold. Does anyone think this was misleading, not truthful, deceiving etc. to of sold these new units to my mom. or anyone else? This simply is fraud.
I believe you have misinterpreted the time line. Mom lived with me from mid Oct of 2017, because she had some surgery, until Feb. of this year (2018) at which time she moved into assisted living and then into a full memory care unit in Nov. of 2018.
Also, her mobile home was 40 years old. Would you put $8,415. into something that probably wouldn’t sell for much more than that? It did sell for only $10,000., which is now all gone on her care and with a big debt left.
Again, I ask, would someone coming to sell you or me, ask if we needed to get permission to make this kind of purchase? I strongly don’t think so! The actions of my mom indicated something was a bit off, and so went the questioning of her decision making. I brought all these issues to their immediate attention and to date, neither CB and/or Synchrony have offered any kind of compromise.
Jim
Beverly Hills,California,
United States
The Salesman Was Correct Though
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, December 28, 2018
The salesman told my mom that R22 was being phased out...... She told him to go ahead and replace everything. R22 is being phased out and the air-conditioning unit that was installed in 2015 at your mom's house should never have been installed. The announcement of the phaseout happened before 2015, therefore whoever installed the unit back in 2015 also did both you and your mother a great disservice. I mean eventually, you would have had to replace the unit that was installed in 2015 with a freon free unit. In other words, the cost you have had to incur by replacing the 2015 unit was unavoidable, especially if you ended up selling the mobile home to someone else.
Does that mean Mom would have been better off taking a cheaper option? You bet. You could have deferred the option to a time when your mom would have been unable to live on her own, which was 6 months later. Do I think the company took advantage of Mom? Probably. However, all of this was and is 100% hindsight. If Mom had been capable of living on her own for a few more years, would your decision be different and would my answers be different? I think yes to both.
I sent CB and Synchrony a copy of a Neurology report and the receipts of the purchases of the 7 and 2 1/2 year old units. Even when presented with these items they were standing by what they had done. I'm not sure what you expected the companies to do? Did you really expect them to rescind the agreements based on your submissions? Not going to happen. The only way you're going to get them to rescind is if you take them to court. Now, I personally think you have an open and shut case and win - and lose at the same time because it will cost you more in legal fees than to simply pay off the loan. And they know it, which is why I think they're basically inviting you to take them to court.
Best of luck to you....