Complaint Review: Crums Climate Control

We received a letter in the mail indicating that we could receive a discount on a new A/C if we go with Crums and allow them to install immediately. We decided to go ahead and go for it, and called up a sales guy to come out and give us an estimate, as our previous unit was an external packaged unit, 15 years old, and about as efficient as a blind man sorting postal mail.

The sales person came out, we told him what we wanted, he sized us a system, gave us a contract, and we started the process. NOTE: we asked him for one of those UV lights to kill the bad stuff in the air, which he said he included in it.

A few days later the install guys showed up, bright and early. I took the day off to help them out. They went quickly with the job - even helped me find a solution to the 4 foot by 4 foot hole in the external wall my previous A/C left. They kept working until 10 PM that night, and had it finished. However, no where on their work order was there to be installed a UV Light. Oh well, it wasn't on the order so I hadn't paid for it, meaning the sales idiot just didn't listen to me when I said I wanted it. Anyway, they had to use an undersized breaker because they didn't have any, and they had to create this very odd, awkward and overlarge ductwork piece to connect the new system to the old ductwork (although, what I asked for was to go straight from the unit to the old system, but instead, they made it turn corners and all sorts of stuff). They assured me that the next day they would come out to pick up and toss out the old unit and replace the breaker with a proper one.

Weeks went by, and that old unit just collected dust in my back yard. Finally, after 5 months of calling and never getting called back (Arlo was about as useful as talking to a brick wall ) they came and picked up the unit, but didn't do anything about the breaker - NOR had they come out with the city to inspect the work for the permit.

I continue to call and get nowhere - who do I talk to? Arlo, or I ask for someone who has some authority, and I get some guy's voicemail. I leave message after message, but apparently he was too busy to call me back.

After 9 months of getting nowhere, I contact Greg Dawson from the Orlando Sentinel. WOWEE - suddenly I'm getting phone calls immediately. Greg, the general manager, says he'll send Dan, his head tech out. Well, good ole dan came out, looked around (doing HIS inspection) and notes a few things wrong - including the ductwork that I had asked the original techs had done (and the funny thing is, he told me the correct way to have done it was exactly as I had asked). So he says he will have a guy come out and fix all this next week.

But two weeks go by, and no phone calls. I'm about ready to write to Greg Dawson again, when I finally get through to Greg. Greg explains that Dan quit, and left them hanging. I don't care - your businesses problems are not my concern, my concern is that it's been almost a year and it's not done yet. But whatever, I give him the benefit of the doubt. I bring up that we never got the UV Light installed, and Greg says he'll get me one, paid for by Crums. Ok, that's cool.

Service guy actually comes out to the house - and replaces the breaker. Says he has no idea what I'm talking about when I ask about the UV Light, and knows nothing about redoing the horrible ductwork.

It takes another month and a few phone calls, but finally, the city inspector comes out, says it's good enough, and we get our Progess Energy rebate. But the unit still doesn't work the way it should - the front part of our house is always what we set it to, but the back of the house is 8 degrees warmer. But you know what, I don't care - I'm done with Crums. They made promises and never came through, it took them a year to get the job done, and in the end it wasn't right. We've had a few independant A/C contractors (even the largest installer in central florida) come in and do analysis of the setup - and they've all said the same thing - the ductwork coming off of the air handler is all screwed up and is killing the air volume, and the intake screen on the plenum is 4 inches too small.

So the conclusion to this story? I'm paying another larger company to come in and rebuild/re-engineer the ductwork and the intake screen, and I've completely just written off the UV Light. General Manager Greg is a good employee who I think is genuinely trying to help the customers. The problem is the business has too many customers and not enough qualified techs and qualified customer service people.

I can't warn people away from them, because they obviously DO have happy customers, otherwise they wouldn't be in business. But I can't send people to them, in the chance that something similar happens to them.

This company has lost my trust, and that is the worst thing for any business to lose in a customer.

Dan
Casselberry, Florida
U.S.A.