Complaint Review: Crums Climate Control

On Saturday 10/2/2010 I had a repairman from Crums come to my home to check on the problem I was having with my AC unit. The technician (Wayne) that I spoke to on the phone stated the service charge would be $89.00 plus any parts or materials and additional labor might apply depending on the necessary repairs. I set an appointment for later that day. When Wayne arrived he determined in a very short amount of time the unit needed additional R22 FREON and the charge would be $26.00 per pound. I agreed to the adding of the chemical. He stated it would be important to determine the cause of the leak. The cost would be an additional $89.00 to take his Freon (sniffer) detector and check around the unit for a leak. I stated it seemed quite high as it would be only a couple minutes to determine where it was leaking from. He assured that was the only price they could charge and it was necessary to determine the problem.

In about 90 seconds he found an area on the inside of the Heat Pump coil area at the bottom that set off the audible alarm on the Freon detector. The tip on the detector was missing a part and the technician could not find it. He tried to disassemble the tip unit and claimed it was working properly. He sniffed other inside coil areas and kept finding that same location that set off the alarm. He determined the leak was from a copper tube that was running from the inside of the unit and bent at the bottom to travel underneath the coils to the outside area of the unit. He felt that the vibration over the years had worn off the insulation around the tube and damaged the bottom of the tube. He squirted a liquid bubble agent to see if it was leaking and there were no bubbles. He stated that was because the leak in the copper pipe was on the bottom and it would not show bubbles. Wayne advised me it would cost $635.00 to cut the tube and replace that bend in the copper pipe. The repair would be covered under warranty but if other items were to go bad then there would be no warranty on those items.

I was told he could not do the repair immediately because of other pending repair calls. I stated I needed to get a second opinion on repair costs. He then said they could get to it on the next day Sunday and the cost would be the same. I chose to get a second opinion. The charge for today now changed to instead of $89.00 for the service call to $134.00 as it was Saturday and it was 1 1/2 times the normal rate. I refused to pay it as I was told $89.00. He finally agreed. I also did have to pay for 3 pounds of Freon and an additional Freon detector service of $89.00. The total bill was over $250.00.

The next day Sunday I contacted a second company to inspect the unit. It was determined the leak was not from the bend in the copper pipe but from about 1 inch away in an aluminum coil that bubbled like crazy when the soapy solution was placed on it. The leak was on the outside area of the unit next to where the copper pipe exited the inside of the unit. The Crums technician never checked on the outside of the unit for leaks in the coils. The Freon detector had picked up the gas from inside as there is no barrier to stopping the gas from flowing through the coil area to the inside. This technician advised me there is no repairing the aluminum coils and the improper diagnosis would have repaired nothing that was broken.

I called Crums and advised them I wanted back the cost of the Freon Detection charge of $89.00 as they had given me a very bad diagnosis. and was advised by Carrie the service manager that her conversation with the manager resulted in them determining that they would stand behind their technician's diagnosis. They would not allow me to speak to the other manager and they would not follow up with a second trip out to be shown the mistake.