Ocean City Service Outrageous Overcharge Ocean City Maryland
Ocean City Service was called out to our condo to check a non functioning air conditioning unit on a Sunday during the summer rental season.
It was a service call and the worker was actually on site for just over 1 hour. I was later told that we were charged for his travel to and from the unit - which is somewhat understandable - but that distance is 10 miles and amounted to another hour and 15 mins on our bill. That somehow does not add up. - Moving on
The service person cleaned the lines and got the unit running - fair enough.
We got the bill for the 2 and 1/2 (total time plus travel) - it was almost $500.00 !!!!
Unreal. After calling the company to question it we were told that they charge $130 for the first 1/2 hour then they throw "labor charges" ontop of that. Beyond Unconscionable.
I was later told by our property management company that the HVAC service they regularly use would have charged us $77/hr for the same work - on a sunday.
The topper was that I told Ocean City Service that they needed to go back and check their work (I expressly told them I had no intention of paying any more than I had already) because there was still some water condensation on the floor around the AC unit. When the service man called to say it was a result of another problem with the "P trap" and that this service call was really due to another issue and could potentially be chargable. I then questioned "If there is another problem - why didnt you find it on your first visit"?? - No answer for that one....
Ocean City Service Co. is one of several service companies in the Ocean City MD area who arent just satisfied to make a over the top profit. - They are out to RIP OFF THE CONSUMER COMPLETEY
The Coldwell Banker Representative said that they NEVER use Ocean City Service for just that reason.
Frank
Lemoyne, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Frank
Lemoyne,Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
Knock youself out Clauia
#3Author of original report
Sat, January 23, 2010
Knock yourself out Claudia and pay Ocean City Service whatever they will stick you for, it's all you.
I've been using R & M ever since (for the last 3 years). They have been nothing but professional and honest. Two qualities seriously lacking in the Ocean City Service company. And they change $80/hr - weather its Febuary 10th at 2 PM or July 5th @ 4 AM.......
Claudia Balzac
Pittsville,Maryland,
USA
Not unreasonable, considering
#3Consumer Comment
Sat, January 23, 2010
It can easily take an hour and a half in drive time to get there, regardless of it being 10 miles or not. I've lived there for many years, and in the middle of summer, on a weekend, the traffic can back up for miles getting into Ocean City. There's exactly two roads in and out, that intersect Coastal Highway: Rt 90, which is two lane, and the Rt 50 Bridge, which happens to be a drawbridge that opens every hour for boat traffic, closing down traffic in the meantime.
If there's an accident or road construction this just makes it worse, let alone some special event that brings hordes of tourons into town.
You asked them to make an emergency call to fix a problem, in the middle of the busiest time of the season, on a Sunday no less, drop everything and provide you service, which they did. Your a/c unit was serviced and repaired promptly and competently, from your description. What more did you want? Do you really expect to pay the same rates as a service call scheduled a week in advance on a Tuesday afternoon in the suburbs of Levittown? Did you ASK up front how the billing would be calculated?
Then you called them to come check their work, which they did, at no charge. He found another problem, and disclosed up front that it could be chargeable because it was unrelated to the first issue. Your a/c was not "non functioning" now, it simply had a bit of condensation off of it. Is it utterly incomprehensible, that the unit could have had more than one thing wrong with it, although the second was minor and didn't affect the unit from cooling properly? Did you have your a/c unit properly serviced and winterized at the beginning of the season, or did you just pop on down "to the beach" and expect to crank it up without a thought?
Here's the answer to the question you asked: They didn't find the second problem because they weren't looking for a second problem that might or might not have had anything at all to do with the a/c unit not working. If they had found it, and it wasn't related to the malfunctioning a/c unit, wouldn't you have been mad if they'd repaired it and charged you for that too? You can't have it both ways.
The company handled it exactly as they should have, your a/c unit's problem that kept it from functioning was fixed the first time in a timely manner, and you're being unreasonable.
Oh yes, and good luck getting "another company" on that particular day for $77/hr.
I don't work for OCS, never have used them, but I have a more positive opinion of them now, thanks.