Rushco Heating And Cooling - Rushco Air Conditioning ripoff, poor service, overbilling, Euless Texas
I have a Florida Heat Pump HVAC that was installed in the attic of our new home by Rushco in 1995. I paid a premium for it, but the unit does an excellent job and it is incredibly efficient.
I have had the unit worked on by Rushco several times when the occasional problem occurred, and we began to notice around 2002 that the technicians didn't inspire confidence, and didn't seem to know what they were doing. They were always having to call back to headquarters and speak to someone who supposedly was familiar with the unit. Since Rushco installed the unit in the first place, why wasn't someone who knew the unit sent on the service call?
Things came to a head in late December of 2004. The unit wasn't heating properly, and Rushco sent out a technician who went into the attic, opened the casing, looked inside and said that he would need to find the manuals for the unit as he was totally unfamiliar with it. He was a nice young man, but he wasn't what we needed. He left the casing off anticipating returning to complete the repairs in a few days.
Rushco was apparently contacting the manufacturer in order to obtain a troubleshooting manual for the heat pump (they installed it - shouldn't they already have one?!), but since I were going to be out of town over Christmas, there was a delay in having the unit serviced.
I returned home on 27 December to find that the unit had experienced a frozen water line due to the insulating cover being off, ruptured and flooded my house. The water had been running in the attic for over a day. The insulation and ceiling had collapsed in several areas, and there was extensive damage to the house.
After the water was shut off, a Rushco technician (not the same one) came and sealed off the broken water line. We weren't concerned with the continued poor operation of the unit at that time because of the lack of manuals and the priority of repairing the water damage to the house.
About a week later I was contacted by Rushco and told they had received the troubleshooting manual, and would be able to repair the original problem with the heat pump. The second technician returned, and spent 5 hours working with the unit, 2 hours on a trip to Ft. Worth to buy special tools he didn't have with him (and which were available in Denton 10 minutes away), and an hour in transit, from his home apparently. He was on the phone extensively with FHP tech service learning about the unit, and in the end he solved the problem by removing 3 pounds of Freon. That's all. Apparently, the last time it had been serviced by Rushco (they were the only ones who had EVER serviced our heat pump), it was over serviced. The unit would work in cooling mode with excess Freon, but only intermittently in heating mode.
I now had a working heat pump (and $25,000 in damage to my house), so I was almost happy with the heat pump until I got the bill. Rushco billed my credit card $650 for the removal of the 3 pounds of Freon!
While I appreciate getting the unit working, I do NOT appreciate being charged by the hour for the technician's drive time to work, his drive time to a city an hour away to buy tools he neglected to bring with him, and his education time in learning about the unit to fix it. I hired Rushco for their supposed expertise with this unit. After all, they were the ones who installed it!
It took nearly 3 weeks to get to Mr. Tim Rusher (the owner of the company) on the phone to explain my dissatisfaction with this. He neither returned calls nor replied to messages left. When I finally did get to speak to him, he said that I assume all the risks when I accept a service call. He was dismissive to the point of being rude when I said I shouldn't have to pay by the hour for the HVAC education of his people. They were supposed to know the job before he sent them on service calls. He disagreed, and had apparently decided that he didn't want us as customers anyway, so he could as rude as he wanted.
I took this to the Better Business Bureau of Ft. Worth, but as of May 10th Rushco had not responded to a single inquiry from them. Ms. Jane Davis of that office informed me that they are closing the file due to the lack of response, and that she regrets that a resolution was not reached. I am of the opinion that the Better Business Bureau is pretty worthless if that is the extent of what they do.
I want to warn all residents of Ft. Worth to be careful about who services their heat and air conditioning. Tim Rusher is hiring but not training his people, and sending them out to learn how heating and air conditioning works while charging his customers by the hour for that time. He appeared to be charming and competent when I first met him to install the unit. He either fooled me, or he has changed.
Kevin
Argyle, Texas
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
David
Princeton,Texas,
U.S.A.
Rushco Energy Specialist
#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, December 28, 2009
Rushco has changed their name but still performs low standard work. I worked for them for 3 weeks and what i saw going on is really embarrassing to the industry in general. Companys like this should be closed down by the city they are located in. The company as a whole is unorganized and sometimes appears to be not quit sure of what it is they are suppose to do. All of this reflects back to the inexperience of the owner. When customers call for service on their a/c they should not have to worry about getting a company of this low standard. All i can say is ask your neighbor who they use and if they are happy with them. If you choose to take a gamble, and just pick someone lilke rushco out of the phonebook, chances are you will get burned. Good Luck and Happy New Year.
Kevin
Argyle,Texas,
U.S.A.
Update - Rushco Lies to Licensing Authorities
#3Author of original report
Thu, August 18, 2005
I filed my complaint against Rushco with the licensing agency that controls HVAC companies in Texas, and while he ignored the Better Business Bureau, Mr. Rusher DID reply to their inquiry. That was interesting in and of itself and tells me a lot about which agency is likely to be more effective in policing companies.
They sent me excerpts from his reply, and it was nothing but lies. He stated that the first technician replaced the covers on the HVAC unit when he most certainly did not. He stated that I was rude and irrational on the phone, and that we played "phone tag" when the fact was he initiated two calls in two months, while I had tried to contact him at least 20 times. Except for about 3 occasions, he was always either too busy or out of the office. Even though I had told him otherwise, he stated that I must have had someone else service the unit, since the manufacturer supposedly told him the unit couldn't have worked at all with a 3 pound freon overcharge.
Rushco's second technician and I both sat there with the manufacturer on the phone and watched the unit work continuously in cooling mode with the overcharge, so his own man witnessed it. We also watched the unit work for approximately 1-2 minutes with the overcharge in heating mode before shutting down due to the overpressure, which was the problem that started the whole thing.
Tim Rusher either lied about what the manufacturer said, or he lied to the manufacturer about what the unit was doing in the first place. In either case, he lied.
To everyone in the DFW Metroplex, beware this company! They will charge you for 3 hours of work on a job someone else could do in 1 hour! The BBB of Fort Worth (not Dallas!) has this complaint on file, and their records show that there is more than just my complaint outstanding against Rushco.