Complaint Review: Skinner Heating and Cooling

On July 25th, 2019 William Skinner Jr. (a.k.a. Billy Skinner Jr.) of Skinner Heating and Cooling came to my house which I rent from my parents to install a cooling system. He brought one employee with him who is his relative named Derrike Skinner. I have a Beagle that is 1 year old and I couldn't tie him to his lead outside because he would be in Derrike's way while he was carrying things in and out of the house.

I brought the dog in the house and put him in his crate and he began barking and Mr. Skinner yelled at me and was swearing about making the dog be quiet. Mr. Skinner told me to go take a walk or go somewhere else with the dog because he couldn't work with the noise. It was approximately 8 a.m. and I wasn't going to take a walk for 2-3 hours or go somewhere with my dog in the car! And I was absolutely NOT going to leave Mr. Skinner and his cousin in my house alone!

Mr. Skinner has a public criminal record and I had never met Derrike. Then Mr. Skinner left for about 10 minutes. When he came back he knew I was disturbed. He had CALLED MY MOTHER to complain about my dog! I don't know WHY he did that because there was nothing my mother could do! He knew that I was aware of him calling her so he tried to make light of it and said: "I called your Mama". I said nothing.

Within the first 10 minutes Derrike was in the attic he almost fell through the ceiling in my living room leaving a hole approximately 3 1/2 feet long by 2 1/2 feet wide. When he did this the insulation came down like a smoke bomb covering my ENTIRE living room halfway into my kitchen. It was that old type of insulation that is finely shredded paper mixed with a horrible "dust powder" that sticks to everything making it extremely hard to clean.

Mr. Skinner started complaining saying that he had another job to do that day and didn't have time for this, and how this other customer is going to be mad. He asked me for a broom and dustpan and he filled 1 box with some of the debris, but there was still insulation stuck ALL OVER the entire living room! The walls, floor, couch, bird cage, TV and computer. He asked for my vacuum, but my vacuum could have never handled the mess so I told him I didn't have one.

It was his responsibility and I wasn't going to ruin my vacuum. I should have NEVER helped him clean, but it was so awful I couldn't stand it. And you couldn't walk anywhere without it spreading. Mr. Skinner's garage that he works out of is just down the road. He left and came back with a wet-vac (that was filthy) and began sucking up some of the debris while still intermittently swearing and complaining. (The foul language, disrespect and insults never stopped throughout this entire ordeal.)

He called a friend of his (Chris) who does drywall to come over and cover the hole. Instead of cleaning up, or at least trying to help ME clean up, he sat on my couch and watched Chris. He started complaining about his sciatica bothering him and told me that he eats "marijuana balls" for pain but he didn't have any left. While Chris was trying to cover the hole Mr. Skinner insulted me by saying that once the hole was fixed it would be the nicest part of my house.

Chris was done in about 10 minutes and said he would have to come back 2 more times because it was a process. I asked Mr. Skinner who was going to paint it afterwards, and being a smart mouth he said: "Your Mom". I had asked him a few other questions throughout the time he was there and he kept replying with: "Your Mom". Derrike continued to do all of the other work and Mr. Skinner left again this time for over an hour.

I cleaned up the ENTIRE mess for 2 hours by myself! I asked Derrike where Mr. Skinner was and Derrike said he didn't know. Derrike told me Mr. Skinner was crabby because he was out of "marijuana balls" and he hates dogs now and is into cats. I asked Derrike if Mr. Skinner still drinks everyday in excess and Derrike told me that Mr. Skinner now drinks during the day, then passes out early evening, then wakes up and drinks more until he passes out. The only work I saw Mr. Skinner do was scoop up ONE box of the debris and drill a BIG hole in my ceiling to run the electrical cord. That was the next nightmare! Before Mr. Skinner did it he told me that the cord would be tucked into the wall and promised it would NOT be visible. When he drilled the hole it made the ceiling crack about 2 feet in length and the hole is bigger than a half-dollar coin!

He did NOT tuck the cord behind the wall. The cord is 4 feet long down my wall and runs right into my fuse box. When I told him he had to cover the exposed cord he told me that my Dad could do it! Then... last night, August 8th, 2019 around 12:30 a.m. we had a rain storm and the rain started pouring through the HOLE down into my fuse box. I immediately stood on a chair holding towel after towel to try to make sure it wouldn't go into the fuse box.

It wasn't just dripping it was coming fast. Then the power went out completely in our neighborhood, so I'm trying to do this in the dark because I was afraid of what would happen if the water got in the box. I had to call my Dad to come over and help me. I called Mr. Skinner right then and left a voicemail that this needs to be taken care of first thing in the morning. I never got a call in the early morning so in the late morning I called Mr. Skinner and once again got his voicemail.

I called again towards early afternoon and still got his voicemail. Then I called Derrike around 2:30 p.m. and he didn't answer either so I left him a voicemail, and I sent him a "stern" text message basically stating that Mr. Skinner needs to take care of this as soon as possible and how unprofessional ALL of this has been.

Finally, one hour later at 3:36 p.m. Mr. Skinner called me and right away and when I answered he started yelling at me repeatedly using the "F" bomb and told me that someone came on my roof in the morning and fixed the problem. I DO NOT understand why Mr. Skinner DID NOT call to tell me that someone had already come and fixed the problem, and no one came to my door! He just left me wondering all day and afternoon what was going on.

I have yet to see if the problem is even fixed and I won't know until it rains again. I tried to tell Mr. Skinner about my concerns, and he just kept swearing and trying to talk over me, so I finally told him I was going to post my reviews and experience on EVERY review website I could find. He told me to "F"- off and never call him or Derrike again, and then he hung up on me. Mr. Skinner has left the ceiling without painting and left the big drill hole with the visually exposed cord. My parents paid him what he asked for and he whined about how he didn't make any money off of this job.

This was all so unprofessional it's unbelievable. When I told Mr. Skinner that I spent 2 hours cleaning up his mess he replied by saying: "Yeah with my wet-vac". That goes to show you his mentality. Mr. Skinner is no stranger to the law and it is all Public Record. He has had at least 3 DUI's, Domestic Battery, and Disorderly Conduct.

He may have bargain-basement prices but this situation only proves that you get what you pay for. If you want a pot-head, alcoholic criminal to do work for you in your precious home...then Skinner Heating & Cooling is the person to call!