Complaint Review: Tripp & Sons Inc. - Snow Hill North Carolina

Our furnace would heat up, and then as the temperature in the house dropped it didn't always come back on.  It was an intermittent problem - sometimes working fine for as long as a week, then reverting back to not cycling back on.  When it did this, we could 'trick' it into coming back on by turning the thermostat off and back on, or turning the temp down and back up.  

The first person they sent (I believe it was the owner's son) tried a different thermostat and made some adjustments inside the unit.  He said it looked like some of the settings had been turned down by the previous owners while they weren't living here and perhaps that low pressure was causing this problem.  He said if it was still causing problems to call back.

It continued to do the same thing so he came out again and still couldn't figure out the problem so he replaced a limiter switch and gave me the old part he took off so I'd know what he'd replaced.  Again, he said if it was still not working properly to call back. 

It continued to do the same thing, but since the person they sent seemed to be out of ideas we didn't know what to do about it.  When I got the first bill for $85 I went into their office to tell them it was still doing the same thing and had not been fixed, but that to show I wasn't just saying that to avoid paying I would go ahead and pay the $85 and they said they'd send someone back out.  

I believe the next person they sent is the owner's grandson.  He had no clue what the problem was either, so he suggested that the ductwork was too big in diameter and it therefore could not build up the pressure it needed to work properly!  When I later told Mr. Alton Tripp (grandfather to this person) what he said, even he cringed as I said it!  This one didn't really do anything but look at the unit and under the house and did no repairs as far as I could tell.  As he left, he said to call them when it was doing it next time and not to touch the thermostat so they could better troubleshoot.  Note that this is the first time anyone told us to call WHEN it was happening and to leave it as it was.

We called the next time the temperature dropped and the furnace didn't cycle back on, and left it that way for them to troubleshoot.  They didn't seem to know how to 'read' the control board and decided that the control board was bad.  They replaced the control board without ever telling us the cost, and we never saw the old one they took out.  This still did not fix the problem.

We received a bill for $511.17 - $341.17 of which was for this control board they replaced.  I called and told them it still didn't work, and that they should have told me what that part would cost before doing it, because I had a right to know so I could get a second opinion first.  I also wanted to see the part they took out, since that wasn't the problem.  

Mr. Alton Tripp practically accused me of lying.  He said if we weren't going to call them again to come fix it, it must be working and I owed them the money.  I told them my husband would not let them come back because it was already costing us nearly $600 and they had not done a thing, and his immature reply was that he didn't want to come back to our house and didn't want to do business with us.  We didn't know what to do and they weren't willing to listen to reason or admit they had handled it wrong so I didn't see where I had a choice but to pay because after 30 days they start adding 18% monthly to the bill.  All he was willing to do was remove one $85 hourly fee.  We went the rest of the winter having to constantly restart the furnace because it never was fixed. 

Now we're using the A/C and it is doing the same thing. It would cool to the set temperature and cut off, but wouldn't come back on - only with the A/C it wasn't always working to turn it off and back on with the thermostat.  We finally had to call someone when we couldn't get it cooler than about 80 degrees and this time we called someone that came with references.  

The man from Ed Phillips, Inc. did what I had expected any HVAC person to do first - he opened the unit and it was entirely frozen - packed solid with ice!  It cost me about an hour of labor time to de-ice it before he could troubleshoot, and it turned out the only thing wrong was that it was packed with dirt and needed cleaning!  All it should have cost me was a simple cleaning bill - one $85 service call - but because it hadn't been fixed in the winter it cost us extra to get the ice off.  This serviceman also tested the limiter switch Tripps had replaced and the one they said was bad was actually fine!  

Tripp & Sons cost me not only the $511.17 I paid them, but the additional it cost this other serviceman because of it freezing up.  I would think the most basic, first thing an HVAC person learns is to see if it's just dirty and blocked and not getting air flow.  

Since this happened, I have found numerous others with similar issues with Tripp & Sons - many saying they kicked Tripp out of their house years ago and won't have anything to do with them.  One is still fighting with them - similar issue - they never fix the problem but keep sending bills.  There must be some authoritative place that monitors HVAC companies.  It just doesn't seem right a company can do this kind of thing but until I find that, I am going to report them every place I can.