- Report: #819885
Complaint Review: Whipple plumbing and heating - Salt Lake City Utah
Reported By:
David -
West Valley City, Utah, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Whipple plumbing and heating
963 Folsom Ave Salt Lake City, 84110 Utah, United States of America
Phone:
8019885300
Web:
Categories:
Business Rating:
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Whipple plumbing and heating Taking advantage of an elderly lady BIG TIME Salt Lake City, Utah
This is something that just really infuriated me. My mother in law is 83 years old. She had the gas company come and check out a noise in the crawl space under the house where the furnace and water heater are located. She was given a notice that her water heater needed to be raised up off the ground and they turned it off.
She called Whipple plumbing and heating and air conditioning to take care of this. No biggie right? Well, it was because the so called techs that came out there told her that the water heater was no good anymore due to the age of it. The water heater was 21 years old and was working fine. They told her that she needed a new water heater and to top it off they told her she needed a new furnace as well!!
How handy, first off she is from Korea, she speaks english but doesnt understand a lot of technical jargon when it comes to stuff like this. She basically had blind faith that these people were telling her the truth and were looking out for her safety. Ya, right. Looking out to line their pockets as well as the companies pockets. Basically bottom line she had to use Three seperate charge cards, yes, THREE to pay the $6000.00 bill she was given by these jokers.
That was ONLY for the water heater. She declined on the furnance, Thank GOD!! I mean they had her sign these waivers releasing them of any responsibility for asphixiation and hand wrote front and back of a legal size paper things that were "wrong" with her furnance and how she could become poisoned by these Carbon Monoxide fumes that were being emitted at these levels they had read on their equipment.....blah blah blah,
Come on Whipple, your guys were lying their a**es off and trying to scare this lady into purchasing a new furnace from you when nothing was wrong with the existing one!! Is this how you do business here in UTAH?? Your commercials would make one think your so family oriented and practice absolute honest diagnosis of home owners appliances. Scare tactics and decitful lies about furnaces and water heaters and I am sure air conditioners as well??? Come on, get real. Get honest and get rid of your high pressure lying through their teeth salesmen techs.
The gas company came out and took CO readings after the new $6000.00 dollar water heater had been installed. 49 parts per million was the reading on the CO, he said that was perfectly safe. So why did your technicians tell my mother in law that she could get carbon monoxide poisoning from this level and it was unsafe? Its all written down on the invoice of which was not itemized just a flat fee of six thousand sumthing sumthing dollars and oh, hey they even sold her a silver membership to maintainence the furnace at $20.00 a month.
Funny thing is they told her the duct tape was comming off near the blower motor and dust had entered into the blower motor bearings and they were shot. Why the h*ll didnt the techs when they were down there re tape the area that the tape was reportedly not there to let the dust in?? Why was there nothing at all done to the furnace maintainence wise??? The filters were still dirty, nothing was done except look for anything to be wrong with it.
I tell you what, I have never seen such flat out right in your face lying to get a sale. Whipple you may have ripped off an old lady who is very hard of hearing, eye sight is going due to a couple of things and doesnt understand technical english terms especially when she is scared she will not have any hot water during the winter months. Why didnt your techs just raise the water heater like it said to do on the little piece of paper the gas company had left. Why wasnt there an inventory of items used when installing this so much needed water heater???
Why was I told by the installer that they don't itemize its just one flat fee?? Do you have an inventory to keep track of?? How do you know what is used during an instal if there is not items listed?? Why was a piece of wire from the laundry dryer hose which was knocked off and left off used to hold the new gas line up against a floor beam? They didnt even bother to cut the wire from the exhaust hose, it was still attatched to it. How professional!! Come on!! Oh, I want to ring your necks!!!
This is outrageous Whipple!!!! You walked into this home, took advantage of an elderly oriental lady, probably thinking, oh these orientals have money to burn she is single and no one to disagree with what we tell her. Perfect, lets sell her the whole shmear of things. She is trusting us with what we tell her so yes! Christmas is coming up and we can all make some money off this old lady!!! Or pretty close to that I am sure.
Well, I have filed a complaint with the Utah Attorney Generals office, I am sure you Whipple is aware of this by now. Your under investigation and for good reason. I hope you get hit with every violation they have told me about and are fined the full amount as well. We want the home restored to the way it was before your lying techs stepped foot onto the property. We will take you to court if we have to. Just waiting for the outcome of the investigation. OUCH, I hope this gets you where it counts. SHAME ON YOU TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ELDERLY!!!!
She called Whipple plumbing and heating and air conditioning to take care of this. No biggie right? Well, it was because the so called techs that came out there told her that the water heater was no good anymore due to the age of it. The water heater was 21 years old and was working fine. They told her that she needed a new water heater and to top it off they told her she needed a new furnace as well!!
How handy, first off she is from Korea, she speaks english but doesnt understand a lot of technical jargon when it comes to stuff like this. She basically had blind faith that these people were telling her the truth and were looking out for her safety. Ya, right. Looking out to line their pockets as well as the companies pockets. Basically bottom line she had to use Three seperate charge cards, yes, THREE to pay the $6000.00 bill she was given by these jokers.
That was ONLY for the water heater. She declined on the furnance, Thank GOD!! I mean they had her sign these waivers releasing them of any responsibility for asphixiation and hand wrote front and back of a legal size paper things that were "wrong" with her furnance and how she could become poisoned by these Carbon Monoxide fumes that were being emitted at these levels they had read on their equipment.....blah blah blah,
Come on Whipple, your guys were lying their a**es off and trying to scare this lady into purchasing a new furnace from you when nothing was wrong with the existing one!! Is this how you do business here in UTAH?? Your commercials would make one think your so family oriented and practice absolute honest diagnosis of home owners appliances. Scare tactics and decitful lies about furnaces and water heaters and I am sure air conditioners as well??? Come on, get real. Get honest and get rid of your high pressure lying through their teeth salesmen techs.
The gas company came out and took CO readings after the new $6000.00 dollar water heater had been installed. 49 parts per million was the reading on the CO, he said that was perfectly safe. So why did your technicians tell my mother in law that she could get carbon monoxide poisoning from this level and it was unsafe? Its all written down on the invoice of which was not itemized just a flat fee of six thousand sumthing sumthing dollars and oh, hey they even sold her a silver membership to maintainence the furnace at $20.00 a month.
Funny thing is they told her the duct tape was comming off near the blower motor and dust had entered into the blower motor bearings and they were shot. Why the h*ll didnt the techs when they were down there re tape the area that the tape was reportedly not there to let the dust in?? Why was there nothing at all done to the furnace maintainence wise??? The filters were still dirty, nothing was done except look for anything to be wrong with it.
I tell you what, I have never seen such flat out right in your face lying to get a sale. Whipple you may have ripped off an old lady who is very hard of hearing, eye sight is going due to a couple of things and doesnt understand technical english terms especially when she is scared she will not have any hot water during the winter months. Why didnt your techs just raise the water heater like it said to do on the little piece of paper the gas company had left. Why wasnt there an inventory of items used when installing this so much needed water heater???
Why was I told by the installer that they don't itemize its just one flat fee?? Do you have an inventory to keep track of?? How do you know what is used during an instal if there is not items listed?? Why was a piece of wire from the laundry dryer hose which was knocked off and left off used to hold the new gas line up against a floor beam? They didnt even bother to cut the wire from the exhaust hose, it was still attatched to it. How professional!! Come on!! Oh, I want to ring your necks!!!
This is outrageous Whipple!!!! You walked into this home, took advantage of an elderly oriental lady, probably thinking, oh these orientals have money to burn she is single and no one to disagree with what we tell her. Perfect, lets sell her the whole shmear of things. She is trusting us with what we tell her so yes! Christmas is coming up and we can all make some money off this old lady!!! Or pretty close to that I am sure.
Well, I have filed a complaint with the Utah Attorney Generals office, I am sure you Whipple is aware of this by now. Your under investigation and for good reason. I hope you get hit with every violation they have told me about and are fined the full amount as well. We want the home restored to the way it was before your lying techs stepped foot onto the property. We will take you to court if we have to. Just waiting for the outcome of the investigation. OUCH, I hope this gets you where it counts. SHAME ON YOU TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE ELDERLY!!!!
4 Updates & Rebuttals
WhipplePaul
United States of AmericaA manager's side of things
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, March 08, 2012
I want to first say thank you for the review. It helps us (me specifically) know what we are doing wrong and what concerns our customers have for or against us. I am currently going through every possible website I can to address any problems that may has come up since I have been working here.
In regard to the case above, you mentioned that we used sales tactics to get your mother in law to purchase a Water heater? This is not our policy, plain and simple. I sat in on a training meeting with the owner himself and he said "Only sell something if it is in the customers best interest". We aren't trying to scam anyone. We only want to help our customers. That is why we have the policy of "You don't pay until you are satisfied with our work". In the situation of the water heater, anything over 15 years is considered an "old furnace". That her's was 21 years only means that it was even older and I am sure there were problems with it. It is like having a car from back in the early 90s. Compared to the newer models, that car would be old and out of date. Same thing applies to water heaters.
The one thing that I am trying to understand here is why didn't she look around for better prices? Why didn't she consult another company or 3? Please don't mistake the sentence above for being arrogant or condescending. I am simply trying to understand.
Someone posted before me asking if we put a gun to your head. This is obviously not the case and as I mentioned we have a policy of "You don't pay until you are satisfied." That your mother in law signed the papers saying she was satisfied really makes me doubt the validity of this report. However, assuming all of this is real, I would be more than happy to assist you further. Have you called in to report this to our company? Have you set up a client concern to perhaps get the new water heater removed and to put the old one on some sort of platform? I am scanning through my client concern list and I don't see this situation posted anywhere!
One thing I find so frustrating is when customers come to these websites to vent their frustrations, but they never contact the company to get things resolved. It is sort of passive aggressive. We at Whipple truly do care about our customers and would be more than happy to assist you with your problems.
Contact us at 877-Whipple and simply ask to speak to a Client Concern Manager and we will get the ball rolling to help you deal with this problem. On a personal level, I am sorry you, your mother in law and your family have had to go through this problem. Call us and let us help you fix this issue.
Long Island Plumber
Woodmere,New York,
United States of America
humm..
#3Consumer Comment
Mon, February 06, 2012
the gas company turned off the water heater and said that it needed to be raised....by your own admission, the water heater is 21 years old. do you think ANY plumber is going to touch that water heater? NO THEY WONT. They will tell you the water heater needs to be replaced since it lived BEYOND its expected life.
Did they sell her something she didn't need? The answer is NO. She NEEDED a new water heater.
I hate it when people think they know everything. Oh, it looks fine so it must be ok. Loser. Get a life and stop bitching on this forum talking about something you know nothing about.
David
West Valley City,Utah,
United States of America
a gun to the head?.......
#4Author of original report
Tue, January 10, 2012
Well, a gun no. Did they twist her arm? No. Did they lie to her and tell her things that were not true? Yes. Did they sell her something she did not need? Yes. If you can't see by reading these reports there is an obvious dishonest and misleading and plain old fashion poor business practice going on here. Or is that what this industry practices on a normal basis? Or is there some laws being broken here? The laws differ from state to state but there were some laws protecting consumers here in Utah that were broken in this case. But thanks for your concern about the gun and all.
Long Island Plumber
Woodmere,New York,
United States of America
sounds like....
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, January 09, 2012
buyers remorse....let me ask, did the tech hold a gun to her head? i don't think so.
