ComplaintsforWind Bender Heating Cooling Plumbing LLC.

• Initial Complaint

  12/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Originally a company called D & B Plumbing was dispatched for my faulty garbage disposal and leaky pipe in the downstairs ceiling. They simply "reset" the garbage disposal and misdiagnosed the leak coming from the downstairs ceiling. They advised it was coming from the master shower. However after I left for a two week vacation and noone was using the shower, I came home to fresh water coming down out of the ceiling. In the meantime I had another open repair order for my water softener that had been dispatched to Wind Bender via 2-10 Home Warranty. When Wind Bender called to set the appointment I was "up sold" on a "comfort plan" at $20 a month for a one year contract advising that all of my plumbing throughout the house would be checked and that I would be advised if there are any other concerns. **** from Wind Bender came out and inspected my water softener and stated I needed a replacement. **** advised that I currently had a 35,000 grain softener unit but that he would submit to 2-10 Home Warranty that I have a 45,000 grain unit because he stated they would only replace the same size unit and he felt my home size called for a bigger unit. Because of this submission the claim was approved but I was advised I had a $900.00 out of pocket expense seeing the quote was way above the $1,000 that is allotted for a water softener (seeing he submitted the request for a larger unit) which of course 2-10 was not privy to. I was advised I had two choices, I could pay the $900 difference or they would mail me a check for $900, which really put me in an unfortunate situation seeing they do not pay for "2nd opinions" and I had no option to have another company come out and bid the right size so I could get it fully covered. Also during his visit he checked the plumbing leak in the ceiling on the 2nd floor and the faulty garbage disposal. I was advised the plumbing leak in the ceiling was a simple fix for $290.63 and that he could knock that out right then and that I needed a new garbage disposal and quoted me $417.58. I reminded him I had a home warranty. Although he seemed frustrated I wanted to go through them rather than just paying him directly, he stated I would need to submit these issues through the home warranty like I did the softener and ask 2-10 for them to be dispatched. I went ahead and followed those instructions and 2-10 dispatched Wind Benders to come out and assess the faulty garbage disposal and leak in the lower level ceiling. **** came out a second time the following week but this time he changed how he worded both issues to his employer Wind Bender and as a result they mis worded it to 2-10. Somehow 2-10 was under the impression that the leak in the downstairs ceiling was as a result of a prior technician's faulty work and they denied it, meanwhile on the original quote from **** (before he knew I was going to submit to my home warranty) it does not say that at all!!! **** also changed the wording for the garbage disposal when it was submitted for approval and it was denied too!! Turns out **** was trying to put a different style garbage disposal in lying saying that the model I have is discontinued so within his quote he asked for $300 in modifications on top of the price of a new disposal which 2-10 does not cover!!! It is a GE model number Continuous Feed Garbage Disposer (1/2 HP), Part# GFC520F replaced by GE. The new Part, #GFC520N (also manufactured by GE). I did not need any modifications! To think I have $3,000 in coverage for appliances as well as up to $3,000 in sealed plumbing issues and $1,000 for water softener coverage yet Wind Bender managed to try to extort me for "additional charges" above their plan coverage for their own personal gain. I called Wind Bender multiple times and finally spoke with Supervisor ***** who called 2-10 and had me on speaker and added **** to the call. ***** tried to clear it up with 2-10 but in my opinion did not do a great job. When ***** advised them that the information they got was wrong, 2-10 gave push back stating that they got the information directly from Wind Bender the company she is calling from. Then Wind Bender started sending me multiple invoices which felt like extortion. And here I sit with leaking plumbing and a broken garbage disposal due to the negligence of Wind Bender. I believe Wind Bender falsifies quotes in order to get partial approvals from the home warranty to warrant "up charging" so that they can get maximum reimbursement for needed repairs (reimbursement from home warranty and additional reimbursement from customer). They have found an "under the radar" way to do this. And they must be stopped before any other consumer is hurt by this type of extortion. Shame on Wind Bender, the upside to being an "in network" provider for a home warranty company is volume not necessarily high tickets. Wind Bender has decided they want as much money as they can squeeze out of every dispatch no matter how unethical it is.

  Business response

  12/21/2022

  Ms. ****,  

  We have cancelled your comfort plan and refunded your money of $18 and your deductible that you have paid thus far, for we want our customers to be happy and our attempts to do so have unfortunately failed.  

  On 11/17/22 we received home warranty dispatch to us for your water softener, we called you and at the time you wanted to wait because you had a company out to look at your ice machine and you were going to see if they could look at your water softener while they were out. We called you a couple of times after that to schedule your call, but you were going out of town for a couple of weeks. On 12/8/22, we finally got a hold of you and you were ready to schedule the appointment, and mentioned to us that you had another company out to identify a leak coming through your master bathroom ceiling located in the lower level of your home, and that your water bill has been running high. We advised you that you could transfer the water leak to our company and that with a comfort plan inspection we could indeed check out the whole homes plumbing system for any issues. You accepted that and we scheduled the water softener call and plumbing inspection for 12/13/22. At this time you did not transfer the water leak to us yet.  

  Our technician came out and diagnosed that the softener had multiple leaks when taken out of bypass, and we gave the report including model and serial number of current softener to your home warranty company. On the plumbing inspection we recommended to replace the softener, garbage disposal, and the copper waterline repair that was needed for the water leak. We gave you an "out of pocket" estimate for our company to do all three repairs together without going through the warranty company because your softener contract only covers up to $1000 for equipment and labor and you received a buy out which gave you a check to do the repair on your own through a plumbing company. The estimate we gave you did have some discounted pricing since we were going to be doing the repairs at the sometime as a softener installation.  

  You decided to call in two more claims (garbage disposal and water line leak) to your warranty company instead of using us to do the repairs outside of the warranty company. They dispatched those calls to us, we came out on 12/19/22, and put the repairs together for the home warranty company to cover the repairs. We called those in to the home warranty company which included your garbage disposer, basket strainer replacement with that, which your home warranty company considers a modification, and they do not cover modifications, so they passed that cost to you but were going to cover the disposer replacement which we used our guide prices with them on. As explained your warranty company only requires we match attributes which is the size not the brand. We also reported the water leak and they determined that they were not covering that repair.  

  We have been open and honest to you as well as the home warranty on the costs associated with the repairs and have given you all the invoices and estimates for your records, so that is not extortion of any services as we have not forced you into any of the repairs, we have given the options and what was given to us by the home warranty company.  

  Regarding your threats of social media bullying you sent in a text as follows : 

  I went ahead and filed a complaint with the BBB and submitted a complaint to the 2-10 district area manager as well as several online reviews to warn others. If and when ***** wants to do the right thing and right your companies wrongs let me know and I will update and or delete these complaints to show a resolution.   

   

  As you appear to be concerned about extortion, please review the post and comments you have made to date.  

• Initial Complaint

  06/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My home warranty sent out when Wind Bender mechanical to look at my air conditioner last Thursday, the call was my air conditioner was running constantly and not cooling the house off enough they charged me $200 for refrigerant and it did not fix the problem they come back out today and said that they wouldn’t do anything to fix it, The techs name was ****** the first time as well as today the first time ****** come out he was very rude to my 14-year-old son so I decided to record the phone call today. ……… After ****** refuse to do anything for my system which he did not fix the first time I asked him should an air conditioner run 10 to 12 hours without stopping, on a 90° day he replied “it shouldn’t” then he proceeded to tell me to calm down in my own house so I told him to get out I called windbenber mechanical, candy was also no help and demanded to confirm that I had the recording so I played if for her, she cut me off said that I was very confrontational to ******. I told her she’s entitled to her opinion and that I was going to spend a lot of time reviewing WindbenderTech chemical on the Internet and letting future customers know how they treat current customers and she hung up on me. ……. But not before saying that she was going to relay my concern to their attorney for legal action Because I was going to let the rest the world know about my personal factual experience. …….. I also received a call, from the attorney making me feel very concerned and uneasy as to why he was calling me, also recorded. So I guess WindbenderTech Canticle knows what they’re talking about when they threaten an attorney Because attorney follows through. … Completely unbelievable they refused to fix an air-conditioning system that they did not fix the first time also my thermostat is currently not working after ****** messed with it and he destroyed my furnace filter trying to get it out.

  Business response

  09/21/2022

  6/22/2022- AHS sent us claim as a reall on another company.

  6/23/2022- Went out and found blower motor seized up, could not further diagnose until it was replaced. We received authorization from AHS to replace motor and capacitor. Thomas found it needed 1 lb of R22, he added the refrigerant after explaining to homeowner and that the homeowner was responsible for the refrigerant charges as his warranty company does not cover it. Replaced while Thomas was on site. Thomas reported the A/C was cooling the house before he left. He did put in notes that the A/C was missing refrigerant caps. He quoted the customer an estimate for replacing the caps, as the home warranty does not cover them, the customer declined.

  Technician arrived at 8:48am and left at 11:19am.

  6/23/2022- 7:41pm- We recieved a recall work order from AHS.

  6/14/2022- 9:25am- ****** took call from Customer:

  Customer called and said thomas put in refrigerant but there wasnt a data tag so he approved it and put in the $200 worth but is there way to get a more accurate number of how many pounds it takes. The unit is still running non stop and not operating properly.

  She scheduled Thomas to go out for Recall on 6/27/2022 between 1-5pm.

  06/24/2022, 10:02am- ****** took another call from customer

  customer called back andaid he is paying the invoice for the refrig. but has concerns for if this unit needs replaced etc and if it was just a waste of $200 since newer units wont take R22?? is there a way to reclaim and refund ?? or if they unit is fixable with he be able to properly determine how much the units hold and reclaim what was already purchased etc ??

  6/27/2022- Technician arrived at the property at 3:49pm.

  Thomas notes from his call: system appears to be operating normally with 72° return and 52° supply temps SLT 52° this doesn’t appear to be a call back and will need further diagnostics

  Thomas noted that when he was going over the findings with the customer that the customer became aggressive and jumped up at him and was very angry, so Thomas left the property at 4:10pm

  Candy called authorization dept from AHS and explained the situation to them. They authorized labor to date for our company.

  6/27/2022- We recieved a 1-start rating and the following review from the customer on our website:

  Windbender sent the same tech out today that was here last Thursday, for the same issue, my air conditioning was running for 10 - 12 hours without ever reaching the set point, the tech thought he fixed the issue by replacing the blower motor and putting 1 pound of refrigerant in my system. This did not fix the issue, the tech told me today that there was nothing he was going to do for me today. I asked him if an air conditioning unit should run for 10 and 12 hours , never shuting off and never reaching the set point, he replied “it should not.” So after I asked the tech if he was going to pay my electric bill, he instructed me to calm down and he said he doesn’t have to tolerate my attitude. I told him to get out of my house. As it was the tech that came out today was the same tech that claimed to have fixed my unit days earlier, he was very rude to me on the phone during that visit and as well to my 14 year old son, so I decided to record todays visit. I called to complain, A windbender rep picked up and demanded she hear the recording, as soon as this rep heard that in fact I had WindbenderTech’s admitting that an air conditioning should not be running without shutting off for 10 and 12 hours, she got very defensive and said that the tech was very sensitive timid and I sounded rude, and that I was “one of those customers” So I replied, she was entitled to her opinion and I was going to post my personal experience on review sites as well as the recording of their tech admiring my unit had a problem and he was going to do nothing and let people judge for themselves, she then intimidated and threatened me with an attorney if I was to share my experience with windbender. And shortly after I got a call from said Attorney which identified himself as someone with Windbender, I had to specifically ask what his roll was with windbender, before he said he was an attorney. I have a several other issues like the tech cussing around my kids, leaving a mess, destroying my furnace filter, and my thermostat not working properly after he left, the office personnel saying that they would reuse the 1 lb of refrigerant in any new system if a new systems was needed, when I know that the government has mandated the movement to a new type of refrigerant and that my type of refrigerant CANNOT be used in a new system, so windbender just charged me 199.00 for refrigerant that did not fix my issue. Worst experience ever with an HVAC company from top to the bottom, including a very concerning call from their attorney trying to intimidate me so I won’t share my experience with others, just like their representative sad he would.

  On 6/30/2022-12:37pm- ****** answered a call, Hannah from AHS called our office to ask if we were refusing to return to this job. We told them yes due to the issue with the homeowner getting very angry and aggressive with our technician that we decided it is best not to return.

  When speaking with the home warranty company, American Home Shield, they stated that the claim was transferred then cancelled, after our last visit which means another company has not been out to diagnose the system through the home warranty company. So, we are inclined to believe that the system had been fixed upon our last visit unless the homeowner used a company outside of the home warranty company, which he has not provided any evidence that was the case, we have seen no work orders or invoices that would say that the system has continued to have a problem after we left from the homeowner. 

  Attorney’s Comments:

   

  Good morning,

   

  On June 27, 2022, I took the opportunity call *** ****** to discuss the services provided by Wind Bender.  During the conversation, *** ****** discussed matters such as the language used by the technician, and other off topic concerns.  As for the unit, and its service, *** ****** discussed is some detail as to his concerns for the service provided, and the continuous running of the AC motor.  The detail suggested that *** ****** had gathered information that would lend itself to making a claim that the unit needed to be condemned.  My conclusion, after discussing the matter with Mr. Kegley, as well as Wind Bender, was that the home owner was probably disappointed that the issue raised was not going to result in the warranty company providing a new unit. *** ****** was made aware that Wind Bender had met its obligations.

   

   

  Thank you

   

  ***** ******* ******** ** ***

  ****** * *** ********** ***

  ************

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