Dale Albright
There's always that moment when a good company makes a bad business decision and ruins the taste in your mouth. All it takes is one person taking the call to destroy a relationship. One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning of Cookeville. I have been a club member with One Hour for going on six years now. I dropped these guys from 5 to 1 star. Not even sure they deserve that when they try to rip off the elderly. I'm a 72-year-old Vietnam vet. I have a gas pack unit. On very rare occasion, the gas valve fails to open when I need heat. I can either leave it like that for three to four days before One Hour can get out here, or I can get the heat going myself. I used to have a journeyman's license in Mechanical Refrigeration and Gas Pipe Fitter (aka A/C and heating). Do I want to be outside working on my unit when the temps are in the teens. Not even close. I don't have the circulation I had in my younger days, and my knees are shot. Do I want to sit inside my house and freeze for three or four days? Forget that, too. Anyway, I called them and told them I wanted the gas valve replaced. They sent a tech out several days later, and he wanted $129 for a troubleshooting fee. I refused to pay it because it had been working fine since I got it working four nights earlier. It only takes a dump maybe two or three times a month. He won't find anything wrong with it. You can't fix it if it isn't broke. He asked who said it was the gas valve, and I said me. So I told him the inducer motor comes on, then after a pause the ignitor ignites. When the ignitor lights, I have 25 VAC on the gas valve but no gas. While the ignitor is firing, I tap the gas pipe going into the gas valve and the burners light. It's the gas valve. Plain and simple. We argued back and forth about the $129 troubleshooting fee when One hour should pay me the $129. I did the troubleshooting, not them, right? I'm not paying the fee. Just change the gas valve! So I asked what the total bill would be if he just did it, and it was $859!!!!! WHAT??? THAT'S TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A BAD SITUATION WITH AN ELDERLY INDIVIDUAL!! It's winter time, and I need heat! I told him NO WAY!! I can't afford that!! So the tech asked me if the unit was still under warranty. I told him I don't know. I bought it from One Hour and they installed it. They should know if it's still under warranty or not. It's five years old. Then the tech tells me he can get the numbers off the unit and contact Goodman and see if it's still under warranty, but he'd have to charge me the $129 fee to do that. I told him to forget it! I'll call Goodman myself. So again, let me get this straight! One Hour sold and installed the unit, and now they want to charge me $129 to tell me if it is still under warranty?? Get out of here!! I have other friends that have A/C businesses, and one buddy in Murfreesboro told me a new gas valve is around $49. Even without the troubleshooting fee, they would rip me off for $730 for a $49 gas valve and an hour or two labor. $859!! That's absolutely disgusting! So here I sit with the worse ice storms on their way clear across the country, and my gas valve still has not been replaced. I can't get down there on my knees. I'm having serious health issues at the present time. Have been for the past nearly two years.
