A-1 Team, Inc.

I would highly recommend A-1 heating. They are very professional and do quality work.

Review: In November of 2012, my wife and I hired A-1 Team, Inc. of Newport, Washington to install a geothermal heating and cooling system in our residence. The cost of this project was $30,242.40, which we paid in full. The owner of A-1Team,Inc., stated to us in November of 2012, when we agreed to have the unit installed, that he would hire a company from Spokane to tunnel underneath our driveway/yard in order to cause minimal damage to our property. However, because A-1 was not timely in contracting with them, and had initially hired a different company who attempted to do the job, but couldn't, they were unable to hire the company that they had originally quoted us. At that point, A-1 was only left to dig up our yard and driveway, causing a great deal of damage to both. They originally said they were going to deduct $1800.00 from our bill to cover this cost, until they would fix it/make the repairs in the spring time. One of their employees came to our house asking us for the remainder of the money, he said that they were only going to deduct $500.00. He then said that we should be rest assured that they would be back in the Spring to repair everything 100%. On approximately the 1st snowfall of the year, they did have someone come out and attempt to move some of the heavier dirt and material from the yard, unfortunately it caused more damage then good. He left in the snow on the driveway large rocks causing damage to my snowblower on 2 different occasions. A-1 never returned in the Spring. Throughout the winter, I called them on numerous occasions to at least repair the driveway because it was almost impassable, they never returned my phone calls, Feeling they had deserted the project, I felt I had to hire someone to do the repairs to decrease further damage, this cost $1620.00. I sent an invoice to A-1 as they requested and made several phone calls, however, there has been no contact. The owner did text me on 6/11/13, and said that they were going to make it right with me. They have not.Desired Settlement: Pay the invoice for the repairs that they stated they would do in the Spring. $1620.00.

Business

Response:

First initial contact with [redacted] about a geothermal heating and cooling system.

April 2012

Meeting with Mr. [redacted] going over heat load calculations and quotes for his geothermal heating and cooling system. Our quote consisted of a geothermal loop field, and trenching from the loop field to the home which crosses the driveway and through the yard. Our quote was for trenching only, and upon completion of the job we would repair the driveway with gravel, and our intent would be to lay sod in the damaged part of the yard instead of spreading grass seed.

July 2012

The next conversation with Mr. [redacted] was that he was also interested in a custom fireplace installed on the lower level of his home. He and his wife had been looking at several fireplaces and wanted to see what styles we had to offer. At that time our Hearth sales person took him over some brochures of our Napoleon fireplaces for he and his wife to look at.

2nd week of September 2012

We received a phone call from Mr. [redacted] and he wanted us to start the process for the geothermal installation because he was 95% sure that his other home would be sold. So at this time we ordered the geothermal unit, and Mr. [redacted] was informed that these are custom-made systems at the factory per job, and that they take approximately six weeks for delivery.

4th week of September 2012

We received a phone call from Mr. [redacted] and at this time he wanted us to put a hold on the geothermal order because his other home did not sell. We immediately contacted the distributor and the factory to stop the building of this unit, fortunately the factory did not charge us the normal 15% restocking fee since the unit was not yet completed.

End of October 2012

We received a phone call from Mr. [redacted] stating that he has another buyer for his other home and he believes that this time it will sell since the buyer is putting down a large deposit. He wanted us to be ready to order the unit again if the sale goes through so that he could still get the geothermal installed this year. At this time we did not order the equipment until we knew for sure the sale went through, and we received a deposit for this system.

First week of November 2012

We received a phone call from Mr. [redacted] stating that his other home is now sold, but we still have to wait for a few more days for the money to be transferred.

Second week of November 2012

811 was called to locate underground electric and phone lines.

November 15, 2012

I met with Mr. [redacted] at his home and we signed the contract and received the deposit so now we can start the geothermal project.

We then called the distributor and again put in the order for the geothermal system for [redacted].

November 28, 2012

We received the deposit for Mr. [redacted]'s fireplace. It was most important if we could install the fireplace first since he had the Masonary guy working already , that way his family could enjoy the fireplace for the holidays.

First week of December 2012

Geothermal trenches were dug with excavator and loop field was completed.

At this time the weather is predicting heavy snow in the forecast. Before going ahead with the original contract of trenching from the loop field to the home, we try to get in touch with some line boring companies to see if we could get someone to do boring instead of trenching. We contacted every line boring company in the surrounding areas to try to get this project done but were unsuccessful on such a short notice, except for one smaller company that did come out from Sandpoint and tried to line bore this project but were unsuccessful.. We went ahead with the original plan of trenching to the house and completed the trenching and installing the geothermal main lines, and then the snow came heavily as we were filling in the trench. We hired a contractor to come out with his equipment and work with us to quickly fill the trench and level as much as possible while it was snowing, knowing that we would have to complete the yard and driveway cleanup work in the spring.

At this time, we are now waiting for the geothermal unit to be delivered from the factory.

January 7, 2013

We received the geothermal unit from factory.

January 8, 2013

Removed old furnace and installed new geothermal heating and cooling unit.

January 10, 2013

Geothermal installation complete. Informed Mr. [redacted] that we would return in the spring to complete the cleanup work for the yard and the driveway.

January-February 2013

Received two phone calls from Mr. [redacted] about his driveway, and he was wanting us to lay some gravel over the trench. We contacted every local gravel company and everyone of them were shut down for the winter and had no gravel available, not even for us to haul, until spring. I did explain this to Mr. [redacted].

May 14, 2013

Contacted (left msg) Mr. [redacted] about coming out and doing the cleanup work and to finalize the installation.

May 15, 2013

Mr. [redacted] returned my message (phone call) and informed me that he had already completed the cleanup work and that he had a bill for $1800. Mr. [redacted] was then asked to send us copies of the invoices he had paid so we could make it right with him and reimburse him for the cost he paid, minus the $503.42 still owed on the original job for clean-up.

May 17, 2013

We received a message from Mr. [redacted] asking about his free spring inspection that we had talked about. We then answered back and said that our dispatcher would call him next week and set up the appointment, and also asked again for him to make a copy of the bill that he paid so we could make it right with him.

June 11, 2013

We received a message from Mr. [redacted] stating that he hadn't heard from our dispatcher yet but he did have a cost sheet he had prepared for us, again stating it was approximately $1800.

June 13, 2013

Mr. [redacted] was contacted and an appointment was set up for July 9th for his free inspection.

July 4, 2013

We received a call from Mr. [redacted] that his system is not performing correctly, needs a technician to look at it. Our service manager was dispatched that day and after testing found that the system had a factory defective control board. The next day the distributor was contacted about the board only to find out there was a factory recall on those boards so we had to order the replacement.

July 17, 2013

Received the new control board for Mr. [redacted] then dispatched our service manager the next day for the replacement. At that same time the service manager also performed his free spring inspection. Our service manager was instructed to also ask Mr. [redacted] for the copy of the original invoices that we have been asking for, so that we could get that taken care of, he then gave our service manager a handwritten sheet with some pricing wrote on it, not copies of the original invoices.

Currently

We have recently received a letter from Revdex.com about this project, and the pricing is now $1620 for Mr. [redacted]'s repairs.

As I have stated multiple times from the beginning, if Mr. [redacted] would just send me copies of the invoices that he paid, I would gladly write him a check for the balance today, which would be $1620 minus the $503.43 remaining on the job balance which would total $1116.57.

I do understand that Mr. [redacted] did do the cleanup work on this project before we returned there, and he does deserve reimbursement for that. Mr. [redacted] has been a very good customer and again we want to treat him right, so please send me copies of the invoices that he paid and I will gladly pay the balance of $1116.57. If there are no said invoices, please let me know and I will delete the balance of $503.43 remaining on the job for cleanup and send Mr. [redacted] a check for $500 for his work, which would total $1003.43 for cleanup.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me at this time. We are sending in our invoices for the work done and hope that we will receive the reimbursement from A1 team Inc. as they stated they would do. We appreciate your assistance in helping to resolve this matter, and I would like to thank A1 Heating in advance for the reimbursement. Unfortunately, this complaint could have been avoided by A1 Heating having better communications with us.

Regards,