Aerobic Septic Texas

We inspected the *** aerobic unit 3 times a year for two years, and twice the last year before they hired another company. Three of the reports for the 8 inspection visits indicated high air pressure, which is caused by calcium in the hard water we have in north Texas. This condition is common from Waco north to the Red River and from West I-35 on west.
Some air systems stop up more often than others. I cannot tell you why that is Maybe with hundreds of questionnaire so we could determine who is on a well, size of family, how much water is used, if a water softener is in use, etc. we might hit on a reason for the air system in a particular septic system to stop up more often than another.
When the calcium in the hard water we have finally stops up an air system to where we have a high air pressure reading, the air motor can be compromised because of the strain on it from having to try to push the air through the calcium deposits. So, it is very important that the air systems be kept clean. Yes, the treatment was necessary unless Ms. wanted to replace her air compressor, call a pumper to remove all the sludge which was going to accumulate, possibly replace her effluent pump when it sucked up all the sludge, and go in the house every time her sprinklers activated because of the terrible septic odor, then answer to a Tarrant County Health Department inspector when one of her neighbors complained. Also, Ms., herself, requested each of the two service calls.
11/20/15. The first time we had an indication of high air pressure was during an inspection on 11/20/15. The air pressure was 5.8 psi. Normal air pressure for that system is between 1.5 psi and 2.5 psi, with the optimum air pressure being 2.0 psi. There was very little sludge in the tank (good), the water was clear (good) and there was no septic odor (good). Those three items can change for the worse if the air system is stopped up for very long. There will be a greater and faster sludge buildup, the water will be cloudy and dirty and there can be a strong septic odor.
12/08/15. When we cleaned the air-delivery system, at the request of Ms., we measured the air pressure at 5.0 psi when we started. After cleaning, the air pressure dropped to the optimum measurement of 2.0 psi. For that service call, Ms. was charge $125.00.
11/14/16. Our inspection report indicated high air pressure of 5.8 psi. Although the water in the tank was dirty there was no appreciable build-up of sludge and no septic odor. Ms. did not request that we make a service call.
04/20/17. The report for our inspection on 4/20/17 indicated a high air pressure of 5.0 psi. The water in the tank was dirty and had a strong septic odor. Ms. requested a service call, which we made on 5/08/17.
5/8/2017. An air pressure test at that time indicated the air pressure to still be high at 5.0 psi. After cleaning, the air pressure dropped to 2.2 psi, which is within the normal range for that system. For that service call, Ms. was charged $125.00.
12/5/2018. Our inspection report indicated high air pressure of 4.8 psi. There was no septic odor, the water was clear and there was just a slight buildup of dark-brown sludge on the bottom of the effluent tank.
In my office, there are two work orders, two invoices, two service reports and two invoices to Ms., for which she paid in two separate checks, the numbers and dates of which have been provided to Ms.. After sending Ms. her check numbers and dates of the checks, and dates of our repairs and invoices, in emails to me, Ms. finally agreed that she paid only $125.00 for each service call instead of the $175.00 each as the previously proclaimed. Ms. also agreed that instead of charging her $775.00 as she first estimated, we charged her, over a 3-year period $250.00. Instead of charging her $175.00 at every other inspection, as she claimed we did, which would have been 4 inspections of the 8 at $175.00 for a total of $700.00, we charged her $125.00 twice. Those charges were on service calls, not inspections. The inspection reports and service reports were filed with the Tarrant County Health Department per state law.
Ms. was told by one of our competitors that using acid to clean her diffusers (I think there is only one diffuser), ruined it. The acid we use is acetic acid – plain old vinegar which does a good job to dissolve calcium deposits. Try it around your faucets. Unfortunately, the calcium will start depositing again and the diffuser will need to be cleaned or replaced again. We would be very interested to learn where Ms. new septic company buys its diffusers to be able to sell one to her at $4.00. The least expensive cost to us, and we have a lot of sources, is $30.00. I think Ms. tends to scramble her facts just a bit.
Yes, installing a new diffuser would give that correct air pressure reading, which we also got by cleaning the stopped-up diffuser with vinegar. All a correct air pressure reading tells you, as opposed to a high air pressure reading, is that the air compressor is not having to work harder than normal to push the air into the aeration tank. This is not a hard concept. It does not matter whether the diffuser is brand new or whether it has been cleaned, if the air can get through without having to push through an obstruction in the air lines or the diffuser, the air pressure is normal.
Ms. indicated to us in an email that if we pay her $250.00 she will advise the Revdex.com she wants to close the complaint. Our argument to her is that we did the work she authorized and received the lower air pressure result we expected. We were appropriately paid for our work and that should be the end of it.

I believe the best place to start with my comments to the ***’ complaint is to note the parts of our contract which became issues during our dealing with the ***.

1. The contract provided for (3) inspections per year – one every 4 months. By state law, we have 4 months to make our first inspection. Our inspection schedule is set up so that every customer in a specific subdivision, zip code, or area is inspected at the same time. Depending on the number of customers we have in a specific area, we could be in the area three times a year or several times every month during a year. The aerobic units in the area in which Mr. and Ms. live are inspected in November, March and July.

2. When customers sign the contract, they give us permission to enter the property without prior notice ….. unless the customer has made prior arrangements regarding notification for accessing property, which is a call to the customer the night before an inspection so that customer can open a gate or contain an aggressive dog.

3. If a customer refuses to allow our technicians on his property, we have the right to cancel the contract, in which case no portion of the contract fee is refunded.

4. Our contract provides that either we or the customer may cancel the contract for any reason with 30 days’ written notice to the other party to the contract. The fee for the contract is nonrefundable, with the following exceptions: If our company cancels the contract or if the customer cancels the contract because he no longer owns the property, as was the case with the former owner of the *** property, the fee is returned to the customer according to how many inspections have already been made, with some exceptions, such as an outstanding invoice or other money owed by the customer to our company. One third of the contract fee is returned for each inspection that has not yet been made, less outstanding invoices and less an account setup charge of $25.00.

5. In our contract, there is the wording:- “We suggest voice mail capability as only one call and one trip will be made for each inspection. We cannot be present at a property on a specific day or at a specific time.”

Note that Mr. signed the contract with the above stipulations set out very clearly so there would be no misunderstanding. Since Mr. is president of a bank, I assume that somewhere in his college courses or on his way up the corporate ladder, he took a Contracts 101 course, in which the term “nonrefundable” would have been explained. I also assume that, Mr. being president of a bank, he would go to great lengths to thoroughly read any contract he signed, and that having read it, if there were any portion of it to which he did not agree, he would certainly make an objection. So, after receiving the contract, which Mr. signed and for which he paid, ***, co-owner of the company, also signed the agreement. A copy of the signed agreement was then mailed to Mr. and the original was filed with the Tarrant County Health Department in compliance with the State of Texas requirements.

Now that the terms of the contract pertinent to our dealings with the *** have been outlined, I can answer Mr.’s complaint:-

When Mr. called our company inquiring about continuing the former owner’s contract for inspections of the aerobic system serving his home, we agreed, telling him that while there was no charge for our transferring the contract to him, that if the former owner requested a refund for the inspections he had paid for but that had not yet been made, we were obligated to refund the money, but that Mr.could then pay for a one-year agreement if he wished to do so. Later, the former owner did request a refund. We sent a check to him and contacted Mr., who requested a new contract.

Before the contract was emailed to the ***, Ms. called our office and talked with me (***) regarding the first inspection. She said her husband wanted to see what the inspection entailed and would probably have some questions regarding the operation of the system. That is not an unusual request, and we are always happy to have a homeowner present at any inspection. She asked that we call her an hour before the inspector was going to arrive so she could call her husband so he could leave work in time to meet our inspector. I told her we would call her the night before the first inspection, and that our technician would be glad to give them another call when he was about an hour away from their home if they wanted him to do that. She did not say “yes” or “no” and ended the call by asking that I email the contract to her husband at his bank. I emailed the contract to Mr. on October 25 (copy of email attached). Note that in the email I specified that our call to them would be the night before the inspection – not a day ahead. His reply in his email back to me was “perfect”.

When I emailed the contract to Mr. on October 25, I fully expected their first inspection to be sometime in November. Our normal inspection schedule was delayed a couple of weeks because one of our technicians had surgery and our work load had to be redistributed.

On December 14, 2017, ***, our senior technician in charge of inspections, called both of the ***’ cell phones at 8:19 pm and left word on their voice mail boxes that he would be there the next day for the first inspection. He did not receive a call back from them, nor did Mr. or Ms. call our office to delay the inspection, which was done on December 15. When *** completed the inspection, he left a door hanger so they would know the inspection had been completed and placed the state-required sticker on their control box with the date he inspected the system noted on the sticker. ***’s handwritten notes are attached. In addition to those notes made on December 15, there is another note he made on December 20 on that same sheet. I will address his revisit on December 20 later in these comments.

Since our inspectors make their own schedules, those of us in the office rarely know until we receive the completed inspections from the technician that a particular inspection has been made. The same day *** made the first inspection of the *** aerobic unit, Ms. called our office and talked with ***, our customer liaison. She wanted to know when we would be out for her first inspection. *** said Ms. made a number of calls but none of the dates *** suggested were acceptable to her. *** finally called *** to ask when he could go back to the ***’s property so Mr. could visit with him. *** recommended that Ms. pick whichever day she wanted, and said that he would make it a point to leave whatever part of town he was in that day and meet Mr.. Ms. requested that *** be at her house on Tuesday, December 19. *** suggested between 12 pm and 2 pm. Although *** had already committed himself to make some special tests that the Tarrant County Health Department required for our commercial customers, he felt that he could easily do that and still arrive at the ***’s before 2:00. Mrs. agreed to the date and time slot.

December 19 arrived and with it rain – a lot of rain – a whole lot of rain, very dense fog, lightning and thunder. It was a really nasty day. (See weather calendar, attached). I remember it so well because I had a doctor’s appointment that day and was 45 minutes late because of the heavy rain and fog and the accidents on I-30 because of the very slick roads. *** called Ms. that morning to make sure she and Mr. wanted to stand out in that kind of weather and listen to *** describe the operation of their aerobic unit. She said that she still wanted him there.

As the morning went on, the weather got worse, and *** called Ms. to be sure they still wanted *** to be at their house that day. Ms. affirmed that she did.

Around noon, with it pouring rain, Ms. called our office to make sure *** would be at her house. *** told her that he was still planning on going.

Around 1:30 pm, after a call came in from ***, *** called Ms. to let her know that *** was on his way but because of the heavy rain and fog, along with slow traffic and traffic accidents, that he was going to be between 2:00 and 2:30 arriving. She said okay. Ten minutes later she called back and said for *** not to come by and that she was going to call the next week and cancel her contract.

We had a lot of rearranging of appointments to take care of that evening. It had been impossible to make repairs or inspections in the kind of rain we had on Tuesday. With all the changes we made in our schedule, *** got confused and thought he was to go back to the ***’ home. He did drive there and Ms. was really very upset he was there. She very rudely told him to leave her property and that she was going to cancel her contract. I do not know if *** called the *** the night before that visit and left a voice mail, he very well could have, but I have not asked him. But, he did not receive a return call from Mr. or Ms. telling him not to go to their house on Wednesday, December 20.

Late on Thursday afternoon, December 21, Ms. called our office. I was by myself as the other office personnel had gone home for the day. As soon as I answered the telephone with our company name, Ms. told me her name and asked me, “Why was your technician at my house yesterday?” I could tell she was furious, but furious in a very controlled way. I really did not know why someone from our company was at her house, since, except for emailing the contract to Mr., I knew nothing about the events that had occurred regarding the inspection. I told her that I did not know, but that I would find out and call her back. She said no, that she wanted to cancel her contract and wanted a full refund of her contract fee. I then asked if she would enlighten me as to what was going on. She ignored my request and remarked that she had talked with *** a number of times. I told her that *** had already left for the day and again asked her to tell me what the problem was. She said, “I really do not have the time. I am canceling the contract and I want a full refund.”, and she hung up.

When *** came in the next day, I asked her to bring me up to date since Ms. refused to do so. After hearing what had occurred, I did not believe, according to the terms of our contract with them, that Mr. and Ms. were entitled to a refund of their contract fee. When I mentioned my conversation with Ms., ***, who has been with our company over 5 years, told me that Ms. had been so rude to her during every telephone call that if she had to talk to Ms. again that she would give me her two weeks’ notice and quit her job.

During each of the calls Ms. made after December 21 (and there were a number of calls), *** told her there would be no refund. Ms. said we should give her a refund because her husband had to wait on *** to arrive and since her husband made $77.41 an hour – I think that was the figure, the cents could be wrong (who knew bank presidents were paid by the hour) – and that he just did not have time to sit around and wait for some technician to show up at his house. Actually, had they not canceled the appointment after *** was already on his way in the pouring down rain, Mr. might not have had to wait at all because *** thought he could be there between 2:00 and 2:30. During one Ms.’s calls, *** asked her if she had read the contract. Ms. told *** that she had. *** then asked Ms. if she was aware that she had signed a legal document which had a nonrefundable fee. Ms. said, “Yes, I know, but I don’t care!”

Finally, since the numerous, rude calls from Ms. were causing such an emotional upheaval in my office, I offered to send Ms. a check for $125.00 (the contract fee of $150.00, less the stated setup charge of $25.00). Ms. refused, stating she wanted the entire $150.00 returned. She threatened to “report” us to the Revdex.com unless we did what she wanted us to do and came across with a full refund. Ms. would call and make her demands, hang up and then call back in a few minutes and start it all over again. This went on for several days. Finally, she said that she would accept the check for $125.00. *** told her she would put a check in the mail that day. Now, you would think that would be the end of this saga, but Ms. had one more surprise for us. Before she hung up, she said, ”When I get that check, I am going to report you to the Revdex.com.” , and as she did at the end of nearly every telephone conversation, she hung up before the person talking to her could reply. At that point, I felt we had offered the refund to Ms. in good faith that she would end the drama and allow us all to go back to work. However, since Ms. evidently wanted her refund and also wanted to punish my company and its employees for some slight which only existed in her mind, and I guess that of her husband, I took all offers of any kind of refund off the table.

We did not hear from the *** again until an email from her on January 16, 2018 and an email from him on January 25. Both emails were inquiring as to when they were going to receive their check. Neither email was answered by our office. I really did not see a reason to go toe to toe with Ms. again.

We received no other emails of which I am aware and no telephone calls were received from them or voice messages left from that time until Ms. called in February. I knew it was Ms. calling because our office phones have display windows. When I answered her call, she inquired as to when she would be receiving her check. I told her that I was standing by our contract with her and that the contract fee was non-refundable. I told her that our company had bent over backwards to go above and beyond our contract with them to please them and that we had done nothing to warrant their canceling their contract with us. At that point, Ms. began talking, and I stopped and suggested that she have her say then I would have mine, since neither of us could understand what the other was saying. All she said was, “I’m going to hang up now.” And she did. That was the last time either of the *** have contacted our office.

At the time I read Mr.’s version of the events, I wondered where he came up with most of the dates, times, telephone calls, emails and events that made up his story. They just did not happen. After Ms.’s flurry of telephone calls in December, and except for the two emails from them in January, we did not hear from either of them until my conversation with Ms. in February. We would not have scheduled the January visits Mr. described when he was so furious he missed work because he waited 5 hours for our inspector only to realize he was a “no show”. We would not have scheduled those visits because Ms. had already canceled their contract in December. You can believe, after dealing with Ms. during December, nothing would have tempted us to make another appointment with them in January or any other month.

The bottom line is that Mr. signed a contract with us, after which he was not willing to adhere to the terms after he agreed to. We were more than willing to live up to and go beyond the terms of the contract to please Mr. and Ms. and satisfy their demands. As much as we tried, we found that to be an impossible task.

***Aerobic Septic Service Co.