A Plus Air Systems Inc.

Heating & Air Conditioning
ON L6M1Z6
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HomeStars  >  Heating & Air Conditioning in Oakville  >  A Plus Air Systems Inc.   >  I've never been treated so poorly by a service provider
Shana70 in Old Toronto
Shana70 in Old Toronto
1 review Toronto, ON
1/10

I've never been treated so poorly by a service provider

5 years ago we purchased a new HVAC system for our house (furnace and central air) from Home Depot and A plus did the install. They were nice, we've had a maintenance plan with them since. Last week in the first heat wave of the summer the air conditioning wasn't working - it would turn on, barely cool air would come out of vents and it would shut itself off after anywhere from 5 to 20 mins. Our house never got below 28 on the ground floor and over 30 upstairs at the best of times and this was with all the blinds shut and curtains closed. So we called A plus first thing on Monday, explained what was going on and said we were also due for our annual maintenance call anyway. They said the soonest someone could come was Friday. On Thursday the company called and said they would have to cancel our appointment. My husband held firm and said no we'd waited all week, it wasn't working and they had to come. They said someone would come between 2 and 6pm. The technician came, and was surprised that we needed repair, apparently he was just there to do the annual servicing and couldn't do any repairs. He did his maintenance, cleaned filters and coils and said all the numbers were fine and it should be running. He was concerned that the AC kept turning off while he was here, he said all the components were working well and wondered if there was a breakdown between the thermostat and machine that was making it turn off too quickly. He called the office and reported all of this to them, he also made us a detailed list of all of his readings and stats from the unit. They said they would send out a repair technician the next day between 10 and 4. Luckily for us the humidity broke and we were able to open up the house and finally have some cool breezes and the best sleep we've had in over a week. Fast forward to 12pm today, technician calls and says he's 10 minutes out. He arrives and right off the bat it's bad. He walks in and is like your house feels nice and cool. Yes, because the heat wave is over and we have the windows open, the AC unit is turned off. My husband presents him with the list from the first technician and starts to explain all that has transpired. He is not listening and just keeps saying "your house is cool" and we have to keep pointing out that yes the heat wave broke and our windows are clearly open. We're concerned about the next heat wave. What was most concerning is that I start to notice he doesn't address me. When I do speak he speaks slowly like I couldn't possibly understand. I then realize he is mansplaining. Basically he says our unit is fine, says if there is another heat wave and it doesn't work then we can phone again and get another appointment. I have honestly never been treated this badly by a service provider and the kicker is we just purchased the “luxury maintenance plan” with them. So it's time to pay for the service call (he helpfully points out it's discounted because of the luxury plan) I hand him my credit card out of my pink wallet to pay and he turns with the invoice to my husband and says “I need your signature”! I was like “It’s my card, I’ll sign that." and off he goes. I was gobsmacked.

**Update
Our problem got fixed in the next heatwave - sure enough the same problem happened - after they read this review they were suddenly super eager to help and sent "their best guy" and he finally solved the problem - the pump that pumps water into the unit was not working hence the AC shutting itself off constantly. So I paid an additional fee to have that fixed ($169 plus tax maybe?)

Mimi from customer service also called to apologize. Which was great except she never said what the outcome was with the second technician - was he reprimanded? Did he receive training on how to talk to customers? Who knows!

But they have since called me repeatedly (twice yesterday alone!) asking me to please take down or edit this review as it would "really help them a lot". They've even called my husband on his cell to ask if he can please talk to me about it.

So here's my updated/edited review A Plus. I've upgraded them to 1 star for the 3rd technician who was super nice.

Approximate cost of services:
$107.00
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Hi Shana,

My name is Mansoor I have joined Aplus Air Systems recently focusing on customer experience. I am just reading and responding to some older reviews on homestars: First, I just wanted to apologize for your entire experience as it sounds very unpleasant what you went through. I understand that someone from our office called you to apologize but I just wanted to take the time out to respond to this review as well as just let you know that rather than requesting you to remove this review (which is never right to ask the customer to do so) I want to make it a valuable learning experience for our company and all the staff involved. I am glad the annual maintenances were great but I really dislike the way we handled the service when something went wrong. Since the time of this review, we have made an effort to train some of our maintenance technicians and cleaners such that they are equipped not only for maintenance but to handle breakdowns and repair as well. This was expensive for us but has paid off greatly as it reduces action time in getting a customer's equipment working again. It's unacceptable that a technician spoke to you that way and "mansplaining" is NEVER EVER right, some of our most valuable employees are women who are incredibly knowledgable in the HVAC and Contracting industry. Since then, we flagged this technician and the company has enrolled him for several training programs for customer service (two in-house training programs, one industry specific one, and one webinar on customer service from Lynda.com). Again, sorry for your experience and thank you for the valuable feedback, I will make sure something like this never happens in the future.

Thanks,
Mansoor
A Plus Air Systems Inc.

Previous versions of this review:

Shana70 in Old Toronto
Shana70 in Old Toronto
1 review Toronto, ON
0/10

I've never been treated so poorly by a service provider

5 years ago we purchased a new HVAC system for our house (furnace and central air) from Home Depot and A plus did the install. They were nice, we've had a maintenance plan with them since. Last week in the first heat wave of the summer the air conditioning wasn't working - it would turn on, barely cool air would come out of vents and it would shut itself off after anywhere from 5 to 20 mins. Our house never got below 28 on the ground floor and over 30 upstairs at the best of times and this was with all the blinds shut and curtains closed. So we called A plus first thing on Monday, explained what was going on and said we were also due for our annual maintenance call anyway. They said the soonest someone could come was Friday. On Thursday the company called and said they would have to cancel our appointment. My husband held firm and said no we'd waited all week, it wasn't working and they had to come. They said someone would come between 2 and 6pm. The technician came, and was surprised that we needed repair, apparently he was just there to do the annual servicing and couldn't do any repairs. He did his maintenance, cleaned filters and coils and said all the numbers were fine and it should be running. He was concerned that the AC kept turning off while he was here, he said all the components were working well and wondered if there was a breakdown between the thermostat and machine that was making it turn off too quickly. He called the office and reported all of this to them, he also made us a detailed list of all of his readings and stats from the unit. They said they would send out a repair technician the next day between 10 and 4. Luckily for us the humidity broke and we were able to open up the house and finally have some cool breezes and the best sleep we've had in over a week. Fast forward to 12pm today, technician calls and says he's 10 minutes out. He arrives and right off the bat it's bad. He walks in and is like your house feels nice and cool. Yes, because the heat wave is over and we have the windows open, the AC unit is turned off. My husband presents him with the list from the first technician and starts to explain all that has transpired. He is not listening and just keeps saying "your house is cool" and we have to keep pointing out that yes the heat wave broke and our windows are clearly open. We're concerned about the next heat wave. What was most concerning is that I start to notice he doesn't address me. When I do speak he speaks slowly like I couldn't possibly understand. I then realize he is mansplaining. Basically he says our unit is fine, says if there is another heat wave and it doesn't work then we can phone again and get another appointment. I have honestly never been treated this badly by a service provider and the kicker is we just purchased the “luxury maintenance plan” with them. So it's time to pay for the service call (he helpfully points out it's discounted because of the luxury plan) I hand him my credit card out of my pink wallet to pay and he turns with the invoice to my husband and says “I need your signature”! I was like “It’s my card, I’ll sign that." and off he goes. I was gobsmacked.

Approximate cost of services:
$107.00