Elm Heating & Cooling Incorporated

User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Do not use them! I took off work to meet w/the tech. He opened the unit poured some water down it, and told me I had a blockage and all was fixed. I paid him $194.00. Two hours later the exact same problem occured. I call Elm again and took another day off of work. They sent the same tech who could not fix it the first time. He took HVC chaulk and plugged a small hole and handed me a bill for $109.00 for "extra time and service". I refused to pay and called the Manager who waived the "extra time and service" charge. The tech however - took it upon himself to get in my face and say "@^&^ you".

So I took two days off of work and paid $194.00 for chaulk and being told off by the tech.

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User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Elm Heating & Cooling was recommended to me by a family member who had been serviced by them. So I called them when my furnace went out. When the tech came out to look at the furnace he said that their were three parts that had to be replaced and that it wasn't worth replacing the parts. So I asked him what the price was for replacing the parts, and he told me that it was up to $1300.00 in parts. He then said it would be better for me to replace the complete furnace. So I asked him what that would cost. He said that the new units go from $3,000.00 to $10,000.00. I then told him that I would have to discuss it with my wife before I made any decisions.
I borrowed a pen from him (which he let me keep) and I wrote a check for $79.00 for a service fee for ten minutes of his time. After he left, I got on the phone and made some calls trying to get someone out to fix my furnace. Thru a friend, I got in touch with another company "American Home" which knew the brand of furnace I had, and over the phone told me the exact make and model of my furnace, I was impressed. They came out the next day with the parts and fixed my furnace for "$317.00". So with my new $79.00 pen I gladly wrote him a check and will recommend them to all my family and friends.

Shame on you Elm Heating & Cooling.

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User Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Read this article: Jon Yates
What's Your Problem?

February 14, 2007

With a half-foot of snow on the ground and the thermometer stuck below freezing, the last thing Victoria Suddreth wants to worry about is her air conditioner.

But here she is, amid a winter storm, doing battle with the company that installed her Lennox 24,000 BTU central air unit last summer.

Suddreth, 64, of River Forest, paid Elm Heating & Cooling $2,433 for her new air conditioner and its hookup on July 13.

During the installation, the worker for the River Grove business accidentally cut power to her condo.

Suddreth called in an electrician who came out later that day. The electrician said the problem lay with how the air conditioner was installed.

Suddreth said an employee at Elm Heating & Cooling agreed to pay the resulting $311 electrician's bill. The electrician said he, too, was told by someone at Elm that the company would pay the bill.

By mid-January, however, the bill remained unpaid. So Suddreth wrote What's Your Problem.

"I'm so discouraged," she said. Elm Heating & Cooling "didn't hesitate to charge for the air conditioner," she said, but froze up when it came to the electrician's bill.

She said the sales manager, Bob Newren, made a commitment to her in July to pay the bill, but now he won't return her calls. She said she has called him about a dozen times.

"He knows what he said," Suddreth said. "I made a mistake having [the electrician] bill me directly. I should have had them bill Elm Heating."

To confirm Suddreth's story, the Problem Solver called the electrician, Bill Fritz of Accord Electric. Fritz said he found that the man who installed Suddreth's air conditioner failed to shut off the power to her unit, which led to the damage.

He said the pipe around the wiring was old, but that it appeared to have been yanked, tripping the breaker for the air conditioner, and then her main breaker.

"Had they turned off the power going to the roof, granted the pipe might still have broken, but nothing would have shorted out," Fritz said.

He said he called a manager at Elm Heating & Cooling before starting the work.

"He agreed to pay for the cost of the repair," Fritz said.

The Problem Solver then called Newren at Elm Heating & Cooling. Newren said no promise had been made to either Suddreth or Fritz, and that no payment would be made.

Newren said the damage was not his installer's fault, but the result of dangerous wiring on the roof of Suddreth's building. He said his installer even took cell phone pictures of the wiring--which he still has--to prove the problem existed before he arrived.

"I just think she's mad at the wrong people," Newren said. "A lot of that wiring is pretty suspect."

Newren also denied that Suddreth had called him a dozen times or that he or anyone from his company ever told Fritz that Elm Heating & Cooling would pay for the repairs.

"I would never say that," Newren said. "None of us would without even knowing what had gone on."

He said his technician followed the normal procedure for an installation, turning off an electrical switch on the roof before disconnecting the old air conditioner. Newren said the problem occurred further down the wire.

"If someone can show us it's our fault--which I don't see how--we'd be happy to pay," Newren said. "But it was definitely an existing problem."

Which leaves Suddreth out in the cold.

Monday, she said would consider taking Elm Heating & Cooling to Small Claims Court.

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," she said.

Businesses like Newren's thrive on word of mouth, Suddreth said.

"If this is the way he's going to treat new customers," she said, "he's very foolish."

- - -

THE PROBLEM

A worker accide

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