HVAC repair gone wrong

[Tim B.]

I had some work done on the HVAC unit in one of my properties in February for a heating problem. The tenant has just turned the AC on and it was leaking water around the pump that was replaced in February (no leaks with the heat on, so I didn't know anything was wrong until the AC was turned on). I called a different HVAC company to look at it, the new company said that the wrong pump was installed and was leaking in 3 places. He said the only way to fix it correctly was to remove everything the previous company did and replace with the proper part. I told the new company to get me a quote and I will have them fix the job, they said $900+ was way too high for this job but haven't sent me the quote yet. The original company is billing me for $976 for the original repair that was not done correctly. My thinking is to not pay the original company since they didn't fix anything and have the new company do the job. The old company could turn my account over to collections I guess but I'm not paying for shoddy work that has to be re-done. Any advice on how to handle this? I don't trust the original company to fix their mistake.

(side note: the original company sent the bill to the wrong address and just contacted my management company about the outstanding bill for $976 that has not been paid yet).

[George W.]

Originally posted by @Tim B.:

I don't trust them to fix it. They installed the wrong part to begin with and then didn't install it correctly so it leaks and had no problem billing me for almost a grand. As for the pump, I don't know all the details, I'm not an HVAC expert. That is just what the guy told me yesterday.

 What kind of hvac system do you have? hydronic heat (hot water). forced hot air with air conditioning? A heat pump? Is this unit geothermal? Doesn't seem that you really have much info on that. Without knowing what kind of system you have, how would you even know that the second company is right?? 

I think that you should learn a little more about the type of system that you have installed because it would be very easy for any HVAC contractor to rip you off if you don't even know what kind of system you got.

A basic tip is that a picture of this pump would be worth a thousand words.