Had a nightmare week with a faulty HVAC system at a commercial building in Dearborn

Last Tuesday, the air conditioning went out in a 3-story office building I manage, and it took five days to get it fixed. The first company I called said they'd be there Thursday, but they never showed up. Then the replacement part was on backorder, and the tenants were getting upset because it was 85 degrees inside. Has anyone else dealt with a commercial HVAC vendor who just doesn't show up when they say they will?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorbutler1mo ago

That part about the part being on backorder makes me wonder - did you ever actually talk to the supplier yourself, or were you just taking the HVAC guy's word for it? I had a similar situation a couple years back where a vendor told me a compressor was "impossible to find" and then I called around myself and found one at a supply house twenty minutes away. Also, how did you even find the company you called originally - was it a Google search or a referral? Because the ones who ghost like that usually have terrible reviews if you look close enough after the fact.

gavin_knight391mo ago

Five days is brutal for a whole building, but you got lucky it was only five. The real issue is that a lot of these commercial guys overbook themselves, promise a date they can't keep, and then ghost you when a bigger job comes in. Your first step should be to get a service contract with a local company that has a dedicated on-call tech, not just a dispatcher who takes names. Also, that backordered part story is usually code for "we didn't order it until you called us twice" so next time, ask for the part number and call the supplier yourself to confirm the status. You can't trust these guys to manage their own schedule, so you have to manage it for them.

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