Ripoff Report Needs Your Help!
X  |  CLOSE
Report: #620394

Complaint Review: Mike Crothers - Naples Florida

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: anonymous — Estero Florida United States of America
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Mike Crothers Naples, Florida United States of America

Mike Crothers Pure Air Classic Bait and Switch SCAM Naples Florida

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: BAIT AND SWITCH??? THE TRUTH

Show customers why they should trust your business over your competitors...

Is this
Report about YOU
listed on other sites?
Those sites steal
Ripoff Report's
content.
We can get those
removed for you!
Find out more here.
How to fix
Ripoff Report
If your business is
willing to make a
commitment to
customer satisfaction
Click here now..

Toward the end of March 2010, our air conditioner stopped working. Being somewhat new to the area and not knowing who to contact, I looked for air conditioning specialists who advertised in the local coupon booklets and started making calls (March 26). The first two companies I contacted werent able to come out until sometime the following week. But then, as fortune would have it albeit, Id later discover MISfortune I contacted Mike Crothers of Pure Air, and he said he could be at my house within the hour to look at the unit. Mr. Crothers had advertised his company with a coupon in Cash Couponbook which stated: FREE EMERGENCY SERVICE CALL *No Obligation *No Charge. In conversing with Mr. Crothers (on the phone and again when he arrived at my home) I made it very clear that I was using the coupon and did not want him to do anything beyond the free service call until I talked to my husband about our options. Mr. Crothers agreed to diagnose the problem free of charge and present the options (along with the cost of each) to me, at which point I would discuss it with my husband and we would make a decision. Mr. Crothers came into my home and asked me what the problem was. I explained the unit simply stopped cooling. At this point he was relatively sure it was the compressor, but said he needed to go outside to run a couple of tests to be sure. I reiterated that I did not want him to do anything that he would have to charge for, but only diagnostic work, and he agreed. I was VERY clear on this point from the beginning, and he seemed to be optimistically complying. After tearing into the unit, he confirmed that it was indeed the compressor and told me what it would cost to fix it. Including discounts and rebates available at the time, he was able to offer a new compressor (installation and part) for $1300 or the installation of a new unit for $5195. Our unit was 9 or 10 years old, which Mr. Crothers explained is the standard life expectancy of an a/c unit, and he urged us to purchase the entire unit rather than replacing the compressor on an old unit that may not last much longer. But we were not in a financial state to just drop $5195 without a second thought. So after much going back and forth with Mr. Crothers, I thanked him for the free diagnosis and told him we would call him back within a couple of days to let him know which option we would be choosing. My husband and I dont like high pressure sales nor do we usually make hasty decisions. Though Mr. Crothers told me numerous times that we would not find a better deal, I wanted to research everything and discuss it with my husband before committing to spending such a large sum of money. As long as Mr. Crothers was being honest, he had nothing to lose by allowing us time to make our decision. If he wasnt grossly overpriced and we really did have to replace the compressor or the unit, we fully intended to hire him for the job after all, he was the one who diagnosed it. But this is where Mr. Crothers switched gears. Realizing I was not going to purchase from him on the spot, he said I would have to pay him $80 for the service call. Needless to say, I was taken back. As I stated earlier, Mr. Crothers agreed to doing a free diagnosis ONLY and presenting the options and costs to me. But now, because I would not cave into his high pressure sales tactic, he was insisting I owed him $80. Never once during his running the diagnostic tests to see whether or not the compressor was at fault, did Mr. Crothers say anything about $80 not until I refused to buy his unit without delay. Mr. Crothers and I spent a good deal of time debating whether or not I owed him anything. When I argued that Id made it clear to him that I wanted nothing done that he would charge for, but only wanted to use the free coupon on this particular day, he said that the $80 was not for the service call (that was still free), but he was charging me for the drive to my house. If I would agree to purchase an installed unit that day, he would waive the $80 driving fee. I knew this was wrong. And I was extremely uncomfortable with his persistence so I called my husband, who was at work. My husband was also very put out by the way Mr. Crothers was handling the situation. The coupon was obviously just a ploy to get into someones home. From there Pure Air counts on their workers salesmanship qualities to make a high dollar sale. If that doesnt work, they renege on the coupon. One way or another, they plan to leave with your money. Allow me to add, I dont have a problem with paying someone for a diagnosis. There were other companies whose coupons said something like, Free service call with purchase without purchase, $79. At least they are being honest and forthright about what they are offering. Had I called one of those companies for a diagnosis, I would have paid the $79 without batting an eye. But for Pure Air to claim FREE EMERGENCY SERVICE CALL *No Obligation *No Charge, and then continue with the faade up until the time they discover they cant make a high-dollar sale, smacks of bait and switch, which is false advertising. Neither my husband nor I am well-versed in the trade of heating and cooling, and wanted more time to make our decision ESPECIALLY now that Mr. Crothers wasnt honoring his companys coupon. His fraudulent behavior caused us to wonder if he was even being honest with the diagnosis. We knew we did not owe Pure Air a dime, but, after debating on the phone with Mr. Crothers for some time, my husband instructed me to sign the Pure Air service form and pay Mr. Crothers the $80 to get him to leave our home. Mr. Crothers was adamant that he would not leave without the money and my husband was uncomfortable with the idea of angering a stranger who was alone with me in our home. So I complied. The following day, March 27, my husband phoned Mike Crothers to talk to him about his not honoring Pure Airs advertisement. There was no answer, so Casey waited for the weekend to be overwith and contacted Mr. Crothers first thing Monday morning, March 29. During this phone conversation, much to our relief, Mr. Crothers agreed to refund our $80 rather than have hard feelings. Then Tuesday, March 30, Mr. Crothers called my husband back and told him he was able to get a slightly better deal on an air conditioning unit and, if wed like, he could apply the $80 toward the purchase of the new unit. By now we were wary about purchasing from Mr. Crothers and still wanted to get a second opinion. We had another air conditioning specialist coming to look at the unit the following afternoon. During a training session the day before, my husband had been telling one of his clients about our situation and the client said her husband was a retired heating & cooling specialist who still had friends in the business who would deal fairly with us. One of her husbands friends agreed to take a look at the unit to give us a second opinion free of charge. My Husband told Mr. Crothers we would not be purchasing a unit from him, but would still appreciate his keeping his word and returning our money. Mr. Crothers assured my husband he would do so. One week passed, then two no refund came. Finally my husband called Mr. Crothers again. Mr. Crothers acted irritated that my husband was calling, but again promised to return our money, saying hed been too busy to return it up to that point. He said hed get it mailed to us in the next couple of days. The end of April came, and wed still not received the promised refund. So my husband sent Mr. Crothers of Pure Air the following email: My name is -------------. I am writing you today concerning a matter we have spoken about numerous times over the last month. I thought we had resolved this situation when you told me that you would refund the $80 you charged for a service that, according to your own coupon, should have been free. The coupon in the Cash Coupon Book, without question, states that the service call would be made without charge or obligation. At no point during your service call did you inform my wife that there would be a charge for you to complete your diagnosis. In fact, before you began, my wife clearly stated to you our desire for the free diagnosis of the unit along with an estimate of the cost to fix it before proceeding any further. We have discussed this multiple times and though you have expressed you feel it is unreasonable for me or anyone to believe that someone would do a service call completely free, regardless of what the coupon says, you did agree to refund the $80 rather than have a big blow-up. I have waited very patiently for your refund to arrive. I have phoned you and was reassured it was coming and that you just hadnt got to it. I am writing you this letter today to inform you that unless I receive a check by the 10th of May, I will be filing my complaints with the Better Business Bureau, The Attorney General, The Cash Coupon Book, and any newspaper or news channel that might be interested in my story. I do not want to do this, but feel like you have had more than enough time to act upon this matter. This is more than a matter of money; it is a matter of principle. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt until the tenth of the month of May 2010, to act with integrity and honor your word to me. At this time, if you have still not responded to my request, I will proceed with the aforementioned action without hesitation. I am not a man who throws around threats or slander, but I am a man of my word and I am still in hopes that you will be also. Respectfully, Mr. ---------------- It was no great surprise that the check never came. So on May 11, my husband filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, along with the desired resolution: the return of our $80. At the beginning of June we received from the BBB the following response from Mr. Crothers: [BBB discussed your complaint with Pure Air. The company states he went for inspection and found your compressor was not working, he asked if you wanted to check it and you said yes. The company put a hard start compassator (this increases the starting torque by 500% - this usually costs $125). The compressor did not start which told them that the compressor was bad. He then checked the compressor terminals and there was no continuity. Business then advised that the system is old 12 to 13 years (model was an R22 system). Business said that his coupon says it is for diagnosis/service call not for work to be performed. He said he spent an hours worth of work trying to get their system up and working for you. He said you paid and then a few days later said a friend fixed the unit and you now felt they should give the $80 back. The company states no refund is due and says they never told you they would be sending a refund check.] This response is FILLED with fallacies and lies! I cannot believe the audacity of this man! The tests he ran were to determine whether or not the compressor was no longer working. Everything Mike Crothers DID was diagnostic. Secondly, the unit was NOT 12 to 13 years old. Our home is only 10 years old and was equipped with a brand new unit when it was built. Mr. Crothers knew this, as we discussed the age of my air conditioner when he was here. And Mr. Crothers personally told my husband on three separate occasions that he was returning the $80. Mike Crothers of Pure Air is a liar and a thief. He knowingly cheated us out of $80, lied to us about refunding the money, and then lied to the Better Business Bureau about the entire incident. We later discovered that Pure Air was overpriced, as well. But even if they werent even if they offered the BEST rates, I would never, ever use this company because they have shown they cannot be trusted. A man is only as good as his word. If hell lie in the little things, hell lie in the big things. I would advise and warn anyone with heating and cooling needs to avoid Pure Air. Obviously I will never see the $80 he stole from us, but that is no longer the point. The point is this: Heating and cooling companies cheat people out of thousands and thousands of dollars every year. When I shared my story with wink news, I was told that heating and cooling is one of the most crooked industries. Well, I discovered one of the crooked companies, so now I am doing all I can to warn others. I cant promise another company wont try to take advantage of you, but I feel safe in saying that I know Pure Air will

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/05/2010 06:51 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/mike-crothers/naples-florida-34101/mike-crothers-pure-air-classic-bait-and-switch-scam-naples-florida-620394. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

Search for additional reports

If you would like to see more Rip-off Reports on this company/individual, search here:

Report & Rebuttal
Respond to this report!
What's this?
Also a victim?
What's this?
Repair Your Reputation!
What's this?

Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
0Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

BAIT AND SWITCH??? THE TRUTH

AUTHOR: Pure Air - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, July 29, 2011

My name is Casey Higgins.  I

am writing you today concerning a matter we have spoken about numerous times

over the last month.  I thought we had

resolved this situation when you told me that you would refund the $80 you

charged for a service that, according to your own coupon, should have been

free.  The coupon in the Cash Coupon

Book, without question, states that the service call would be made without

charge or obligation.  At no point during

your service call did you inform my wife that there would be a charge for you to

complete your diagnosis.   In fact,

before you began  my wife clearly stated

to you our desire for  the free diagnosis of the unit along with an

estimate of the cost to fix it before proceeding any further. 

We

have discussed this multiple times and though you have expressed you feel it is

unreasonable for me or anyone to believe that someone would do a service call

completely free, regardless of what the coupon says, you did agree to refund the

$80 rather than have a big blow-up.

I have

waited very patiently for your refund to arrive.  I have phoned you and was reassured it was

coming and that you just hadnt got to it.

I am

writing you this letter today to inform you that unless I receive a check by the

10th of May, I will be filing my complaints with the Better Business

Bureau, The Attorney General, The Cash Coupon Book, and any newspaper or news

channel that might be interested in my story.

I do not want to do this, but feel like you have had more than

enough time to act upon this matter. 

This is more than a matter of money; it is a matter of principle. 

I am

giving you the benefit of the doubt until the tenth of the month of May 2010, to

act with integrity and honor your word to me. 

At this time, if you have still not responded to my request, I will

proceed with the aforementioned action without hesitation.

I am

not a man who throws around threats or slander, but I am a man of my word and I

am still in hopes that you will be also.







This is the email I received.  To say the least they paid me to work on their system after I originally had told them that I would have to spend an hour to tear their system apart to see if I could get it running.

Free Service Call? Absolutely. Free labor to try to get their system working, I didn't see that on the coupon.  Still an A rating on the BBB because they know the customer is being foolish.  As far as principles go, I could have easily afforded to give them their $80 back, but will not when they agreed to pay me and rightly so.  The truth of the matter is that they only wanted their money back because they found some moonlight ac man who did the work on the side for them, did not pull a permit, did not match the system properly, and did not have any insurance.  I guess I'll have to touch base with the state again Monday.  People like this are the reason that local companies struggle in this economy.  Always trying to get something for free, and burning whoever they can to save a buck.

They asked for the money back after they had the side jobber put in the condensor, I guess my diagnosis was right!  Also I never told them I would refund the money.  This rebuttal probably makes me look angry about the situation, actually anyone with common since reading this can probably see how foolish and petty the customer is.  Furthermore, the husband agreed to do the system when I was there, omitted from their report, then the wife explained that see was "cheap" and she talked to her husband for an additional half hour or so while I sat in my truck to give them their privacy.  At least they could admit that they called two other companies and were told that they wouldn't make it out.  Yes, I was there in an hour.  And yes, I told them I could have the system installed on the weekend.  As a matter of fact it was the weekend.  When does quick service turn into high pressure sales?  When you have a pathetic customer like Mr. and Mrs. Higgins who lie to you about getting back with you and then ask for their $80 back three weeks later.  I'd have to imagine some of our hard earned tax dollars are paying her unemployment wages.  Oh, did I mention that she left me at her unlocked house to go pick up her daughter for another half hour??

Sounds like she was so uncomfortable with me at her house huh?

By the way we have an office located at 2043 Trade Center Way in Naples, FL

If you feel like dealing with a local company that is moving in the right direction, call or stop by and say hello.

But please don't try to hustle the company by telling everyone who'll listen that you didn't feel that the two hours the company spends after they tell you what's wrong, and then tries to revive your system by putting on new parts, isn't worth at least an hour of labor.  C'mon, grow up!

I'm sure they went to wink news and I'm sure wink news was thinking the same thing the rest of us are right now.



Respond to this report!
What's this?
Featured Reports

Advertisers above have met our
strict standards for business conduct.

X
What do hackers,
questionable attorneys and
fake court orders have in common?
...Dishonest Reputation Management Investigates Reputation Repair
Free speech rights compromised

WATCH News
Segment Now