Fischer Homes Inc

We had a good experience with the sales rep, the construction supervisor, and were happy with the incentive package, but our positive feelings ground to a halt there. We had immediate problems with the heat. The first week of occupancy required it and we noted that the furnace didn't seem to be functioning properly; it remained off for only a short period before reengaging, and this was happening at an outside temperature that was not that severe. Add to that the fact that we purchased the upgraded insulation package and this furnace performance made absolutely no sense. This was brought up at the three-month walk through in July, along with a further two pages of contractor issues. Most of them were small but the sheer quantity of them showed a lack of contractor diligence that left us with a shaky feeling about the overall, long-term quality of a Fischer home. Fischer brought a technician from their HVAC installer to address the furnace issue. He had no answers. He blamed the windows, and suggested that we get insulated curtains. As the heating season started in the Fall of 2012, it was obvious that the furnace was still operating in the same inexplicable manner. On November 28th, a second technician from Fischer's contractor was called to our house regarding an unrelated issue, but while he was here the ongoing furnace issue was brought up to him, along with the fact that the humidifier didn?t seem to be functioning. Like the first, he had nothing to offer, and stated that both furnace and humidifier were running properly. Convinced that something was in fact wrong, we resorted to self help and brought out our contractor with whom we have done business for twenty years. This technician came on January 11, 2013, accompanied by a representative from the furnace manufacturer. They did over two hours of comprehensive troubleshooting and corrections and found: the thermostat had been incorrectly programmed at installation instructing the furnace to cycle 5 times an hour instead of the proper 3, which accounted for the excessive running problem; the gas pressure was too high; the blower speed was set improperly; proper static pressure could only be achieved by downgrading to a cheap fiberglass filter, and then it was only marginal. Our furnace is high efficiency, 95% to be exact. The installation instructions for our thermostat, which had been downloaded from the internet by the time of their visit, state that ?90% efficiency furnaces and above? should cycle only 3 times per hour, which would be ours; ?90% efficiency and below? 5 times. Our technician and the furnace rep explained that higher efficiency furnaces like ours become more efficient the longer that they run, so must run for a period of time each cycle that's long enough to maximize that efficiency, which is the reason for the directive of 3 cycles per hour (cph), not 5. The 5 cycle setting had the unit ?short cycling?; running more cycles of less duration which doesn't allow the furnace to maximize it efficiency potential and that wastes fuel and overworks the unit. The instructions also state that the thermostat came set on a default, and that was the 5cph. It looks as if it was just taken out of its box and stuck on the wall without any regard for proper program settings. This means that not only did Fischer?s contractor fail to set the unit up properly at installation, but lacked the common sense to check the thermostat in the face of specific complaints about the unit over cycling. The thermostat took less than sixty seconds to correct; both of their contractor's technicians stood right next to that very thermostat stating that they didn?t have a clue as to what the problem could be. It took one minute to fix; it just took nine months of fooling with Fischer?s contractor to get to that minute. We had the duct work modified on February 2, 2013 by our contractor and asked at that time that the humidifier be checked because we became convinced that it was just not functioning properly. The technician checked at that time and found that it was in fact not running because it had been wired incorrectly at installation. We had a twelve-month warranty and within that Fischer certainly had the right to choose its contractors, but that provision also mandates that these contractors provide proficient service. Their contractor?s ineptness violated that concept so badly that self help was our only recourse, without which we would still be living with these issues. Further, the fact that the duct work in a new Fischer home is so marginal that efficient filtration may only be possible after an additional outlay of hundreds of dollars for duct work modifications seems hardly a point that they should be proud of. We presented all of this information to the CEO of Fischer Homes in a letter dated March 19, 2013, which stated our overall disappointment with the Fischer experience and in particular detailed the HVAC issue. Along with documentation and receipts, we stated a concern that the installation negligence of their HVAC contractor was so flagrant and substantial that it would be reasonable to consider that any of these problems could exist in other systems installed by this contractor within the community. Fischer took over forty days to look into the matter and answered that no problems existed with our unit, with the one exception of the humidifier wiring. The thermostat, which was the center of our complaint, was not even alluded to in that answer, while the issues found at the furnace were blamed on the use of a pleated filter, which becomes somewhat ridiculous when you consider the fact that a pleated filter was installed in that furnace when we took occupancy. We remember this with certainty because both of us got an up-close view of it; the genius that installed the filter tract left jagged edges exposed that caught the filter and jammed it, so we got to know it quite well since we had to get on either side of it jiggling the thing until it finally came loose. This tract issue was addressed at the three-month walk through by their contractor's technician who ?corrected? the problem by beating the tract senseless with a hammer. Then we were given excuses so lame that they would embarrass the intelligence of a third grader, like, 5 cycles, 3 cycles, makes no difference. If it didn't make a difference the specifications wouldn't state so, and we wouldn't have the rep from the same furnace manufacturer that Fischer uses standing in our basement explaining why 3 cycles is correct and 5 cycles is not. This answer also conveniently overlooks another logical point, which is that on two occasions we confronted their contractor's technicians with specific complaints about the unit over cycling; this contractor had no option at this point but to make the adjustment. Are they suggesting that these contractors knew that the thermostat was set on 5 and in the face of our complaints just decided to stand mute on the subject and leave it? Utterly absurd, and that pretty much characterizes the nature of the responses we received, and that's a shame. We live in a Fischer home and wanted to think well of it and them. Instead we've had to deal with this HVAC debacle and listen to excuses for it that the facts make laughable, then a host of other contractor mishaps that we feel wouldn't have occurred if proper diligence were a focal point. We ended up filing a Small Claims suit against Fischer and this HVAC contractor. The day before the hearing the contractor made a settlement offer, which we accepted, but nothing can set straight the disappointment we feel in Fischer's handling of this situation. We have the data and it is on file with the BBB and Kentucky State Attorney General's Office. ,