Katham Industries, Inc.

"September 28, 2023 To Whom It May Concern: Katham Industries installed the boiler in 2020 for the previous owners, who were happy customers for 17 years. There is nothing wrong with that boiler; the issues he’s had relate to the pipes connecting to the boiler that have corroded. Mr. [Member Name Removed] misrepresents the situation: we did not install a new transformer per se in 2020, the transformer was part of the boiler unit. It shorted out. This could have been caused by any number of reasons. Boilers come with a one-year warranty on most parts, as dictated by the companies that manufacture them. It is not specifically a Katham policy, although we do honor our work for one year, which is normal practice. Mr. [Member Name Removed] wanted to install a Nest thermostat on the first floor. It requires an extra low-voltage wire. The thermostat wire that was there – installed by others – was not defective, but just did not have as many wires as required by the Nest. Mr. [Member Name Removed] is misinformed. Copper piping is superior to black piping because it doesn’t rust the way black pipe does; it is also much more expensive. After we installed the boiler in 2020, the basement was gutted: the walls and ceiling were taken down. The copper pipes on the boiler are connected to black pipe that wraps around the entire basement. Those doing the gutting must have banged into and moved those pipes, causing the copper connections to loosen. This is the reason that several of the joints failed –not because of poor workmanship, and certainly not because we used defective solder! When Mr. [Member Name Removed] insisted that I was wrong, that that was not the case, that we should use black pipe, AND that we should do the work for free, I told him to find another heating company. We have no contract with Mr. [Member Name Removed], the warranty period has passed, and we have no obligation to repair a problem that was caused by others. George Katrandjian President"

"[Member Name Removed] is not a customer of ours. I assume she has written this complaint for Mrs. [Member Name Removed]. Mrs. [Member Name Removed] had no heat Friday afternoon before the Christmas weekend. We dispatched a service technician right away; a part was defective. The technician told Mrs. [Member Name Removed] how much it would cost to replace the defective part and she gave him the go-ahead. Once the job was completed and she was handed a bill, she started to complain about the amount. She then had a friend cost-check the part on Amazon and called our office to say our price was too high. When I asked her why she told the technician to replace the part if she thought the price was too high, she responded that she wouldn't have had heat otherwise. We are a service company, and as such, we have to travel to the customer's home, diagnose the problem, stock (in many cases) a required part, and replace it. These are services that the customer expects to pay for; otherwise, he or she would assess the problem him/herself, purchase a new part, if necessary, and/or make the repair. Like many other service companies, we use a standard flat rate pricing system; we don't make up the prices as we go along or on a whim. Our prices are fair and our service is excellent. P. S. Mrs. [Member Name Removed] called us in early October because she was having a problem with her air conditioner, and then 3 weeks later, for a different heat-related issue. Both times, I gave her a discount because she has been a customer for many years. George Katrandjian"

"7/21/2015 • [Member's name removed]called in May because his air conditioner wasn't blowing cold air. We repaired a refrigerant leak in the outdoor condenser coil and restored the system's cooling capacity. I had a difficult time getting paid;[Member's name removed] wanted a guarantee that we would not charge him in the future if his system failed to cool again. I told him we could only guarantee the leak we fixed. A month later, [Member's name removed] called because the system wasn't cooling again. Contrary to what [Member's name removed] states in his post, I sent a technician to his house immediately. The system was low on refrigerant, which meant there was another leak. I told [Member's name removed] that we would have to do a leak search to determine from where the Freon was escaping. (This is a long and involved procedure and that is why I didn't do it during the first service call - our initial leak repair might well have been the only fix necessary.) [Member's name removed]waited two weeks to call again. In the interim, he called in another HVAC contractor, who allegedly performed a leak search and found a leak in the indoor coil - a leak distinct from the one we found initially and one that could have occurred in the six weeks that followed. [Member's name removed]l was angry that the initial leak repair did not preclude another problem. The fact that a second leak occurred a month later does not mean he "wasted" money having the first leak fixed. Katham Industries Inc. has an excellent reputation, for good reason. Any one in business knows well that from time to time you encounter people who are unreasonable and unpleasant (and in the case of the [Member's name removed] sadly, vindictive). While I welcome constructive comments and am open to different perspectives, I will not stand quietly by as[Member's name removed] attempts to ruin my reputation by lying."

"We replaced the blower motor in [member name removed] furnace in January 2013, restoring heat to his home. Five months later, at 2:30 in the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, 2013, [member name removed] phoned to say that when he turned on his air conditioning unit that day for the first time, the electric breaker tripped. He insisted that we dispatch a technician immediately, but we were booked through that afternoon and do not work on Sundays. I told him we would have a technician at his home first thing Monday morning to fix whatever problem existed. Instead of waiting until Monday, [member name removed] chose to call in a plumber, who told him that Katham Industries had wired the blower motor incorrectly. According to the plumber, the heat and a/c were both set to high speed, thereby creating a situation where the heat would work, but the a/c would fail. In fact, heat is always wired to low speed and a/c is always wired to high speed. Had we “mis-wired” the motor as the plumber asserts, the unit would have tripped the breaker in the heating mode as soon as we turned it back on in January. That obviously didn’t happen as [member name removed] enjoyed heat while the weather called for it through at least March and probably into April. I have no idea what the plumber did or what the actual cause of the problem was. Had [member name removed] waited until Monday, we would have corrected the problem and not charged him for the service call if in fact the problem had been the result of a repair we made six months earlier. To ask that we pay his plumber’s bill is patently unreasonable."

"When Member called our office, he explained that his furnace was not working and that the original company he called could not figure out the issue. We made it very clear prior to arriving at his house that it is our policy, like most companies, to charge a diagnostic fee. When we arrived, we diagnosed the problem, replaced the necessary part, and fixed his machine. It was only after several weeks that he called to voice his opinion about our diagnostic fee."

"Thanks,! We're glad we were able to help out. Hope you're keeping warm during this freezing cold winter!"

"We installed heating and air conditioning system in October of 2005 and the system broke down in November of 2010. We received a call that he had no heat, and, after inspecting his machine, we discovered that the induced draft motor was not working and needed to be replaced. We ordered the part from Carrier; but, since it was out of stock, it took a few days to ship from their office in Tennessee. This was upsetting news to the homeowner, as it would be for anybody without heat in November. Unfortunately, the heating and air conditioning system was out of warranty; however, I was able to convince Carrier to wave the charges (typically a $600 part). We only charged him for the labor to diagnose and replace the part. There was no discussion of adding additional heating and air conditioning machines; however, we apologize for any misunderstandings."