Ken Adams Mechanical Inc

This is not the first time I have used Ken Adams Mechanical, however I can assure you that it will be the last.  In 2001 Ken installed a whole house heating and cooling system ($12,000 job) as a recommended contractor by my electric company.  Let me add here that I called them last week to relay my experiences and was informed that they no longer recommend him based on the numerous complaints.  They even offered to fix this botched job at no expense to me due to their knowledge of his bad reputation!  But I digress. 

I am not unrealistic.  My husband and I have worked with a number of contractors over the years and I cannot recall a time that there hasn't been some kind of issue, big or small.  However, every other contractor that I have approached with a concern has listened and made efforts to rectify any issues.  Ken Adams has an anger problem.  When approached with a concern Ken responds defensively and with denial, arguments, and excuses. 

At the time of the original job there were several concerns that I attempted to address with him.  I came home from work one day after they had been working here and my attic door was completely broken.  It was actually bolted to the ceiling and the springs were off and hinges bent backward.  I called Ken and asked him what happened.  He replied that the door was broken when they arrived that morning.  Mind you, he was not onsite and had not seen it before or after, but had this immediate answer ready.  I overlooked the situation and replaced the door at my cost since he refused to take responsibility.

The next situation (same project) was when I arrived home on another day and found that two doors to my house were standing wide open and our pets outside roaming!  The same doors that we left unlocked for their employees that day, garage door and entry to the house as well as sliding glass doors.  I called Ken again and informed him and his response was even more incredible this time.....even though he had not been on site that day (again) he insisted that his employees had closed and locked the doors when they left and that my house had obviously been broken into. Nothing moved, nothing stolen. The supposed burglars were clearly there to liberate our pets.  I was dumbfounded!  When I questioned the rationale of this explanation he became inflammatory and argumentative.  Again, and in hindsight regrettably, I chalked it up to "no harm, no foul" and moved on.

Years passed but recently I once again needed service on the heating unit that Ken had originally installed and figured there was no way this job could be mishandled.  We had disconnected the unit and moved it out of the way for a construction project and needed it reinstalled a short distance away.  It seemed like a simple job and,  being that they were the original installers I called Ken and asked him to do it, with the intention of being home to supervise the project this time.  First he wanted to charge me to come out to give an estimate on the job.  That gave me reservation, but I needed it done so I skipped that step and just scheduled the job.  The technician, Dan, spent a lot of time bragging about his skill level and qualifications, but struggled with this simple job from the start.  Have you ever noticed that people who DON'T know what they are doing spend a lot of time trying to convince you that they do while people who DO know what they're doing just get the job done?  He finally left around 6:30, the unit on initial inspection appeared to be functional but in the OFF setting. That was telling because if he had left it on I would have immediately seen the error code on the screen.  I will confess that I was distracted with evening chores and thankful that he was finally finished.  I paid him the $567 by check, a price that I didn't object to at the time and still would not.....if the heater worked!  After he left I turned the unit on and it immediately read an error code on the display.  I called in the morning to ask what it meant and Dan responded "You have the manual, don't you?" (Sure wish Dan had a manual!)  I expressed to him that when I had asked for the heater to be installed I had intended that it work.  He said that it would take 24 hours for it to reset after having been disconnected and we would not know anything until then(which was a complete lie).  Of course by then it was the weekend.  My husband went into the attic and looked at the area that the wiring comes from and found loose wires that were clearly meant to go to the unit that had not been connected.

Of course my check had already been cashed.  Big regrets on not using a credit card here.  Then I received the receipt in the mail with a full typed page of lies about the details of the visit and conversations that never happened.  Dan claimed to have told me that I needed to purchase a new unit on arrival because the unit was unlikely to work properly.  He claimed to have told me that there were multiple missing parts, that the electricity to the unit was compromised and that he had been shocked.  In truth he had turned off the power to my entire home for several hours because he could not determine which breaker went to the unit.  Remember, this is the same company that installed the unit and the electrical panel in the first place, not a new company working after someone else!  Was the job done wrong the first time or the second?

So my husband called to speak with the technician and was told that he was not available and that he should speak with Ken, the owner.  My husband asked that Ken come out and see how the job had been handled by the technician who was clearly not up to the job.  The case to the heating unit had been forced together and was bent and misshapen, the display panel was not set properly in the window where it belonged, the temperature sensor was not installed properly, the wiring was not connected to the thermostat at all, the unit had an error code on the display screen and was not functioning at all.  Any business owner would want to evaluate a claim that an employee had done shoddy work, right?  Not Ken.  Ken was combative, made excuses, argued, used profanity, and behaved generally unprofessionally throughout the call.  There was no effort to make any resolution to the issue.

In the meantime the unit overheated!  It went from making no heat at all to becoming too hot to touch, obviously a hazard.  We had to disconnect the power while waiting for a solution.

That brings us back to my call to my electric company.  If you are not part of an electric cooperative, I am sorry.  I called to complain about a contractor who years before had been on a "preferred contractor" list that they had supplied me.  I thought I was just blowing off steam and spreading the word.  In fact, the word was already out.  And what they provided me was a solution.  They sent a competent technician out and at no charge to me, he quickly and efficiently fixed the botch job that had been left by Ken Adams Mechanical.  He straightened and properly placed the case back on the unit, lining the display back up properly when it was reassembled correctly.  He found the wires that were not hooked at all as well as others that were connected in completely the wrong places and corrected those.  He called the manufacturer and went through a step by step verification process to ensure that it was functioning safely and properly.  All in under two hours.  Makes you wonder why I would have needed a new unit?  Missing parts, nope.  Compromised electricity....only what had been hooked up wrong in the first effort to reinstall i