Dallas woman goes two weeks without air conditioning, then meets a company owner with a heart
The woman and the man needed each other, but for very different reasons.
She needed it because she was stuck in the new home she’d bought this year with a broken air conditioner for two weeks in the blazing summer heat. Aside from her new home guarantee, no one would fix it.
He needed it because he was taking over a failed air conditioning company and trying to make amends for the original owner’s misdeeds that led to the company’s bankruptcy.
He wasn’t involved in any of this, but says he feels sorry for all of the previous customers who have been mistreated. He wants to make amends by trying to earn penance for past corporate sins. Or to use another religious expression: He seeks redemption through suffering.
Patonia Rhule in south Dallas, meet Aron Finn from Frymire Home Services.
I introduced them and hoped for a perfect match. Patonia told me that their air conditioner broke and no one would fix it. She stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights with her two children, but the bill was $ 400. As a new homeowner, she couldn’t afford it. The rest of the time, the family relied on boxing fans.
Aron took over Frymire a year ago as co-owner and managing director. He read my 2017 story about the company detailing my own problems with Frymire from 1998. In that story, I called the old Frymire crew a “parade of fools disguising themselves as air conditioning repair technicians.”
My fight with them was personally significant because I took the home builder they hired to a small claims court for my first serious consumer dispute. I won and later taught all of my neighbors to do the same. In a way, it was childhood that I later became The Watchdog.
After Aron took over Frymire, he contacted me. “I feel like I owe you a debt,” he said, “as the company I now own has nowhere near provided you with exceptional service. I have to say, you weren’t the only customer who expressed dissatisfaction with the service Frymire provided at the time. “
His management team, he said, “worked tirelessly not only to provide the best possible service and experience, but also to correct the past deeds of our predecessors. This applies to both our customers and our employees. “
He added, “We still don’t get it right the first time, but I can say that every problem is ultimately resolved to the satisfaction of our customers.”
Let me give you a stark example of how Aron is trying to change the Frymire culture.
The old company attracted national attention years ago with a billboard that read, “Your wife is hot”. It added, “Better get the air conditioning fixed.”
Aron changed the message. “Instead, we put up a billboard for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month that said ‘Frymire cares’ in pink letters. That’s the message we’re trying to send, not ‘your wife is hot’. “
‘We apologize’
In Patonia’s case, she blames her home builder, Ameritex Homes, and the builder’s house guarantee company – in this case Airtron, owned by the electricity company Direct Energy.
Direct Energy spokeswoman Christina Allen reviewed the case and reported back: “We apologize to Ms. Rhule for the time it took to repair her air conditioning. Your experience is inconsistent with our customer service goals. We received the service call just before Labor Day weekend and made a service call at her home on Tuesday, the next working day when we returned to regular opening hours. We regret that she had to spend a long weekend vacation without air conditioning. “
Patonia counters that she had been without cool air for two weeks, not a “long vacation weekend”.
At Ameritex Homes, President Tara Williams declined to speak to The Watchdog, but spokeswoman Stacey Wirtjes for parent company Winchester Carlisle Cos. sent me a detailed log of all the times Patonia had made a repair request and the number of visits electricians and Airtron technicians made to their home.
I counted four requests for air conditioning repairs from Patonia dating back to July. I’ve counted seven service visits to her home to apply corrections that didn’t work.
The contractor’s spokesperson told The Watchdog: “We are disappointed with the time it took to diagnose Ms. Rhules HVAC and we’ve made changes so other homeowners won’t have the same experience in the future.”
‘drastically undersized’
I knew Aron had a big heart because he and I worked together on a similar construction mistake a decade ago. I shared the story of an elderly Fort Worth man who was ripped off by two brothers. The couple promised to do foundation repairs and instead performed only light caulking and thin concrete repairs. They took the man’s money, $ 19,000, and didn’t finish the job. It turned out that they were ex-inmates.
Particularly noteworthy was the involvement of Canadian reality TV star Mike Holmes. Holmes made a career fixing bad work by incompetent builders and showing consumers how to be smart.
Holmes’ crew brought together Lowe’s, Plumber Roto-Rooter and Perma-Pier, a foundation company where Aron worked. Aron took over the project. That’s how we got to know each other.
When I recently told Aron about Patonia’s plight, he responded. As a temporary solution, his boys brought three window units with them. His crew ran a diagnostic test and found the air conditioning to be “drastically undersized,” he said.
A few days later, his crew removed the old unit and installed one that was twice as powerful. They also renewed the sewer work.
He said he felt particularly bad for Patonia because she had moved into her house and had no hot water during the terrible chill in February.
He also added, “Texas without air conditioning in the summer? I mean come on! And she works from home, so she has no rest at all from the heat. “
I asked Aron what the retail price of Patonia’s job is. He did some calculations and told me $ 11,700.
He didn’t charge Patonia anything. She is excited.
It’s quite a transformation. Frymire goes from villain to savior. A $ 11,700 job is a lot to lose for any business. But it’s a penance. Salvation through suffering. A perfect match for everyone.
After two summer weeks without air conditioning in their new Ameritex Home, Aron Finn, owner of Frymire Home Services, tells Patonia Rhule how their new system works. He came to fix and replace what warranty holder Airtron, owned by Direct Energy, couldn’t do.(Jason Janik / special article)
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