I have a Florida Heat Pump HVAC that was installed in the attic of our new home by Rushco in 1995. I paid a premium for it, but the unit does an excellent job and it is incredibly efficient.
I have had the unit worked on by Rushco several times when the occasional problem occurred, and we began to notice around 2002 that the technicians didn't inspire confidence, and didn't seem to know what they were doing. They were always having to call back to headquarters and speak to someone who supposedly was familiar with the unit. Since Rushco installed the unit in the first place, why wasn't someone who knew the unit sent on the service call?
Things came to a head in late December. The unit wasn't heating properly, and Rushco sent out a technician who went into the attic, opened the casing, looked inside and said that he would need to find the manuals for the unit as he was totally unfamiliar with it. He was a nice young man, but he wasn't what we needed. He left the casing off anticipating returning to complete the repairs in a few days.
Rushco was apparently contacting the manufacturer in order to obtain a troubleshooting manual for the heat pump (they installed it - shouldn't they already have one?!), but since I were going to be out of town over Christmas, there was a delay in having the unit serviced.
I returned home on 27 December to find that the unit had experienced a frozen water line due to the insulating cover being off, ruptured and flooded my house. The water had been running in the attic for over a day. The insulation and ceiling had collapsed in several areas, and there was extensive damage to the house.
After the water was shut off, a Rushco technician (not the same one) came and sealed off the broken water line. We weren't concerned with the continued poor operation of the unit at that time because of the lack of manuals and the priority of repairing the water damage to the house.
About a week later I was contacted by Rushco and told they had received the troubleshooting manual, and would be able to repair the original problem with the heat pump. The second technician returned, and spent 5 hours working with the unit, 2 hours on a trip to Ft. Worth to buy special tools he didn't have with him (and which were available in Denton 10 minutes away), and an hour in transit, from his home apparently. He was on the phone extensively with FHP tech service learning about the unit, and in the end he solved the problem by removing 3 pounds of Freon. That's all. Apparently, the last time it had been serviced by Rushco (they were the only ones who had EVER serviced our heat pump), it was over serviced. The unit would work in cooling mode with excess Freon, but only intermittently in heating mode.
I now had a working heat pump (and $25,000 in damage to my house), so I was almost happy with the heat pump until I got the bill. Rushco billed my credit card $650 for the removal of the 3 pounds of Freon!
While I appreciate getting the unit working, I do NOT appreciate being charged by the hour for the technician's drive time to work, his drive time to a city an hour away to buy tools he neglected to bring with him, and his education time in learning about the unit to fix it. I hired Rushco for their supposed expertise with this unit. After all, they were the ones who installed it!
It took nearly 3 weeks to get to Mr. Tim Rusher (the owner of the company) on the phone to explain my dissatisfaction with this. He neither returned calls nor replied to messages left. When I finally did get to speak to him, he said that I assume all the risks when I accept a service call. He was dismissive to the point of being rude when I said I shouldn't have to pay by the hour for the HVAC education of his people. They were supposed to know the job before he sent them on service calls. He disagreed, and had apparently decided that he didn't want us as customers anyway, so he could as rude as he wanted.
I took this to the Better Business Bureau of Ft. Worth, but as of May 10th Rushco had not responded to a single inquiry from them. Ms. Jane Davis of that office informed me that they are closing the file due to the lack of response, and that she regrets that a resolution was not reached. I am of the opinion that the Better Business Bureau is pretty worthless if that is the extent of what they do.
I want to warn all residents of Ft. Worth to be careful about who services their heat and air conditioning. Tim Rusher is hiring but not training his people, and sending them out to learn how heating and air conditioning works while charging his customers by the hour for that time. He appeared to be charming and competent when I first met him to install the unit. He either fooled me, or he has changed.
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