Hey guys, in today's video, we're gonna watch a few of the latest scams being reported on on HVAC companies. my name is Josh and I host the HVAC guide for homeowners YouTube channel and the goal here is to hopefully help you avoid some of these scams. So let's dive into this. The first one comes out of Canada This is an interesting one because not only are they reporting on a particular Heating and Air company that seems to be doing some not so fun things, but they're also reporting on their agency that's supposed to help homeowners through all of this.

Apparently in Canada they have something called the Consumer Affairs Offices and we don't have anything quite like this in the U.S unless it kind of equates to the FTC I'm not really sure, but unlike, say the Better Business Bureau this is an actual Federal agency and so they're going to talk about this as we dive into this. So if you're not in Canada I do think you'll get a little bit out of this. but of course if you are in Canada then you may know exactly what they're talking about. This is your Marketplace we're headed to Hamilton Ontario Testing the government's promise to protect consumers.

Hey, Kira Hi hi, good to see you and they're home. You have something to show me. Yes, All right. this monstrous thing here is what they installed here.

A major feels scammed and says she was sucked into renting a HEPA filter by an HVAC company that promised savings. What was it about the sales pitch with Ontario Green Savings I Got you to sign up I Thought I was going to get reduced reduction in my bills because he said this filter will help make your furnace more efficient. We'll also give you some rebates that the government's giving out. So let me pause this real quick before we go any further and say a couple things.

The first thing is, if you ever have a Heating and air contractor making claims like this product is going to make your system more efficient, it's going to lower your electric bills I Think it's okay to get that in writing I Think it's okay to say to them: can I get that in writing and will you take this back if it does not do what you say it's going to do, We've had customers do that at Griffin Air. We've had customers that we will sit, you know, tell them about a product, we will install that product for them and they weren't happy with the results and they've called us back and we've taken that product out for them. So that's the first thing If this lady was told hey, this is going to lower your electric bills I Think a cleaner furnace is in general more efficient than a dirty furnace, but if she was expecting a certain amount of savings after installing this expensive, they're going to talk more about the numbers in just a second. I've already seen this particular video, but if she was expecting a certain amount of savings after installing this piece of equipment, then she has something in writing saying, hey, we'll take it back if it doesn't meet.

you know those standards. Now the contractor, may you know if they're putting everything in writing? they may have terms with that. They may say, well listen, we'll take it back, but we're still gonna have to charge you the labor or we're still gonna. You know, we can't eat the part itself, but we can eat the labor however they want to do it, but at least getting something in writing so you know up front what exactly you're signing up for, what exactly the product is going to cost and what you should be expecting after installing the product.

I think will make a big difference. So let's go a little further here. She signs up and then discovers a lien on her home and has to pay nearly 9 000 to remove it. All of that for a filter which retails for less than a thousand bucks online.

Do you feel you were taken? Absolutely. I'm embarrassed actually I don't like to talk about it because I'm embarrassed I Got scammed. so nine thousand dollars for a HEPA filter is pretty steep. Uh, in her defense, I don't know how things are done.

Everybody does things different in different markets. but I am a little surprised that they put a lien on her home so quickly. Maybe there's more to that story. Maybe she was threatening to not pay or something? or maybe the company really is that crooked.

Earlier this year we investigate the same HVAC company capturing on hidden camera on Ontario Green Savings rep using misleading claims to sell a new water heater to an undercover Marketplace producer. There's nothing wrong with the old one, but that's not what he says ticketed so you have to get it replaced within the next six days. That's a scam. We've seen other news organizations do stories on uh, having plumbers come in when the news anchor or they actually might have a third party plumber create the leak by loosening A fitting or something like that only to have a company come in.

In some cases, multiple companies come in and tell them they need to replace the water heater. Regard finds herself caught up in the company's sales pitch too a false promise of big savings, but instead she gets HVAC equipment that will end up costing a lot more than it's worth. This furnace is worth about eighteen hundred dollars. No way.

No 1800 1800 and you're gonna be paying more than twelve thousand over the course of this contract. It makes me want to cry. Wow! 12 grand for a furnace would be quite steep. It's hard to tell in the pictures if anything else is new.

I Do see what appears to be an evaporator coil mounted on top of that furnace, but it's hard to tell because of the way it was uh installed. Doesn't look like they installed a cased coil. It looks like they had someone fabricate the Box around the coil so it's hard to tell if that's new. It does kind of look maybe newish in the Uh video, but uh, parts of the ductwork looks like it may not be new.

So I'm not exactly sure if there is more to this. You know, if the lady paid uh for the you know, a new system entirely for an outdoor unit, indoor unit, a furnace. to have these flu vents installed. The flu vents themselves look like they possibly could be new in that case, then you know it might be a little bit of a stretch to tell the homeowner what one component costs when their bill seems to be several thousand dollars higher than that, you know she may have paid the market price.

You know that that you know is is a whole nother story, but if she paid 12 Grand just for the furnace, that would be quite ridiculous. Both women file complaints with Consumer Protection Ontario The ministry promises to investigate and enforce consumer protection laws. You filed a complaint with Consumer Protection Ontario What happened there? Essentially nothing. I Sent everything in and they came back and said that it was not approved that I did not have a case.

So how many more have told the government? They too have been ripped off by this same HVAC company. So that's one thing that I'm curious about is you know I don't know how this works I You know, living in the U.S I don't know how Canada does things. If this agency is meant to protect the consumer, the question becomes in what ways there are certain organizations or companies here in the U.S that are designed to protect the consumer such as the Better Business Bureau When in reality the Better Business Bureau is just a third-party website that they do different things with the online reputation of particular companies by posting reviews, complaints, and having this accredited program that they have. but in reality they're not a police.

They're not some sort of agency employed by the government to protect consumers, even if they are non-profit So uh, you know, I'm not quite as familiar with this company. If you do know, please comment down below. if you're in Canada or not in Canada and you just happen to know how this all works. It seems to me that these folks are under the assumption that this agency is supposed to protect them in some way and go after the contractor for these things at bare minimum.

If the complaints that they have been receiving are posted publicly about this company, then at least future homeowners would know that that this company has a reputation of taking advantage of people Before they do business with them. We do some digging. Okay, let's see what we can get. All right, let's do it and file a freedom of Information request that allows members of the public, including journalists to access government records.

We could pull some of this stuff. Hey, check this out. We uncover more than 400 calls and complaints to Consumer Protection Ontario About Ontario Green saving things in the last three years. Civil Litigation lawyer Jennifer Lilly says the complaints keep coming.

so I would say probably take at least one call per week from people who have been scammed by that company. She also provides legal advice with the non-profit agency Pro Bono. Ontario Is the government doing enough to protect homeowners? They definitely think that they could be doing more, Especially, a lot of consumer protection legislation was passed, but a lot of it is being disregarded by these companies. Well, here's the thing.

I mean could they be doing more? Here's the bottom line: If they're breaking the law, if this company is doing something that is illegal and they're breaking the law, of course they could be doing more. Of course they could be taking action and doing something about this company that's running a huge scam of sorts. It clearly hasn't stopped. I Want to show you something we uncovered more than 400 complaints and calls to.

Consumer Protection Ontario About this one company: When you see all these people in a very similar situation, what does it tell you? Consumers don't matter. The department is there to just make the government look good that we're protecting our consumers when they're really not. Do you feel like you're completely alone in this? I did before you guys showed up. Kira Wants to know why Consumer Protection won't investigate her complaint.

so we call them up together. How can I help you? hi? Um I'm just calling to find out more about a case that I had put in. So why did it not get investigated? This is referred to pro Bono meeting. Our service is here.

wouldn't be good enough to obtain your money. Consumer Protection won't help me, can't help you I Mean there's limits to what we can associate with here. She doesn't get any answers. Instead, she's told consumer protection can only help in cases where companies cooperate.

I am familiar with materials and uh wow. So this agency that is put together by the government knows who this company is and is calling them a bad faith company. Oh that is that's powerful so she's left on her own. He said consumer Protection Ontario knows this company is a problem.

Yeah yet here you are. That's disgusting. It it? that's not right. It's not okay.

No support Karen knows that feeling. The ministry has determined that your complaint will not be investigated. I Was pretty shocked. The Ontario government does nothing for Karen either.

They wash their hands of me. So what good is that like to just say yeah, You're right, but we can't help you. How would you describe consumer protection given your experience? I Found it very disappointing I didn't have the help? What protection is there If they're just saying yeah, you have case, see you later. go to pro bono for some free help.

Yeah, that's a interesting. So they're basically telling the homeowner if they do or don't have a case. and so it gets back to a lot of homeowners. Their only course of action is to actually sue the contractor in some of these cases.

And of course, if you sue them, you don't really know if you're going to win in court, especially if you don't have certain things in writing. it becomes a he said she said kind of thing. I Went to this agency's website consumer affairs and I it could be there and I'm just not seeing it. but I don't see anything public about these, uh, complaints.

So in contrast the Better Business Bureau if you make a complaint or if you make a you know, leave a review for a particular company then that's usually posted publicly in some way. but I don't see that with this particular agency. I'm not sure why maybe I'm just not seeing it. but if they were to make some of this stuff public then at least that might help future consumers or homeowners avoid some of this pain that these homeowners are dealing with.

It's also just overwhelming trying to navigate this support process. These companies: They target people who want to make a positive impact on the climate crisis by making their homes more energy efficient. They target people who want to save money by upgrading equipments, and they target people who want to ensure the health and safety of their families. So really anybody? Yeah, there's not really any demographic that's not susceptible to the tactics that they're using here.

This is a very sophisticated scale. After several victims come forward, the government laid dozens of charges against the company and its director back in 2019. But since then, our search uncovers 2.2 million dollars in consumer claims. The tryout hasn't even begun.

The company tells us they will defend themselves in court. they ask, they've already made some improvements and are committed to their customers satisfaction. At what point do these guys get stalked? They just curious if this company was gone and that's okay, but they don't change names. Wow.

So I did look them up and they have a decent reputation online. They've got 1874 Google reviews during the recording of this video and a 4.3 rating on Google It appears they are still in business and despite this news Channel story and all of the press they seem to be getting, they are still continuing on. I Did find some third-party websites outside of Google that it appears that they are receiving some bad reviews and their reputation is not so good. I Think another thing I'll point out that might help you as a consumer is if you have a contractor that is making a recommendation or trying to sell you a product it shouldn't be that big a deal to, you know, get a second opinion.

Even if that opinion doesn't match the first opinion, you'll hopefully get a good idea if you're being scammed and maybe getting someone else's opinion might actually reinforce the first opinion. You might hear what they have to say and decide that the first company does have your best interests at heart. This next story comes from a news channel out of Northeast. Florida SouthEast Georgia They did a video here on some common HVAC repair scams.

Let's dive into it. So throughout the course of this Tuesday we want to help you stay cool and save your money. And one of the things we want to do is make sure that your air conditioner runs efficiently, walk you through the small tweaks you can make around the house to save money on your electric bill. But first, we want to make sure that you don't lose money to scammers.

and Jen they are out there so you've got to be mindful of some of the ways they want to well raid your wallet. Yeah, and you know the tough part honestly. Bruce And for our viewers, no doubt is is that you know a lot of us, just don't know a whole lot about how our AC unit runs, how it works, and and how to extend the life of the AC unit. So we we tend to rely on other people who we call when our AC stops working and we hope that they're being honest with us and unfortunately that's not always the case.

I Think she makes a really good point there a lot of folks, especially even if you're watching this video. A lot of our viewers are here to try to learn more because unlike say, buying a house or a car, buying a heating and air system is not something you do every day. And because of that, sometimes there's an education curve. You're trying to educate yourself, but also make sure you're not being scammed or taken advantage of.

Florida's Attorney General Ashley Moody has released has released a list of the most common schemes so that you can be informed. So Moody says the most popular includes being told that you need to replace parts that are working just fine and you're often then quoted high prices for part. Replacements in an attempt to get you to buy a new system is a better option. Also, selling you an unnecessary amount of refrigerant Moody says that people can be tricked into buying more than is needed to maintain a system, even hitting victims with this same scam multiple times if the company is called to fix another problem with that same.

AC the first one replacing parts that are working. The only thing I can tell you on that is getting a second opinion. The second one I can tell you that most systems today when you buy them will have on the label on the outdoor unit how much refrigerant that system holds. Now there is cases where you might have to add a little bit of refrigerant on top of what is on that label.

For example, if the system says it holds seven pounds well because of the length of the line set or some other situation, a contractor might actually have to add a little more than that. But if the label says seven pounds, you don't need 20 pounds if that makes sense. Also, Beware of the recharge scam. So if you're told a refrigerant recharge is a solution to your AC problems, Moody says this is often a ploy to sell that unneeded service because it does not need to be recharged, that's an interesting one.

I Would definitely get a second opinion on that if you have someone that seems to continue to want to recharge the system with refrigerant. But to say that systems never need refrigerant. which I Know that's not exactly what she's saying, but I Don't want folks to be misled to say that there are systems that never need referred and added. Well, that's just simply not the case at Griffin Air.

We actually have a system in place where if a system is low on charge, we give the customer options. So that way they can do a temporary fix. you know that might cost less money or they can do a permanent fix that you know. maybe it might be a little more of an investment, but the goal would be to not have to continue to add refrigerant over and over.

Also, don't let anyone start work on your AC unit until you understand or have mutually agreed to terms of a contract. I Love that one. That's one that has overlooked big time in the heating and air industry. Get it in writing, get what exactly they're going to do for how much they're going to charge and what exactly it's going to fix.

I Think that there are percentage of scams that happen today that would be alleviated or remedied if you were to get it in writing now. I'm not saying that the scam won't still happen, but at least you'll have a leg to stand on if you do have to take them to court. And finally, we say this a lot. but it's so important.

the price is just too good to be true. Yeah! Moody Warns that companies can be cutting Corners to offer repairs or quotes at incredibly low prices, even throwing in freebies. She says this could lead to further repairs that could then end up costing you even more money. I Know that this is a lot of information so these tips aren't bad.

I Will say that I'm going to put a link down in the description of this video for all of these videos in case you want to go to them and watch them further. but we've got one more video here we're going to watch and this final video comes to us from a news channel out of California And they did a story on some repairmen that are inflating fees to fix a simple problem now at David Goldstein Investigation: Just in time for summer, his hidden cameras caught some air conditioning repairmen charging for repairs that weren't needed and David's here now with his undercover investigation where he even caught someone intentionally intentionally disabling the unit. That's what we think and that's what we call them doing I Think we did. When the air conditioner repairman or woman tells you you need this part or this kind of repair, your first thought is probably are they being honest? Well, our hidden cameras found out as the Sun beats down on Southern California there's no Stop playing cold air.

We turned up the heat on air conditioning repair companies. You're just trying to rip us off and you're trying to jack up the price right. We set up our undercover producer with hidden cameras in and around this condo in Santa Clarita to find out if local repair companies would give us an honest estimate. but before we called in the technicians we called in an expert Pressures were great.

Gabriel Ciafi teaches air conditioning repair at La Trade Technical College You would think if he teaches how to do this he would know what he's doing. He checked out our unit, it's working proper. It's working properly. It was working properly until we had him disconnect these two wires.

Cutting the power. Steam news channels do uh, stuff like this before when they're doing their little undercover stings, they will just remove two low voltage wires causing the system to not turn on like it should. It should be in a simple fix. For anybody that knows what they're doing, it would be a simple fix.

He says it should be no more than a 200.00 repair job should a qualified technician catch what you did there with those two wires. Absolutely, it should be very easy to diagnose. Let's see first up where Ron and zip with XL Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. So I don't know these guys I don't know their company and I don't even know what's about to happen I have not seen this video but I can tell you that anytime I'm a homeowner.

If I have a system that is, you know I'm not looking for an estimate to replace yet and you know I just have a system that's not working and two guys show up and one of them is carrying a looks like a clipboard or a binder? uh, call somebody else I I mean if they already have two guys unless one of them's a helper or Junior Tech but that does not appear it looks like to me the salesman showed up here. Their website claims they're reliable professionals. No, it's just hot or warm air just where I'm here. Ron Left with his tools saying he was going to check the unit outside but our hidden camera shows him just walking.

So again I haven't seen this. so the actual repair Tech went out while. I Guess the salesman stayed inside buy it several times, never inspecting to see what was wrong. Okay, even so they pretended wow so he never even looks at the unit, part of the wiring and the controller and gave us a price.

It's a simple fix. The simple fix is we're talking about 500 and he's gonna rewire it and do like, make sure it's working Hey Ron David Goldstein with CBS 2 News how are you Ron Couldn't explain why he didn't find the two disconnected wires. Why is it 500 rewire? The price is not me. my friend.

um this is not my car so he's gonna blame the owner of the company. I guess uh the guy never even looked at the unit so that this is probably the craziest one I've seen in a while. It's one thing to you know do something that's scammy or you know jack up a price. but if you never even looked at the unit that is.

uh, that's crazy. Thank you. Next was Vlad who responded after we called American West Appliance repair their website touts experienced technicians with Factory training. He actually went outside and checked our unit doing some work that we couldn't see.

Then he came back with his findings of what was broken electrical conductor and the price. but not cheap. not cheap but tax label and total 32 34 . everything's working fine.

you're just trying to rip us off and you're trying to jack up the price right? Maybe yeah, maybe you are. Yeah, so you admit you are. That's very Noble of you to be honest and I appreciate that. you're welcome.

But when Vlad left, we connected the wires to test the unit. It didn't work. Hold on here. Sheafi found this piece of something.

He took this photo showing it was wedged in between the two metal contactors which prevented the unit from starting. Have you ever seen something like this where somebody? No. I've never seen that that one before. That's a first.

So he's doing this to Takanas right. He was right. The contactor did need to be replaced but it was because of uh, what he did to the contactor. That is crazy.

Hey Blood! David Goldstein With Cbs2 remember me. The next week we caught up with Vlad who this time wasn't coming clean. So I have no idea about. Oh come on, you were honest with me.

Before you want to be honest with me. did you put that piece? I Have no idea about this. Several companies did find the problem like NRG Heating and Air who didn't even charge us and Reliance Home Services who found it and charged a reasonable price so we'll be at 80 dollars. but Vlad while honest the first time wasn't budging.

Have a good day my man. Thank you! Well I guess the question is, how can you prevent this The best way of course to get a second opinion. Certainly if it's a for a big money repair, but the smaller ones, you're sort of at the mercy of those repairmen. Pat All right.

David Let's hope people wrote down the names of the good ones here. I Like what she said, there might hopefully people wrote down the names of the good ones. We've talked about a few things here. we talked about.

You know, getting that second opinion. But just like this lady just said, you know it's probably a good idea to check the online reputation for some of these companies. Ask your neighbors who do they use, Ask your family members. Chances are, if they have somebody they like, then you can avoid a lot of headaches.

Checking reviews online is always a good thing to do. One thing I would probably recommend you not do is do what some of the folks I've seen do in our area do and that is going. Different websites. uh social media websites and say Hey You know who's the best heating and air contractor or who's the best plumber? who's the best electrician.

It's my experience that some of those people commenting on those types of posts are genuine, that they are recommending who they like can use, but in some cases they're not so genuine and that they are. You know either the spouse of whoever some sort of family member of who they're referring you to and in some cases that I've seen they're referring you to people that are not even licensed contractors that they're just somebody doing it for beer money on the side. So avoid those chucking a truck stand in the Vans side job. Bobs And of course, follow some of the tips that they said in these videos: Have you experienced a scam or had a heating and air contractor? would not be so honest.

Love to hear about that. Please comment down below. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.