“There would be no answer on the phone, the number that I always called, and I’m thinking great, I just lost my money,” Gail Duffey said.
Gail said when she stopped by a display outside her local Home Depot store two years ago, inquiring about repairing services for her eight-year-old air conditioner.
The display booth was for Delta Mechanical, a business offering repair, and warranty services.
“I thought, it’s at Home Depot so it’s probably reliable,” Gail said.
So, Gail made an appointment and technicians with Delta Mechanical came by her house to inspect her air conditioner.
“The salesperson pointed out to me that they had a service contract that might save me some money,” she said.
Gail paid $599 for a five-year contract. At first, Gail said she was happy with the service but a year later when she had to order an expensive part for a repair, she said the company kept delaying the service.
“They quickly came out to diagnose the problem but they were very slow, once they took our money for the part, to actually come and finish the job,” Gail said.
Appointments were made but the company would never show up. Gail said she called Delta Mechanical to complain. The company offered Gail a $300 refund for the delays.
“But then when I looked at my credit card statement, no credit,” she said.
Gail said for six months, she couldn’t get in contact with anyone at Delta Mechanical about her refund. NBC 7 Responds tried contacting Delta Mechanical and ran into the same issues Gail had.
Since Gail had heard of Delta Mechanical by a display with Home Depot, NBC 7 Responds reached out to Home Depot representatives to see if they could get in contact with Delta Mechanical.
Gail said even though her contract was with a different company, the manager at Home Depot said he would make sure Delta Mechanical reimbursed Gail the $300 she was promised. Home Depot also promised Gail it would find another company to honor the remainder of her service contract for the AC unit.
NBC 7 Responds learned Delta Mechanical closed its air conditioning service division and personnel changes led to the delayed refund.
In an email, Suzy Kitchukova, a spokesperson for Delta Mechanical, said, “Delta Mechanical would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the inconvenience caused to Mrs. Duffey. Unfortunately, due to a change in personnel, the refund was not submitted to the proper department for processing. Once this oversight was brought to our attention, we were able to process the refund immediately. Delta Mechanical is currently fulfilling all warranty work for previous installations. Please call (619) 229-6800 or visit this link for more information.”
