Reliance Superior Heating & Air Conditioning

Called customer service on May 28/14 to book service call for A/C not working properly at my home just outside of Winnipeg. Service call was booked for Thursday May 29/14 between 7-11 am. When tech had not called or arrived by 11 am, I called the service number (which is their call centre in Ontario) and was told the work order did not appear to have been 'scheduled' as it had been inadvertently posted to their locations in Ontario. Was told by call centre rep that tech would be at my home by 2 pm that day. Another call to the call centre and the tech finally arrived at 3:45 pm and turned A/C off, indicating it was frozen and would have to thaw overnight. He indicated he had arranged a service call for first thing the next morning (Friday May 30). I asked if I needed to do anything to confirm the appointment and he indicated that no, it had been taken care of.

Called customer service at 10 am May 30 when tech had not phoned or arrived first thing in the morning. The call centre rep was horrible - very rude, and told me that she couldn't do anything until 11 am as that is when the service window was until. I asked her to at least check what province the work order showed, and she said Ontario. She did ask me if Winnipeg was in Ontario and I had to explain that no, it was in Manitoba and that it was unlikely techs would drive 2,000 kms from Toronto to Winnipeg, and back. I asked to speak to a manager, and was told that they would call me within one hour. I did not receive a call, and called the call center 90 minutes later. Another call centre rep apologized and told me she had booked an override appointment that would arrive by 2 pm that afternoon.

When tech had not arrived or called by 2 pm, I called the service number and was told by another rep that the call had been booked for between 1pm and 5 pm in ONTARIO AGAIN and that there was no override appointment on file as the rep had told me there was. My call was escalated to Customer Resolutions who took care of booking an appointment in Manitoba that afternoon. She followed up to ensure that a tech had me on their route for the afternoon.

The tech arrived at my house at 4:30 pm, and indicated he would not be able to complete the work, because IT WAS TOO LATE IN THE DAY (it was a Friday too). So much for my appointment first thing in the morning. The tech did indicate that for a couple of weeks he and the other techs in Winnipeg have been dealing with irate customers because of the Ontario call center and their errors in booking calls. The tech was very nice, however, and was able to get the unit to cool somewhat for the weekend, and booked a follow up to install a part on June 4. He confirmed it was booked in Winnipeg and that service call did happen as planned.

Bottom line is that the Winnipeg-based technicians are skilled and good at what they do, but the Ontario call centre reps and management and the process for booking service calls are absolutely dismal. If you are in Winnipeg do yourself a service and look elsewhere to try to find a company that is local so you don't have to put up with these issues.