RC PSTJ

Review of Atlas-Glen-mor

Petro Home Services was contracted to perform an a...

Petro Home Services was contracted to perform an annual visual inspection of three furnaces, three hot water heaters and the gas lines in our multi-family and to make repair recommendations if necessary, to ensure that these three systems were operating efficiently and safely. After several hours, the technician from Petro Home Services indicated that everything was fine with the furnaces, but he did express concern at his discovery of some mortar and wooden laths at the base of our chimney. This same technician from Petro Home Services then recommended that I follow up his visit by contacting a chimney sweep to perform an inspection of our chimney. Luckily, I secured the services of that chimney sweep that very afternoon. I greeted the chimney sweep at our front door and while I ushered him downstairs to the cellar, I happened to mention that our heating system had just been inspected by this technician from Petro Home Services only hours before and that he had given us his assurance that everything was fine and perfectly safe. However, within minutes of entering our cellar, the chimney sweep was able to point his flashlight at a section of the flue that connected one of the furnaces to our chimney that was clearly severed. As such, this breach in the flue represented a potential health hazard that would have gone unchecked until next year when we again underwent our annual inspection. This breach in our heating system could have potentially impacted our safety and health, as well as that of our tenants who rely on us, their landlords, to provide a safe and healthy environment. When I discovered this, I immediately tried to call Petro Home Services to lodge my complaint but their phone lines were malfunctioning. It wasn't until my third attempt at a phone call that I was able to connect with a representative from Petro Home Services. I spoke with their field service supervisor, offered to email him photos I had taken of the severed flue and asked what he and Petro Home Services intended to do about this breach of trust that I experienced as a result their perfunctory and lackadaisical inspection. The field service supervisor indicated that it was not his responsibility as Petro Home Services had been sub-contracted by another company and that I should contact that other company to resolve any complaints I might have. Petro Home Services was unwilling to stand by their work- albeit inferior work- performed by their own contractor, and forced me the consumer to pursue any remediation elsewhere, and on my time. I contract for home service safety inspections to provide peace of mind! If you care about the safety of your home, I would strongly urge you to avoid Petro Home Services at all cost! Postscript: The owner of Petro Home Services did call me today to apologize and to try to make this situation right. I respect him for taking the time to reach out and contact me and based on the tone of our conversation, I do believe he will follow up with my recommendation to speak to his employees to ensure that situations like this do not occur in the future.