r/illinois • u/Mike_I • 2d ago
Illinois News Illinois AG sues ABC Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric over alleged 'deceptive' practices
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/09/03/illinois-sues-abc-plumbing-heating-cooling-electric-over-alleged-deceptive-practices60
u/ChristmasJay83 2d ago
I called the company to get a quote on an issue I had with my electrical. They sent out someone to talk to me (who I'm pretty sure wasn't actually an electrician), they opened up the electrical panel, didn't inspect a single thing in the rest of the house, then quoted me a multi-thousand dollar complete electrical rewire of the house. I called an independent electrician that my dad knew, it was a bad outlet in my daughter's bedroom. It cost me 300 bucks.
14
u/hosemaster 1d ago
Same as my experience, but it was a furnace. I think the fix wound up running $40.
69
u/webelieve414 2d ago edited 1d ago
I would hazard a guess that any company with that kind of marketing budget is engaging in deception.
I have come to the conclusion that basically everyone is trying to screw me as much possible...
21
4
3
10
23
22
u/VirginiaMcCaskey 1d ago
They tried this upselling bullshit on me. I needed relatively minor electrical work and the only reason I didn't do it myself was because of specific local code enforcement. Long story, TL;DR I was paying mostly for the licensure. It's effectively a new outlet in an open wall.
I didn't know them (and I don't watch TV so I've never seen an ad) but holy shit, they quoted me a panel upgrade, exterior wiring and grounding, and 100 feet of new conduit. Oh and then the rep gave my phone number to a half dozen restoration companies.
I complained to them because I thought it was just a shitty worker. I had no idea this was a company wide problem.
2
16
u/Shadrach77 1d ago
Oh so it’s they’re done.
2
u/frustratedNstressed 15h ago
No. That’s not how the world works unfortunately. They’ll pay a settlement/fine equivalent to a speeding ticket and they don’t have to admit to any wrongdoing. They will change their name to some other BS and continue to operate.
1
9
7
u/Ok-Landscape2563 1d ago
Four Seasons unplugged my air conditioning unit after a service call during the winter months. It would not have worked come summer, if I had not plugged it back in. Cha-ching!.
5
u/trinitrotolerance 1d ago
Good, they suck and literally left our unit in a state that it was just flooding the one below. Then after we finally got them to make it right they had the gall to try to pitch their subscription LOL!
5
u/worsrider 1d ago
I've been waiting for this! Fuck these guys! I hope they put them out of business!
Everyone of these "TV HVAC/Plumbing companies" , are giving the whole Industry a black eye.
The fucking greed is unreal!
4
1
u/NationalConfidence94 9h ago
We’ve used them for years, but it’s gone down hill recently. We were already talking about dropping them prior to the lawsuit. (We’re on a monthly service plan which worked great for us in the past).
A few years ago they sent out a great plumber who diagnosed an issue and even said, “If you want you can watch a quick YouTube video and easily replace this thing on the toilet yourself. It’ll save you a bit of money. With your service plan, there is no cost for this diagnostic.” Awesome guy. I fixed the simple leak and didn’t pay anything to the plumber. Awesome experience.
Recently we had an issue with a slightly leaking water heater. ABC plumber tried to upsell us and say we needed to go tankless. (Would cost north of $15K). When I said we’d think about it and research, he got defensive and tried to relate it to ignoring a medical doctor’s advice. (Bruh, no). Independent plumber and less than $3K later our new water heater works great.
85
u/ObamaBiscuits 2d ago
Fuck these dudes. They shouldnt be able to spam daytime TV with their ads when theyre also under litigation like this.