March 2019 by Charlie M.
We originally contacted this company on behalf of a high-profile client. They came referred to us as "experts" for Control Four systems. The first issue we had is that one of the staff from the company started alleging that equipment was missing and/or had been stolen and that this was a cause of the problems being experienced. It was later discovered that this was not the case, but not before getting the client's wife very worked up over thinking items had been stolen from their home. After their visit and upon their departure, not one thing had improved, in fact nothing had changed, and the client was instructed that someone with "more experience with this system" would return. At the conclusion of the second visit, the system still did not work properly for the client, specifically, their TVs, which were an issue from the start, still did not work. We eventually had to contact the original installer to rectify the issues. Upon the original installer's departure, he made some less-than-complimentary comments about the work that had been done by HPCSE in an attempt to fix the problem before he arrived. When presented with a bill for in excess of $1000 for effectively accomplishing nothing, we explained that we would be hard pressed to have our client pay for these services since, as we told them, "at the end of the day, and while you were/are purported experts with Control Four, the system, and the house, were in no better shape after your visit than they were before." As we indicated to them, "Given the type of clientele we service, we would never even have a company visit the client's home unless that company had specific expertise that would prove beneficial to the client; While we thought that going in, that did not prove to be the case in our experience." We ended up paying less than $250 to have the original installer rectify all problems and, when we asked HPCSE for a reduction of their charge since they were not, in fact, experts on Control Four, and since not one thing had improved after whatever work they did, they stonewalled us and refused to offer any discount. The only response we received was that the owner reviewed the account and that they had come out on a weekend so they felt they were owed the money. They then continued saying that the only reason the original installer could do what they couldn't, and for only $250, is because the original installer had "locked out the system" such that it was "quick and easy" for them to gain access. Well, as we replied, once they realized the system was locked out, and since they represented themselves as experts with Control Four, they should have stopped right there rather than wasting time and running the clock on their bill when they should have known they were never going to be able to fix anything that was wrong. We were unhappy with the time they wasted without being able to address any of the problems but even more so by their refusal to work with us on their grossly inflated bill. Would not do business with again.
