Springwood’s Ice Solair faces claims it left business partner out of pocket
The former business partner of an air conditioning company in Logan has claimed in court that he and customers were left thousands out of pocket.
Southeast
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An air conditioning supplier south of Brisbane is facing claims that it left a business partner and customers tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
A winding up directions hearing for Ice Solair Pty Ltd will be held on July 18 in the Brisbane Supreme Court.
Lance Reinhardt from B2B Barter Pty Ltd, the petitioning creditor, was due to be represented by Mahoney Lawyers.
Springwood-based Ice Solair Pty Ltd traded as an air conditioning contractor which described itself on its website as “leading the way with solar air conditioning that provides Australians with an innovative energy efficient air conditioner utilising thermal energy to provide cost effective clean, green solar air conditioning comfort’’.
Ice Solair Pty Ltd was served with a QCAT application, which it did not respond to.
Consequently, a default decision was given on October 3, 2018, in favour of Alfa Holdings Pty Ltd.
Brian Purvis, the former boss of Alfa Air & Electrical, opened the family business in 2015. It is now run by his sons.
Alfa Holdings Pty Ltd sought payment of $11,873 in its QCAT application.
The case was registered for judgement in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on January 10, 2019.
However, by the time the enforcement proceedings were reached Ice Solair Pty Ltd was deregistered.
The Office of Fair Trading said it had received no complaints about Ice Solair, nor investigated it, in the past five years.
Ice Solair was contacted for comment.
Mr Purvis alleged he was left $25,000-$30,000 out of pocket by Ice Solair, which he claimed was for not being paid for installation and repair work.
He was represented in the QCAT hearing by Drew Lauchland from Barclay MIS Protect & Collect Australia.
But Mr Purvis was later advised that more costly legal proceedings would be needed to reclaim the money he alleged was owed him by Ice Solair after it did not appear when the ruling was handed down.
In 2018, Mr Purvis alleged he was approached on behalf of Ice Solair to install a number of air conditioning units. Alfa Air was to be paid for the installation, he alleged.
“It started out as odd units here and there but it ramped up,” Mr Purvis said.
“We had a flurry of installing five units in a week and were going for six.
“There’s $50,000 dollars here and he (Mr Purvis alleged) couldn’t pay us.
“We installed five units in a row and got paid for a couple of units, valued at $8,000 each.
“We installed a few of his units, he was doing the whole sale, we put the flex and everything on the roof.”
Mr Purvis further alleged that a number of these units were later found to be faulty and that Alfa Air was called out to fix them.
“We did go and there was a couple that had a capacitor fault in the fan, which was repairable,” Mr Purvis said.
“Other than that you couldn’t get any spare parts for it. It was frustrating.
“We had to tell customers ‘you understand we’re only installing this, not supplying it, any warranty (and) you’ll have to go back through Ice Solair’.”
Some people claiming to be Ice Solair customers have posted negative reviews in recent times.
“Unit constantly breaks down and the Ice Solair people refuse to make good on their warranty, wasted $10k,’’ one reviewer alleged on Ice Solair’s website.
“We have had the unit repaired over 30 times in the past 18 months at our own cost.
“It has recently rusted through the compressor connection due to poor quality parts and installation.
“Ice Solair refuses to fix the unit and have offered to send someone around at a $300 per hour fee.”
Another reviewer alleged on the Ice SolAir website: “I bought three Ice Solair air conditioners back in 2017.
“From the get-go the main lounge unit didn’t work.
“After months of excuses and sending out the poor buggers from Alfa Air to fix it, it was replaced by Ice Solair.
“Admitting, it was a faulty unit. But that replacement unit also failed.
“I replaced it with (another) air conditioner. I used Alfa Air, who were very professional.
“I spent about $6000 buying three units for a small home and have now spent thousands more having Ice Solair (units) removed and replaced with Panasonic (units).”
Mr Purvis said he stopped working with Ice Solair after he refused to do a job on the Sunshine Coast.
He alleged that by that time he was owed between $25,000 to $30,000.
“We were small back then, so $30,000 was a big loss,” Mr Purvis said.
“Sadly, the small claims court is a toothless tiger.
“We could’ve spent another $10,000-$20,000 to go after him but decided to get on with our lives.”
“Our business has grown ten-fold since then. Next year will be 10 years — I started it in a garage.
“Last year we made close to $7 million in sales and moved to a larger location and have branched into wholesale and distribution.”
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