KM Heating & Cooling Plumbers is a scam business
Overview
KM Heating & Cooling Plumbers are running a pay-up-front scam.
Their standard process is to arrange a visit via unsigned email or anonymous phone call to perform an 'inspection' and remind you that someone must be present to make payment. They will go through the motions of an inspection and either promise to send a detailed report or they will claim that expensive repairs are needed and you can make a downpayment on the required parts.
After you have paid the tradesmen at least a couple of hundred dollars for the inspection, they will leave, and no follow-up reports will ever arrive and it is unlikely you will be able to contact KM Heating & Cooling again. All attempts to contact the company by any means will be ignored. The only way to make further contact with the company is to offer to pay them more money.
Consumer Affairs Victoria
When I registered a complaint with the Consumer Affairs Victoria in June 2021 I was informed that they had several complaints already registered, but because the company is not in any Australian company, business or sole trader databases, they were unable to identify the owner(s) of the company and therefore could not take any action other than register the complaint. Consumer Affairs has no legal powers to prevent the operation of scams of the type KM are running.
In August 2022 I provided Consumer Affairs Victoria with the details of the owner of the KM scam business (see next section). Hopefully in the future they will be able to pass this information on to other complainants who can take legal action.
Airvolution and Michael Chapman
In August 2021 we discovered that the fake KM company was actually run by the following company and person who employed tradesmen who were giving out invalid invoices with the KM company branding:
| Business name | AIRVOLUTION PLUMBING |
| ABN | 87 453 645 635 |
| Holder name | Michael Craig Chapman |
| Address (1) | 53 Stoney Creek Road Beaconsfield Upper VIC 3803 |
| Address (2) | 5 Eileen Grove Worri Yallock VIC 3193 |
This is the livery of the vehicles operating under the KM company alias.
This was the same van and "senior" tradesman who scammed us back in May. Luckily, Aaron was cooperative and explained that he is employed by Michael Chapman who was identified in web searches and associated with ABN 87‑453‑645‑635. Aaron showed us his tradesman registration card to prove he was a "real" tradesman, but otherwise played dumb about why AIRVOLUTION was giving out invoices in the name of the fake company KM Heating and Cooling Plumbers and claimed not to know what the relationship is between the company names.
NOTE: Aaron's registration card had a different number to the one he put in the original scam invoice in May.
As expected, all calls to 0425-458-405 were met by an answering machine, which is what happens when you attempt to ring the KM company via their two published numbers.
Evidence arrived in late 2021 that Michael Chapman might be the middle-man of a larger interstate set of scam operations that are being controlled by someone in South Australia. All of the scams have similar names, overlapping phone numbers and they are all related to plumbing, electical work, carpet cleaning and house cleaning. The sites that allow comments have all attracted damning reviews.
VCAT Order
In August 2022 we won a VCAT case against Michael Craig Chapman who was issued an order to refund the cost of the original inspection and the VCAT application fee.
As expected, Chapman ignored the VCAT order. It appears that his standard operating procedure is to completely ignore any contact that does not advance the scam process, including VCAT orders. At this point, most victims would abandon attempts to recover their money and costs due to the somewhat intimidating process of creating a civil warrant through a magistrate's court. I believe that Chapman's scam survives because he knows that VCAT has no legal power to force him to refund his victims.
I, however, had the spare time to take the matter to the next step, and I hope the summary in the next section will help other people who find themselves in a similar situation.
Court Order
You can promote a VCAT order to a court order by completing form 68A for recovery of civil debt. The form is quite tricky for inexperienced people to complete correctly. I had a retired lawyer friend help me with most of the tricky questions, but it still took multiple visits to the Moorabbin Magistrate's Court to get feedback from a helpful staff member who guided me on how to complete the 68A perfectly correctly. Within a day I was notified that the court order had been created and passed to Sheriff's Office Victoria.
I had to post payment of about $240 to the Sheriff's Office via a Post Office money order, which was quite inconvenient and produced another $20 fee. So there are lots of little fees that accumulate during this process, but they can be added to the total costs to be recovered from the debtor. Remember to add all the itemised fees to the 68A form.
Several weeks after the lodging the paperwork and payment with the Sheriff's Office, I received a letter from them with a report from the sheriff who visited Chapman at 53 Stoney Creek Road. I was delighted to see that there was a checked item on the report labelled Full Payment of the warrant amount received.
He paid up! Chapman can ignore VCAT orders, but he can't ignore a court order delivered by a sheriff.
Further information
Web searches for the phone number 1300 935 588 (1300 93 55 88) produce dozens of hits for a variety of companies with similar names all related to plumbing and cleaning businesses. These are clearly all aliases for the same scammer who seems to be hiring sub-contractors to pretend to do the required work while demanding exorbitant fees, often asking for up-front payment.
Common business names linked to KM Heating & Cooling via the same 1300 phone number are Hydronic Heating Ringwood, KleanMaster Pty Ltd, VIP Home Services and VIP Plumbing Services. All of these businesses are associated with scathing reviews of their services which follow the same scam pattern.
The cleaning companies have multiple identical websites claiming to be in different suburban areas around Melbourne. The business addresses in places like Berwick, Fiztroy and the CBD are all obvious fakes. A typical one looks like this:
Fake reviews
The scammers are expending considerable non-stop effort to find all bad reviews on websites and attempt to hide them or counter them by top-posting fake 5-star reviews. The fake reviews are easy to identify, as they are always about the same length and use similar wording. The fake reviews always appear within days or weeks of any bad reviews, and they usually arrive in pairs, so someone is working hard to suppress the flood of bad reviews.
The Australian website Product Review recently stripped all of the fake reviews from the KM Heating page, leaving only a long list of complaints that reveal the true repetitive nature of the scam.
Here are some typical fake reviews:
To see some real reviews, see below.
Web searches
The following web search results and reviews were unfortunately found after we had been scammed. I'm reproducing the reviews here to increase their visibility in the hope it will help others to avoid the company and warn others.
Some of the reviews came from this Facebook page which claims to have pictures of the man who runs KM Heating & Cooling (seemingly taken at the Grand Prix).
Eltham North, Australia - Jan 2019
Beware - claim to quality and reliability (from their website) will come at a cost with nothing to show for !!!
Engaged KM Heating and Cooling on 26 Dec to fix a leaking Evap system (one of very few companies that was open over the holiday season - we needed system fixed before forecast hot days). Quoted $285 call out fee. On arrival on the 27th of Dec, advised additional $45 (excl GST) fee to clean the unit. Paid $363 incl GST in cash for the day - Technician didnt have a mobile EFTPOS or Credit Card Unit and wanted to pass on my credit card details to HQ which I was not comfortable with. Was advised belt needed replacing + new valve required to make the unit functional. Parts required to be ordered from Sydney or Canberra and was advised would take about a week. Chased up KM Heating / Technician who arrived on the day (Josh) 3 times before a receipt was issued - receipt eventually received on letterhead of another company Blessing Airconditioning & Refrigeration Pty Ltd.
Almost 3 weeks and $363 later and after having chased up a few times, unit remained unfixed.
Engaged another company - fixed it on their first visit for $220 incl GST (covering call out fee, parts and labour). Parts required = nut and washer, apparently readily available in Melbourne. New belt and valve not required.
Have tried contacting them numerous times and via numerous methods (phone, SMS, email, FB) for a refund - no one will return my calls or messages. Will never ever use or recommend this mob.
Melbourne, Australia - Jan 2020
HWS tripped power. Guy attended and replaced Top Elec Cover. Did not install the new cover correctly - made MORE water than ever get in. Did not come back to fix it - well they could, after the weekend! RUDE response was that they are very busy and are a long way away. Fixed it myself. VERY expensive, and shoddy work. I would suggest you never use this company!
(over a year ago)
Don't call these guys.
First call out $185 to say I needed a part.
Second call out to install the part, still didn't work, another teck said it needed a $1000 part.
Third call out they changed the part and they made it worse and charged another $165 call out. I sent them an email to let them know it's still not working, no response. They don't give a f... about there customers. There rip off merchants.
(over a year ago)
Charged $240 for a 2 min inspection and to tell me I needed a new hot water system. Got a quote back for over $4000. went to another local plumber and Thet quote came back $3000 less. The other plumbers we used said they would never charge "call out fee" and we got ripped off. Ps notice in this company's review is either 1 star or 5 stars. They must be writing their own positive reviews
Joanne (Client)
I have no wish to rate this company any stars ..tech arrived and advised possible ignition valve fuse blown ..advised replacement and posslby could be faulty board would know when part replaced... so call out and parts and labour $313 fair enough.. had to pay 50% of quoted replacement up front another $215+ gst.. came back next day performed replacement no joy .. then told needs new ignition module which "might " fix the problem $1937 plus fast or might need whole new ducted heating unit quoted $5461 plus gst... unwilling to commit straight away.. we had to pay the balance of the original quote so we had spent over $900 and still NO working heater... had another tech take a look replaced the ignition module for under $400... Upshot I will NEVER recommend your company.. we feel very ripped off..
HU-54934036 (Client)
I wish I saw this page before booking this place for a service of my central heating. Like someone else here, they quoted me a price then the guy that came said it's plus GST!! Get lost!!! Prices are quoted inclusive of GST, I'm not a business. The guy then went ahead and wanted to charge me $75 for a piece of cardboard box to fill in a hole! Didn't tell me at the time of doing it that it will be extra. I was so annoyed and frustrated. This has got to be illegal!
CB (Client)
Quoted a callout cost and then charged $120+GST labour on top of it. Payed nearly $400 just for them to look at the heater for about 1/2 hour. Then charged another $700+ to come back the next day and actually fix a unit worth just over $1,000. Crazy that it would have been cheaper to buy a new one. I don't know if that's a normal price, but it seems massively inflated to me! Wouldn't use them again.
KM Heating & Cooling Plumbers are Frauds - 14 July 2017
This man is a scammer. He will charge a fortune and not even fix anything. They want you to get them out again so they can rip you off even more. Deletes and hides bad reviews amd comments on their page, dont be fooled they have many. Even the ABN on their tax invoice is fake and has beem reported to the ATO. -- at KM Heating and Cooling Plumbers.
Linda M: I didn't even get an ABN on my invoice
Horrendously expensive.
Quoted job of $285 increased to $500+ without notice for a 40 minute service call. Zero after service customer care, zero issuance of a invoice i.e. Nil proof of service or warranty.
12 July 2017 - Melbourne, VIC
Ripping off innocent people and trying to hide the evidence. Beware of this company ABN on tax invoice isnt even valid - reported to ATO
KM Heating & Cooling Plumbers are Frauds - 14 July 2017
This man is a scammer. He will charge a fortune and not even fix anything. They want you to get them out again so they can rip you off even more. Deletes and hides bad reviews amd comments on their page, dont be fooled they have many. Even the ABN on their tax invoice is fake and has beem reported to the ATO.
3 March 2019
This so called company is a fake and money hungry crooks. My evaporative cooling unit wasn't working so I called these guys to come and have a look at it. They were quick to come and even quicker to charge me $285.00 for the service call, mind you they were only here for 20 minutes. Was told by the serviceman that the fan blade was cracked and needed to be replaced. He could not give me a rough price for the part and was not professional at all. I was told I had to wait for the office to get back to me with a quote once they called their suppliers. So I waited 3 business days in the stinking heat just for a quote on parts only after I called a couple of times for an answer and was spoken to so rudely from the owner. Well while I was waiting I contacted another company for a second opinion and they came out straight away at no charge and advised me of the same problem. Was able to give me a rough price of $220 for parts and $80.00 for labour to repair the unit. He was back the next day and fixed my unit. That same day I finally got the quote from these scammers and it came to $984.50. Let's just say I couldn't believe it......Three times what I already paid the other company. I asked them for a breakdown on the quote for parts and labour and a week later I still have had no reply. So it could have cost me $1269 from this scam of a company. Thank goodness I looked elsewhere. This guys are crooks and need to be reported. I would love to report them to A Current Affair.
18 January 2019
Engaged KM Heating and Cooling on 26 Dec to fix a leaking Evap system (one of very few companies that was open over the holiday season - we needed system fixed before forecast hot days). Quoted $285 call out fee. On arrival on the 27th of Dec, advised additional $45 fee to clean the unit. Paid $363 incl GST in cash for the day - Technician didnt have a mobile EFTPOS or Credit Card Unit and wanted to pass on my credit card details to HQ which I was not comfortable with. Was advised belt needed replacing + new valve required to make the unit functional. Parts required to be ordered from Sydney or Canberra and was advised would take about a week. Chased up KM Heating / Technician who arrived on the day (Josh) 3 times before a receipt was issued - receipt eventually received on letterhead of another company Blessing Airconditioning & Refrigeration Pty Ltd. Almost 3 weeks and $363 later and after having chased up a few times, unit remained unfixed. Engaged another company - fixed it on their first visit for $220 incl GST (covering call out fee, parts and labour). Parts required = nut and washer, apparently readily available in Melbourne. Replacement belt / valve not required. Have since reached out to KM Heating & Cooling numerous times via FB, Phone, SMS, email - have not received a single response. Will never ever use or recommend this mob
I wish I had seen this group before contacting KM.
Josh visited us to inspect a faulty air-conditioning unit and took the $242 call-out charge. He cancelled the repair on the date it was due to be completed citing poor weather. He then became completely uncontactable. He promised several times to complete the work but never committed to a date and never turned up. He took days to reply to phone calls and text messages and in the end stopped replying altogether. Everything points to him being happy to take the $242 call-out charge and to not complete the work. When I contacted "head office" I spoke to someone externally employed in a call centre who said that she could not help. This is the worst experience we have had with any home repair company.