From Tam N.
Universal Heating & Air
BEWARE. Had the worst experience trying to get our HVAC fixed from these incompetent people. Believe all the low star reviews because these guys will try to scam you.
We went through 3 technicians with them and each one had a different diagnosis of what the problem was!
Background: HVAC was not cooling properly. HVAC fairly new and had never really been used
First Technician - says that we have a leak in our copper pipes leading to the compressor, shows us video of refrigerant leaking from the copper pipes. Quotes us for welding the pipes and 7 lbs of refrigerant to be replenished.
Owner decides to call us after the initial visit to tell us of a "special rebate" he has on the refrigerant, but he only has "one left." Honestly, what kind of sleazy car salesman handbook did this guy get this business tactic out of? You think we didn't know you selling some bs? It's like when a company jacks up the price by 100% to give you a 15% discount.
The quote ended up making 7lbs of refrigerant come out to be $770 at $110 per lb! Mind you, you can buy like 25lbs of refrigerant for like $250 (the second technician even said this) and for $770, you can take the course to work with liquid refrigerant, buy the pressure gauges on amazon and STILL come out less than their quote.
But you know what's even funnier? My HVAC clearly says on the panel that max is like 4.5 lbs, so this guy was already trying to swindle us or he really doesn't know how to read.
Not sure why we did it but we paid the deposit to have them check it out.
Second Technician: Scheduled two days later on a Friday. No one shows up...we call the office and it takes us calling back 2 hrs later for them to admit that they forgot to schedule a technician. The business is able to TAKE a deposit. Send me a receipt for it, but no one checks to see if there is a technician scheduled for this job.
I talk to some guy named Alex who is their customer service/dispatcher (nice kid but couldn't do anything for me). He said he would try to get me a discount for this mistake...never happened. Some lady named Claudia finally ends up calling me to reschedule. Seems like she was the one that forgot to schedule it. She decides to have a technician come Sunday. So now we wasted our Friday and have to commit to a Sunday to try to get this fixed.
Second Technician named "Sal" shows up late, didn't text or call ahead. We had to call Alex again to ask where the tech was. Tech comes and didn't even know about the leak in the pipe til we told him. He goes up to our loft where it's located and screws a loose screw and says it's fixed. No welding or anything we were quoted. Spends 4 hours replenishing the refrigerant. Can't get the heater to work during the work up, doesn't know how to open our thermostat (I had to show him), runs outside and goes "oh shit" doesn't tell us why, spends another hour fiddling with the compressor and the heat and then we get an F0 error code. At that point the technician says oh it doesn't work and he can't do anything. It'll probably have to be replaced because these "chinese" brand HVACs just aren't reliable and we should get a US made one. WoW
Just to let people know. Most HVACs that are "american made" also source their fans to compressors from Asia, if not they have their own manufacturing plants across Asia from big brands like Carrier to Daikin. So just a lot of BS coming from this tech that said he had 40 yrs of experience but can't open a thermostat??! Really? This tech probably just ended up breaking our HVAC and blaming that it wasn't made in the US.
I call Alex again. He is apologetic says he will send their regional tech supervisor out to see what the problem. Says he will get my deposit refunded...Guess what? never happened.
Third Tech - Joseph is his name. Diagnosed a leak inside the compressor saying that it had to be replaced or go a cheaper route and get a minisplit. Only competent tech but at this point we were done with this company.
