A#1 Air

Mike C.

Upstairs AC unit, 10 years old, blowing hot air. Coil was leaking, compressor was out, motor going out. Sold me on a new inside / outside unit. Price was about 9300 for a seer 16. I was okay with the price. Couple of things to note that I was not told:
--Your city may require a secondary visit to review their work; M-F 8 -5, kind of a pain.
--The pricing compared to another contractor was about the same.
--Three man crew came out, worked for a full seven hours; they were pretty clean.
--It's been a full week and everything still works.

I would recommend them, but I feel like they were salesman versus servicemen.

Linda S.

I purchased a brand new system from A #1 Air in July 2010. A few weeks ago (April 2012) the air was flowing but it was warm. After waiting 2 hours past the promised time on a Friday night, the technician diagnosed that my compressor was shot. The part was under warranty but the labor was not. $400 total because he charged me for the service call.

Be wary of buying a new ac from this company. It seems to me that I should not have paid anything for an ac that is under two years old.

Dan H.

I wish there was a way to give negative stars to this company. I have had a couple of experiences with them, unfortunately. This spans several years, so their complete and utter lack for the truth or honest business practices isn't something new.

The first was when I dealt with them was actually by proxy - I was out of town on business and my AC stopped functioning in the bedroom. I know now all it needed was a little coolant and it would have been fine, but since I was out of town I told my wife to do what needed to be done. She is a very trusting individual, and they charged us $3000+ for a new coil.

Last summer a different AC unit in our house stopped functioning correctly, and we called them since they had done the other work on our AC units. I hadn't realized at this point how bad they were. They showed up, pronounced the compressor dead with about 45 seconds of diagnosis and gave me the same ridiculous "options" that you read about in these reviews. They wanted me to spend $18,500 to replace the entire system. As a courtesy they put a capacitor on my compressor unit which got it running again but told me it was sure to die tomorrow, and that it may only last for a few hours. I reluctantly agreed to have just the compressor replaced for $5,500- it was late at night, I had been frying in the hot house all day, and I just wanted it fixed. I did some research on the model number of the condensor unit they were going to install from the paperwork they left and found it online for sale for $1,800. I called them to discuss this and immediately the price was dropped $1,000 (an awfully round number I thought) and I was told it was an error. At this point I knew I was being taken for a ride.

They were supposed to show up at 8am to start the work. When 1pm rolled around and it was 112F outside (literally - I was watching the temps closely) they showed up to install the condensor unit. I had suspected that they were being dishonest based on their diagnostic "procedure" among other things. The part that really got me is there were two guys - one of which I had met before, who was very nice and talkative. This time however, the other guy was doing all the talking and when he was applying all the sales pressure to me and telling me that the condensor unit was an inch from death and that it needed to be replaced he just looked at the floor and didn't say a word. The other thing I didn't like is that they wanted me to sign their contract, which once signed was non-negotiable and they claimed I owed them the money for the work whether it was executed or not.

After I turned them away I talked to one of them briefly on the phone, and explained the situation and said that I would not be doing business with them. I told them to bill me for the service call, and the capacitor that they had installed if that's what they wanted to do, but I was not going to replace the (still running to this day, over a year later) condensor unit because I believed that it was fine. I never received a bill, or any further communication regarding the service call.

I did however receive a call from them last week wanting to come "inspect their work" to make sure everything was fine. I told the guy on the phone most of this story, that I wasn't going to spend any money with them. It was the typical phone sales call where they have an answer for every reason you don't want their product/service. I'm generally not a rude guy, I should have hung up the phone after stating clearly I did not want their service. Finally I just said fine, come out and look at it if you want - but reiterated they were getting no money from me. He set an appointment, which they didn't show up for. I am hoping I have heard the last from them.

David D.

I called this company because my A/C unit makes alot of noise, and the secondary drain out the side of the house drips more than usual. There was nothing wrong with the unit itself, I just suspected the main drain to the A/C was clogged and needed cleaned out, and a wrench needed turned to make the unit not so loud. It's mounted on concrete right outside my bedroom window. Well, the A #1 Air guy apparently makes commission on selling new units - because he swore up and down my a/c unit was not going to survive through the summer and told me I need to buy a $12,000 unit now before the prices go up. When I said I'd call other companies for a 2nd opinion, the price then dropped to $10,000, then when I walked him to the door he offered a unit for $6,000.

I then called Cogburn's Service General and when that service man showed up I told him what happened with A #1 Air. He said "wow", that's a shame cause you're unit works great and is a very good brand that should last many more years. They then cleaned out the main drain with nitrogen for no charge, and discovered the noise from the unit was due to the unit not being mounted correctly to the concrete slab, so they reset it and the noise is gone. They said "no charge", but I still gave the guy $100 for his honesty and hour of labor. Don't call A #1 Air unless you want to get completely ripped off. Don't pay for stuff you don't need, and always call for a 2nd opinion before you believe something they tell you about your unit. I run a washer/dryer that I've had for 12 years and I won't replace it until they completely go out. I have the money, but why spend it when you don't need to yet?
Dave

Raul G.

First time posting a review on Yelp

I had heard great reviews and references for this company about 4 years ago, when I decided to buy my new a/c system I ended up buying from this company because of their 10 year compressor guarantee.

I had signed up for their silver tuneup package that they offer, and had a technician come to my house and inspect the unit.

Just recently during a regular tune up call, Tony a Tech from their company had come to my house and told me that I needed a new compressor coil, which they did cover under the 10 year warranty, but that the labor and installation wasn't covered.

I in my mind thought, well shouldn't that be covered under the warranty, but no I checked with the office and the paperwork that they left behind when I purchased the unit.
Anyways, he told me that for labor and installation it would cost me 1200 dollars to replace a faulty compressor that they had sold me......

I of course thanked the technician and called the main office to get a better explanation and let them know that the unit was sold by them and that the technician had told me I needed a new compressor.

Needless to say I talked to one of their general managers, and he told me he could "hook me up" with a warranty that included all labor and service for the rest of my compressor warranty for a low, low price of 1200 dollars..

I was flabbergasted, I immediately called another company for a second opinion.
The technician from that company checked everything out, added some freon, and told me that's all it needed.

Sure enough as soon as he added the freon the unit was turned on and cold air started to blow out of the vents..

I can't believe a company is still allowed to cheat and lie to their customers like this company has done to me. Needless to say I will not be doing any business with this company ever again, and I tell friends and family to STAY AWAY!

B B.

Either bad at their jobs or crooked. After diagnosing my HVAC as needing to be replaced, I wanted to get several quotes on that job. Technicians from three other companies all had the same diagnosis, which was significantly different (and significantly cheaper) than A#1's (one technician even replaced the part temporarily to be certain that was the problem, which it was). I went ahead and got quotes on replacing the system from them and each of those was $1500 - $2000 cheaper for the exact same system (brand and seer rating) as well (these are reputable, licensed, BBB companies).

I suppose it's possible that he was just bad at his job, but based on the scare tactics he used, I feel pretty comfortable in thinking he saw me as an easy mark based on my lack of knowledge regarding HVAC units. Luckily I was not about to make that kind of purchase without some due diligence.

They clearly know their way around Yelp and other review sites (as the myriad of VERY similar reviews with names, etc. suggest), and this review will be buried quickly, but I can't express my disgust at their tactics enough ("We follow all codes, your air is probably really unclean, this just isn't safe"). At least they were well marketed, clean, on time and very polite as they attempted to rob me blind.

Holly M.

Les McDaniel came out to do our "fall check-up". He explained what repairs needed to be done very patiently, because I had no idea what he was talking about at first!! He's a very friendly, personable guy!!!

John A.

I've used A#1 Air Conditioning for many years now. They are always professional and courteous. I will continue to use them in the future. I had a service call from them today and their technician Peter Oti-Nkrumah was very easy to work with.

Debra B.

Had a great experience with A-1. They called me within half hour of me going to their site to request a call, then made calls throughout the morning to give me an update on my status. When I first called, my AC was making a wierd noise, by the time, they arrived, it was dead. Dane Jorgensen did a through inspection and explained it all to me. He gave me options and helped me to understand what was going on, taking time to even draw pictures. We ended up needing a new system in our attic and Dane was able to get technicians out within a couple hours to install my new system. Arturo and his partner were great, very courteous and careful with my carpet/walls as they worked. They even fixed the ladder to the attic which was coming loose. The job took four hours but they were great the whole time. Now, my house is cooler and more efficient.

Steven B.

Steer clear of A#1 Air. When my AC went out, I started calling HVAC companies and they were the only ones that could come out in any reasonable time frame with triple digit temperatures. The technician said that the condenser unit was shot and needed to be replaced. Now I don't really know if it actually did need to be replaced, but I took his word for it. I also didn't know what a new unit should cost. I found out later that they charged me more than double. I don't know how a clip joint like this stays in business. They were friendly, helpful and on time, but that seems to just be a cover for their rip offs.