A1 Plumbing Heating and Air

Shannon N.

Beware Bait and Switch Tactics, and Repairmen that do more Damage than Repair!

I am selling my home and the buyer's inspector who came through noted a slight variation in temp in the A/C that was off by a couple of degrees from normal. So they requested an HVAC inspection. I was looking around and found a Groupon for A1 that specifically said HVAC Inspection and Diagnostic. Sounded Perfect, so I got it and scheduled the inspection.

I should have been warned when they called the morning of my scheduled inspection and rescheduled because there was an ""emergency repair"" they had to do, but I said ""no problem"" and they came out a few days later. When Jim arrived he remarked about how cool it was in the house. I explained that inspector had noticed a slight variance, but we wanted everything to be checked out for the buyers. I showed Jim where the unit was and went back inside. 5 minutes later he comes back in and says ""you have a bad capacitor. I can fix it now for $265."" I told him that I would have to check with my husband. He then got pushy and told me that if I didn't fix it, then I ran the risk of it not cooling as effectively and causing damage. I told him again that I would discuss it and he wrote a note on the invoice and left.

The rest of the night, I noticed that the A/C (which again had been working fine prior to Jim's arrival) suddenly stopped cooling. Now it's a bit of a stretch that there was a cooling failure exactly 1 hour after I refused to pay for a capacitor. Additionally, my husband (who works with industrial machinery daily and who is familiar with fans, circuits, and capacitors), opened up the outside casing and the capacitor unit was in good shape, with all valves sealed and no apparent leaks or damage. (Basically, it was unlikely to have failed, especially as the fan was still operating). However, the valves where the refrigerant were located showed that there was an oily residue on one and the cap was loose on the other. These weren't like that prior to the inspection. When we called A1 to speak to Jim about the repair, he said he was busy and would call us back. We never received a call or an answer to our request that another technician look at the unit .

Mrp P.

This is update to my previous review.
After the incident I called and was able to finally talk to James (I was told he is the owner) he said he is sorry and he will give a portable AC to my tenant and they will install the system on June 10th for sure. Day after Kim called and asked me to revise my yelp review and I said I would after the installation is complete.

On 6/16/17 I received a text from my tenant that she does not have AC yet, here what has happened:
1- they were no show on 6/10 AGAIN and when my tenant called them they said they are too busy!!! and they can do it on 6/15 instead (like all of us are freely play around).
2- 6/15 comes and then they are no show again (4th cancellation! we started in Feb and in June we still don't have AC!! CONTRACT IS SIGNED AND THEY GOT PAID UP TO NOW) .
3- My tenant works during week and some Saturdays so they screw with her work too!!

I call them on 6/16 and here what i heard:
1- They have outsourced our installation and they wanted me to call the other company and I said no my contract is with you guys. so she said ok they will have the other company call me today by the end of business day.
2- I requested James to call me today also and she said ok, he will also call me soon!

GUESS WHAT! I HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY CALL FROM ANYONE and it is already 6pm (they close at 5pm) !! Im about to call emergency line of the other company maybe they know what the heck is going on.

THIS IS JUST GETTING WORSE!!! NOT SURE HOW THEY ARE EVEN IN BUSINESS!

Dawn B.

I tried using a Groupon with these guys the other day. Scheduled an appointment, in writing, for between 1-3pm. At 345 I emailed again asking if anyone was coming. The response I got said, yes between 5-7. I couldn't believe it and expressed how upset I was and that I was done waiting for them. No response. After 6pm sometime, a guy shows up and he's not happy. I told him what happened with the office and that I told them to forget it. We figured out that they didn't even give him my number correctly. He said that they keep screwing him over like this and agreed they don't deserve business if they can't get their stuff straight. I think the office girl needs a new career, and after reading some of these other reviews I think I might have dodged a bullet.

Greg C.

Don't let them in the door. The previous owner of our house branched off one of the outside faucets, running pipe down from the faucet into PVC that runs over to the patio sink, and it developed a leak. I paid A1 $165 to fix it, but I called them back out when it continued to leak. Their tech told me that the leak apparently was down in the concrete, and that the concrete had to be broken out to fix the leak. I hired another plumber, who fixed it the first time. Seems that whoever put in the PVC did not use both the blue and the purple fixing agents, something the second plumber saw right away. The concrete did not have to be busted up.

I told the A1 tech I wanted my money back, and he told me it would take a couple of weeks. I've never been reimbursed, or even contacted by this company about this problem.

While A1 was here the first time, I asked if the tech if he could tell me why it was taking so long to get hot water to the upstairs shower. He looked at my water heater, which has a circulating system attached to the top, and told me the pump on my hot water recirculating system had failed. He had to order the pump. When he came back to put in the new pump, he turned off the water, turned on faucets to drain the water, and then started taking the old pump off. Lots of fluid came out, to his consternation. He couldn't get the pressure gauge to work either, but told me that the pressure would come up as I used hot water.

Not long after that, the new pump started making horrible grinding and screeching noises, so I turned it off and called the second plumber for help. Turns out that it wasn't a hot water recirculating system, it was part of my solar system and A1's tech had drained the glycol from the system. I had to have the solar company come out to fix the system, and that cost roughly $350.

All told, I'm out of pocket almost $500 fixing the problems caused by this company and I still haven't decided whether it's worth the trouble to sue them. They are incompetent and untrustworthy. Run away.

Michael G.

I didn't go with this company, but they were my second choice. I requested a quote and within a few days, Joseph was at my door. Very friendly, on time, and a nice man. And, he didn't find my dog following him around. I told him what I was looking for ( a new heater and A/C) and we got right to business. No b.s on trying to sell me on something I didn't need, He really listened. Gave me a fair quote and even called me a few days later to check up. Unfortunately, my review only goes as far as customer service. If there work is as good as there customer service, then I can only hope there other work is just as good

Sungmin P.

They got me to order a whole new HVAC system for my house. They gave me the option to put in a deposit. I did. I told them to hold the order until I talked to my wife. Then after 2 days I told them to hold off on the order because my wife had other plans. They said ok
Then they immediately cashed my check. I requested a refund and they declined it. I was angry about the whole situaton, but then I met up with James the owner and he smoothed things out. James was very sympathetic and did what he could to give me a good impression. I would recommend this company because of the owner.

Tahira C.

A horrible experience. Busted a pipe when they were there to fix a drip. Flooded our bathroom, closet and caused water damage into our garage. Left our home, did not return-has still not returned to fix the problem. My children and I were without water for 24hours and had to call another plumber to turn the water on to the rest of the house. A1 never showed up to fix the broken pipe, or even acknowledge what they had done. We had to go through our homeowners insurance to get the bathroom repaired which took several weeks.

I am completely baffled that a company would choose to not repair damage they had created. I understand accidents happen, but to make no attempt to fix the problem, apologize for the inconvenience, and do everything in their power to remedy the situation is incredibly disappointing.

I would never recommend this company to anyone. In fact I'd tell them to steer clear.

Wayne P.

It was time to retire our 30 year old heat pump system and replace the ducting.
James came out and explained what we needed and gave us a fair estimate for the job.
The crew arrived on time and did a fantastic job removing the old stuff and installing a nice quiet Trane system.
They completed the job in the estimated time frame and we are very happy with the work they did. Looking forward to finally having heat in the winter and nice cool air in the summer!
Great job guys!
Thank you!!

Tess C.

On July 28, 2016, our AC went out. We have American Home Shield warranty and they sent us A1 Plumbing, Heating & Air on Aug.4. Their technician spent 15 minutes at AC on roof, put his ladder away, then told us we needed to replace capacitor and compressor--$2380 or, slightly less with a maintenance agreement! WHAT? Requested 2nd opinion from AHS (we really didn't think it was a compressor), but Heather at A1 said they really wanted to work with us, needed to send someone out to look at the heat exchanger to make sure right elements were replaced. On Monday, James came out, said heat exchanger was good, but that's all he was there to check. Again, I requested a 2nd opinion from AHS, they sent Abott on Aug. 11. When he showed up, he refused to go on the roof, saying it was too dangerous and called it in to AHS as such, which, now, they couldn't send anyone else out and willing to give us the cash to hire and fix on our own.

SO, I call Hoyt Mechanical, their technician came out this morning, Aug. 15--yes, it's been that long--and put a capacitor in and within minutes we have cold air. The compressor only needed the capacitor to work, coolant was fine.

So glad I relied on instincts. I will not recommend A1 and, if I have a problem with my AC/furnace again, I will request Hoyt Mechanical.

Steve T.

I do not have confidence A1 can complete a job satisfactory given the problems they have encountered completing a basic coil replacement. I would not recommend this company to anyone.

On June 15, 2016, I hired A1 to replace the coil in my existing 11 year old AC unit.
On June 20, 2016, 5 days later, A1 was called back after the AC unit began blowing warm air. The diagnosis performed by A1 was the Freon had leaked completely out of the system. Since the A1 repairman didn't have the proper equipment, the repairs could not be performed that day.
On June 21, 2016, the Freon leak was repaired and the system was recharged.

On July 3, 2016, another problem was discovered with the AC system. Water began leaking on the ceiling evident by water stains. I verified water was coming from the newly installed coil by going up into the attic. I also discovered cold air was blowing into the attic. The escaping cool air was coming from the coil box where the installer neglected to completely seal the box in an area hard to reach. I also found repair debris left in my attic including remnants of my old coil unit.

On July 6, 2016, A1 came back out to diagnose this problem and found the coil box which includes the primary condensation pan was not properly leveled to allow the condensation water to drain. It was also determined the coil box was not properly sealed. Another appointment was required to fix the poorly installed coil.
On July 11, 2016, the leaky coil box was leveled and the coil box was completely sealed. The debris that was left from the initial installation was finally removed from my attic. A1 Plumbing promised to fix the water stains on my ceiling caused by the leaky coil box.
On July 29, 2016, A1 was called back again to investigate more water leaking from the AC System. The A1 technician found the primary drain pipe was not properly leveled to allow water to flow outside. The pipe was leveled and secured. The water stain on my ceiling was also finally painted to hide the water stains.

Problems encountered:
1) not properly leveling the evaporator pan,
2) not properly sealing the coil box allowing cold air to blow into the attic,
3) not adequately testing the AC system after repairs were completed,
4) not cleaning up the work site when work was completed
5) not properly leveling the primary pan drain pipe

Updated review dated 7/21/2016