Alkota Plumbing & Heating

Edward K.

I just got charged the equivalent of $700 an hour !!!!! (there were no parts, special costs, etc.) Yes, that is true. I'll now avoid Alkota Plumbing & Heating (they lost a returning customer). On April 15, 2015, I requested a service call to help install a simple bathroom faucet. I already purchased the faucet, and I had the old faucet half-way uninstalled. Part way in doing the work, I thought it was best to have the installation finished by a skilled worker. It was a simple task with no additional parts needed. The entire call lasted a half-hour. For that I was billed $350 !!! That is exorbitant even considering a basic service call fee on top of an labor charge. In the past I had used Alkota for a kitchen faucet call, bathroom toilet call, and a furnace call. I was satisfied in the past, so I called the company for this service. Well, apparently their policies changed. For my kitchen faucet installation three years earlier, Alkota charged me $186.24 ($160.00 of which was for labor and the service call, so excluding parts it turned out to be the equivalent of $128 an hour). That call involved a few special parts (I supplied the faucet) and turned out to be a little complicated due to my kitchen setup, so for the 1 hour 15 minute call I thought the rate was quite fair. And that plumber (someone different) at the time was very professional. But how did the rate go up 273% in just three years? Another thing irks me. On the day of service when paying by credit card a yellow invoice is given. Of course, none of the bill is listed for parts. But weeks later I received an invoice by the mail with a credit card receipt. But that second receipt shows materials for $16. The total amount is the same, but where did the idea come from that there were extra parts involved? I supplied the entire faucet that came with all the parts.

David M.

Work completed 9/2/14. I was told on the phone when I scheduled my furnace checkup and cleaning that she couldn't tell me a price over the phone. The only person who can tell me a price is the guy looking at the furnace because he has to see it first. So I scheduled a meeting for a week later and met the plumber in front of my house. Before even entering the house and looking at the boiler, he had a price for me....without looking. Why couldn't the lady in the office do that? I was in the process of selling the house, so I didn't have time to reschedule with another company, so I bit the bullet and paid the high rate. The plumber was good, but he should have given me a lower rate when he didn't actually have to clean the burners. I stood by during the service and he never pulled the burners out. This was consistent with what he wrote on my receipt at the time; however, when receipt was mailed to me, the write up said the burners where removed and deemed clean, so no cleaning needed. He didn't even test the gas burn rate at the meter to see if it was within spec. He did clean the ignitor and test some electrical. And he opened the garage unit heater inspection panel and replaced a cheap and easy part (approximately 5 minutes to replace). Charge for the work done was $600/hr. If you subtract out the callout fee which was $80 or $90 I believe, then their hourly charge was $475/hr. I would consider other companies first before I trust these guys.

Lisa W.

I concur David...I contacted them and was told a flat hourly rate of $139.00 and they wanted to charge me to comeout and do a quote. Really? I asked why on the website it said ""free estimates"" and was told that's only for boiler installs. I advised they should change that and was basically hung up on. Poor outfit and false advertising.

David N.

Worst ever...$ 402 service fee for one hour of routine boiler & hot water maintenance...I later called a competitor whose estimate for same service was only $ 185.....Then the Alkota service mgr named Todd would not return my calls to discuss the excessive overcharge...20 years a customer , but no more...

Renae B.

I have mixed feelings about Alkota. They replaced a boiler under warranty back in January on a Friday before a holiday weekend. When it didn't work and we woke up on Saturday morning to a freezing house, they were great about coming over right away to fix it.. but it took 4 or so more trips over the next few weeks to actually get it working. So now I have a brand new boiler that has already had to have parts replaced and I am certainly left questioning whether it was a faulty boiler (which they sold me) or incompetency. To make matters worse, I STILL haven't received my warranty check and when I have called about it I received a run around and no one has returned my call. With the poor customer service, I can't say that I would ever voluntarily work with them again but my fear is that they just installed a brand of boiler that no one else services.

Shelia M.

Our furnace stopped working, the flame light would not stay lit, we would hear it trying to cycle on and the red flame light would light up but in a few seconds it would go off. It would recycle over and over and never stay lit. My husband is fairly good at fixing just about anything and did some research and replaced the ignitor thinking that was the issue but it was not. My husband called Alkota thinking they would be good at diagnosing the issue, instead the guy replaced one thing after another: the board, the gas line, and finally the gas valve. Finally after over half a days work, he disconnected the intake pipe and wala, it was working. He left the intake pipe off and told us to keep the window open which is unsafe as it lowers the room pressure and creates an environment where carbon monoxide can collect. It was a weekday but they charged over $1400 dollars for the repairs and didn't even fix the problem. Once the intake pipe was disconnected the furnace started working. My husband met him as he was leaving and after seeing the bill freaked out. My husband was alarmed that a gas valve cost over $600.00, he asked the repair man where he left the old one, the guy said, ""It's in my van, it's junk"". So my husband told him there was nothing wrong with the old one and that he wanted it back and the guy asked him what for...my husband said he wanted it in case the new one stops working, we would have a fallback. The guy only then gives him valve. After the guy left my husband took the new valve off and replaced it with the old one and it still worked because the intake pipe was still off...The problem: the intake system was failing to pull enough air to let the system work, thus the security feature was kicking in and preventing it from working. We have yet to fix the real issue but my husband suspects it to be the transformer because the gas valve was only getting 11 volts when the transformer is supposed to put out 24 volts. My husband called the manger who was conveniently gone at the time of the phone call but he called him this morning and said he would have to review the receipt and call him back. DO NOT USE THESE GUYS! And whomever you use, stay close and make sure YOU understand what they are replacing and doing. If the part they replace doesn't fix the issue have them put the old one back on. My husband went online and the same gas valve sells for around $200 bucks. This is the very reason that people die every year for the lack of having a furnace working properly due to fears of being overcharged for nothing, these guys often ream you for things they don't think you will notice...To me for guys who have been in the business as long as these guys have, it seems that temporarily disconnecting the intake pipe would have been an easy 2 minute diagnosis, but waaaaaaait then they couldn't have charged us $1400 bucks!

Michael J.

My landlord used them for many of his furnace installs. Most other work either he does himself or I do it for a (sometimes) break in rent. When the furnace was first installed (2008) for about a month or so my wife and I felt horrible...headaches, nausea...then it dawned on me...this only happened at home. I checked the furnace closet (inside the home) and smelled the faintest trace of gas....I immediately called our landlord (at 9 or so at night, we rent a single family house btw) and he came over and we did the soapy water test...we tightened it up felt safe that we did a better job than the ""professionals"". Fast forward 6 years later and I notice the little red light on our american standard furnace that i'd never noticed before blinking. I call them and am told that they cannot tell me anything over the phone and I need to get the landlord to ok a visit unless I want to pay for it myself. I'm FREAKING concerned that my 2.5 year old and 25 week pregnant wife might be in danger and this C-WORD *handles me*...... It turns out that it's normal since I, again, had to research and find the answer myself. Alkota deserves to have it's license yanked....horrible....despicable.. Mike.

Mike R.

Terrible!!!! Poor workmanship causing more problems than they fix. Just replacing 2 fittings cost me $1,000 dollars and 2 additional visits. After the first visit we had no heat upstairs. After second visit they broke my thermostat ""????why !!!! and when he was gone we had several leaks. Anyway after 3rd visit I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping they didn't break anything else. Will never call them again. Hard lesson learned.

Joey G.

They worked on my boiler about a year ago and that's about how long the repair lasted and it started leaking.i called them and they denied making any repairs even though there tags were hanging on my furnace and my hot water heater stating what repairs they made.then they said well if the repair lasted a year then its not our fault.i asked if there warranty is only good for a year and I couldn't get a strait answer.they wouldn't even come out to look at the problem with out charging me.i couldn't even get a ( well let's look at it first and we will figure it out from there. I will never do business with any body that won't stand behind there workmanship .

Josh S.

Made an appointment, took off time from work and waited. They were supposed to call ahead of time. When 0430pm came around and I hadn't heard from them I called. They said I was simply overlooked in their system and all they could do is reschedule my appointment. So, because of their oversight I have to take off more time for work and still pay just as much as before. Now I am out four hours of pay and full price for the service.