Althoff Home Services

D B.

Received a post card in the mail today from Althoff Home Services stating ""You are receiving this notice because your property has a pre-paid service available that is set to expire soon."" ""Pre-paid service due for the property at (my address)"". ""Air Conditioning Tune-Up Expires 5/31/25 Pre-Paid"". I checked my records and never heard of or sent money to this company before. Their record keeping must be so poor that they waste costly postage mailing these ""Notice of Pre-Paid Service"" to fake customers. Trying to mislead customers to believe they have a service contract when we don't!

Maureen M.

Extremely disappointed in Althoff. Tech came out checked everything out with our plumbing gave us a quote. We except got financing tech came out and at the end of the day he tells us the three other rooms he was going to do he all of a sudden couldn't do gave us. B S excuses he just didn't want to do it!! Then prior to this visit I referred Althoff to my friend she got a new hot water tank they told her because we referred her we would receive an. Amazon gift card we Never received it and she called Althoff and told them we never received the gift card they apologized and said they would send it out. We still never received it!!!!!! Scammers and liars we are done with this shady place

Sarah S.

The work itself and the plumber was wonderful. This may be a good company if you are planning on having multiple items fixed over a course of a year, but I strongly advise against using this company if you need a single item fixed.

I had a leak in my kitchen sink that I wanted to get fixed quickly and was referred by a friend who uses Althoff. They scheduled for the next day and informed me there would be a $175 service fee for coming out regardless of if they do work or not. I don't have an issue with this as I'm sure traveling across the city to give out free quotes can become disadvantageous to the company in terms of time and $. Since I would already be paying a service fee, I decided I would have them swap the faucet at the same time. I assumed they would factor in the service fee into final bill. That's on me for assuming this which I definitely should not have. At no point did they did say anything about membership until the plumber showed up on site. This is where their very questionable pricing structure comes in....

I was quoted $1500+ for service fee, basket replacement, and installing (customer supplied faucet). If I signed up for their monthly membership which is $45 per month, it would be around $1200. I saw the price list as he was creating the quote and recall seeing $500-$600 just for faucet replacement. I was so floored by both estimates that I said skip the faucet replacement and just do the basket replacement. As a member, the basket replacement was $440 plus $45 for first month of membership for a total of $485 (service fee waived). As a nonmember, the basket replacement was $555 plus $175 fee for a total of $730. I signed up for the membership not wanting to waste $175 and figuring I would try to take advantage of the membership. The whole experience did not sit right with me though, so I called the next day to cancel. I paid the balance between member and nonmember, so I don't get wrapped into a membership I don't use.

Again, I can understand a service fee and do understand they can't quote work until they are onsite but it's pretty evident that they margin markup their rates to make it look like a cost savings if you get the membership. Any other plumber (there are plenty of good, certified plumbers in Chicago) would have likely cost around $400-500 for a basket replacement without all the gimmicks of a membership. A faucet replacement install... probably $300 give or take. I definitely could have gotten both items done for the same price I paid for one item if I had gone with a different just as reputable plumber.

Moral of the story, proceed with caution and only engage if you know you'll have a lot of projects. The work is good, and staff is nice, but I'd rather work with a company with a more transparent pricing structure.

Karolyn W.

It sure seems like I'm not getting priority service with my broken furnace because I didn't agree to either buy a new furnace nor did I agree to become a customer for $82 a month for the rest of my life. Seems like these people are much more interested in selling service plans than they are in servicing Customers in need. Lesson learned.

Ryan H.

I would post no stars if I could. I was recommended Althoff Home Services from a large Condo Management Company in Chicago. My first experience with them was pleasant to fix a plumbing issue we had in the house albeit very expensive. On the second trip, we called Althoff to take a look at our Furnace due to hearing clicking noises, smelling smoke, and we had just purchased the unit, so an inspection was warranted. The unit was 5 years old and the individual that came out to inspect our unit told us the heat exchange was cracked and at the very least, it needed to be replaced, but he recommended a replacement of the furnace. He also said our CM levels were 90 and the normal level was 20 in the furnace. After hearing this, I thought I should get a second opinion. I had two additional companies in Chicago come out to take a look at the furance and both of them told me there was no issue with the furance and that Althoff did know what they were talking about, and were trying to swindle me. I would never recommend this firm, there over priced service, or their membership plan. If I could give zero stars I would. This place is running a scheme to push revenue where possible.

Vince A.

Thanks to installer Shawn for a job well done! He was very meticulous and I appreciate the time he spent installing our new Trane furnaces and AC units. Looking forward to see how much money these 18 seer AC units save over our 20 year old Lennox units.

Theresa B.

BEWARE! Price gouging! I have been an Althoff customer for years and have a monthly service subscription. I needed a new inducer motor for my furnace. They quoted me $902.00. I looked up the price of the part online using the serial number of my furnace to be absolutely accurate. It was $202.00 for the correct part. That's $700.00 labor charge for a job that takes about an hour! Wow! Even doctors don't make that kind of money! I got another quote from a reputable small business with excellent reviews in the area for $630.00. That's quite a price difference. I called Althoff and asked the reason for this high price and the lady that answered said I was ""paying for quality."" Quality what? Beware! I will be cancelling my Althoff yearly subscription. What a way to take advantage of their customers. Double check the price of your part and make sure you are not being taken advantage of.

Dawn P.

I hadn't gotten my humidifier, furnace or water heater looked at in the last couple of years since the last service that I used went out of business, so using Yelp, I contacted Althoff and one other company. The other company responded 10 days later. Althoff got back to me right away, had numerous times and days to choose from, and had various service options. The serviceman came out, showed me what was wrong with my humidifier, recommended different options for repair, and was knowledgeable and **not pushy**. I couldn't be happier with the service I received from Althoff!

T.J. H.

I've learned a couple of things through the process of using Althoff to replace an actuator on my HVAC. 1) Don't trust Google reviews and 2) Althoff charges almost $600 an hour for labor.

I used them due to their 4.8 star rating on Google. Didn't check yelp, oops

They quoted/charged $674 to replace an actuator on my HVAC that costs under $82 retail and took 45 minutes to replace. My bad for not doing research before agreeing to move forward w their quote. My tenant was rightfully panic'd and it's February, so I didn't have time to pull in additional quotes.

However, I had asked them to quote installing a digital high voltage thermostat as well and they proposed $850. This didn't feel right. I did the research this time. The Honeywell thermostat costs under $190 retail. When I challenged them on this, they lied by claiming it would take 2.5 hours to install because they would have to ""run wire from the box"". I asked my building manager and he confirmed no special wiring is needed nor even allowed w o an act of Congress.

So I didn't move forward w the thermostat install. I then learned my neighbor had the same thermostat installed for $300 and the install took 30 minutes.

I know contractors overcharge but this is egregious. And they outright lied.

Heather X.

We would give it a zero star if we could. They charged us non-refundable $175 to estimate installing a check valve underneath our kitchen sink to prevent the sewage water to come back to the kitchen sinks. They provide a quote of $897 to just install a check valve on a waste line. We can hardly believe the amount they try to charge us. We can purchase a decent check valve from The Home Depot or Lowe's with less than $50. We will not hire them to do the job and will never use their service in future. So far, we have cost $175 for nothing.