Bell Brothers Heating and Air Conditioning

Stan B.

They debited our account almost $400.00 for repairs don back in June without telling us it hadn't cleared. Their little club , $20 a month is not for repairs it's towards a new system, but they didn't tell us that. Not using them anymore.

Margaret K.

To keep our furnace under warranty we must have Bell do our service since they installed the furnace/AC otherwise I would not use them. They charge a lot for a maintenance contract ($450 plus). Last spring I scheduled a spring maintenance appt for June. They did not show up or call. When I called them, they said they were overbooked and if we didn't have a problem they could try and reschedule us 2 months later for our spring maintenance! We pay a monthly fee to Lazer Plumbing and Electrical for maintenance ($8 a month). When I called them, they came out within a week and found a capacitor was ready to quit working and we would have lost AC. Called Bell Brothers, and then because we needed repair they would come out and replace the capacitor and do maintenance--otherwise they wouldn't give us a day they would show up. Today, once again scheduled an appt between 11-1 pm. It is past 1 pm and no they aren't here, and will be here ""sometime"" this afternoon (wouldn't specify.) Lazer had visited a few weeks earlier for the fall checkup as part of their monthly fee (they came out in a few days where Bell was 6 weeks out for an appointment.) Lazer had found our air pipes were clogged with bird's nests and cleaned it out so the furnace would work. (This was before we needed the furnace thank heavens or we would have had no heat.) Bell, who knows if they will show up today since appointments are meaningless. As I said, I will drop Bell as soon as the warranty is up. Unreliable. Expensive, and non-responsive.

Cliff And Judy R.

A contractor for Mid America energy called these guys in to get a second opinion on a job and we did not hire them, get billed by them or sign anything and yet out of the blue we get a text from them saying that they would have a technician come by (At a random time of their choosing) to check on work. HVAC people in this area are by far the most unprofessional I have ever had experiences with (Including people in Europe)! When they were there checking on work for Mid America Energy's contractor their technician was nice and friendly but he did no even have a thermal gun with him ($25 tool every HVAC person should have) to be able to check any temperatures and in these days and times randomly sending out their service people to houses without appointments is a pretty stupid thing to do in the first place. Like most Iowa companies they seem to be trying to choke the few customers they can get (Again we were never their customer, never signed anything and never called them out in the first place).

Michael W.

I had a bad experience with Bell Brothers; they've lost my trust and I will not be using them again. I had paid for the Annual Maintenance program where apparently I get free annual inspections. The representative showed up to check on my A/C unit. Within about 10 minutes he comes to the front door asking if I'd been having problems with the A/C. I said no - it's been working just fine. He claimed it was ""sparking."" Then he comes back with an internal fuse part that he says blew out some time ago, but I could smell that burnt electrical odor which means it just happened. Then he tells me it's $237 to replace that part and the A/C won't work without it. So my A/C is working fine, he shows up to inspect it, and then coincidentally this fuse is suddenly burned out, but thank goodness he was there to replace it.

After he replaces the fuse, then he brings me the condenser capacitor and says it needs to be replaced. He tells me they normally cost $250 but I'm getting the discounted price of $150. I later looked up this part on Amazon and see it actually costs an average of $15 or less. I encourage you to search yourself - type in ""ac condenser capacitor"" in Amazon and see what comes up. BTW - I've seen others make this same complaint about marking up the prices of parts and the owner responds by saying the price includes labor. That doesn't make any sense - labor costs should be itemized separately from the price of the parts.

After messing around with my outside A/C unit, he says he's ready to come inside and ""inspect"" the blower. I told him to forget it - that I didn't have time and had to leave somewhere. I was afraid if I let him inside he'd start screwing around with that equipment and fraudulently claim I need other unnecessary repairs. By the time he left I was out $371 for what I believe are completely bogus and unnecessary repairs.

These bozos may have taken advantage of me for a few hundred bucks, but they won't be getting any more of my business, so I hope it was worth it to them. I'm considering filing a complaint with the BBB and state AG.

Kevin C.

UPDATE: Gotta give credit where it's due. After posting this review, I received a follow up call from the Service Manager who did offer to mitigate some fees which will go a long way to help pay for some of the repairs. While I can't say for sure where the chips will fall, their outreach and attempt to make it right takes the bite out of my frustration from last week. So, thank you to BB for listening to and trying to accommodate my concerns.

Richard A.

We had Bell Brothers install our HVAC a few years ago and had been pretty much satisfied. We had been paying for the annual service to make sure our HVAC is well maintained. The first visit was reassuring as the technician made some modifications in response to a service bulletin. The work was done thoroughly and covered under the service agreement. I had hoped that I could count on this company to provide this no-nonsense service in an industry that runs rampant with corruption.

That trust is gone with the latest service call. I did not follow the technician to witness the quality of his work first hand. But as he completed his work, he started ""recommending"" that I purchase a surge protector for the ""discounted"" price of $235 (exact match on Amazon for $35). So this leaves me with a lot of questions. If the surge protector is necessary, was it malpractice or incompetence that it was not done when I paid thousands of dollars for the install? Or was the surge protector intentionally omitted for the purpose of lining up future ""recommendations""? Is it more profitable to have the unit fried from a power surge? Paid parts/repairs? Or, perhaps this was rogue technician trying to scam an unwitting customer with fear tactics? Or, perhaps this is part of the training? Where is the line drawn on corruption? Do I need to be concerned that the technician might have sabotaged my HVAC in order to hasten future repair calls?

I do not know which answers are correct. Unfortunately, all answers lead to the same conclusion that Bell Brothers cannot be trusted to perform ethically.

Erik E.

We have a Carrier Furnace installed by Des Moines, IA Bell Brothers in 2010. This week, the 2nd major failure was repaired (parts no labor) by Bell Brothers. They charged $396 for labor! This included 15 minutes to diagnose, 45 minutes to drive to fetch the new motor and 30 minutes to install. Work was done right, but VERY expensive for labor.

Tamara H.

On the coldest day in years my furnace went out. My first thought was Bell Brothers. Best choice. They came out right away and stayed until I had heat. Very professional and definitely quality work. Best of all the final bill was beyond reasonable.

Dennis C.

Had a real bad experience with these guys. They first came to my home in response to an ad claiming a tune up and clean which included an parts for I believe $87.00. Well by the time their so called technician left it cost my over $1,000.00. Next time they can my air conditioned didn't work . They would replace my outside unit but they would charge me a whopping $3,700.00 to replace my condenser. So I call a local heat and air and they replaced the outside unit, ( new) for $3,400.00.
So, my conclusion is that the Bell Brothers are a rip-off .

Check your local people first.

Jenny S.

We called Bell Brothers because our 2006 model hot water heater was all of a sudden not kicking on. We were in a bit of a pinch with family coming to town. I gave them one star because the one good thing was they were able to come out that next day. However two men showed up one training the other. They were both pretty clueless! They were stumped after checking it out. We mentioned that our very handy neighbor had it pinned down to a gas issue. They then went back out to the truck to get a device to check the gas. They determined it was not that and told my husband and I that we needed a new $2000 water heater or needed them to replace a part for $800. They told us there was a big mark up on their parts so we could get one cheaper off of e bay. So we paid the service fee and ended up ordering a part on eBay. Turns out they were wrong about everything. After talking to a nearby neighbor the next day we found out the city had turned the gas off and it was just a bubble in the gas line. The city came out and relit the pilot light and all was working great again. Meanwhile we had ordered a $400 part and paid a service charge for nothing but false information. Will not be calling Bell Brothers again!