Bell Brothers Heating and Air Conditioning

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!

Gina S.

We've had Bell Brother's for over 25 years. My grandparents even had them. We had to move, getting older, wheelchair, etc. We had a new system put in at the new house. Awesome. But we started smelling dust & we're significantly disabled. I called. Sure enough, our duct work was dust! Had it replaced last week. They worked fast because they care. We started to smell dust after the duct work. It's Sunday & I called & Alexa sent Nick O'Neill out right away! WOW! Nick was amazing. He checked everything. He was so patient & explained everything. It's not easy working with the elderly & Disabled. Nick never made us feel like a problem. He didn't get frustrated. He made us laugh. We know everything is safe & Nick is going to check back with us. Many companies say they'll treat you like family. Rarely do they. Bell Brothers is DEFINITELY the ONLY HVAC company for us. For 4 generations. Nobody is like Bell Brothers. And Nick, well that young man should be commended! Thank you Nick so much!
Sincerely,
Gina Soriano

B A.

The products and service are EXCELLENT! We moved into a home which already had a newer furnace and air conditioner installed by Bell Brothers. When we moved in and began our service with Bell Brothers, I was hesitant as we didn't know what to expect. What a pleasant surprise to find a reputable company that's been in the industry for 70 years. We are thrilled with our serviceman, Sam. He is always on time, efficient, very knowledgeable (I ask a lot of questions), thorough and kind-hearted. We also appreciate the annual service agreement. Bell Brothers will have our business for a very long time to come. Thank you, Sam and Bell Brothers ~ See you in spring!

Ed S.

Ok here's what happen on Oct 2nd with Bell Brothers H/C of Des Moines, IA. The appointment was just for the annual cleaning/check-up on my furnace which is an older model 10+ years but still well kept up. The furnace & AC gets the annual cleaning/check-up so in my opinion had no problems with the furnace & AC due to the past maintenance! Anyways the tech comes in checking the furnace, starts it up and it sounds good as always, burners working good, air flow etc.. Then the tech shuts off the system reaches for some tools and five minutes later he starts it back up again. It sounded fine until the blower motor starts up and I hear this clanging noise, like something in the blower! The tech looks at me and says, ""Oh that's not good!"" So after screaming with the tech because I have an idea what he had done, he told me the part (pictures included) that I so called needed was bad and it was going to cost me $859.00 So me not knowing anything about H/C parts etc. and after a long fought argument I had no choice to pay for it! Now here's the kicker... A few weeks later, I had the old part examined & tested by another H/C tech. The tech. even swapped the new part with the old part and the old part was working just fine! No noise just the usual fan hum! There was absolutely no difference between the parts! The Tech said the part works fine, good power, amps etc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the older part! The tech informed me that the older part should have never been replaced in his opinion! So then I had called Steve at Bell Brothers on Oct. 23 to explain him what I had done with the parts and asked him ""All I wanted to know is, and I was NOT asking for a refund, What did I pay 859.00 for?"" and he could not give me a reasonable answer! I did tell Steve from Bell Brothers that I still wanted the part, not looking for a refund but just wanted to know why I paid $859.00 for a part I really didn't need! Now a discount would had been nice for the new since the old part still worked ok but He told me he couldn't do that! So I really don't know what happen to the quality of Bell Brothers H/C of Des Moines but they had change! They use to be a top-notch company a long, long time ago!