Berkshire Heating & Air Conditioning

Amorette E.

Prior to purchasing our home, the owners used Berkshire for servicing and annual tune ups of their AC unit for several year - so we continued when we purchased. We've had no issues (knock on wood) with our AC unit since moving in and with keeping up on the annual tune ups. In fact, the techs are always impressed with how awesome it still runs and cools being an older unit. We are well aware we will need a new unit in the future but the techs always suggest to just keep trucking until we need to since it operates so well. We've always been satisfied with this. ""If it's not broke, don't fix it"" Today they came out for our annual tune up. All the same info. ""Wow! This cools amazing for an older unit however in the future you may have to replace a part xyz xyz "" we had the same conversation and decided that we wouldn't mess with it as the part that may need to be replaced he said was bigger than what was in there and he didn't know if it could fit. So same story as every year. It works well, so let's ride it out. The tech was super! Super kind. Efficient and polite. He took his time and seemed thorough which we appreciate. He leaves and we notice within the next half hour that the air blowing was warm and the temperature was rising fairly quickly. We wait it out thinking maybe it will take a minute to cool down and the house is already reaching 80 degrees. We call about an hour later and say that the AC suddenly doesn't work. To which the woman kerri on the phone immediately says that there would be a $99 diagnostic fee. I obviously got upset! We have had no issues whatsoever with our unit and immediately after your tech leaves our AC doesn't work and you're telling me now I have to pay $99? I told her I absolutely will not pay a fee. She says it's ""only if"" it's nothing the tech did. Wait a minute! The AC WORKED FINE BEFORE HE ARRIVED AND FOR THE PAST 4 YEARS!!! She says they will be out after 2pm. She calls me back and says she spoke to the tech and he explained to me that we may eventually need to change a part. YES!! He did!! But she said it could ""go at any minute!"" How ironic that it would go right after our tune up?! Come on now! She said we wouldn't pay diagnostic fee but WOULD have to pay for the part. I reluctantly agree. Whatever. We would've had to replace in the future regardless of whether the tech broke it or not. The second tech comes out and finds that the first tech didn't turn the switch on the AC unit back on. Easy as that ... TECH ERROR. my 3 stars is because of the immediate assumption that our AC shit the bed 30 seconds after the tech left our house!! They couldn't fathom that it was human error and were only concerned with getting us to pay more fees to have someone come out to fix our working-forever AC unit. It was so infuriating! We're pretty reasonable people and we will pay for good service but it felt super money hungry given the circumstances. We will eventually need a new unit and we're going to absolutely use berkshire however this has us second guessing using them in the future. The techs are wonderful and I love the confirmation of appts and the emails declaring their arrival since we have crazy dogs but this situation has left a really bad taste in our mouthes. Thanks for fixing your human error!!!!

Emily P.

My father owns the multi family that I live in. Called Berkshire to come out because my heat wasn't turning on automatically, he kept having to go down there and light the pilot. They sent a kid about a year out of school. after half an hour down there he came upstairs and told my dad that the boiler was cracked and the water was leaking all over my basement floor. This wasn't happening before the guy came out. Now I need a new boiler.

Liz C.

Our furnace stopped working and I called Berkshire HVAC. Benny worked for a long time and finally got it working but while he was still there it stopped again.This happened several times and each time he was able to get it running again. Before he left we realized that our thermostat was also not working. When he left the heat was on and he recommended we get a new thermostat because ours wasn't making the connection to turn on the furnace. He wasn't gone very long before it stopped again and we had no way of turning it on. I called the office and scheduled a service call. Brandon arrived in the pouring rain and I don't think he was very happy to be here (and I wish he had put on booties over his shoes) . He installed a new thermostat and worked on the furnace some more. When he left everything was working. The next day (Sunday) it wasn't working again so I called once more. I hated to ruin a tech's Sunday but it was cold in the house. Brandon came back and this time he definitely wasn't happy to be here. (I guess he had several service calls that day) After he got it working he decided to get into it deeper to see if he could find the solution to our problem. When he came back upstairs he showed us pictures of the working parts of the furnace and he said who ever serviced our furnace in the past neglected to do proper maintenance and replacement of certain parts. So now we're waiting for parts to be delivered and repairs to be made.

Corinne M.

STAY AWAY!!! We paid them to diagnose the heating issue in a home we just finished remodeling because the heat was not working. They did a diagnosis of the system, gave a quote to repair and upon completion said there was a small leak in the basement that they would quote and need to come back and fix in two days. Well despite paying them to diagnose the system they missed the leak in the upstairs of the home, set the thermostat to 85 and left. Our real estate agent found our home flooded a few days later. They will not work with us to help fix the issue they misdiagnosed and aren't taking our phone calls. We have had to pull the house off of the market while we remediate the water and repair the extensive damage they caused.

Li S.

We were very satisfied with service being a new customer with a 2 yr plan. Technician professional serviced the central AC unit and cleaned all debris. He was not aware the debris was a nest of white eggs of Clover mites. Our expense for pest control for infestation exterior-interior windows and sidings. Our post is to inform both technician and customer to check the debris to prevent the same nightmare.
Scotts

Pat G.

Nine years ago our nightmare began when Berkshire installed a Buderus Logamax Plus GB 142 boiler. They couldn't get it to work properly and had no technician knowledgeable about the product. In the first month of installation, Berkshire was here 4 times. The following month, we lost our heat at 6 different times. Over the years, we have had numerous problems costing us various repair fees.
Berkshire sold us the most expensive product on the market (over $11,000) when our former boiler had a meltdown and we were without heat during the late fall and early winter. I did not do my due diligence to research this product and relied on Berkshire to advise me. In the beginning, we relied on Berkshire to service the boiler but had no confidence in their skill although all their technicians were very polite. We did find an independent company who successfully serviced the boiler when it broke down.
Again, we lost heat this past week. The technician we now have, pointed out all the areas that are in obvious failure and need to be replaced. He also pointed out problems that were due to poor installation. The cost: over $2000 with no guarantee that the unit will not fail in the future. (Check the reviews on this product. It is a known lemon. I tried to contact Buderus to no avail.) Berkshire should have known about the problems with this unit: it came out in 2008 and we bought it at the end of 2010. Let the buyer beware.

Louanne S.

We have used this company 3 separate times and they have been exceptional!!! They are extremely nice, do not appear to be dishonest, very prompt service, gave us a military discount and we will continue to use them as long as they keep the excellent service going. Thank you for being great to us in Belchertown

Stephen M.

Arrived on time and installed in timeframe they gave. Jose and Sammy worked as a team and answered all my questions. House is now cool and pleasant again. Nice job men. Shout out to tech Louis for getting highly knowledgable salesman Brian to call us as well.

BJ B.

If I could leave negative stars, I would. Stay as far away from Berkshire as you can, unless you love getting crap equipment and even worse service for your hard earned dollars. We mistakenly had them replace both our heat & cooling systems- worst mistake I've made as a homeowner!!! No way either of these systems should need to be replaced within 7 years of installation.
The ""method"" they used to check the refrigerant levels in our brand new unit depleted the refrigerant levels every time they did it. Result was them telling us we had to pay them to throw parts at it which may or may not fix the issue. Had another company come in and tell us the damage Berkshire did and we had to recharge the coolant- 2 years later we're being told to replace the entire AC because of the damage Berkshire did.
The heating unit is rusting in the heat exchanger (old unit was in place over 30 years with no rust so this isn't environmentally caused by conditions inside our house) and now we need to spend about $2k to replace the heat exchanger or spend more to get this piece of crap out of our house completely.

Stay away from Berkshire!!!!!!

Casey K.

I am so torn on these guys. The first time I called I received reasonably timely and reasonably accurate service for my oil furnace. That would probably get them a solid 3 stars.

Then, more recently, I called and explained that I wished to receive an estimate on installing zone valves to change our single zone system to a two zone system. They sent a ""comfort advisor"" out that immediately told me that he couldn't help me because he was told by the office that he would be providing an estimate on an oil to gas conversion and he would have no idea on plumbing costs. Thus, this first miscommunication was both a waste of my time and theirs.

Soon thereafter, I received a call from the office to schedule a plumber to provide a plumbing estimate. Importantly, at no time was I advised that there would be a charge for this visit. The plumber came out and, after a short visit, expressed to me that there would be a charge of $69. I called the office to object. The manager immediately got very defensive and abrasive. Despite the fact that their office staff had now made two errors in communication, the manager insisted that the staff had told me of the charge and that the charge should stand. In the end, she told me that I was to be put on a ""Do Not Service"" list. That makes my decision not to do business with them again pretty easy.

I can only hope that people read this review and opt to go with a different company for their heating needs.