General Air Conditioning & Plumbing

Barbara C.

SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM Have never written a review like this before. I can save you a long story and just say DO NOT NOT NOT use this company!!
The story: new to the area. When I first moved in my AC went out while still under home warranty and had it replaced by company required by the warranty plan. Everything fine. That was late 2015.
Kept hearing ads about General and bought the maintenance package being afraid of the desert heat. Their second time here to do a spring maintenance the tech came to me with a list of all the things I needed fixed. Told me it was because my AC was so ""old"". OLD! It was less than three years!!! Cost quoted totaled many thousands.
I'm a single 71 year old woman and I know he figured I didn't know Got a call to renew my maintenance plan. Told the man I was not happy about the sales pitch last time and my house wasn't cooling evenly and that I'd told the tech last time about it. He said he could send someone out to do a diagnostic check and that would be extra. I asked why he didn't ""diagnose "" it when he was here TWO MONTHS ago. He said maintenance and diagnostics are two separate services. What!! Okay send him out. A charge of course. This time he said my duct work was old and bad and wanted to call the person out who does the ductwork to put in new. If the ductwork was bad why didn't he say anything about that two months ago. Last time he was here it was all totally different problems. Showed me a picture of a place where the duct was separated. One place. Was it separated last time??? Or did this problem just happen??? Hm. Who knows. Said I didn't want new ducts. Patch the old. He wrapped tape around the ""problem"" spot. Cost $300! I may be old but not that stupid.
Do not call these people. Rip off big time!!

UPDATE! Received a call from General. Certainly changed my opinion. Not only did I receive a full
Apology, Rick took full responsibility for the service I received. No excuses, no trying to justify and tell me my complaint was my fault. The call was strictly to ask how he could make it right. And at this point they have. I'm so pleased that one, they will make it right and two, that someone actually listened to me! I will continue to do business with them as it's rare to get a call after a complaint and even more rare to be listened to and your problem fixed. Thank you General Air.

Martin L.

Mr. Kyle Silva was my plumber:
it's always a pleasure to have mr. Silva at my home been here before he's always very courteous and knowledgeable and professional.
Answered all my questions with a plumbing concern I had I hope he will do the follow-up call that is required to complete the service.
Is this because of Men (employees) like him that I can continue to use the general air conditioning plumbing.

David B.

AC went out on a Sunday, called The General at 7AM on Monday. Thanks to a cancellation there were at my condo before 8AM and by 8:30AM this issue was diagnosed. By 9AM, my condo was cool again. Michael was very professional, explaining my options and making recommendations for the future. My unit is almost 10 years old, I was expecting the sales pitch for a new unit, but all I got was quick professional service at a reasonable cost with recommendations on how to extend the life of the unit. The General will be my first option when it comes to AC in the future.

Jacob T.

DO NOT USE! NOT EVEN FOR A QUOTE OR INSPECTION!

They will quote you way higher than they should, their technicians are working on commission and are constantly using scare tactics to try and get you to buy a whole new system. They will inflate the cost of repairing so that they can convince you it's better to replace the whole system.

If you don't buy on the first meeting/inspection they will put everything back half assed and do more damage and make it much harder for a great company like Absolute Heating and Air to come in and actually fix your problem for a good price.

General Air Conditioning and Plumbing is the worst in the whole valley.

DONT USE THEM!
Save yourself time, money and hassle!

Barraza P.

20 min. response..... more like a never response. I should have trusted the reviews because I did see them before giving them a call, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I called for some service at my home and the lady on the phone said they would have someone over right away. Well, they never showed up and now I'm stuck in my house in Palm Springs with NO AC and it's about 90 degrees inside here. Thanks for absolutely nothing.

Karen C.

After 5 years using the general, I came to my senses and divorced them. Unreliable, over selling, never arrive when stated. Could not get a tech out for 3 days in the summer because if you had the preferred plan, you were given priority. My other home had several issues that have unfortunately forced me to move to a more reliable company.

Michael A.

Adding to my original post and update, Michael and Rick from The General Air Conditioning have provided excellent service in fixing a remote application for my new ac units that stopped working. I very much appreciate their work and the help I received from president and CEO Patrick Somers. I am satisfied that customer service is very important to this business.

Shiny D.

Beware. I recently purchased a home in Palm Desert. One of the key features was an updated HVAC system. Within months of occupying the property one of the systems went out. I pulled up the warranty paperwork, discovered the very elderly, cognitively impaired former owner paid over $24K to General for a new, two-stage Amana system. So i called General out for warranty repair. Apart from mis-diagnosing the problem on the first paid visit, they then charged me over $900 to replace the coil (2 men, 45 minutes), while the cost of the part was covered by manufacturer. Two days later, the condensing unit ""coincidently"" failed. They tried to tell me (an engineer) that when some sub-systems are fixed, it puts ""pressure"" on the next weakest component and it then fails. Like, really? I was done with General, so called another contractor and got it fixed - $90.00. Turns out it was how General initially wired the unit. In the process -- and here's what frosted me -- i learned that the former elderly owner paid for a two-stage system, but General was too lazy to upgrade the thermostat wiring, thereby limiting it to one-stage operation. In short, General cheated a 90+ year-old by overselling him a system and then incorrectly installing it so the expensive features for which he overpaid, never worked. Criminal.

Robyn C.

So incredibly disappointed in General Air
We 'joined' their priority program and have literally paid $1000's in new equipment and repairs
Less than a couple of months after their repair of our hot water heater it went out again - We called for service again and was quoted they could fit us in approx 5 days
... That's what you get to be Priority???
We asked to speak to a supervisor
Never heard back!!!

WE CALLED THE EMERGENCY PHONE - they promised to have someone out but may not be until the morning
Unacceptable!
We asked to speakers to the supervisor again
NO call back!!!
We fixed the problem ourselves- Then 2 weeks later we received a call to set an appointment - Once again asked to speak to a supervisor- Two days has passed and still NO CALL
We want our money back for the priority membership
********
I

Patrick, CEO of GA read my YELP review and contacted me saying that he would investigate the complaint. After waiting 2 weeks without a response I reached out again to hear a reply. Finally a reply came with apologies that GA had totally failed and offered some money back.

Still having issues with our water heater we called for service and was told that they could come out 'next week'. Totally unacceptable AGAIN. Even when they looked at our membership! We called Priority One
They came out directly. Serviced our water heater
Much LESS $$$ Much better service!

After another inquiry the CEO told me that he forgot and will process a check on Monday It's my opinion that General Air should put more money into their customer service than in their advertising

********

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER 7/8/19

Update: We still have NOT received the promised check from the CEO of General Air

Warning: Do not get sucked into their maintenance/preferred customer program. It's a scam!

E D.

I have made two appointments to get a quote on a new AC unit..they didn't show for both. I would give 0 stars if I could..disappointed in your customer service.