Great Lakes Heating & Air Conditioning

Gianluca B.

I would NOT recommend Great Lakes Heating and Cooling. I called them to fix my old AC. The technician first pressured me into replacing the entire system for $5000 telling me that the compressor was dead and it would cost almost the same to replace it. After I made absolutely clear that that was not an option as we were in the middle of facing huge medical bills because of a serious family member condition, he actually stopped pretending to diagnose the problem and told me perhaps there was a repair option but it was expensive. He replaced a capacitor and that was enough to make the system work meaning that he had lied on the compressor. He charged me $500 for a capacitor replacement that took 15 minutes to an experience tech and the part probably costs $30. I called the company to question the charge and they said there was no mistake. I question the integrity of the company.

Derek J.

Blower seemed to go out on 19-year-old furnace. They had replaced the burner box several years before to the tune of $1300. This time, the tech recommended blower and start assist battery at about $1000 and $1600 in additional preventive maintenance on the furnace & AC ""so it doesn't nickel and dime you."" I should be so lucky! Each part was listed as hundreds of dollars, which Internet site specifically warn about. I could see replacing the whole furnace at this point, but this kind of hard-sell of extras and overcharging is outrageous. Fast, friendly, efficient, and extremely expensive.

Duane B.

July 15, 2019

Do not use Great Lakes Heating and Air Conditioning. They are Price Gougers. The following paragraphs explain my assessment of their recent service call to my home, and the process whereby I conclude that they are Price Gougers.

Our A/C quit blowing cold sometime during the night of Thurs, July 4th or the early morning of Fri, July 5th, 2019. We checked the batteries in the thermostat. They were OK. I checked A/C breaker on main panel - OK. On Friday AM, I phoned Lechlitner Plumbing and Heating in Wakarusa, IN. They installed our Lennox furnace and A/C, and have continued to service both. They were unavailable, apparently on vacation over the holiday weekend. I checked the internet for South Bend area HVAC contractors. Phoned several. Some did not answer. One could not provide service until Monday. Finally got hold of Great Lakes Friday evening. Dispatcher said they would come to our home on Saturday. Technician arrived around noon on Sat, July 6. He checked thermostat, furnace/AC controls in basement, and A/C compressor outside. He seemed to know where to look and what to check, and he had the right tools. He said the A/C contactor was pitted and burned, and the compressor could benefit from the addition of a Super Boost starting capacitor. He replaced the A/C contactor with a new one, and added the Super Boost Capacitor. He attached the capacitor only with one screw in the plastic hanger on top of the capacitor. I asked him to add a holding strap, which he did. Otherwise, the technician seemed to know what to do, and did it well, except for the strap on the capacitor.

Now to the problem, and the reason for this highly negative assessment of Great Lakes. The total charge was $831.00. The charge for the trip fee was $129.00. Since it was a Saturday, I assumed that it was a usual week-end fee. However the charge for the contactor and capacitor can only be considered Price Gouging. The charge for the contactor was $446.00. They can be found all over the internet for a range of $15.00 to $40.00. The charge for the capacitor was $256.00. They can be found all over the internet for a range of $10.00 to $30.00.

Given that the parts are usually marked up to allow for a profit, and the mark up could also cover labor costs, ten times the highest retail cost is exorbitant, and can only be considered Price Gouging. The technician was on site no longer than 1 and 1/2 hours. At $100.00 an hour, labor should be no more than $150.00, and doubling the high end retail price of the two parts would be $80.00 and $60.00 respectively, the total charge should not have been more than $419.00. My calculation is that I was overcharged about $412.00.

There are many HVAC companies in the South Bend area. Use a different one. Do not use Great Lakes unless you do not mind being overcharged. They are Price Gougers!

Duane Beals, 3445 Creekwater Ln, South Bend, IN 46635

Don L.

So... let it begin. If you are in the South Bend area, do yourself a favor and do not use Great Lakes Heating and Air Conditioning...

My wife had called them to come and look at our ac unit. Upon completion of his 3hr inspection (took him that long to find something wrong?) he wrote up an estimate for $530 to change out two ""underperforming"" capacitors (which were referred to, and written up as a start assist battery and a dual assist battery). Mind you, they were performing on the lower end of acceptability, but were not failing. He basically sold my wife on a fear of failure. $451 for two capacitors worth $40-50 retail, tops, are you kidding me?! $195 for the start assist and $256 for the dual assist. I don't mind the $79 service fee, after all they did come out to look at our situation. But, I do mind getting raked over the coals for parts that were not truly needed!

When I called the company, they basically stated that they weren't going to adjust the price because my wife chose to do the job.

We are getting a new furnace in the future, guess who will NOT get our business!

Buyer beware! Make sure you get a second opinion before you get taken by these people...

Update: The company called me back and asked me what I thought I should have paid. I told them that $50 for parts and $50 for labor was more than adequate. So, they refunded us $351 and politely asked us to not call them in the future. I assured them that wasn't a problem.

Deann T.

I don't know about the company, but the person I tried to talk to to make an appointment sounded like he had mush in his mouth along with a sucker, Did not speak up or try to speak clearly. If I can't make an appointment how can I trust the tech that would come out to know anything

Zack C.

The service tech was a real bonehead. Tracked mud in on my new carpet and pretty sure he was smoking a cigarette in the basement (I don't smoke in the house).
I mean I guess he got the work done but come on! I'll probably just go somewhere else next time.

Alvino R.

SCAM!!!

Just like alot of other people on here, I feel like they charge way too much for parts. I think they have a markup of up to 900% which is just stupid. I'm sure alot of people feel cheated by this company.

Do not recommend.

Lillie G.

The only reason I give them three stars is because they were prompt and the technician was great. The part I had a problem with them are the prices. Had to call them on Thanksgiving weekend and I was ok with paying the extra fee for coming out. The technician found the problem to be in our thermostat. He only had the ""cheaper"" kind which was only programmable not wifi like we had so we said ok install it till we found out they were going to charge us $864 for a thermostat you can get at Lowe's for under $100. Good thing I know someone who could install a new one went to Lowe's and purchased a wifi with Bluetooth and voice control for $169. I can understand that companies have to make money but raising the price almost 9 times is outrageous.

Steven W.

I called Great Lake's to have a technician come out to clean flame sensor on my water heater. Service quoted $98 for trip cost and after tech arrived, he spent less than 28 minutes at our home to clean carbon build up off sensor and charged an additional $129 for a total cost of $227. Upon calling Service, was told this is their flat rate established by owner. Outrageous and disappointing for local business with price gouging. Would not recommend.

Goodwin B.

Very POOR Customer Service. AC not working correctly. First technician came out, thought issue was solved, but was not. They did send a 2nd technician out the next day, and issue solved... almost... Said I needed some duct work, which they could do and someone from the office would call the following week to schedule. The entire week went by, so on Friday of the week, I called and no one was aware that this service needed to be done, with exception of the 2nd tech. They assured me Missy the office manager would call on Monday after the weekend. Wednesday of that week, still no call. I called, after playing phone tag with Missy, and being upset, understandably so... about all the delays, when I finally was able to speak to Missy, NO apology for... sorry for the delay in contacting you, I know you are upset, let me see if we can get you scheduled and your AC issue resolved. None of that, instead, I was told they couldn't do what I needed done. After 2 techs, NO phone calls, and no.... sorry about the confusion, etc. I would run the other direction from this company.