Kalka Plumbing Air Conditioning and Heating

Sep V.

I signed up for a service contract with these guys when I bought my house and had them come out to install a new thermostat controller and check the furnace (heat was noted to not work during home inspection). Brandon Bowen was the HVAC technician (I had experience with him at our prior house) and he, as usual, was fantastic (but he has left Kalka). My service contract includes an AC tuneup visit as well as a water heater flush. I called in June for the AC tuneup and was told that they don't do the maintenance contract visits until after ""busy season"" - basically after summer. OK, I'm a reasonable man, and I get that. I am not happy about it, but I understand. The other thing my service contract includes is a water heater flush. I scheduled an appointment several days ago for a morning slot today. I took the day off from work and am sitting here. I was not surprised when I receive the call saying they can't make it. I'm done with these guys. Chalking the service contract up as an L and am not having them come do the work I am owed. Be warned - do not sign up for a service contract with these guys.

Madan S.

They are supposed to give me an estimate and invoice for work done. Neither one came to my email. Every time they say they will send but never comes. Very slow and disorganized team.

Mark B.

One of Ben Franklin's famous quotes "" a penny saved is a penny earned""
Save your self a ton of penny's stay away from Ben Franklin Plumbing. They quoted me $650 for a pipe with a pin leak in my ceiling. I said no thanks but since your going to charge $59 for walking in the door how about changing out a valve stem in my bathroom. The quote...$269. I looked up the part price later $8.50 & it took me 15 minutes to change. By the way the pin hole in the ceiling, $205 - thanks to the nice folks at Bill Metzger Plumbing!

Stacey T.

This company is the worst ever when comes to customer service!! We purchased two steam units from them and constantly have trouble from day one. When called for services we will always get a date and no technician would show up nor a follow up call. There seemed to be a high employee turn over rate as well. We will report them to the better business bureau.

Craig C.

Do NOT do business with Kalka! Their ""Pledge"" document of guarantee's is a joke based on the fact their owner does not respond to escalated requests for finding a resolution to our Lennox A/C unit not performing to expectations.

We had our entire HVAC system replaced including new duct work less than 2 years ago (for which we overpaid and never were able to get closure on the competitive price delta ""guarantee"") and now for the past 3+ weeks with record breaking heat Kalka has left us hanging with 83+ indoor temps here in Rancho Santa Margarita.

In fairness, they did send a technician initially but after checking the system suspected it was a ""refrigerant line leak"" and not related to the equipment they had replaced. While on-site the technician proposed to run a leak test for $1k and if it was found NOT to be related to the refrigerant line then the money would be refunded. Crazy considering other HVAC companies only charge $89 to run the same test.

We're beyond frustrated and not sure what our next step is with Kalka to get our A/C fully functional but given our experience since post-installation it's pretty obvious we would recommend any consumer seek out other HVAC companies and not bother calling Kalka.

Also, if you're installing a Lennox system we found out they have a ""premiere dealer"" program for which Kalka is not a certified member. Not surprised given I learned from the Lennox customer rep how stringent their requirements are to attain this rating.

Mahdiyeh S.

STAY AWAY FROM THESE CON ARTISTS. Lies after lies. PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU EVER CONSIDER HIRING THEM!

I'm at shortage of words to describe my frustration and anger towards this organization they are crooks and this is robbery. My bf called out this company and he said they charge $90 just to come out and run a diagnostic which is ok. He saw this company's sticker on our actual AC unit (must have serviced the unit in the past.. not by us)... A guy by the name of Mike arrived to our house around 5pm and took him about 15 minutes messing with the wires mind you he started touching the other unit which was working perfectly. He came and said the power box is burnt up and had to replace it, and THAT WAS $479... oh it gets better... he said if you want me to find out WHY It got burnt up it was an additional $200...so a TOTAL OF $679. At this point it's 6:30pm and we are unable to call another company to come out, my bf agreed to pay the above amount... then he goes back the unit for a 25 minutes and then he came inside to say that he needs access the attic because the fuse had popped. Oh and above all, he says yeah it can't be fixed tonight because you need a new compressor your current one is broken and a new compressor will cost $2kto 3k and at this point he says we might as well purchase and install a whole new unit... COST? $9,000-$13,0000!!!! And the BEST PART IS HE SAYS my next opening is Thursday...and this is Monday night.

THE VERY NEXT MORNING, today... I called a company called --CONNECT HEATING AND AIR---company in Orange County and judging by their reviews on YELP, I was hoping they would help...I told them what had happened.. at 11 am they sent a technician out ... TURNS OUT THAT KALKA had crossed wires and by crossing I mean purposely TAMPERED with it to make it completely not functional,... look i'm not a technical person but I am human and I know when my gutt is telling me someone is being dishonest. From the moment the KALKA guy said it's going to cost you another $200 for me to find out why the unit broke down which was supposed to be covered with the ORIGINAL $99 that was my signal that this guy has SHADY AGENDA.

This company is made up of thieves they are trained to tamper with your unit to say it's completely broken and needs to be replaced or changing major parts which will cost you a couple of grand.

GUESS WHAT! My unit is working immaculately it took the honest guy less than 30 minutes to know what's wrong with it and fix it all it needed was a new capacitor. The cost with installation? $150!!!! SHAME ON KALKA. STAY AWAY FROM THESE CON ARTISTS.

Kim H.

DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY! We had them replace our AC/Furnace, along with a new intake grate in my wall & re-doing all the vents, only to have the AC Unit burn out exactly 1yr 3months after installation...called them, surprise you have a 1 year manufacturers warranty, ""sorry we can't help you, call the manufacturer"" so we did, they asked us to send them the burned out compressor & they would send us a new one for $700, if it proved their fault they'd reimburse us (meanwhile we paid to have another company take the compressor out). New compressor arrives (3 months later) and the new AC guys install it...as they're installing it they discover the copper piping that was replaced by Kalka was only upgraded where we could see it, in the areas we wouldn't notice they used the existing smaller copper piping, so we have large (new) tubing going into the smaller tubing (old) and this caused the compressor to work too hard & burn out! When we called Kalka & asked why they didn't replace the 10' of copper pipe to match the rest of what they replaced, Kevin, the owner stated ""we didn't ask for that upgrade, but he can do it for more $"" How is it possible that we have both units, vents, tubing, etc, replaced & you don't do the 10' we can't see??? Sounds suspicious?? Yea, I thought so too! SEE YOU IN COURT KALKA!

Monya H.

Scheduled the work with Kevin and unfortunately, they were really booked. I called Kevin a couple of times, he was able to get his staff out the next day. He assigned Sara to the job and she was great. She was knowledgeable, explained the work, and got it done quickly. If possible ask for Sara. Thanks for everything, I suggest you guys to everyone I know.

Rob S.

Kevin is just a Good Guy who wants your business . They have a Whole Program That handles all your needs with very Competent Techs. If you've got a HVAC issue , and Charlie Yonko shows up at your door, You won't have an issue for long.

Tom C.

I called Benjamin Franklin Plumbing to help me with some residential plumbing needs. They came out the next day and Lawrence & Jonathan did a terrific job. Highly recommend these guys!