Thomas & Galbraith Heating, Cooling & Plumbing

Edwin Q.

I called Thomas and Galbraith because my blower stopped working while I was out of town. My wife was in the house by herself with two kids and it was 90+ degrees outside. I'm a mechanical engineer and knew exactly what was wrong with the system. I talked to the tech beforehand and told him what was wrong. I still got the $94 diagnostic fee. The blower motor was bad. They charged me $740 including the diagnostic fee. I asked for a cost breakdown and the tech got super defensive on the phone and told me he couldn't give me a cost breakdown of the $740. That motor cost at most $100 and it takes me about an hour to do. To them, that do it on a regular basis, about 30 mins. That is crazy. My neighbor got the same service done the previous week with a different company and the total cost was $300. When I got home from my business trip and saw the receipt then I understood their method. There were two options:

A) Pay $648 + $94 = $742 to replace the motor.

B ) Do a 1 year ""maintenance plan"" and they will change the cost for the service mentioned above from $742 to $551 plus the service plan of $189 which brings the total to $740.
So you save $2 with the maintenance plan right? This is just a dishonest method of forcing you to buy their maintenance plan. $551 sounds closer to what this service should cost.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.

Patty L.

Called wanting to use a coupon for an ac tune-up for $53. Coupon stated ""must be able to start unit."" We can start our ac & it cools...just not good enough. I was told that would have to be a service call. I'm sure the service call would cost more, OF COURSE! The coupon should state that ac has to be operating normally instead of saying that you must be able to start it. False Advertising???

jess m.

This letter is an email my father sent to the president of Thomas & Galbraith. I hope whoever thinks about using this company's service will choose a different company. It's been a nightmare for my dad.

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I can't tell you how much I regret choosing Thomas & Galbraith to do my plumbing.


We just wanted a new water heater installed, and while we were at it, replace the mix of materials making up our water pipes in the basement.


After choosing Thomas & Galbraith to do this - what we thought was a - simple job, we've had to:

call in Duke Energy because of the gas leak we had after your workers had left for the day;

replace our gas lines;

have an electrician come in to fix our electrical panel after your plumber shorted out the panel (twice!) trying to ground the gas lines they had to install;

have Duke Energy come in - again -- to make the electrical box safe to work on;

have a chimney guy come in to fix the chimney because the hot water heater is not properly vented , which should have been determined before work began.

A $3985 job is now going to cost us about $10,000 due to your company's ineptitude.


But that's just the big stuff. Also:

When your guys installed the hot water heater, they installed the hot and cold water lines backwards. We had hot water coming out of our cold faucets, cold water coming out of our hot faucets, and hot water in our toilet tanks.

When they fixed the reversal of the hot and cold water lines after we pointed out their foul-up, instead of going back to a line where the lines would come straight out, they put in four 90° angles, in the most conspicuous spot possible. A Rube Goldberg job.

Without asking us first, they cut holes in the new sink we had bought for this project, and fastened our washing machine drain hose with solder through these holes.

They weren't able to do, and so didn't do, a simple job of replacing the wood that was behind the old pipes when they replaced them.

We've had to clean everything they touched. They threw their tools on our appliances without putting a towel or rag or something down first. We found pieces of solder and flux everywhere - including in towels that were nearby, and tape and other trash just tossed on our floors.


And here's the best: We still don't have hot water. Because your technicians never checked to see if the hot water heater would vent properly before they installed it, we - that's right, WE - have had to check into reconstructing our chimney, or installing another water heater with a power vent, which would have to run across our entire basement, about the level of my head, or find another way. So we have to run the water heater for an hour while we open all the basement doors and windows, and run fans down there, and make sure our carbon monoxide monitor is working properly, and then turn the water heater off and use the warm water left in the tank conservatively for a day or so. Then we do it again.


If I were President of this company, I would be embarrassed to provide this kind of service we got.

Mindy R.

If I could give zero stars, I would. Service call to fix toilet. Didn't even look inside the toilet. Flushed it once and told me it would have to be replaced or rebuilt. Ten minutes & $94 if my money later, he was gone. Estimate for the rebuild was $700. Unbelievable con artists. Will never use them again

Tom S.

Thomas & Galbraith acquired Jacob Bros. last year, whom we have used for our heating and cooling maintenance for the past 14 years. Jacob Brothers were exceptional to work with year after year.

Be aware of the Thomas & Galbraith Spring & Fall Maintenance Program. It's their way of getting in your home and making your system fail so they can offer various options which can run from $200 to $2000. Two difference instances my furnace and/or AC unit was running fine until they showed up for the Fall or Spring Maintenance Program that you pay for upfront.

I asked for the $90 refund of the upcoming Fall Maintenance Program. They would not refund it because they said I signed a contract.

Rhonda N.

Can I give a zero star review? Bought a new Carrier furnace and AC unit in February 2014 from T&G. I have had to have it repaired/serviced at least twice every season since. It has had more problems than the 28 year old system I had them replace. Everything is ""covered under warranty"" except my pain and suffering and the $94 service call which they say I can buy their maintenance agreement and not have to worry about the service call anymore either. Why does this thing require so many repairs??? During my 4th or 5th service call, the guy said the thing was installed and set up incorrectly to begin with and we did see a huge change in effeciency, however it is now perpetually low on referigerant requiring at least 2 service calls every warm weather to correct this issue. The last time I called to schedule a repair, the ""lady"" on the phone was rude to me about ""why haven't you scheduled regular maintenance on your furnace since you bought it?"" Well, let's see, How about because it's always broke down? I will say that the service techs are very nice and friendly. Do they know what they are doing? That's debatable. Oh, and don't try to pay with cash. They can't make change.

Wyman L.

I actually had to call them out again about a couple months later for the same symptoms, and because I was now having to change out the main air filter every week and a half. It really should be once a month even though I have three dogs. But the tech who came out was more thorough than the other one and realized that there was a little build up or temporary corrosion on the connectors of a sensorThat monitors for the presence of the igniter flame. And it is dependent on whether or not it the text of claim as to whether it will run the furnace and pushy throughout the house. Once he clean the contacts it was working great again. Apparently this is a part of maintenance that should be done maybe every six months to a year. It's great to have the furnace working again.

Susan L.

I called Thomas Galbraith after my sump pump malfunctioned, and I had $15,000 water damage in my basement. I asked on the phone for a ball-park estimate and was told they had to come out to give the estimate. So I had them come out, and I was told it would be $751, or $740 (if I bought a ""membership""), so I chose the latter. I had a free service call coupon, but of course, if I didn't go with their repair, I couldn't use it and would have to pay $94 for the service call. I didn't want to do that and start all over searching for someone, since it was still raining outside, and I didn't need any more water. The technician told me they had a ""competitive"" rate. The next day, my neighbor called and asked me what had happened when he saw the repair truck, so I told him. He decided since our houses are the same age, he would go ahead and replace his sump pump, to avoid water damage like I had. I found out he paid $350 from a local reputable plumbing company. I have been overcharged $400, and I called to express my concerns, and I was promptly told that they are ""competitive"" and nothing would be done about their charges.

After $15,000 worth of damage and my insurance only covering $5,000, I feel very violated by Thomas Galbraith. If they would have even offered me a $100 credit, I wouldn't be writing this review.

Dont use Thomas Galbraith unless you want to pay too much!

E C.

Be cautious: if you get C..... do NOT let him do ""work on"" your hvac. Our heat was working fine when he came in. It was broken when he left. And a large service estimate afterwards.
On a positive note: the technician that worked on our AC in a previous visit did an EXCELLENT job. Very happy with his work.

Karen K.

My parents used them for the first time to have an annual maintenance as they had a coupon. Don't waste your money with this dishonest company! They came out and without their permission started taking a bunch of pictures of their system and talking about all the things that needed to be fixed or replaced. Then the next day the blower motor started running when it hadn't before so they called them out again and they said oh nothing is wrong so now we have to charge you a service call. This blower motor was not doing this before they did the annual maintenance so it's something they did. We are calling for our money back and have to call someone else to repair or BBB complaint is next.