Universe Home Services

Jason Y.

On Monday October 2nd, Rich from Universe Home Services arrived for a service call for my central air unit. Rich quickly diagnosed the issue which was a bad air handler motor. Rich advised that air handler motors are not cheap and quickly quoted me $3,500 to replace the motor and recommended replacing my entire central AC system. Universe later sent a salesperson, Marty to sell me a new system for $12,040 or $13,550. When I questioned the quote that Rich gave me for the repair, Marty noted that the part is $800 and Rich estimated that the repair would take 8 hours at $300 ($2,400), for a total of $3,200 + tax. I had previously researched that the national average price for this repair is $550. Quickly I realized that Universe Home Services was trying to rip me off and sell me a new system. The next day, I called another local HVAC tech for a second opinion. The tech reviewed the quotes obtained from Universe and immediately laughed at Universe's dishonesty. While my HVAC system is 10 years old, they asserted that my system was in good shape and that there is no need to replace the system. They ordered an ECM motor at a cost of $250 and installed it in under 1 hour at a cost of $300. My central AC system is now working perfectly. Universe Home Services should be ashamed of their dishonest business practices. I urge neighbors should think twice before allowing this dishonest business into their homes.

Anna Z.

Seems like as previous posters indicated do not call this company for anything AC related. We have a excellent unit that basically stopped working since this company serviced it!!
When they found out the part was under warranty, they decided they would ""get us"" on the labor and asked for almost 1K in labor costs for a job admittedly less than 2 hours!
Doctors don't make $500 an hour! Seriously!!! STAY FAR AWAY!!!!!

maura w.

Brand new $12,000 central air installed about 3 weeks ago caused Smokey situation in home and just stopped working last night. I'm asthmatic and called the company for emergency repair. I was told it is not an emergency and no one could help! Horrible customer service

Karen G.

How can I give them NEGATIVE stars?
New central A/C unit installed 9/22/22, $13,000... it has never worked!!!!
They have been back 6 times.
Canceled 3 times. My lawyer says it will cost $5000 to sue them, so I lose half my money anyway. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. It took 20 visits to repair the A/C unit in our garage.
CANT STESS THIS ENOUGH, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES,OR YOUR WALLET.

D G.

UPDATE: it's been 5 visits from this company now and everyone keeps giving me different answers and blaming the last guy that was in. I'm attaching a screenshot of their invoice that blamed ""electric"" and says they need to come back , after electric has already been sent out to fix whatever mistake the other guys made. I was tired of the blame game and I ended up contacting a different company and it was fixed in FIFTEEN MINUTES. There was no leak, and they said the person that suggested there may be a leak is simply inexperienced because nothing pointed to a leak, and our refrigerant levels were perfect. The issue was a simple fix if you knew how these machines worked, which Universe Technicians clearly don't. The other company let me know that it could've very well have been caused during the ""maintenance"" from Universe, which is when all these issues began. I will be taking them to small claims to remedy this. Save yourself the time, money, and trouble and use someone else. I cannot stress that enough. It's been almost two months of torture and hemorrhaging money because of their ""maintenance"".

Avi M.

We've had issues with our AC since they came for maintenance. We had hot air coming out of our vents, they came and cut our heating wires telling us electrical must've wired them incorrectly and someone will come fix it soon. It has been over a month, we've heard from no one, and now on top of that we once again have hot air coming out of our vents. I've explained that we have a baby at home and this is so dangerous given how hot it's been, and they keep telling me they've forwarded my ticket ""urgently"". Absolutely no accountability for their mistakes, and now we have no ac and no heat. Do not trust this company near your home under any circumstance.

Carla R.

Good morning,

My name is Carla R.
I am hoping you can help me and will educate all other consumers out there.

Approximately 6 years ago Universe Home Services installed CAC in my home.
Saturday morning we noticed the house was warm.
We called Universe for repair.

Called around 8:00 am and the tech was out by noon.
Tech said to my husband, let me check the capacitor.
He said, 9 out of 10 times it's the capacitor.
He was right. It was the capacitor.
My husband asks how much it will cost and the tech proceeds to say ""It's an expensive part"".
He said it was in upwards of $700.00.
My husband picked up the box as he was replacing with the new one and brought it inside. We have now noticed that the capacitor came with new wires and the tech never switched them out. They are just plug ins.

Tech says ""Don't worry I can credit the $125. service call.
My husband said you are supposed to credit it if you do the job.
Tech said ""I will look and see if I have a coupon.""
After the tech deducted $75.00 for the coupon, my invoice read
$751.91 for the part alone. There was no labor charge put on invoice.
Therefore, the cost of the part he claims to be $751.91.
He gave a $75.00 credit for coupon and added tax so my bill was for $735.29.

I started checking the price of the part he had just installed and realized it was a $66.12 for the regular person.
I imagine Universe buys in bulk so its even cheaper.

I called this morning to ask if this was a mistake and was told by their customer relations person Michele,
that the price is fair and tried to compare it to when she goes to the mechanic to get a belt fixed.
I told her a belt is more work than 3 plugs to put in another capacitor. The tech was here less than 15 minutes.
I told her she's comparing apples to oranges and that what they are doing is price gauging.
She tried to tell me how they have overhead and a warehouse and insurance to pay for etc.....

How is it ever ok to charge a customer $735.29 after a $75.00 coupon for a $66.12 part????
I understand that I need to pay for labor but if the part is $66.12, then I paid $669.00 for 15 minutes of labor???

I have now looked at their reviews on Yelp and other sites and I wish I would have done that sooner.

Please help me tell people how this company has been robbing them.
If this is something that goes wrong 9 out of 10 times, I want to know how many people they have taken advantage of and want to put an end to it.

I would like people to come forward and expose them to everyone who is trusting of them.
I wonder how many people are suffering in heat because they couldn't afford to fix their AC.

This is a copy and paste from the email I sent to channel 12 Long Island news.

Bill P, I under you are the owner. If you want to make this right, please reach out

Carla R

Kim R.

If I can give this minus 100 stars I would. For a $125 part, which at warehouses cost $20 for the company to buy, I was charged $725 for a 15 minute replacement of a plug in part. The technician told us the part is a very expensive one. My son's friend later told us we got scammed. The most they are willing to refund us is $125 which is what the technician told us would be credited if we used them to fix our unit. They did not credit us and after the fact that is all they are willing to give us. They took advantage of the extreme heat and knew we needed air asap. I have I'll family members in the home so we were at their mercy. I call this price gouging at its finest. I won't stay quiet about this horrible company. Stay away at all costs and please spread the word to those you care about.

And I am editing this post in response to the owners reply. The discussed price was given in the moment and the technician lied to us about the part being very expensive. It's a $125 part and this means the labor was over $600 for less than 1/2 work.

Mena P.

Im probably on year ten of my install but the issues started about 3 yrs in apparently after getting a pressure test i had a leak which explained y the units were blowing hot air.. hmmm not once not twice but three times this was repaired over the years and 2 replacements of indoor units and here i am again with 3 out of 5 units not working. . The regret i have for ever using this company.. all these yrs i had a contract but i stopped that because nothing gets fixed properly clearly so i will not give them another dime of my money.

B M.

I can't say enough good things about Universe! When our 24 year old central AC stopped working during the most recent heatwave, we called Universe and they responded right away. The salesman suggested the most cost effective solution would be to replace the central air. We wanted ductless and he explained to us the cost difference. For several reasons, we still went with ductless. The techs showed up the very next day and worked from 8am until almost 7pm. Tommy, Josh, Matteo, Andrew and Ryan were all friendly, professional, helpful and left my home cool and clean! They all worked well together and patiently answered my hundreds of questions. Tommy and Josh, obviously the team leaders, did a great job mentoring the rest of the crew. I would recommend these guys any time! Thank you!