Rita B

Review of United Heating and Cooling

If there were a way to give zero stars, I surely w...

If there were a way to give zero stars, I surely would! United installed a heat pump/AC and back up furnace in our home 9 years and 9 months ago. Since that time, we have had to have technicians come out at least 30 times for repair - no exaggeration! They were out about 10 times in the first 5 months before someone finally figured out that there had been a problem with installation. We literally sweated through that first summer listening to one excuse after another as to why our house could not get cooler than 80 degrees! We have a 10 year parts and labor warranty, but that does not cover the "diagnostic charge" which can be close to $100 each time they come out and scratch their heads, shrug their shoulders and say "well we are having unusual weather this year". Multiply the diagnostic charge for HVAC companies by 30+ and you can see how much $$ we have spent unnecessarily! We also had to pay several hundred dollars recently to have additional coolant added to the unit when it sprang multiple leaks. Today's problem was a "bad circuit board" - the third in less than 10 years. Fortunately our weather was mild enough that we didn't freeze over the weekend. Our warranty expires in March 2017, and we will probably end up replacing the system the next time a repair becomes necessary. The last few repairs we have chosen to use another company that thankfully honors the manufacturer warranty because I just don't feel that United technicians are well trained or knowledgeable. When we used them for routine maintenance service, one technician spent his time outside talking on his cell phone. He never even cleaned the outside unit, never turned the hose to spray anything out, actually never left the shade under a tree in the back yard. The management response was "that is not the way we do business" but they never sent another technician out to do the routine maintenance, and I got tired of asking them to do do. We will avoid EVER doing business with United in the future; I suggest you avoid them as well!
Edit 12/24/16:
Our unit is broken AGAIN, but the good news is that it should be under warranty for a couple more months. I read United's response to my original review, and apparently they are not counting the number of times they came out in that first year and didn't write a ticket because they insisted that there was nothing wrong. Or, perhaps their record keeping is as sloppy as their workmanship. I did include the routine maintenance in the total number of visits. The sheet of paper they attach to your furnace to record visits is now on it's fourth page, so how they came up with their number is puzzling to me. It became a running joke in the neighborhood that United spent more time here than my own kids! And for the record, I did call to speak with one of the owners of the company about 2 years ago. My documentation shows I left 11 messages over a period of 5 weeks without ever receiving a call back from one (the owners were always in a meeting or away from the office). I finally did receive a call from a service supervisor who was very nice but did not have the authority to resolve the ongoing issues. My original rating of United stands, and I find it interesting the number of positive reviews posted recently. Perhaps they are running a contest where you are entered into a drawing if you send in a review??