Kenneth Rawlings

Review of Bel Red Energy Solutions

TL;DR -- DO NOT CHOOSE BELRED!

TL;DR -- DO NOT CHOOSE BELRED!

I initially chose BelRed because of high ratings on Google and favorable word of mouth recommendations. The technician came over to diagnose our HVAC failure. A couple of days prior I had to shut off power to our AC unit because the house was getting warmer and when I went outside to check on the condenser unit, there was wisps of smoke coming from the compressor area. The unit was only five years old, installed by the previous owner of the house.

The short version is that the technician blew the unit's fuses when he was diagnosing the issue because he didn't do any electrical tests prior to turning the unit back on, in spite of me recounting the way I found the unit (this is important to note for something I will explain later). Regardless, when all was said and done, as the technician wrapped things up, he was trying to sell me a new unit (and said it would cost about $9500), because the repairs were probably going to cost $4500. The existing unit would need a new compressor and he wasn't sure he could get one. As I was looking at the estimate, I noticed that one of the line items was $260 dollars for new fuses -- the cost of these 2 fuses is $6 and it takes about 30 seconds to swap them out -- he blew them while he was diagnosing the unit. There were several other line items on the estimate that were grossly overcharged. Because of this, I asked for an estimate that separated the labor from the parts, but was told it they didn't do that.

A couple of days later someone from BelRed called me because they had heard I was unhappy about the estimate. I explained what had happened and how some of the line items were highway robbery. The individual apologized and told me that he was going to write up a new estimate and that some of the estimate issues were due to new software. It's now been a month and I have *NOT* seen an updated estimate from BelRed.

In the meantime, I reached out to another company that is well respected in the area. They came by and put together an estimate for $1500 less -- this included an additional part (a thermal expansion valve) that BelRed hadn't even identified. They were extremely open and patient in their communications and were a pleasure to work with. In contrast, I cannot recommend BelRed at all.