Bill Paslay Heating AC & Electric

The technician diagnosed the problem with the AC and told me he would need to obtain the part needed to fix the problem, he would also need to bring back the items necessary to charge the freon. I expressed some of my concerns with the AC unit and he provided recommendations that made sense. The breaker for my AC often "pops" when the AC is running and the tech suggested that either the condenser was pulling too much electricity (I have an old AC unit) or that the breaker was weak. He asked if the breaker got hot (....no it does not) which is an indication that the condenser is pulling too much electricity. He said he would test the condenser when he returned. I felt good about his diagnosis; it made sense to me and I was happy to hear that he knew of some basic things to check first before jumping ahead and suggesting I need to make costly repairs or replace the unit. The technician returned a few days later. He charged the freon, put on the new cap and tested the condenser. My AC is working great!
My experience was great. The tech was on time, quick and efficient. I would recommend this company.
My past experiences with other HVAC companies have not been as straightforward. Usually the responses I get from other service techs are overdramatized and don't address the original questions which always makes me feel that they are only interested in trying to sell me something I don't need at the moment. They do not offer other solutions and disregard my questions.

In this case, I used 5 companies that have A ratings on Angies list, clean and positive reviews on the BBB, and have very clean license ( CSLB ) records.  All investigated the situation at different times, and came back with nearly identical recommendations.  Mr. Paslay also did an independent evaluation, and reached conclusions at odds with the others.  The two findings used by the home warranty company are:

1)  The AC unit is undersized.   Actually, the unit he referred to ( one of two ) serves 1062 square feet.  Accordingly, it only requires a 2 ton unit.  The 2.5 ton unit installed by the builder and approved by the county was quite sufficient for that space.  He said it needed to be 3.5 to 4 tons which is grossly oversized and inefficient. 

2)  The ductwork is collapsed or damaged, and the dampers are missing.  Actually, there was no evidence of this whatsoever.  One duct he claimed had collapsed in fact had no air flow because the damper ( supposedly missing ) was closed.  When it was opened, there was sufficient airflow.  The other duct that he said had been compressed ( by somebody supposedly stepping on it ) he labeled as the output to the kitchen and living room.  Actually, it was the downstairs intake duct, which had a small compression ( less than 30%) because it was settling on a 2x4 roof support.  There is no way someone could have stepped on it, much less damaged it.

We elected to have the system replaced, and the work was completed by a very reliable contractor ( we met 5 of them in this process ).  The true problem was that the AC Compressors had worn out.  His verbal statement to me that the system could not be repaired was correct, but the information he provided to the home warranty company cost me thousands of dollars that they should have contributed to this project.

I like smaller, independent contractors, because they will often take great pride in their work, and do an excellent job.  Sadly, I do not feel that way about this individual's work.

My heater was coming on random, like in the middle of the day it was coming on. He came out, and saw what was wrong. He has been out here before, when he came out here it was very good of him, remembered being out here, and I also remembered him. He is very good, professional and very efficient, he got the part and he was done within a week and it was fixed, and we have not had any problem. The heater was under warranty. He was fast, he also fixed out air-conditioning before, and he came out on a Friday, and we were the last people on his list. I think he came at 6:30 at night, which he said he was going to do, and he said he'd have to replace the part and he will be back that week. He was back, again on the next Friday at 6:30 at night, to complete the job. He was all about doing it, and he checked it.

The condenser is installed but it wasn't cooling the house at all. I had the AC turn on from 6pm to 10pm and my house temp didn't go below 80 even when I had the thermostat set to 65. I called them back and they send a guy out to inspect. According to him this is normal and I should start my AC early in the day and never set the temp below 74. What kind of crap is this?? Few days later the HERS guy whom Bill Paslay recommended came out for the title 24 inspection and he won't even sign off on it because he found.... "liquid line restriction in line. Dripping condensate above drywall ceiling, line temp is 35deg. The return air was 73 deg, kitchen 61 and bedroom (2nd floor) 56deg. He thinks liquid line maybe kinked at roof line and causing line to meter RF liquid. Removed and replace 15 feet 3/8 liquid lines"

Couple of days later I contacted the AC company and advised them about the HERs findings and recommendation. Becky who is the answering lady for the AC company was very rude on the phone and told me that I need to talk to the HERs guy again. What strange is that the HERS guy now said everything is now okay because he spoke with the technician and clarify everything is fine. What a load of b*&# s.

I called AHS to complain and asked them to send me another AC company to inspect this issue.

*** BE AWARE.....DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY***

My home warranty company [AHS] send these ppl when I reported a problem with my AC/Furnance.

The first guy came in and said the wire from furnace to condenser is shorting and then he disconnected pretty much all the wires.

 Well, AHS didnt cover the wire replacement, so I had to pay an electrician to replace the wire. 

We now asked AHS  to send these ppl again so that hook up the wires correctly.  Well, another day off from work to find out the transformer is bad now. This guy will need to call AHS again to get authorization for changing the transformer. Even after that, there is no guarantee that the AC will work. Mr Bill said that we'll know what else is wrong once we fix the xformer. Good luck to me. 

Also, when he reported the problem to AHS, he mentioned that the transformer blew up because of pest problem. What a joke !

I will never use this company if I have to pay from my own pocket. 

Regards 

Bill showed up within the scheduled time. He spent most of his time recording the make and model of the various air conditioner components and filling out paperwork, and very little actually trying to diagnose the problem. He ran the air conditioner for a short time, looked at the condensate discharge pump, and then reached the (wrong) conclusion that the pump was non-functional and overflowing. His report to the warranty company stated that due to poor maintenance, the pump was dirty and not working. He told us that he'd buy a new pump and then call us back to schedule a new appointment. Based on his report, however, the warranty company denied the claim -- and Bill never called us back to tell us that he wasn't going to replace our pump after all. His diagnosis was wrong, also. If he had taken the time to run the air conditioner for more than a few minutes, he would have seen that the leaking water was not coming from the pump, but from an overflowing condensate pan. I verified by myself that the pump works, so that assumption was also wrong. I had to spend hours on the phone with the warranty company and send them a copy of my home inspection report to prove that the air conditioner was working before we bought the house, to get them to send another A/C technician who could find and fix the real problem (a blocked condensate pan drain). By rushing through the job and jumping to the wrong conclusion, Bill caused me hours of headache and over a week's delay (in the hottest part of the summer!) in fixing our air conditioning.