Murillo's A/C & Appliance Repair

Martin Murillo - who does business as Murillo's A/C & Appliance Repair and as Unique Electronic A/C & Appliance Repair - is the most dishonest and unreliable contractor I have ever encountered. (And I've renovated seven homes and built another from the ground up - I've worked with hundreds of contractors.) Read this and the other reviews here and stay away. He is a crook. I contacted Rinnai for a recommendation for a service technician to service our two external water heaters. We were having water pressure issues from smoke damage following wild fires in our area. They recommended Martin. And what followed was months and months of frustration and thousands of dollars in expense, and the water pressure issue I called about still has not been resolved. Martin showed up (late, but he showed up) for our first appointment, inspected the water heaters, and said he knew what work needed to be done, but needed to order some parts, which I would need to pay for in advance. I wrote him a check for his time that day and the parts needed, and scheduled a follow up, appointment, which he missed. This was the start of a pattern where he would occasionally show up as scheduled, but usually missed scheduled appointments with no notice and, when I contacted him to see where he was, would give a variety of excuses: he had to take his daughter to the airport, his car broke down, he had another client with an emergency, he was attending the seminary, he was collecting rent checks, the parts hadn't arrived, his other daughter was graduating 8th grade, he worked around the clock for a client who was having flooding issues, the list literally goes on and on. Whenever he did show up, he would do some work, the problem would not be resolved, he would tell me he needed "more parts" and another check, and the cycle would start over. This happened four times, cost me close to $2,000 and wasted months and months of my time. Shame on me for not catching on sooner, and shame on Rinnai for recommending him. (And, despite me making multiple calls to Rinnai to complain, Martin and his company are still listed on the Rinnai website as a certified Rinnai service technician, and the Rinnai customer service line still provides his name and contact info if you call. I was happy with Rinnai before this experience, but I will never buy their products again.) I finally gave up, hired someone else, and asked Martin to send me the parts I had paid for. That was over a month ago. Three times he has told me he sent them (he mailed them, he sent them UPS, they were "already on their way"... yet, not surprisingly, I still haven't received them). Learn from my mistake: stay away from Martin Murillo, Murillo A/C & Appliance Repair and Unique A/C & Appliance Repair (or whatever new name he decides to go by...) This guy is nothing more than a scam artist.