Bill's Heating & Air Cond Svc

Description of Work: Replaced fan motor in HVAC unit.

Description of Work: One of the A/C units in our home wore out. We called our then current service firm (Canady's) and were besieged with calls and visits from their "comfort" specialist who tried to sell us a $14K replacement unit we didn't need. Needless to say, we don't do business with Canady's any more. I called a friend and neighbor, a local builder, who recommended Bill's Heating & Air. He used this outfit to install A/C systems in new housing. We hired them to install a new 5-ton A/C system in our home. Initial response was rapid: the firm's principal (Jason) showed up the next day and had a new Rheem unit installed the following day. Initially, the Rheem worked well. At the 6-month mark we started having problems. Repeated calls to Jason were largely unanswered. Sometimes it would take a week for him to call us back, at which time we would receive some drifty comments dismissing the problem by referring to intermittent conditions that were hard to diagnose. We would also receive promises he would come out to look at the unit ... and that happened once as I recall. Finally, in the Spring of 2011, the unit wasn't working well at all. The system would run intermittently. When it did run, it would not cool our home. Repeated calls to Jason for service were unanswered. Finally, after I left a message mentioning civil action, I got a call back from Jason with comments blaming the weather on the Georgia Coast, the previous installers and the setup in our home, and everyone else on the planet for the problems with this system. It was clear we would not get a reasonable response from Jason and this outfit. We called in Byrd Heating and Air and were told by their reps (3 in all) that the wrong type of A/C system had been installed in our home, that the type installed was intended for apartments, not large houses like ours, and, that the ducting arrangement was faulty. The airflow (intake and return) was defective on one side of the air flow transaction. $1200 later, Byrd fixed the air flow problem to some degree. It turns out that Jason had installed the Rheem unit too close to the other units in our home leaving insufficient room between the units to set up an efficient air flow from the unit. Update: 2012. In April of 2012, the unit stopped working altogether. Byrd diagnosed the problem and found that the motor was defective. It was replaced on warranty for $120. Clearly, if Jason was a specialist with Rheem's and if he had responded to our repeated requests over multiple years to review this unit, he might have detected that it was failing long before we had to call in Byrd. Anecdotal report: the renovator/repairman we use for our home lives in the new development down the street from us (built by the builder I cited above), He reports that the Rheem units in the new houses in that development are failing. He had the unit in his house torn out and replaced with a Carrier unit. Carriers currently have a 10-years parts warranty. Recommendation: do not deal with Bill's Heating & Air. They are unresponsive (unless a sale is involved for a new unit), unprofessional, perform shoddy work, and install A/C products (as we experienced and as our renovator experienced) not suitable for single family homes.