Cooling Unlimited Inc

Everything went very smoothly. They were very thorough in their appointment. They were able to come out right away.

They did a good job. He may have over recommended service and it ended up costing more than we anticipated.

They came out when they said they would. Scheduling an appointment was pretty simple. There was one technician here doing the work.

Good, gentleman was professional and helpful. The prices to fix the issues he found seemed bit high though

Installation went very well. I looked at a number of vendors and was very happy with the service provided by Cooling unlimited.

I liked how professional they were. They showed up on time, finished the job when they said they would and left the work site in good condition after each working day. The sales people and the owner did a good job following up. Kevin was our key contact and the owner Dennis were both good to work with.

The process began in February with inspection by our local utility's Home Energy Audit provider. Because we were working through the Heat Loan process, it wan't until August that we were able to get the paperwork approved. Once we got the green light to begin work, Cooling Unlimited was able to schedule the work within about a week. The reason for the "C" rating under "Professionalism" is because of the difficulties we faced dealing with the contract, and for their failure to live up to the promise of working well with the Heat Loan program. For example: 1) There is no "total" at the bottom of the contract that tells the homeowner how much the job will cost. You are faced with adding up the job yourself, which introduces uncertainty, and which also makes comparing competing contracts difficult. Some might argue that this is just the price of doing business, but it does not reflect well on the service reputation of Cooling Unlimited. 2) There were too many "optional" items listed, which clearly were not optional to the final installation. Some of the items listed "optional" were specifically asked for in the original proposal. Although seeing some of the costs broken out may be helpful in certain circumstances, in this case, it seemed to obscure the total cost of the project. Also note that standard language in the contract prohibit itemized breakdown of materials and labor. So why break out a selected list of "optional" items, unless it serves some other purpose? 3) One of the selling points raised during Cooling Unlimited's home visit, was that they had experience with the Heat Loan process and would be able to make the process move easily. This did not turn out to be the case, but unfortunately it did not become apparent until after they had been awarded the job. In essence, the Heat Loan is a favorable loan that you can get through a local bank. This means that the the price needs to be firm and to the penny. The bank then writes one or more checks directly to the company doing the work, **NOT** to the homeowner. Complicating this fact is that the equipment had to be purchased ahead of time directly from the distributor (National Grid). Remember, the checks are written to "Cooling Unlimited" so there is no way National Grid can cash them. This requires Cooling Unlimited to act as an intermediary, which they agreed to do so only as long as it was most convenient for them. The consequence was that in addition to the $11,404.42 loan already with the bank, we had to put an additional $2,814.74 on our personal credit card, and specify in the contract that Cooling Unlimited was obligated to return the $2,814.74 back to us within 5 business days. It would have been much simpler if Cooling Unlimited had simply used its own account(s) to pay $2,814.74, at the same time it ordered all the other equipment, supplies, and materials. Over several revisions of the contract, we eventually were able to get everything resolved, but the ease of the process was very different than we had previously experienced. We have had several contractors perform work on our property--some for two and three times the amount of money--and Cooling Unlimited was by far the worst to deal with. In terms of quality of work, Cooling Unlimited performed below expectation. We had expected that because of the contract challenges, Cooling Unlimited would provide us with a bit more effort to smooth over the early rough spots, but again they failed to deliver. The most alarming problem was early in the installation. Our contract stated, "Remove and dispose of existing Boiler," but no where did it say, "Remove and dispose of existing hot water heater." We have a two unit home and this job allowed us to add one additional source of separately metered hot water. I pointed this out to Cooling Unlimited during the sales visit when we were discussing the addition of the new indirect hot water heater. I understood that the existing heater needed to be decommissioned before the new one was added to the system. But it was only because I hung around the house while they were working that I noticed the existing hot water heater was removed entirely. Had the salvage operator arrived an hour earlier, our existing heater would have been long gone. Other quality problems included: 1) The workmen provided a cursory cleanup on day 1, and said they would do a thorough cleanup during day 2. (The job lasted two days.) They never followed through. We cleaned up copper wire clippings, sheet-metal screws, pieces of 2" broken pipe, cigarette butts, coffee cups, electrical-box knockouts, plastic baggies, spent saw z-all blade, length of 5-strand signal wire, empty spool of Teflon tape, etc. 2) Among other things, day two was reserved to install the new thermostat. The worker expected us to have the parts on site, but they had been left off the delivery. There was no way we could have known this. The parts were eventually couriered from the Cooling Unlimited home office. 3) The Boiler installer said we would need high-heat sealant around the exhaust. This was supposed to happen during day 2, but they finished the job without doing so. 4) The HVAC technician identified the wrong boiler on the contract. This is a pretty forgivable issue because he was able to correct it before installation day. However, it revealed that we were getting overcharged for the automatic water feed option, because he reduced the fee so the cost of the project remained the same. Overall, we would rate Cooling Unlimited below average, but not terrible enough to avoid entirely. Most of the quality issues we dealt with are fairly typical, and were eventually resolved without any significant delay, cost, or inconvenience. The contract experience however leaves a mark, and for that reason we will not be referring work to Cooling Unlimited.

The technician did the inspection and advised us that there was a leak in the system. He also advised us that the disconnect to the compressor was rotted out and should be replaced. His quote for replacing the disconnect was $318. His quote for finding and repairing the leak that he claimed we had was $2,903. We decided to have another company come in and look at the system. They didn't find any leak in the system. They did a complete inspection of the system, added one pound of R22 to the system, and the system has run fine all summer.

Came at the exact time they stated explained everything they were doing every step of the way

The technician Ivan was great. He checked the units and gave suggestions on improvements for the future.

They were more systematic in all the stuffs they do, a little bit more appointments which is good. It's awesome. It's good to have more structure. They're pretty accommodating. I would use them again in the future.

Cooling unlimited proposed the following services: air coil cleaning $145 level 2 chemical coil cleaning (this might have been for the compressor) $286 1 pole 30 amp $121 turbozone capacitor replacement $216 cost of a 2nd trip to do this $74.50 HomeService, which did the subsequent checkup, said the coils were not particularly dirty at all (but cleaned them anyway as part of their standard checkup and service). They said there was nothing wrong with the capacitor and that it would be leaking oil if it was about to go. They said everything else was fine; the a/c has been running without any problems through July, the hottest month of the summer. It's possible that Cooling Unlimited did a particularly careful checkup and saw things that HomeService didn't. On the other hand, it's a well known scam to provide a free or very inexpensive "checkup" in order to market overpriced services that are not really needed. Angies List needs to police it's Big Deals so they are not used for this. I don't really have a complaint against Cooling Unlimited. For $69 I got my seasonal tuneup at a very reasonable price. I sidestepped some unnecessary services by getting a 2nd opinion. However, Angies List might want to check the experience of other users to make sure this type of thing is a fluke and not becoming a common use of the Big Deals.

They've been fair, not great. Many times I make an appointment and they've not showed up or they canceled it the last minute and I've had to take work off too when I'm very annoyed. In the last few times I tried to talk to them and explain the situation they screwed up so when the service people come they think they are there for another reason.

Provider called an hour before scheduled appointment and said that they had to reschedule and the earliest to reschedule would be 2 weeks out.

They came in gave a fair estimate, worked with us to adjust the estimate to the sizing and pricing we needed. Performed professionally and promptly. When we experience a bit problem after installation with hot water, they were quick, prompt, and professional in resolving the issue quickly.

Technician (I believe his name was Ivan) arrived promptly and was very courteous and professional. He seemed to do a thorough job and explained the tests he was doing and the results he got on our system. Would definitely recommend based on this one experience and call them if we have any problems in the future.

I was not home and I told them I was done and they continued coming and that was uncomfortable. They did fertilizer as well.

Arrived on time, very professional. Walked me through all of the work done and also went through three suggested steps and went through the pros and cons of each. In the end I loved one of his ideas regarding a kill switch in case the drip pan gets too full and I've scheduled the work for a later date. Extremely knowledgeable and not remotely "salesy" - explained all options and way very candid about which made sense based on my setup, with zero pressure to move forward with any of them. Very happy with the service and I'm absolutely a repeat customer for them going forward based on my experience.

routine 69.00 cleaning turned into a 2100.00 bill, it says for cleaning I took apart and saw tons of dirt inside not very thorough. I have pics of b4 and after work as well. Just wanted to make sure people know I paid or cleaning turned into 2100.00 worth of work. unit is 7 years old, kinda scary. ac companies are scary .

We just bought a house with 3 condensers & air handlers with 4 zones. Fired the system up to find water collecting later in the day in the collection pan, spilling over. Ivan Toledo from Cooling Unlimited was able to come over the same day and was incredibly knowledgeable, fixed the system very quickly and educated me on the function, service, and options (including wi-fi thermostats) so I could manage the system better myself going forward. I'd highly recommend these guys to anyone looking for regular service and/or repair. The rates were very reasonable for the amount of work done. A++++

A bunch of used car salesmen should be barred from your list.

The job went on pretty well. They were very attentive and kept us satisfied.

Apparently Cooling Unlimited must be generating so much business from Angie's List and elsewhere that they do not need new business. I moved into Reading from out of state a few months ago and turned on the air conditioning for the first time yesterday. Although the system is working to cool the house, I noticed a puddle of water under the air handler on the concrete floor in the basement, which apparently is not uncommon and can simply be a clogged drain pipe that is causing the condensed water to spill out of the unit. I looked on Angie's List and found the very strong reviews for Cooling Unlimited and gave them a call. The person answering the phone, Mary Ellen, was very nice and told me that she would have the "scheduler" (forget her name Martha? Carla?) call me back to schedule an appointment as she was tied up on the phone. About 5 hours later, after not hearing from anyone, I called back again and Martha?/Carla? got on the phone. After I described my issue, she simply said, "Yeah, I'm not going to be able to get anyone out there to help you...." and then there was silence. I was waiting for her to say something like "until next week" or whatever. But it was just dead silence. So I said "Uhhhh. OK?" Finally, she said, "Maybe if you want to wait until the end of next week I might be able to get someone out there". But she was clearly not interested in this new customer. So, I can't speak for their actual service, only their customer service, which was very poor. If I hadn't called back the second time, I'm certain that she never would have called me back. What is irritating is that if they had just told me when I called the first time that they were very busy and couldn't make it out to me for several days then I would have saved 5 hours waiting for a return call that never came. If you are a potential new customer, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Overall it went really well! The "negatives" were finding out the issues I was having with my central air unit, but considering these were things that occurred long before Cooling Unlimited ever came in to the picture, they get no blame there. :) Ivan, the tech who came out to check my system, was extremely punctual and very professional. Also did a pretty phenomenal job of explaining what the issues were and how best to go about resolving them. At no point was he ever pushy and trying to "sell" services or anything. Just very focused in getting my system running the way it should. My house hasn't been this cool during the summer in years! Pricing, I thought, was reasonable. I had spoken to another company and they were a little cheaper, at least for their initial diagnostics cost, but not by much. Could I have likely paid less with someone else? Maybe. But taking in to consideration the professionalism and quality of work, I can't complain. Further more, they have an established price list for services which was how Ivan let me know how much things would cost, so I felt comfortable enough in knowing the numbers weren't just coming out of thin air. Also had a great experiencing with the office person I had dealings with, Carol. It's early summer, so most HVAC companies are swamped with work, but she was able to squeeze me in within 48 hours of my calling. Also very helpful in resolving a quick billing issue I ran in to. Feel like this type of customer service doesn't really happen often any more, so was very pleasantly surprised. Will be using them to service my unit in the future.

The technician was very knowledgeable and made really useful suggestions. He checked every vent, all the controls, the compressor, the fan, and the duct work. I'm very happy with the service.