Berkshire Heating & Air Conditioning

I asked Edwin how long it would take to find the blockage and how much it would cost.  He said it would take at least two hours at $100 an hour, including the time it would take to wait for the boiler to cool down sufficiently -- another hour.  I told him that I would call back -- not very pleased with his capabilities.  When I did call back on the following Friday, I asked the customer service rep for a more experienced person, since Edwin had only been servicing boilers for three years.  She told me she would put me in touch with Jason, who had "much more experience."  I asked if that was the former owner and she said yes.  This turned out to be false.  Jason was NOT the former owner and had only four years of experience.
Jason called to introduce himself and told me that since my situation was not an emergency, he would not be traveling in a snowstorm to service my boiler -- understandable.  But he had a different opinion on the price.  He said he thought it was a flat fee of $400 for locating and clearing the drainage obstruction.  He suggested hitting the drain pipe with a wrench to see if it would loosen the clog and to call back Saturday morning if that didn't work.  It didn't.  I did, however, take a section of a bent coat hanger, inserted it in the drain pipe and gently scraped the inside.  The clog was instantly cleared!  I was amazed that the first technician didn't even try to scrape the inside of the drain.  
I told a customer service rep about this experience the next day and she said she she understood why I was unhappy and would notify the manager.  I received an e-mail survey from Service Experts asking me to rate the service I received.  I gave them a very honest report, as I have in this rating.  No one every contacted me, so I must assume that Service Experts doesn't care if their customers are dissatisfied.

There was difficulty arranging things with sales initially, but technicians were fine on both visits.

They were very good and did what they promised when they installed the air conditioning units. We didn't like aesthetically how it looked on the outside of the house, but they came right over and redid it.

I called one other company regarding a gas furnace that was not working. The first company I called was not able to come by until between 6 and 8 p.m. Service experts gave me a window of 10 and 12 that day. Since I was without heat and it was getting cold, I canceled the other company and went with service experts. They called back shortly and said that the service tech was running behind and would be by between 12 and 2, which was fine. When the tech arrived, he met the tenants father at the door and according to the tenants father, he was a bit short with him and demanded that the landlord be called and was very concerned as to who was going to pay for the service. I imagine these companies have gotten in trouble in the past with tenants calling for service and telling the company to bill the landlord and the landlord not agreeing to the services. I arrive a few minutes after the technician arrived, he called me on my cell phone and i told him I was right around the corner. He was pleasant with me and I could not complain about his attitude or his professionalism. He took the furnace apart and within a few minutes got it running again. He showed me where the heat exchanger was damaged and explained to me the dangers of this. He said he would contact a comfort specialist and have him come over and price out repair or replacement of the furnace. He called the comfort specialist, Doug, and told me he could be there in a hour. I explained I was tight on time and he called doug back and negotiated a 30 min arrival time, which was more like only 20. I explained to the service tech that I just wanted a price and then I would follow up with my decision. The tech told me that he could not give me a price because Doug had to look over the system and the house to make sure it was adequate. As the tech was packing up his tools, as DOug was heading over, he then told me that it would be 2400 dollars to replace the heat exchanger and 4500 to replace the furnace. I was a little annoyed by that because I didn't want to sit through a sales call. When Doug came, he wanted to sit down right away and go over the pricing. I asked if he needed to look at the furnace first, as the tech had implied that he would, and he then went downstairs, just to humor me I think. We sat down at the table and he told me the same prices as the tech did. I pretty much just left it as though I will think about it and get back to him. At one point he asked me what I was planning on spending, which leads me to believe I could have negotiated the price a bit. I asked about any promotions or Angies list coupons and he told me there was a costco promotion that provided 10 percent back to use at costco. After meeting with him I called a few companies and they all seemed to give me ballpark, sight unseen prices that were a bit more so I decided that Service experts price was competitive. I called Doug and told him I wanted to go ahead with the furnace. He came to my work to have me sign the agreement. The furnace was installed a few days later. They showed up on time and did what was expected. All in all I was very happy with the service.

After a tech finally showed up to see what was wrong with my furnace, I never heard back from anyone at service experts. I finally called to see what the estimate was. No one knew anything about my issue. I was shuffled from person to person being told I would be called back. Finally, the tech who originally came out called me saying he accidentally wet his notes from house,could he come back and review the issue. He came,took measurements and again I never heard back from anyone. I finally called and spoke to joe spada who claimed to be a supervisor. I explained the run around I had gotten. He finally gave me a quote for my repairs. I declined services because it took me a month just to get a quote!!! He apologized and said he would refund the $100 charge for someone to come out and do an estimate. I'm still waiting for the refund (it's been 2 months).

The service techs showed up on time, were professional and polite, and got to work immediately. I went away to run some errands, came back a few hours later and they were still hard at work. They finished in the time frame I was originally quoted by the sales guy, cleaned up and it was as if they were never there, except that now I had clean air ducts. I saw some of the stuff they pulled out of the ducts and was glad I called them.

I contacted Costco originally for a quote, as they offer a special service for their members to use their contractors who will provide Lennox equipment installation and services. At the same time, I had talked to Service Experts, not knowing that they were Costco's contractors in this area, about getting a quote for the same service. Doug came out to inspect the current unit as well as the house itself, and at some point, Costco was brought up at which time he told me that they were the Costco guys as well. Perfect, I thought, as it made one less call to make and I could actually see the difference in price since Costco offers a substantial rebate on top of the discounted pricing. I also, as part of my due diligence, called another HVAC group here who quoted me a substantially cheaper unit, but that unit's warranty was nowhere near as extensive or protective as that offered by Costco, nor was the unit they quoted me on nearly as good, according to the research I had done. I wasn't overly thrilled about spending an extra $2000 for the system, but I figured it would be worth the piece of mind. (BTW, I have no regrets about the unit at all at this point)
Between the date of the quote and the date of the install, I emailed Doug with random questions regarding the install specifics, and much to his credit, regardless of when I sent the email, I would have a response back within 20 minutes or so. In fact, Doug even advised me that apparently, I was actually qualified for an extra rebate incentive that Costco was offering based on the install date, so the difference in price between this system and the other guy's dropped from $2000 to $1500.
On the date of install, the installers themselves were right on time. I was advised during the sales process that the actual install would probably take 1-1.5 days, but was pleasantly surprised when they finished by 3:30 that afternoon. I have looked over the units, both inside and outside the house, and am very impressed with how well they placed the units, as the spaces the units fit were going to be very tight to fit them into. I know a little about plumbing and quite a bit about mechanics, so I was thrilled that they actually used the proper materials, which is more than I can say for whichever bozo installed the previous unit. The one thing they did that I was not expecting was to actually put a warning sign over my exhaust ports outside, which had never been done previously, but from a safety perspective, I'm glad they did.
There was one issue that popped up regarding the size unit I could have given my current ducting, but he worked some magic so it actually ended up behooving me moreso in the end. Very satisfied.

Excellent. I highly recommend Daniel and his company to anyone.

Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning were great. He changed it from a service call to maintenance and saved me $30. He took his time, showed me everything he was doing, and explained everything. It was great. The price was awesome. The guy was a little grumpy when he first came in.

When I decided to purchase air conditioning for my home, I assumed that my entire house would be cooled... especially the sleeping areas. After the installation, my daughter, whose bedroom is on the second floor, would often open her windows and run a fan. When I informed the company that my second floor was not cooling, I was told that I needed duct work. Of course this means  more money I would have to hand over. I have complained several times to the company. So much for their supposed 100% Satisfaction Guarantee...I am no where near satisfied!


UPDATE:
I am certain that the following events happened because of my review here on Angie's list.
I was contacted last year by the company (by a Bob? who left a message that he wanted to "make things right")  When I did return the call --- no one had a clue who Bob was or what he had spoken about. Several months later, I got another call- apparently the company is under new management or new ownership or something. Any way... the suggestion was now to close my vents downstairs to force the cooler air up. My vents do not close so I left a message regarding that fact. So far no one has called me back. My daughter is home from college... sweltering upstairs, even with the fans on.

They're professional. They came out to do the job and did it correctly.

good job

Cancelled

Their plumbers new it was faulty when they installed it. My carbon monoxide alarm went off. There was a crack in.  I called them immediately. It had just been inspected the day before. No one told me there was a crack. They told me they would send someone out later in the day. I asked them what to do because I had a house full of animals. They told me I should leave. I asked them if I should call the fire department and they said don't bother. They told me they would send a technician out. I called the fire department, and they were furious. The fire department came out and found the crack and leak. They had to replace the whole unit.

In January, 2011, the fan motor for the forced air ducts of our old heat pump system failed. The company that installed our 30 year old system (which had performed very well), Frontier Fuel, was no longer in business. But when I phoned their old number I got Berkshire Service Experts. I checked them out on Angie's List and they had a good number of excellent ratings. Jason from Service Experts came Feb. 1, 2011 and said it would cost $750 to replace the fan motor in our old system. We decided to replace the entire system instead.

Daniel Baker from Service Experts came on March 11, 2011. There was no hurry, because our house was not hooked up to the natural gas pipe in the street. The ground was frozen. So nothing could be done until the ground thawed and gas pipe could be installed. Meanwhile we had electric baseboard heat. Daniel gave us prices for two new systems that he thought would meet our needs. We chose one. On March 29, 2011, Daniel came and we signed a contract and paid one third down.

Public Works and Dig Safe came on April 6, 2011, to locate water pipes, TV cables, WMECO electric power cables (buried in our neighborhood), and phone wires (also buried). Later in April, Berkshire Gas connected our house to the gas line in the street. We made sure to keep Daniel at Service Experts informed because we wanted the new furnace and A/C installed as soon as possible, since we had no working A/C in the downstairs. They did the installation in April. It took two days as they had estimated.

The installation team was professional, courteous, and cleaned up nicely after themselves. They did not mind me watching much of their work, and they explained anything I asked about. As per our contract, they removed our old heat pump.

There was a pinhole leak in the gas pipes between the meter at the corner of the house and the furnace. This was the responsibility of Service Experts. Berkshire Gas provides an excellent system to detect such leaks and refuses to turn on the gas until the State Inspector signs off. Service Experts sent a different plumber who fixed the problem. The gas was turned on and the system became operational.

The system has performed flawlessly for the better part of a year since it was installed. Service Experts included a free check-up, which they did on schedule in Feb, 2012. There were no problems. I had some questions and the service person answered them very well. He also explained how the safety interlocks work to preclude any malfunction of the gas heating system, which was reassuring.

We elected not to have our air ducts cleaned. If I were doing it over, with hindsight, I would probably have them cleaned. After the new system was installed, I replaced the air filter twice within several months because so much dirt accumulated on it from our old ducts.

I have elected to do my own maintenance (replacing the air filter, humidifier pak, UV bulb) for now rather than have a service contract. However, I will not hesitate to call Service Experts should any concerns arise.

I thought they did a good job putting in the water heater. The plumber was supposed to change some parts on two toilets. He wanted to leave for lunch and told me I could get the parts myself. I had to call his supervisor to make him stay and do the work.

Immediately after they installed the outside a/c compressor, I noticed several small parts (pieces of hose, clamps, screws, etc) were left on the lawn near where they had worked.  There was also some sort of fluid (freon?) spilled on that portion of the lawn, which killed the grass around that area.

The a/c unit itself has worked fine so far, but when the furnace humidifier was turned on in the fall, it didn't work at all.  The company subsequently sent a technician to our house, who attempted to correct the problem, but it hardly improved the air quality one bit.  Our home has very dry air in the winter and this humidifier was supposed to add moisture to the air when the heat is on.  After two frustrating years, this $400 furnace humidification unit has completely stopped working altogether.  When I contacted the company to complain, I was told that the unit is out of warrentee and I would have to pay $50 just to have someone come out and look at it, plus the cost of whatever parts would be required to fix it. 

After filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the company reluctantly agreed to inspect the unit again and they determined that it was defective from the very start and had NEVER worked properly.  It took THREE visits from their technicians to finally figure this out!  They agreed to replace the defective part, but the humidifier still doesn't work properly.

I would never trust this company again, as they do very sloppy installation work and the equipment they use is substandard.  I feel like they only care about getting the most money out of each job, rather that what each customer needs.  I also found numerous complains about them from the Better Business Bureau.

Jerrod Howell came to the house on time and carefully explained our options. he was very professional and friendly. When they showed up to do the work the two men were on time, very professional and their work was very neat. The electrician was also very friendly, courteous, and professional. We really liked them and would recommend them to anyone.

Service experts came to our house on a Sunday afternoon and climbed up into our attic (which he said they never do mid-day since it's so hot up there) to check out the air conditioning unit.  He said the hose was clogged and that he cleared it, and then quoted us for a new unit and all of its component parts ($4-5k).  When the job was done, he reminded us that by going into the attic he did us a favor, and he told us he was covered in insulation as a result.  We truly appreciated this, but I found it a little strange that he complained so much about it. 

Our real issue was that the ceiling starting leaking again two days later, and even worse than before.  It could have been because they didn't fix the problem, or because they didn't put the hose back on correctly, but we were disappointed that we paid $250+ and the problem wasn't fixed. 

Jerod Howell did come to our house as promised.   He sat down with us and spoke about several choices we had for new A/C units.    He never quoted any prices.  We asked him for prices but he claimed he could not find any in his manual.   While he was with us, he called someone to get some prices.  He was not successful-----either the other person was not in his office or did not know either.   Before he left, Jerod told us he would get back to us either later that same day or the next day with prices.   Guess what?    WE HAVE NOT HEARD FROM HIM SINCE THAT DAY!!!!!!     Totally unacceptable.   Even if he does call us back now (after a month and a half), we will not do business with this company.   This experience does not make this company look good.

I really like them. They offer really excellent maintenance contract. So, they come in the summer and the winter to service your heating unit and your cooling unit proactively. The price is also very reasonable like $12 or $15 a month. You get those two service calls for free by paying the service. Then you get the discount on an emergency service call in the event you need one. They are very reliable, timely, polite and clean. They take off their shoes when they come into the house. It’s amazing. They come in a truck with the Berkshire logo on it; it's like the whole nine yards. They do a good job. They are very proactive. They will call you to let you know when it’s time for your air conditioning service. They are not getting any money out of this since they already have my money. They call me proactively, which I really appreciate because six months flies by in no time. When it comes to the price, there is good value for the money.

The serviceman was very thorough, knowledgeable, courteous and efficient in his work.  He had a lot of patience in explaining to me why the A/C was not working, even showing me the broken or worn out parts.  Because our A/C was very old and inefficient, he explained to me the different choices I had for replacement.  He asked me if I wanted to make an appt. to talk to the company's comfort advisor, who would give me prices on newer models and help me decide what to do next.   I said yes and he made the appt. right away.   He cleaned up the areas where he worked.  There was never any pressure from him to purchase anything from this company.

My son was able to get service more quickly than a lot of the oil services around that deliver oil. They came out and did the regular yearly service and also relocated the oil line in the cement floor. They picked the oil line up so it went overhead instead of under the floor. It was $350.00 for the relocation of the oil line and about $200.00 for the yearly servicing of the oil furnace. My wife was there when they did the work and she wrote the check. I am not really sure of the price. My son just moved in and I haven't had any connection with oil heat in 30 years, so I don't know what the prices are now for the oil heat. We would use them again in the future.

I have a contract with them. The appointments have to be made through a national office which is less than good because the information is not passed through accurately. The technicians who come to the house are outstanding.

I have a contract with them where they come every year to service my furnace. They have done other work too. I recommend them very highly. They are very dependable and professional. The first time I hired them I had a real problem with the furnace and it turned out be that a part had gone haywire. It?s half the cost of a gas company. I have been using their service for about 4 years. They call in advance and tell you when they would be coming i.e. within another 2 hours time period. They call you to tell when their representatives are on their way. They are very professional. The people whom they send out really know what they are doing. The price isn?t cheap but it?s reasonable because they do the work and replace the parts and so forth. I have never had any problems after using their service. I am sure I can find someone cheaper but I can never be sure if they are going to show up. They actually call me in the fall when it?s at least a month ahead to just tell me that they need to come and service the system. We schedule the appointment over the phone. They come exactly when they say they are going to come. It?s a very well run company.