James A Wheat & Sons Inc

It turned out fine in terms of scheduling it and we did not have any issues with that. They came out and provided the service and did the tune up and everything. They discovered that our heat had a leak in it and was using Freon so we did have them to give an estimate on the heat pump but at the end of the day we went with another company because they were significantly cheaper. But the inspection itself went okay and I did not have any issues using them. I think they came out within 2 to 3 weeks after I purchased the big deal. There was no extra charge apart from the $79 deal. I was happy with the service but there seems to be a disconnection between the big deal and what they came out to do. They honored the big deal but they offered beyond what their normal technician would to do for a normal service call. I was reminding him while he was here to the job that is within the big deal and he did without complain but he thought that those were not included. He was not unhappy with it but there was just a little disconnection between the deal and what the man knew he would do. The price was fine for what was covered in the big deal.

They were great and pleasant work with. They had a technical guy that was a good communicator and knew the products.

The service went fine. Two plumbers came out for job. They were very professional and scheduling was very easy.

We found this service provider via Angie's List - we chose to use them based on their overall customer rating (A), the high number of reviews counted, the fact that they are a locally owned company, and ... frankly... they were the first to respond by sending a repair person out to our home. We would use this company again and would strongly recommend them to friends. Some thoughts to share with other Angie'ers: Initial response was relatively quick - it was extremely cold when our heat went out so the demand on contractors time was quite high. This company made it to our home within 24 hours of the first call. We expected that the news would be bad - our furnace did not owe us anything! But our hope was to be able to fix it for the short term allowing us time to shop around. The contractor did not have the part required to fix the furnace in his truck, but also gave me the necessary information to help me make a decision to move immediately to replacing the unit. I appreciated this very much. It took two full days for the new unit to be fully installed - customers should expect this. We had heat by the end of the first day, but more work to be done. The gentlemen who worked on our job were incredibly nice, polite, and were cognizant of noise, water shut offs and cleaning up their mess at the end of the day. This contractor was careful about not being more destructive then they had to be - two holes were cut in our walls to run the lines. I wish their services included drywall repair - that would be a great benefit to be full service. But the holes left are easy to get fixed - its just another contractor I have to deal with! I have worked with other heating companies and none of them include drywall repair work so this is not a negative, just something for customers to understand going into this and maybe a suggestion to the company on how to be even better. Another note to customers - note that the code requirements in Montgomery County have changed, requiring greater air flow surrounding your furnace. This means that the door to your furnace room may need to be replaced with a louvered door (~$250 + labor from Lowes); or Wheat will need to cut two large 2 foot by 2 foot holes in the furnace room wall to install vents. It would have been super cool if Wheat could have provided door installation service for us as well, but that would be unique. Also know that the inspector requires battery operated Carbon Monoxide detectors to be installed near the new furnace and on every floor in the home that has sleeping space. Wheat can provide these for you - make sure you ask. One negative comment I would share relates to communication around the county inspection process. It was not very clear to me on how this process would work. Wheat had told me they would call me as soon as they knew from the County when the inspection would take place. We had agreed on the date, but not a time frame. I called the night before to let them know I had not received a call with the time frame. It was then that learned that they would not know until 8am the day of the inspection. I was led to believe I would get a call in the morning letting me know when to expect the inspector. I did not get that call from Wheat. I got lucky though and was home when the inspector arrived. I was even luckier when my doorbell rang several hours later and found a second inspector on my door step. Wheat had not informed me there were two required inspections. My one suggestion to Wheat would be that they develop better communication around this process, particularly given its importance. I learned from one of the inspectors that less that 40% of all new installs pass the first inspection. He indicated that many contractors include fine print in their contracts that allow them to charge the homeowner for any subsequent visit required to bring the newly installed machine up to code. Overall, Wheat did an outstanding job for us and we would definitely use them again... I just we never have to again!!

Everything went great and in a timely manner. The technician were very experience and explained in detail the problem and how they were going to fix the problem. I would highly recommend James Wheat and Sons.

Good work by a nice plumber. The price was crazy: $500 for 2 hours of work. As a new homeowner I figured this was a do-it-all plumbing company that would take care of routine service like I asked for at a reasonable price. I was naive and paid for the work. If you need non-emergency plumbing services and value companies charging a fair price for such work you will want to look elsewhere. Below is part of an email response with their company representative after questions on their pricing. She makes it clear that this is an elite plumbing company that charges a premium for basic jobs. I certainly did not realize that when looking at their website. "advised our client our industry has a wide range in prices. We have personal friends that own one man or small shops that charge half of what we do for similar jobs. We also know that they don't have an office staff, they come to jobs in the priority as to which job they will make more money on, they don't work emergency hours, and they do not provide nearly the customer service we do. Its simply not an apples to apples comparison. We send email confirmations of appointments, we provide service windows so that you are not waiting around all day, we email typed receipts you can read and understand, and send follow up emails asking if we performed our job and to contact us if there was any problem at all. We are clean, drug free and trustworthy. We are not the cheapest company in town and do not intend to be."

My husband and I have dealt with James A. Wheat and Sons for 17 years now. They installed our HVAC system first. Later, they installed plumbing for a second bathroom in our home. They have come out many times over the years under their Eagle service agreement to inspect our system and check it for the coming seasons. This family-owned business in Montgomery County has ALWAYS been on their game! I can't say enough about the quality of work and the responsiveness of James A. Wheat & Sons. Mike Wheat remembers you and takes care of customers. A crack was found in our furnace yesterday and the system could not be run. He acted quickly to get a new furnace installed within an afternoon. This is work that normally would take two days to set up. But Mike took care of it ASAP and made sure we would be comfortable for the weekend. An A+ all around for this terrific company. Their prices are fair and competitive. Their workmanship and customer service is amazing.

Initially poorly. I called because we had low water pressure alerts on and off for 3 months our Heating system (triangle Tube was the manufacturer). James a Wheat installed it 2 years ago and that team was excellent. I told them we had multiple low water pressure alerts and it appeared randomly. The result is we cant get hot water to circulate through our baseboard heating boards. We called, they came. They reset the valves. They said the thermometer was broken , I found this dubious because the heat was working on and off and a thermometer would have nothing to do with water pressure. They replaced it without informing me of the cost until it was done then hit me for 560 dollars. They tried to get me to sign for the work without reading what had been done. I had to ask to see it instead of just signing an Ipad. As expected the problem was not fixed as it reoccurred and for me entirely unrelated to a thermometer. Today they sent me an excellent technician who was far more communicative and appeared very knowledgeable and has suggested a far more sensible solution. Its still pricey but i do appreciate the company sending someone who was excellent free of charge to try and resolve the issue and focus on what the issue was in the first place.

Overalll, the work went well. The technicians were professional, polite, and appeared to take care that their work was done well. The main job was completed in a very reasonable amount of time. My only complaint was their lack of punctuality. During the main job, it was not uncommon to receive a call saying that the technician was on his way, but even when allowing for a reasonable travel time from the location he was leaving, he often arrived anywhere from a half an hour to an hour later than expected. While not the most pressing problem, it's still an inconvenience when I could have been taking care of other things. The most annoying incident, however, occurred with a follow-up call. Unfortunately, the fireplace occasionally ignites spontaneously. My husband checked the settings on the remote control to make sure it wasn't programmed to come on at times other than when we manually clicked it on. They were no erroneous settings, so we set up an appointment for a service call. We were told that the technician would come between 1:00 and 3:00. I cut short another appointment to be at the house at 1:00. I arrived a couple of minutes before 1:00. When I went inside and checked the phone messages, I had received two calls from the technician, at about 12:20 and 12:35, saying they wanted to come early. Needless to say, when I didn't answer, they went to another call. I called the main office to let them know I was home for the 1:00 time they had given me. I was told that they technicians had finished their previous job early, and since I wasn't home, they went to the next job and put me at the bottom of the list. This would still have been acceptable if they had either called or arrived by 3:00, but they did neither. At 3:00, I couldn't wait for them any longer, so I called the office, explained the situation, and asked them to reschedule for a different day. The man I spoke with was polite and apologized, but said they had had a cancellation, and in that case it's their policy to move to the next available customer on the list. In other words, he was implying that if their schedule changes because of one customer, they may not honor the original service schedule window at all. I am very frustrated by Wheat & Son's sloppiness in this one aspect of their business practices.

I was very happy with the work they did.

Called Wheat & Sons on Wednesday morning to look at our Kenmore furnace which stopped working overnight. Was told someone could come out on Thursday--given that we were supposed to have subzero temps the rest of the week, I asked if I could get someone out the same day, but was told their weren't any available technicians. I was also told that if I signed up for their "Eagle Service Agreement" there wouldn't be an additional charge for the service call and I would get the annual maintenance for the furnace and A/C unit. Wheat & Sons had previously serviced our unit satisfactorily so I agreed to sign up for the ESA. The technician arrived Thursday at 2pm (temp in the house was 34 degrees). I explained what was happening to the technician and that the diagnostic light on the furnace's control board was indicating a failure in the flame sensor. The technician proceeded to clean the flame sensor, which did not fix the problem. He then checked the capacitor, and said it needed to be replaced based on the readings from his diagnostic machine. At first he got the wrong capacitor (5MFD instead of 7.5MFD), which I had to correct him on. After replacing the capacitor the furnace still did not work and was giving the same diagnostic code. The technician cleaned the flame sensor again--still not working. He then asked me to get the manual for the furnace and look up the diagnostic codes--which I had already explained to him were on the front of the furnace panel. He then explained to me that the diagnostic code indicated flame sensor failure and that I needed to replace the flame sensor and hopefully it wasn't an issue with the control board. He asked me to call the office to see if they could order the part because he didn't have one since it was a Kenmore furnace (I thought that should be his job, but figured I'd get the ball rolling). I called the office (they were confused why I was calling about this, and was told that the service manager was in a meeting and I would be called back). The technician packed up his stuff and basically said he'd tried everything and that I really needed to push his office to get the part as soon as possible. So after nearly 2 hours, the technician had not fixed the furnace and basically said "good luck" and left. I called the office again and was put in touch with the service manager. I explained the situation to him and he said since it's a Kenmore system the parts and service need to be done through Sears exclusively. This was around 5pm on Thursday--so house has had no heat for 2 days and still subzero temps outside (inside temp at house is now 32 degrees). I end up calling Sears, they have a tech come out by 8am on Friday and he has the furnace fixed within 15 mins. It turned out that the connection where the wire from the flame sensor plugs into the control board was loose and just needed to be pushed in. My first question: if you say you can't service and repair a Kenmore system (and you knew already that it's a Kenmore), why did you agree to come and look at it and get me to sign up for a service agreement, then have a technician come and work on it for 2 hours? Basically waste my time and put my house at risk for frozen pipes, etc. Plus it turns out the technician (although he was a nice guy) didn't know what he was doing. Wheat & Sons agreed to refund my payment for the service agreement (still waiting for the refund to be credited to my credit card) and has not tried to charge me yet for the service call. I'll give them credit for that, but that's about it.

The service for the Big Deal from James A Wheat & Sons Inc which was for $75 for a whole house plumbing inspection, a water heater flush and $50 credit was okay. They did not charge me anything more than the Big Deal cost, no additional repairs. The only things was that there were a couple of things that were incorrect and they said that it needs to be fixed, but didn't really kind of tell what was wrong with it. It was just, "it needs to be fixed and it will cost you $400". I think that was not the right way to do it.

I had scheduled 10 days in advance for James A Wheat & Sons to come to my house. I took the day off of work. The evening before, I received a call saying a plumber would arrive between 12-2 PM. At 1:30 PM, I called. I was told the plumber was running late and would call to update me on his arrival time. I received a call around 2 PM from the plumber, asking me if I still wanted him to come. I said yes. He said he would arrive at 3:30 PM. At 4:15 PM, I called the main number to ask about the plumber. I was told he was still on a previous job and could still come out. I declined, and said that he should have called me when he knew he could not make it by 3:30. I was told it is hard to predict how long jobs will take. I said that is no excuse though for not calling customers to let them know.

The plumber was on time and knowledgeable. I was able to understand their explanations of the inner workings of the plumbing system in our home. They identified a problem that I could fix myself for much less than using their service which is very honest and rare in the service industry these days. I would do business with them again.

The deal sounds great and the company sounds good too, so I purchased it after carefully reviewing to ensure that I was in their service area. The deal says " This deal is not valid for members in the Virginia area of the DC market." So, I'm in NE DC and figured I was good to go. Apparently not. Within minutes of completing "check out" I got an email message from the provider asking me to contact them about my location. When I called they said they only service NW DC. When I asked why they were not more descriptive in their ad, they said they have told Angie's list numerous times that they only service NW DC and have even provided Angie's list with a listing of zip codes they service, but apparently this never made it into their ad listing. Assuming this is all true - Angie's List itself gets an "F".

It was hard to get the initial appt in the time frame that we desired, however once they came the service was prompt, including follow up. It appears that the service was done at a very high level.

The technicians we worked with were unbelievably professional and courteous. They spent time explaining the problems, stayed late (until 7pm) making sure things were done, and ensured that everything was put back in order when they left. I would definitely use them again!

The job was postponed a few days, but once they began they completed the job in one day. It went exactly as laid out by the representative that Wheat sent to give me an estimate. In fact, Wheat did not give me the lowest bid. I chose them because of the thoroughness of their estimate of the job.

Great - no problems at all. Great service.

We purchased the equipment by mid March, 2014 and the installation went fine. However, this is the day (12/29/2014) we have not been able to finalize our transaction with James A Wheat & Sons Inc. When the City Authority came to inspect the equipment, we found out that the permits were not in place. It was only until September that the company submitted the permits and we were able to pass the inspection. The reason for such a delay was the incapability of James A Wheat & Sons Inc to process the correct permits with the city authorities. During these six months, we contacted multiple times the company. Through them, we scheduled four inspection visits, three of which we failed to pass due to a lack the appropriate permits. It should be noted that every time we scheduled an inspection, we had to stay home and ask for permission at work. Therefore, every failed inspection was costly to us as one of us was not able to go to work. Although the company did not react fast to process the permits on time, they were very diligent maintaining in our attention through calls and letters a balance of US$185. We requested a fair compensation for all the troubles with the permits and inspections. It is unacceptable that we had to wait six months after the installation passed the inspection. It is unacceptable that we have to lose days of work because the company was unable to process the correct permits. We have spoken several times with the company about this, and we agreed by phone that the US$185 were going to be discounted after all the troubles we have encountered with the permits. For that, the company requested that we filled out some paperwork for the tax credit which we did and sent back to them. However they are now still asking for the US$185. It is impossible to know who is running this company and what kind of records do they keep after all the calls we have made to them. Every time we spoke to someone, we had to explain everything from the beginning, they were not able to track all our communications.

The technician arrived on time and was courteous and friendly. The inspection process was straightforward as were the recommendations. There was a very small snafu about receiving the estimate pdf, as they sent me the receipt by accident, but it was quickly cleared up. The cost of their recommendations may be a bit higher than competitors, but I have no doubt that they perform quality service. My wife and I are DIYers, so we will try and do as much as possible on our own and get back with these guys in the future.

Every thing was done very professionally with good clean-up afterwards. I was given the opportunity to inspect and request any changes or additions to my liking. They were very prompt and courteous. I especially liked the price,because I was about to pay double that price when this "DEAL" came along! Thank-You Angie's List!

My experience was excellent with this company!

They arrived exactly on time. Very professional. Performed service quickly but took time for testing and explanation. Were concerned the blockage might require heavier equipment and a return (and costly) visit, but it turned out to be solved easily by the equipment they had with them.

They came out on time and I was pleased with the job.