AJR Heating & Air Conditioning

- Bought a Rheem heat pump and air handler from AJR- price was very reasonable. - Techs lied at time of install. Said the air handler didn't come with a filter assembly and didn't need one. This was because they didn't bring the part with them and already installed the air handler. I called the office and techs were ordered to get the filter housing and install. Shameful. -Techs did not put down effective protection to guard wood floor. Instead of rubber mats, they used drop clothes. Result- numerous dings and a three inch floor gash in a conspicuous place. - Both the air handler (air handler) and the heat pump (full failure) failed to work properly starting a week after install. AJR, to its credit replaced both with same models at no cost. - New air handler continued to knock- AJR tried different fixes on three occasions, all unsuccessful. - After two months and no final fix, I asked for a refund and wanted to return the system. - This is where the runaround happened. Owner (Jim) told me he wanted to give a refund, but that we would have to continue to work through Rheem. Translation- AJR won't give a customer a refund and take the system back, but if Rheem gives a refund, AJR will pass it along. He would never eat the cost himself. - Got tired of the runaround and I had a new Lennox system was installed by Horizon. Very happy with that install and Horizon overall- the system runs great. -Just passing it along- Horizon did not have positive things to say about the quality of the Rheem install job prior to removing it. - Eventually stopped hearing from AJR owner about a refund. Had told him several times to pick up the Rheem system upon its removal from Horizon, did not do so. - AJR should not be trusted. You get what you pay for.

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They didn?t do any repairs but tried to upcharge me to a new unit. They said I had several leaks so I called another company to check. The second company told me that there were no leaks and fixed the problems with my ac unit right away.

unknown

They performed the job adequately although it was not clearly stated how detailed they would need to be for this simple task. In hindsight it could have been done much easier if I had known more. They charged 100 dollars per hour in labor. Materials were extra. The job only took three total hours to complete but they robbed me in the materials. A filter that costs any where from 35-50 dollars (looked up on Internet) they charged me 460 dollars. The freon was also marked up quite a bit. Live and learn. Stay away from this company.

AJR
I had a horrifying experience with this company. I WOULD NOT recommend using their services. I am a single female owner of a condo and was well aware of the difficulty involved in replacing an old air conditioning unit in my building. I had consulted with condo management and others who had completed AC replacements in my building. I also had and provided the model numbers for replacement parts to AJR's estimator as well as explained the level of difficulty involved to the estimator. The company assured me that they could complete the job and gave me a 2-day turn-around. We scheduled the installation 6 weeks out, since the equipment was a special order. I took two-days off from work for the installation. The first day after waiting several hours I received a call that the wrong equipment had been sent from the manufacturer. If equipment had been checked beforehand I wouldn't have wasted a day missing work. The company assured me they could get the equipment in two weeks. They also said they would throw in a free maintenance for my inconvenience. We rescheduled and the day before installation I got a call that wrong equipment was sent AGAIN. This time I was told that they would either reimburse a portion of my money or send me a visa gift card. The first day of installation the men were unprepared, didn't know the scope or difficulty of the job, and didn't have the right tools. As a result, not much work was done, they had to contact the owner for guidance and left early. Day 2, Friday, work was not complete and they left the place a mess. They were to come back Saturday, no one called or showed up. When I reached someone finally after waiting all day, I was again told I would get money back or a Visa card. The next week (day 3 off from work) when work was completed by the OWNER and his employee, he was unapologetic! The owner didn't even acknowledge the problems that occurred. This all happened in September/October 2015. Since then, I have received no maintenance plan, reimbursement, or Visa card. I contacted the company in December 2015, via email so I would have something in writing and I have received no response. I caution anyone who uses their services! After spending the amount of money necessary and dealing with their mistakes I would have expected better treatment. Obviously they do not value their customers!!!!

I tried to work with the company for a resolution, but they kept stalling and telling me they would look over the documents of proof I sent and get back to me.  They never did.
 Details of the case:
Installation
On September 9,
2014, AJR installed a Rheem Commercial Classic Series Package Heat Pump
 heat pump at our location on the roof of Suite
A at 8288 Telegraph Rd in Odenton, MD. During September and October the
temperature outside was not extreme and we used very little heat or air
conditioning. 
 
First Service Call
A high electricity
bill received in December prompted the December 10, 2014 service call.
My electric bill
from the previous year dated December 2013, with my old and poorly functioning
heat pump, used 2,364 kWh and the cost was $149.42.  For the same number of days and same average
temperature, 42, my recent bill dated December 2014, used 4,973 kWh, cost
$708.78, a difference of $559.36. Unfortunately when James made the service
call on December 10, 2015 he did not diagnose the true problem. That ticket
stated that the red wire to the circuit board was not tight and he tightened it
and "operation all ok".   We now know it
was not all ok.
 
Second Service
Call
My electric bill
from the previous year dated January 2014, with the same old and defective heat
pump, used 2449 kWh, average temperature was 36, cost $321.81.  My electric bill dated January 2015, average temperature
42, showed usage of 9868 kWh, for a cost of $1405.44, difference of $1083.59. Again I requested a service call because of very high
usage and high charges on our electric bill for January. This time the abnormal
charges were more than $1,000 over the usual for the average temperatures. On Friday,
January 23, 2015, James made the service call and could find nothing wrong
with the heat pump, but guessed the problem might be related to the thermostat
or the wiring.  He recommended putting in
a new thermostat with emergency heat indicator.  Again, the diagnosis was incorrect.
 
Third Service Call
On Wednesday,
January 28, 2015, Woody, the Service Manager, finally diagnosed the
problem.  He said that the old heat pump had five wires to the
thermostat and the new heat pump required eight. The new system was not wired
correctly. To change to eight would have been an additional charge to the
landlord (Pioneer) who was paying for the installation.  Correct wiring was essential to the new system
operating properly.  Woody said that
as a result of the system being unable to function properly and relying on
emergency heat, it was using an unusual number of kWh. During this service call
Woody made some adjustments to enable the heat to temporarily work albeit using
emergency heat.   He stated that it
shouldn't have been installed with the original wiring in the wall and that
"That's why a bunch of guys have been fired since then."
 
 
Fourth Service
Call -following week early February
Woody did
extensive rewiring and replaced the thermostat. 
The electricity usage dropped to normal right after the rewiring was
done and has been normal since.
 
Costs
 
The original
installation overtaxed an old wiring system and as a result, the heat pump
could not heat the suite.  Instead, the
emergency heat kicked in and that is extremely expensive.
 
I incurred
additional electric costs in December and January of $1,642.95 as a result of
this installation error and the two service calls which incorrectly diagnosed
the problem.  This does not include the last two weeks, during which
the emergency heat kept running, and an additional 3643 kwh were used for an estimated
electric cost $510.
 

They didn't do everything I had thought they would but it was still a good job.

Great work all the way around. Adam and Tyled worked hard all day to take out my old AC and furnace and install a new one. They went out of their way to repair damaged drywall and floorboards (they did not cause the damage, it was old) including making a trip to Home Depot for supplies. I was curious as I always am with home projects and they answered all my questions and explained the installation process without getting annoyed or inpatient with me. The job was extraordinarily difficult due to the home being old and the previous work being of poor quality and they did not complain or try and charge me any extra fees. I would recommend them to anyone in the DFW area without hesitation. Thanks guys.

unknown

They were a lot cheaper and excellent. They just did an amazing job and they just went extra miles.

The job went good overall.  I will recommend them to others but they have to make sure that their employees are doing it the right way.  Because they turned on some load buried walls in my house.  I know how to build a house so it was not a problem for me to fix but if somebody did not know, it will be just like plastered buried walls that turned out.  It would not be safe for the owner of the home in the long term.  But overall the job was good but he just need to know how to do it right.  Their product is also good.  But no one should start altering wall like that.

unknown

Did not show for 2 appointments.

Have hired them for heating and air maintenance past several years. Each time got a 4 hour window and tech has shown up after the window with no late notice. Very poor customer service. I had to chase them down to get a time after the 4 hours pasted. Frustrating.

Not trustworthy

All the reviews seem to be good and it blows our mind. We have spent thousands of dollars every year since we had the house and every six months we have to save or spend a couple of thousand dollars. It's just a they don't fix the problem the first time so they are coming back and repeatedly fixing the same problem we've run over. We are buying parts and we seem to still have the same problem no matter what it is. The last time they were here, they did not even come in the house to look at it. They looked at it from the outside and they told us we needed to have a $700 repair to the outside unit. As they were leaving we were like, wouldn't they come in the house and look at the inside unit and see why there's a noise coming from this inside unit and they were like, "what do you mean?" So I guess, the office when they scheduled the appointment never passed on any of the information to the technician who was coming out to actually look at the unit. So he went and just looked at the outside and never came in the house. I will never go back to them again and would not recommend them to anyone. They charged us for a lot of money for stuff under warranty so I am not exactly sure how the warranty does. It spent thousand of dollars with them for a unit installed in the house and every year they have to come out and service it and fix it. I spent lots of lots of money on this brand new unit that never ever had worked right since they have installed it. So for their pricing, we spent a lot of money for something that we did not necessarily have to pay for. The technicians that came out typically did a good job and I don't blame them for the things in the A/C breaking.

Came out on time and with the phone call ahead of time so I could come home to meet them.  Repaired the furnace the same day.  I did not grade on cost as I don't have anything to compare to for this service.

We used the coupon first to have them come out and check. Then we had them come back to replace the heating unit. They did a great job. We were very happy with them. They were pretty straightforward with us. We had an old unit that was probably on its last days. They gave us all the options. We felt like they were pretty honest about it. We did our research, and they were telling us the truth. They did a really quick job, and the price was good.

Everything went great. The company was responsive to my phone calls in setting up the appt. The gentleman (Greg) who performed the install called me with sufficient notice as to when he would be at my house. He triaged my request on the phone so that he could have all the parts he needed before surveying the equipment and work area. He was polite, professional and finished the job in just under 2 hours. He showed me how everything worked before he left and made sure he addressed all my concerns before he departed.
Thank you

Excellent Service! James, the owner arrived on time and was very professional - explained the problems with my mom's HAVC system - didnt try 2 sell us something she did not need and the cost was very reasonible. The day they came the temperature outside was in the single digits & they men worked diligently all day - no complaining - very professional staff from the Kristan who responds to customer calls to James the owner. I would HIGHLY recommend this company to anyone in need of repairing, replacing, and/or servicing their HAVC system!

Responsiveness was great. I called on a Saturday morning because I blew the fuse in my furnace Friday night. Woody showed up 10:30 am. He was finished by 10:45 am. 15 minutes of work cost me $222. 
The night before (Friday) I installed my "smart" thermostat (Nest) upstairs. I had already successfully installed one downstairs a couple days prior. Super easy and fast to install. Anyway, while I was installing the second one upstairs, like a dummy, I didn't turn off the power. The red wire sparked, and I blew the fuse in the furnace (lost power). I didn't want to call late on a Friday night, because I already had heat (I have 2 furnaces in my home, one upstairs, one downstairs).
I called Saturday morning at 9:00am. The operator that I spoke to NEVER mentioned a service call fee, or hourly fee. But, I didn't ask either so I take the blame on that one. Woody showed up at 10:30 am. He changed the ($3) fuse, turned my Nest thermostat on, and answered the questions to finish setting it up (I had already wired it correctly the night before). He was done by 10:45. Here is the breakdown of my bill: $3 part, $99 service call, $120 labor = for a grand total of  $222. REALLY? For 15 minutes of work on a Saturday? Wow! I will never call them again, that's for sure!

The tech arrived on time, on a weekend. He was very quick, very knowledgeable and very professional. He taught me a number of things I didn't know about my gas furnace. Rather than sell me something I didn't need, which a less honest repairman might have, he simply adjusted my controls and gave me some operating tips that quickly solved my problem. (emergency heat setting and previous owner self-wiring was the problem) I was only charged the cost of a weekend service call. AJR is impressive.

The guy who came out was professional, knowledgeable, and very helpful in explaining things and providing tips about maintenance and settings.  He put bleach in the two drain lines, as required periodically.