DAWSON-DODD HEATING & COOLING

Terrible, heating and cooling system never fully functioned.

Woke to find basement floor wet and furnace not working = boiler leaking right over pilot light. And just after a good-sized snow and cold snap. We've had a service contract with them and their predecessor for a long time. My 7.30 a.m. call was returned within 20 minutes, and I had someone onsite within another hour. He brought two small space heaters and determined what was wrong; had another employee verify his assessment. Yes, new boiler. These days they, like many things, are in short supply. In the meanwhile, they brought another two large freestanding space heaters to prevent pipes from freezing. Lots of explanation and updates as the search went on. The new boiler was in a week later, even working on Saturday to get things done - and they cleaned up after themselves. Not cheap, but reliable and honest. Good stuff.

I contracted with Dawson-Dodd to install new ductwork for my unico A/C system and paid 1/2 the cost up front ($4500). They never performed the work. I emailed Patrick Dodd repeatedly over the next 6 months, who generally responded that his installer quit, or that he hurt his knee, or some other excuse, but Dawson Dodd would be out to do the job in the next couple weeks. It has been 2 years and I have never seen or heard from them. I am out $4500. After 2 years I hired another HVAC company to do the work. If you look at the BBB website you can see that they have a number of complaints against them over the last 3 years, and another Angies List reviewer has had the same experience I had. STAY AWAY FROM DAWSON-DODD!

Very badly! The job was never completed even though it was paid in full. It took over a year to finally decide they were not going to complete the work. I had to hire another contractor to finish the job. I had used Dawson-Dodd in prior years; in fact they installed my original a/c system so I trusted them, but should not have because they did not complete the work.

Bob from Dawson Dodd was really fantastic. I found him to be incredibly thorough in assessing the issue and in ensuring that everything was resolved to our satisfaction. Very happy with the work and their responsiveness.

We have used Dawson Dodd Heating and Cooling for years. They are always responsive and take extraordinary care to keep our house clean while they work, even putting on covers over their shoes when they come in the house. We have a service agreement with them, so they clean our equipment and check for issues twice a year for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. We also get same day service - a real bonus last winter when our heating system stopped working. These guys are THE BEST!!

I called Dawson Dodd, and spoke to John who promised he would someone out to take a look at the system in just a few hours. They were very prompt, and clean. The mechanic, Ben, explained the repair to us, gave us an estimate, and then did the work. They were very quick, and we now have heat in the property for a very reasonable fee. We were very happy with their service, their Ben, and the outcome.

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It went excellent. They are always great, every time we call them. We have been using them for years.

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I highly recommend Dawson-Dodd to anyone and enjoyed doing business with John and the team for almost 20-years. I have found them to be honest with repair options and always focused on value creation for their clients.

ductwork. GIven our concerns we brought in an outside architect spent several hours of detailed analysis and who felt the overall grade of the HVAC work was about a C, and the use of the duct work was more of a C minus. Also, this architect said the plans that Dawson Dodd used to defend their work were really not telling them exactly what height to run the ductwork, and he felt if Dawson Dodd was acting in our best interests they would have chosen a more efficient duct work route or at least called and given us some options that were more suitable for ceiling height. The max ceiling height in one office was reduced to about 7 foot 9 inches by the Dawson Dodd duct work and with the drop ceiling will probably be in the range of 7 foot 6 inches. The outside architect felt that with a bit of thinking, Dawson Dodd could have kept our ceiling height over 8 foot 6 inches and still accomplished the same goals. Thus, at this point, might consider Dawson Dodd for future work but will clearly be getting outside bids and opinions from other companies and will ask for a more detailed inspection of the plans prior to any future work and have an architect review the work at various time points to protect out interests. In fairness to them, we learned a lot from this job and the bottom line is you must do a careful inspection of plans prior to the work, and you must have on site inspections as the work progresses to protect your interests.

Hello John and Pat,
I am very disappointed to be writing you because until now I have trusted the service you have provided. 
I am concerned with the process of the service call your tech made here on Tuesday, April 9, 2013.  I had reported that my interior a/c unit had iced up, and as this had occurred some time previously knew it was most likely In need of refrigerant. The
day of the appointment, I received a call from Bob, your tech, informing me he was by my unit on the outside deck and asked me to turn it on.  I did that, thinking it a bit unusual that he did not announce his presence first by coming to my door. After
a couple of minutes Bob called again to say that the unit was low on refrigerant which now costs $150 per pound and that my unit holds 13 pounds.  He said that it might be better to replace the unit then have that expense since my unit "looked like it is from around 1986". Plus R22 is being replaced and a new unit would have the new refrigerant.  I informed Bob that the unit had been replaced by your predecessor company, Intagliata, in the late 1990's (checking my records
it was actually August 2000).  Bob continued to pursue the line that it should be replace due to its age anyway.  I informed him that you had replaced the core under warranty in the late 2000's (checking my records it was May 2008).  Then I told him you replaced the air handler only a few years ago. (checking my records it was July 2008).  At this point Bob stumbled some, saying he didn't have access to my file.  He continued to recommend that Pat come out to give me an estimate for a completely new unit. At no time did Bob say that he had/would try to find the leak to see if it was repairable.  I instructed Bob to charge the unit. When he brought the invoice for $1245 to my door for credit card and signing he reiterated this recommendation, saying he couldn't guarantee how long the R22 charge would last: "maybe no longer than a month".  He also noted "1994 yr" on
the invoice for an unknown reason. Bob did not check the interior unit at all.
A few days later I received an unsolicited phone message from Pat following up to arrange a time to give me an estimate for a new unit. I did not call back.
Years of your service calls have led me to expect this: tech comes in and checks/tests the interior unit; tech goes to
outside unit and performs check/test. Tech advises me of any problems and possible solutions, several times accomplishing solution then. This was the worst "service" call you have ever performed.  I have always trusted you were working for my benefit: no more.  There have been leaks in the past that you have actually repaired, rather than attempt to sell me a new unit. Your
salesman (hard to call him a "tech") clearly had only one objective, and there was nothing about me in it. You and he have, however, raised a concern.  I will be having another company come to double check my system for the summer season.   This is not about Bob: he was courteous at all times.  This is about the obvious direction given to Bob for my "service" call.
Sincerely,
Stanley Xxxxxxxxx
April 11, 2013
Post Script: Today is June 26th, 2013.  I had another company, selected from Angie's List and in business for over 50 years, come today for a "seasonal check" of my a/c.  Tech came in and checked interior unit first, all is well. Tech went
to exterior unit and reported it is performing well and coolant pressure is at recommended level.  I casually asked
what they charge for R22: $64 for the first pound, $54 thereafter. Shame on me for trusting you and allowing you to charge me $150 per pound.  Assuming you actually put in 8 pounds, 3 ounces, which at this point I also hold in doubt, you garnered an excess of $792.87..The new company's annual service contract, including humidifier, is $205 per year vs. your $550. For taking gross advantage of my trust I hearby fire you.  Please do not communicate with me in any fashion.

In late 2011, my boiler needed replacing. I was getting estimates, and my neighbor recommended Dawson-Dodd. Their bid was comprehensive and very competitive. Since my neighbor had such a good experience, I chose to go with them.We did run into some problems, when the manufacturer of the boiler changed the specs and we had to go with a different model. Even though the new model was a higher cost, Dawson-Dodd stood by their original bid (requiring no argument or negotiation from me). The new model took some extra labor time to get it up and running, and despite the hit to their bottom line, the staff was courteous and professional. I was impressed with how they worked to make sure I was happy and the system was working properly. All in all, a great company with a great group of employees. I was so happy with them, I used them in Spring 2012 for my a/c replacement. My only regret is it took me this long to write a review!

The technician arrived on time and was very knowledgeable with 20 years' experience working on boilers. He looked at our job and told us how much the work was going to cost up front.  In fact, he charged less than the original estimate.  The work was performed in a professional manner and the work area was left clean.  This company also installed and services our Unico a/c.

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I used Dawson Dodd to get a second opinion. Another company told us we needed a whole new HVAC system at a cost of approximately $8,000 because the heat exchanger was bad. They said that a bad heat exchanger could cause the HVAC to produce carbon monoxide and kill us all. Well, I wasn't going to spend that kind of money without getting a second opinion, so I found Dawson Dodd on Angie's List. They came out the next day and did their own candle test and reported that, although the HVAC unit is old, it seems to be working fine and there did not appear to be any problems with the heat exchanger. He said it was important that we keep our carbon monoxide detectors hooked up, and as long as we did that, there was no reason to replace the HVAC system until the heat exchanger actually failed. Dawson Dodd had every opportunity to just confirm the other company's report and try to sell me a new HVAC system -- instead, they charged me $79. Now that's an honest way to do business.

It went well. My air conditioner did not work when I turned it on for the first time this spring. The blower and thermostat worked, but the unit itself did not turn on. I have a service contract, and called for assistance. A serviceman was scheduled for the next day (at my request--I was offered same-day service). He arrived on time and quickly diagnosed and repaired the problem. He also performed the annual clean-and-check on the unit, and advised me that I should be thinking about replacing it since the compressor seemed rather weak.

We called to have our furnace serviced midday on a Wednesday, and the technician was at our house by 3:45 pm the same day. The job was finished by 5:30 pm. The technician gave us some advice on improving air flow to several rooms, and quoted us the price for a new furnace if we decided to replace our existing unit.

We have used them many times in the past. We are very happy with their service and depth of knowledge.

We were unhappy with the contract. We've been with them since 2003. Went with them because they had bought their formers. On April 22, they inspected the two AC units. They gave us a bid on the first floor unit. Got a second bid from another company which was several thousand dollars less and we accepted it. Asked other company to inspect upstairs as well and determined that it did not need replacement but noted that it did need repairing. 2 ducts were not connected therefore blowing air into the crawl space. The cover for the air handler was off, the capacitor had loose connections, and the insulation is not resistant at the the temp in the crawl space and was loose. Dawson is not willing to accept responsibility for the previous work that caused this. They claimed that it happened between their inspection in April and the new inspection in May. We requested a refund/reimbursement of repair costs at $360.

It went very well. They actually called and said they were going to be a little late, but that wasn't a problem for me. They got here right when they said they would. It only took 45 minutes to do the job.