Ace Air Conditioning

This company is supposed to have a strong history, but from what I have gathered as a customer, it is just history, and history is history. We're talking where Ace is now, at the present. In the present, the phone is short staffed, and the manager, Marti, will place you on hold several times before really committing to the call. No one is perfect, even older companies can be backed up. We spoke on the phone, I had told Marti that my unit was on the top window (not the bottom). At the end of the entire call, I asked what the charge would be initially, and he said it would be "$125, with the cost of the diagnosis being applied to the repair should it need to be repaired". Remember this, folks. Here comes the kicker: Despite being told that servicemen would arrive between 1pm-4pm, I had to cancel a meeting early in order to come to the repair area at 12:20pm. When the servicemen arrived, they looked at the unit, and it (luckily) was working perfectly. I was told in this meeting that the Unit would need to be brought in because there were some slight noises on the fan. The noises, while the serviceman was standing on the ladder, went away. We waited, and waited, no noise, just the cool breeze from the AC. I was told the unit should get repaired, and that it's time. I was then told the bill would be $353 to take it away and that any further costs would be relayed to me. I told them, flat out, this unit does not need to be repaired, and that I will alert them if it fails that I'd call them back. I did so as kindly as possible. I then asked (remember $125 at the end of my call with Marti) if they could just charge the diagnostic fee for today. They said "it's $353, what's on the check". I asked them to call Marti. We did. He answered. He said "It's $125 if it's the bottom window, and $175 if it's the top". Despite repeated attempts to remind him he quoted me at the end of our phone call, he asserted his (new) price was correct. Either this company loves to take your money, or they conveniently forget their verbal quotes for any service within a day. Oh, and one more thing, they said they would charge "$175" if I signed the original document that said "$353". I had to make the servicemen write "$175" as the new total so I would proof of this conversation. This company has a very cold future, indeed.

This is my fifth year using ACE. The past four times have been okay. Nothing extraordinary in terms of service etc, but they get the basic job done - which is picking up my AC and bringing it back in one piece. This time was a terrible experience all around. I made an appointment a few weeks in advance and was given a 9 AM - 1 PM time frame. I then called at 4 PM the day ahead of my appointment to see if ACE would be at my place on the earlier or later side of that time frame. The woman who answered was incredibly polite and said she could not tell me because she only had part of the schedule for the next day. Apparently, a gentleman she works with also books appointments and he had left for the day with his part of the schedule. I'm not really sure why this gentleman would want to take the schedule home with him, but okay. She suggested I call the next day at 8.30 AM and she could give me a better sense of timing. When I called the next morning, the same woman very rudely said "you are confirmed for 9 AM - 1 PM today." I mentioned I called yesterday and she said she could give me a better sense for timing. She said that was the better sense of timing and all she could tell me is 9 AM - 1 PM. She said the guys picking up would call me 30 min in advance of arriving. I asked if she could at least tell me where I am in the line up for the day. She said no a few times and finally put me on hold without telling me (I thought she had hung up on me)...and came back and said 1 PM. She also had a very rude tone of voice which just makes ACE's write up of professionalism and service here a bit of a joke. Anyway, fine - my appointment is closer to 1 PM, thank you. But...my issue is...why could they not tell me that at 4 PM the day before? I mean, you have been in business for many years - you shouldn't have an employee take home a schedule and have no idea what is going on the next day?? It would be a big help for your customers if we could know where we are in your line up the night before our appointment. If you told me my appointment was closer to 1 PM the night before, I could go to work in the morning and be home by around 11 AM for a 1 PM appointment. I really cannot understand why you don't know at 4 PM what is happening the next morning. Also, a four hour time frame is way too wide for people to wait around if you know what the schedule is the next day. Obviously there are delays in service, traffic etc. so understand you cannot guarantee a specific time..but four hours is too wide of a gap to ask people to wait and be away from work. Especially if they are calling the night before an appointment and the schedule is fully laid out for the next day. Also, my AC was not returned to me in the best condition when I had it reinstalled this past summer. See pictures. The AC unit got dirty again within one month of using it, like it was blowing dirty air and the filter had not been replaced, or something inside was not cleaned properly. I did not have this experience in my previous years using ACE. On a more positive note, the guys who pick up are always professional and efficient. Note this my first negative Angie's List review since I joined five years ago as I try be extra sensitive and give some leeway for small businesses as they don't have the resources that a large corporation may have to service their customers. But...I feel this service was bad enough that potential customers should be made aware. If it had just been the dirty AC, I honestly would not have written anything. But the lack of respect for customer's time and rude service really pushed me to write this review.

Contacted 6/21/16 to request quote and service call - no call back Contacted again for follow-up on same 6/29/16 - again told I would be contacted, no response back. Now I lost over a week on this. Avoid.

They installed 3 window AC's last summer. I went to install weather stripping recently (leaves were blowing in from the outside, not to mention cold air). The cross bar that holds an AC up at the top of the window is supposed to be screwed in securely to the window frame. For one of them, I found that it was not, and was resting on the window shade brackets (I only discovered this because the window shade was stuck). The screws for the frame were there in the cross bar, hanging right in front of the holes that they were supposed to be screwed into. I wouldn't want to be standing underneath that AC. When I called Ace, and sent them pictures (see pictures), they angrily insisted that they could not possibly have done that, and that it must have been unscrewed deliberately by "someone". I said, just take it out and get rid of it (it's old anyway). They said "that's labor, $95". "We'll try securing it, if the screws pop out then that's what happened, but if they stay in, they must have been unscrewed". I said fine, just get rid of it. They sent someone (very nice fellow, actually) who was baffled how that could have happened. They took out the AC, and tried screwing the bar in properly. One screw popped out at first, then stayed, the other stayed. Knowing that I hadn't touched it ever, that meant that either they both had popped out or that they had never been screwed in in the first place. Instead of re-installing the AC, they took it with them, as I had asked, and for not re-installing it, I paid $95. I'm sure the manger has iron-clad confidence in the person who originally installed it, but frankly when they were doing it last summer, they were in a big rush and put in 3 AC's in a very short amount of time. I felt very uneasy about it, but trusted that they had done everything right. But the fellow who now removed the one AC admitted that there was supposed to be weather stripping between the inner and outer windows, and there was none on any of them (He said "maybe it fell out"...). I'm not an expert on any of this. I can only tell my story. They had previously removed and re-installed these units for the previous owner several times without a problem. I have to assume that they are generally reliable but that either there were partially stripped screw holes and they somehow popped out during installation and landed on the brackets (and they didn't check to make sure it was OK) or they never screwed it in in the first place. Maybe they were just having a bad day. I can understand the manager's irritation at my accusation, but I'm not thrilled about his accusation against me. They shouldn't be so ready to accuse the customer of doing something that makes no sense at all, and should be willing to accept responsibility for making a mistake, unlikely as it may seem. I won't be using them again, and I'll have to leave it to the readers to look at the pictures I supplied and make their own judgments.

Work was done promptly and well. When I had a small problem with the seal on the plexiglass on one air conditioner, they came back and put in more sealant.

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The 2-man team arrived very promptly.  They were prepared with all the materials needed.  They did a wonderful permanent installation with plexiglass and caulk to seal the seams.  They were personable, efficient, and clean.  They hauled away the old units and the packing materials, managing well the large amount of water stuck in one of the units.  And the best part was that they came the day after I called them, even though it was the height of summer heat.  

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They are quick, they are clean and they come on time.

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Went very well, no problems

It was ok. The service man checked out my air conditioning. He was very honest that I didn't need a cleaning right now and I appreciated that. He was also very polite.

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I did not find ACE through Angie's List because the search methods on here leave much to be desired, but since I had a good experience, I wanted to leave a review. I had a multi-faceted request when I called ACE. I had two old a/c's, two new ones, and three rooms. Two needed to be removed, one old one put in another room, and the two new ones installed, all permanently. I also had co-op and window guard rules to comply with, and I wanted to be able to open the bottom half of the window, which meant securely attaching each a/c unit to a bar rather than the window itself. I had read up on the rules to make sure that a window a/c could serve as a window guard and was surprised when the person I spoke to at ACE wasn't aware that they could be, one of only two glitches in the process. My contact did say that if I had a window guard in the window (which I did in one room) that only the building maintenance could remove it. The workers arrived on time and professionally attired, but I had to explain again about the gap above the a/c and using L stops to keep the windows from opening more than 4.5 inches. Second glitch. They worked efficiently and got everything done very quickly. In retrospect, I could have saved money by taking one of the a/c's out myself. The overall expense was high, but I trust the work was done right, and so far, it looks like it was done to my specifications.

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Installation went well . The two men were experienced installers. The window was an old wood one. They were professional and polite. Respectful of my property. I was pleased with the installation. I would recommend.

I couldn't be happier. Company was helpful on the phone, completely understood my problem, agreed to show up the next day, a Saturday, and easily knew what the problem was and resolved it. They showed up on time, phoned me before they arrived, were friendly professional, and they worked clean. For the future, I see that it really can be worth it paying considerably more to buy an air conditioner from the very same people who will install it and service it. Since I didn't do it that way, I could have been involved in a lot of blame shifting if not for the great people at this company. Cheap, no, afraid not. Worth it, absolutely, at least to me