Interstate the Heating & Cooling Professionals

It went great! The technician arrived on time, thorough, knowledgeable, and performed the work above and beyond my expectation.

We paid $16,200.00 for this system and were promised rebates to offset the cost- Rick Daino said that they will handle the rebates- "we are experts at it." The work was completed in October 2020 and still have not received rebates - March 2021. When contacted -their "expert" Nicki - said she has never done them before and she would figure out. When contacted again after initial conversation - Nicki reported she hasn't gotten to it yet. In February 2021 someone from Interstate came to our house to take pictures of the systems - required for rebates. They came back later to retake pictures because they were "lost". Total incompetence. Just notified by Better Business Bureau that Nicki stated the rebates had to be resubmitted - March 2021 - and that this is an issue with NYSERDA. This is an issue with Interstate- Rick Daino - not doing what they promised they would do - and portraying themselves as experts at rebates when they have no idea how.

Worker completed inspection and found coolant was low as it had been leaking from schrader valves that had not been properly capped by previous worker from this same company during previous servicing in 2018. Worker added coolant and two brass caps for which I was charged $496 (paid by credit card). One half hour after worker left, AC unit stopped working. I called and worker came right back. He said it was common for capacitor to fail after recharging. He replaced the capacitor and the AC started right up. Worker then hooked up a device to read if the AC was now working properly and he immediately shut the AC unit down and told me the AC compressor had blown and needed to be replaced. He gave me estimate for repair of compressor (about $1900) and for replacement of entire unit ($4200). I decided I should get other estimates and a few days later the owner of another AC/heating business came to my house, put in a new capacitor and the AC started working. When he hooked up his meter he stated all of the values were good and now 3 weeks later my AC (only 10 years old) continues to work fine. I contacted Mr. Bloom, the owner of Interstate, who stated he was surprised that his worker had ‘missed’ that as he is a good worker. I asked Bloom for an adjustment on the $496 I had paid for the service call and he stated his company had performed the services and I was owed nothing. Needless to say, this company will not be allowed on my property in the future.

When an officer of a company violates the trust of a potential customer on the contract negotiation stage, and subsequently refuses to return a check, which I requested in writing, and in a fax for three times, then it is appropriate to seek remedy for the situation via social media, the BBB and legal means. Everything I write is true, and documented. If requested, I will provide copies. The person who visited my home is Rick Diano, and according to his card, he is the Vice President of Interstate Heating and Air, doing business under several similar DBAs. I found the company through Angie’s List, which I partially blame for their referral to this substandard company You see, my water heater blew out, the second one in 10 years for the same reason as the previous one: sediment. Common sense indicated that I needed something different, so I looked at tank less water heaters as the best solution. I also told Rick that I was going to have another contractor come, and give me a quote after he left hoping that that would assure a fair offer and accuracy. Later that evening, I reviewed the two contracts, and that is where I found the first of several errors on the Interstate contract. The first was sufficient for me to terminate the contract, and I sent notice via email and fax to that effect. That first major error was that Rick wrote somethings on the contract after I signed it, and then changed the $300.00 down payment, which I gave to him in a check to $250. It is almost as if he was thinking that he could pocket $50.00 through that act of fraud if I canceled, but did not specify that the check be returned; only what he put on the contract. In other words, outright fraud. The second major error in the contract was that the contract specified only the brand name of the water heater, Navien, but it did not list the size I needed Therefore, I emailed and faxed the following: Dear Rick: This email, and subsequent fax will serve as my official notice of the contract signed earlier today. As a security deposit, I gave to you a check from the Pennsylvania State Credit Union in the amount of $300.00. I wish that to be returned immediately along with a reply to this email acknowledging receipt of this email and fax. Thank you for the time that you spent with me, it was instructional, but FYI, your solution of just the heater alone did not address the primary issue of having to replace two tank water heaters within 8 years for the reason of sediment build up. If you choose to mail the check back, please write “VOID” on the face, and drop it in my mailbox, or in a USPS mail box Physically, they are about 3 miles away from me, on the same road as my home. Therefore, the request for hand delivery was an option for the sake of his convenience. At 8:00 the next day, May 22, he replied, but did not address the issue of the check return: I have done hundreds of hot water heaters in the city of Geneva although Geneva has 22 grains of hardness in there water many homes do not have any filtration systems on the water enjoy longevity on there water heaters. The reason for this is quality equipment and quality installation plus we always put a prefilter on the Navin To my way of thinking, his avoidance of the issue of the check was his attempt to further his fraud against me. The next day, he left me a voice mail on my phone: TRANSCRIPT of voicemail Date : May 23 2019 01:06:04 PM From : INTERSTATE,HEAT (13157816601) To : John Thomson (1315828XXXX) "Good afternoon John this is Rick up the street interstate heating. Yeah that's no problem I mean if you wanna go somewhere else that's that is fine. I'll just rip up the check. Don't worry about anything. See ya." Quoting Yogi Berra, “ déjà vu all over again” On Thursday, May 23, at 6:53 PM I sent him this email: What is it that I have failed to communicate to you? This is now the third time I send to you the same message; RETURN MY CHECK. DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU WILL TEAR IT UP SEND IT TO ME VIA USPS, OR HAND DELIVER IT RETURN MY CHECK Have you sufficiently understood my legitimate request? As a result of this dance of denial, I came to the conclusion that there is no doubt that Rick Daino, through his company, in which he is a senior officer is committing fraud, and wants to deny my reasonable request. Further, it is my opinion that he submitted the check to his bank, and is possibly skimming $50.00 off the top, and if that is the case, he is also defrauding his company in the same manner as he is attempting to do so with me. BTW because I intuited that something like this would happen, I stopped payment on the check, and I have a carbon copy of check #7243 written to Interstate in the amount of $300.

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I took his advice, learned how to read the "flash code" error message,  and bought a small electric heater to wait out the weekend and hold the last service provider (a different company) accountable for the lack of service.  This turned out to be a zero cost option, and I've not forgotten the good advice when the next service contract is signed.

Interstate saved my Thanksgiving! I woke up Wednesday night to a cold house and started to panic. I had all my family coming to my house for the first time for Thanksgiving dinner. My neighbor had some work done by Interstate and had a sign in their yard so I called them. Jerry came out at 1am and looked at my furnace. He fixed it but he recommended a replacement due to the age and of my furnace and some other issues he discovered. So because of Interstate I was able to have a warm house for the holiday and a new furnace was put in on black Friday! I would definitely recommend them to anyone and I have.

Carl showed up as promised and did a great job with everything. It took a little longer than was initially estimated, but I'd rather it be done right rather than done fast. Everything works great now.

I was told by another company that my furnace had major issues and needed to be replaced before the winter season. I asked Interstate to provide a second opinion and a quote. Their quote came in considerably lower and while our furnace was nearing the end of it's life expectancy, there was not an urgent need to replace it.

We opted to purchase a furnace from them with an installation in March. With the cost savings we opted to also purchase central air. We signed a contract and provided a deposit. The balance will be billed following installation. Interstate installed our current furnace almost 20 yrs ago.

When I had a quote drawn up for at the time just the duct work, I decided to keep adding more to it since their prices I felt were the best around. No one could touch the prices they gave me.  I believe I got a great value and my moneys worth. They guys that came out to my house were really nice and professional.  We did have some minor issues with where the ductwork ran but in the end it was done great and I couldn't be more pleased. I realize with old houses things won't always go smoothly and we had our share of obstacles, but I feel they worked them out just fine. They were at my house for a full week and in the end everything was cleaned up and tightened up nicely.
As I mentioned above, I even had them replace all the gas line in the house. The install manager Craig came out to my house several times to check on the work the guys were doing and he made sure the quality of work was being met. As I said before I feel they did a great job and I'm glad I chose them.  The only issue I have with the work is on the last day they were rushing to finish and the electric line to the A/C was not ran properly and the tie in to my breaker box will have to be fixed before I use it.  Luckily I know a good electrician who can take care of that for me.

The primary problem I have may be with the Tappan brand. But Interstate has also let me down in terms of customer support and service. All in all, they seem to be the stereotypical manipulative service company that looks for every opportunity to nickel and dime you. Not a brand I trust, and one I would never recommend to my worst enemy.

They seemed to be very reasonable and thoughtful about the process. They just finished up yesturday so we will wait and see how everything works out. So far, we are pretty satisfied.

I was very satisfied with the work Interstate Heating did. The price was pretty reasonable too. They were professional and knew what they were doing, so I didn't have any problems with them.