Verne & Ellsworth Hann

Description of Work: Replaced my furnace, air conditioner and water heater.

Description of Work: Provided me with an estimate for replacing a boiler

Description of Work: Long story short - I used them 6 years ago to completely replace my furnace. The job was just under $10,000. They worked hard and did a nice job. 6 years later the premium pump that I used went bad, and now they want $750 to replace it. He said that pumps can last any where from a few years to 25 years, whether it is premium or not. Why would I have bought and paid extra for a premium pump in the first place if it doesn't last very long and is expensive to fix? They said I could get a cheaper pump for $200 less, but they have no idea how long it will last. In this instance, they do not seem to stand behind their work as they want me to pay full price for everything, and didn't seem to care that the pump they installed broke prematurely, even though the premium pump clearly should have lasted longer. UPDATE 8 27 14 - I spoke with Chris Hahn, the owner of the company today to discuss the situation further. It turns out that I can buy the pump on Amazon for $265, which I did - he would have charged me $750 total - about $250 for 2 hours of labor plus about $500 for the pump. Originally, Chris's employee had agreed to install the pump I purchased from Amazon and charge me the labor for the approximately 2 hours to install it. His employee stated clearly that there would be no warranty if I bought the pump and he installed it, but as the warranty was only 1 year, I was going to take the chance and was awaiting the arrival of the pump to schedule the time to install the pump. It should be arriving today. After discussing it further with Chris, he stated the only way that he would now install it was if I gave him a positive update on Angie's List. He claims there are some factual inaccuracies in my review - specifically that the tech was at my house for more than 15 minutes as I state below. I did not have a watch nor did I time him, and it is entirely possible that his tech was in fact here for as long as 45 minutes. In addition, I was unaware that his standard in season charge for a tune up is $150 plus parts, rather than the off season $104 plus $38.00 for the thermocoupler that he charged me. In fact, that charge was less than he would have charged had I requested an Angies List discount. He also did not charge me the $90 he would have charged to look at the pump, had he had his tech come strictly to look at the pump, rather than do the cleaning. It seems my furnace had not been cleaned in over a year and there was some extra cleaning that they did, he did not charge me for the extra cleaning. Now that I have updated the inaccuracies that he felt I wrote, the problem continues. Chris has now refused to install the pump which his employee had originally promised to install for his normal hourly rate. His original statement of "The only way I will install the pump is if you give me an updated review on Angies List" is not something that I am comfortable with and I told him so. I said I would be happy to update the posting once everything was complete. It seems things are now complete, although he did not do all of the work, so I did update it to reflect the possibility of an honest difference of opinion, lack of knowledge about his on season and off season pricing policy, the fact that his Angies list discount is not as good as certain other pricing he offers throughout the year and my recollection of time. He stated today that he is no longer willing to install the pump as originally promised. As such, I have downgraded my review rather than increased it. He stated that he has significant costs for labor, workers' compensation, etc. and installing the pump is no longer something that he will do. He does not seem to have the desire to continue working with a previous customer who had placed their trust in him and is experiencing a problem with equipment that he had originally installed. He reminded me a few times of car and appliance warranties and how most of those companies do not stand behind their work, especially after 6 years. I would respectfully disagree as many other companies do stand behind their products - both with factory recalls for cars that are older than 6 years as well as other accommodations when products do not live up to expectations. The bottom line is that the premium pump that I paid extra for 6 years due to its long life, should have lasted longer than 6 years and not cost $750 to fix. I did get 6 years of use out of it and after learning that there was no warranty in effect, I was rightfully hoping that Hahn would have stood behind their work rather than wanting to charge me full price to fix it, including a markup on their cost of the pump, as he explained that the pump would probably have cost him $300 from his local supplier rather than the $265 I paid on Amazon. second update on 8/27/14 in reply to his provider response - It seems that my update was not posted before Chris responded below. There are unfortunately some inaccuracies in his response. 1) I never requested better pricing for a good review, nor did I ever call him a crook. It was Chris's statement that the only way he would install the new pump was AFTER I posted an updated review regarding the points I re-stated above as regards time and pricing. I was not willing to do that and stated that once everything is done and completed, if it was done well and I felt satisfied, then I would then be happy to update the review and hopefully upgrade the rankings based on my new experience. When I told him I would not update until after, he said that he was no longer willing to install the pump. In his rebuttal, he has now accused me of bribery - which is quite simply not true, especially after he point blank told me he would only install the pump AFTER I gave him a positive review. I refused, so he refused to install the pump, when one of his employees originally said that he would. I would not say that what he was trying to do rises to the level of bribery, I would say we were both simply trying to get what we felt was fair. I would say that he was more in the range of trying hardball negotiations on me - update the review, or I won't help you anymore, rather than bribery. He did however go back on his word as he has now refused to honor his original agreement of installing the pump and charge me based on the actual labor incurred. 2) He is being intentionally disingenuous regarding the cleaning. There is another firm that has a similar name that did previous cleanings for me - it had not been 4 years since the last cleaning and he knows it. In addition, he knows full well that the cleaning or lack thereof has nothing to do with the pump failing. The pump is a separate system using water heated by the burners, but never coming into contact with the burners. The cleanliness of the burners has nothing to do with pump life, but it does effect other parts of the furnace. 3) I have now scheduled the installation of the pump with another company, and have still updated the parts of my original review he felt was inaccurate - in no way was I trying to hold my review hostage for a better price, as I still wrote the update without getting anything in return from him. It was he who demanded a retraction for continued service. 4) My final point is that he now stated very clearly during our discussion that the pump is only warranted for 1 year. He further stated that if it had been a few months past one year, he may have been able to do something about it, but after 18 months, for sure there was nothing he would do. I paid significantly extra for a long life premium pump 6 years ago when he did the initial install, with the belief that I would be covered for a long time, the point being that a long time was undefined at the time and clearly we have a different definition of what that means. He never stated during the initial install 6 years ago that after 18 months, if the pump failed, I would be hit with a $750 repair bill. His analogy of cars is relevant here - most cars now have 36 month warranties, not 12 months. Premium cars go even longer - sometimes as long as 5 year bumper to bumper warranties, or even longer for certain systems. Some premium cars build their brand by going the extra mile when something goes wrong even beyond the warranty. Shouldn't premium pumps as well? My experience with Verne & Ellsworth Hahn was that no matter how much extra I paid for a long lasting, high performance pump initially, if that pump is more than 18 months old, they will attempt to charge you their full labor rates for the install, plus a fully marked up price for the pump itself - approximately $500 for a pump I bought for $265, which he stated would likely cost him around $300 from a local supplier. In my case he was attempting to charge me $750 for a job that likely had a total profit for him of $300. That is not my definition of standing behind your work.

Description of Work: Totally replaced 2 forced air furnaces with 2 new Carrier furnaces, replaced old a/c unit with 2 new Carrier units, installed a new Aprilaire humidifier, installed 2 new air cleaners/filters, reworked 220V wiring on 2 new a/c units and tested all new equipment. They were rather pricey, and seemed to charge for things that I would have thought should be included, but their work was of high quality and they did what they said they would, when the said they would. Only wish they had not covered over the contact information of the installer of my hot water tank (which they did no work on) with their contact information without asking me. One would think that since their work was of very good quality, they should not have to "battle" the competition, for future work.

Description of Work: Replaced boiler

Description of Work: Service furnace and replace the broken gas line connection

Description of Work: Came to look at a hot water heater that no longer worked.

Description of Work: The replaced a boiler.

Description of Work: Installed a new boiler-type furnace in my home.

Description of Work: Provider was hired to install a shut-off valve for the house and discovered a serious electrical problem while doing the plumbing job. Thanks to the provider, the shut-off valve was properly installed. Also, the electric company installed new wires to the house.

Description of Work: Great service! We had some pipes burst during the extreme cold snap this past January. The representative from Verne & Ellsworth Hann was courteous, helpful and knowledgeable.

Description of Work: They replaced my hot water heater with a better quality model.

Description of Work: Repaired our furnace, which was shutting off and not working properly.

Description of Work: I consistently use them for different plumbing projects.

Description of Work: They have installed and inspected my furnace as well as my AC unit. We also use them for our plumbing and heating needs.

Description of Work: They do the service maintenance on our boiler.

Description of Work: They installed a unit and vents for us in our house for us while we were on vacation. This company also installed a new furnace for us later on, and it was wonderful service.

Description of Work: Removed old outside air conditioning unit and replaced with new in different location; installed new high efficiency furnace and high efficiency water heater; installed new air filtration unit and new humidifier, together with all related electrical work, piping work, etc.

Description of Work: Verne & Ellsworth Hann Inc. replaced my thermostat.

Description of Work: Replaced old furnace and AC unit with high-efficiency models.

Description of Work: Inspected and maintained our furnace.

Description of Work: Although we did not ultimately go with this company, I wanted to write and share our exceptionally positive experience. We were comparing companies to put central air conditioning into our 1920's three-story home, where there's no forced air, just radiators.

Description of Work: My mother used the services of Verne & Ellsworth Hann company for plumbing works. They put in a dish washer sink.

Description of Work: Had a slow running toilet that I was not able to clear with a plunger or small snake that I had.

Description of Work: Removed old boiler and installed new boiler.