Dowd Mechanical Heating & Air Conditioning

Where to start...let’s start with the 3 hour maintenance visit I endured last week. Well, the last thing you want to do is clean your carpet after an air conditioning check up appointment, but that is exactly what we had to do after the kid they sent tracked mud through the house after spraying out the two outdoor units forever (something that has never had to be done in the prior 8 years I’ve been dealing with this firm). Let’s see, what else - oh, well clearly he can roll a hose, moved our storage box onto our shrubbery and left it there, and then didn’t even put the AC disconnect back in operational mode...forget off or on, he just yanked it and left it sitting atop the box. Fast forward a week...this morning I get an email from the owner Joe Dowd that he doesn’t want to do business with me because I questioned an 88.7% increase to the labor cost on replacing an under warranty evaporator coil. I was emailing with someone (no signatures given) in the Dowd office yesterday to confirm an appointment for the repair and simply asked if “an increase in labor cost” was the extent of the explanation on the increase from 2016 when I did this last time with Dowd...on a unit they recommended and sold me 8 years ago, by the way. I went on to say that I haven’t seen those kinds of increases in my salary in the past 5 years and that Dowd must be good to their employees if labor is up that much. That simple. Joe (and whoever else is behind the emails from the office) takes offense to it and he writes me to tell me to find another firm to do the work as I was not being collaborative so he didn’t want to work with me. So I called, cuz ya know things can be taken out of context in emails. He went on to tell me how everything has gone up in price and he was tired of customers questioning him...and then started to quote the increases in lumber and chicken wings...I didn’t ask him to build me anything, or to go to lunch...just to replace the coils on units he sold me, and to explain how it had gone up that much in such a short period of time. Inflation be damned, I think anyone seeing those kinds of increases is going to ask about it if they are an informed consumer. But he called my email questions the equivalent of “throwing rocks at his front door”. So if you are a Dowd customer, don’t question price - he’ll just send you packing. And don’t expect him to stand behind the systems he sells you, “call the manufacturer, I don’t make them” he said. So he WILL take his profit on selling you a system, and he WILL make money replacing under warranty parts, but don’t ask for reasonable explanations on price or sharing in the cost pain of fixing AC units that he sold you (talk about collaboration). Beware existing and potential Dowd customers, Joe’s on the warpath!!! So the next time someone asks me for an AC recommendation, or I see one of those Dowd banners at the little league fields, I’ll just chuckle and say, “have I got a story for you...” Way to treat an almost decade long customer Joe.

See what I wrote above

The owner himself came out to give us a quote. He came across as professional, knowledgeable, and honest. The price he quoted was very reasonable for the job. The installers were professional, neat, and did a great job. The customer service folks at this company are are very responsive and it shows that they value your business. All in all, so far it has been a great experience.

Perfect and professional in every way. We paid less than we did two years ago for an inferior unit installed by a different contractor.

Fantastic. Read above. Would recommend to anyone for heating and AC. Thank you!

I got 2 other estimates before contracting with Dowd. The estimate Joe Dowd provided was thorough and he answered all my questions and gave detailed information on the job. I was impressed with the time he spent on the estimate. Dowd's price was reasonable and I was confident I was getting the right heater for the house. The installers were on time, professional and courteous. Everything was cleaned up after they were done. The heater is working great just in time for the cold snap we are having. I will recommend this company to friends and family.

I have used Dowd twice and both times they exceeded my expectations. It was a huge job on an old house and I never thought it could be done. Bob and Terrence did an amazing job and answered every single question and put me at ease. The finished product looks amazing and works so well. I will never use anyone else. Thank you for your expertise and professionalism!

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The system has worked flawless over the past several seasons. Quality system from Train. Installers were knowledgeable, professional and courteous.

Went well--was able to accommodate us on short notice and fixed the problem without further incident and informed us how to avoid similar and costly repairs in the future.

Excellent service and they gave us good advice.

Diagnosed and fixed on initial visit

They were on time, had a three man crew. And had the entire system installed very quickly. They had by far the best prices on the best systems. We purchased a Trane 16 Seer, 2 1/2 ton unit. This is the second unit we had installed by Dowd's. They installed a new unit in my previous address too. 5 stars all the way.

The problem was diagnosed immediately and corrected with a replacement part. Since that part was suspected as problematic, a new one was brought to the visit. The furnace shut off late on one of the first cold nights of the season, on a Saturday evening. Dowd was quick to respond on Sunday morning, cordially and professionally. I was charged a premium for weekend service but they were the first to respond to this heating emergency. From my experience, I would definitely recommend Dowd. The issue for me was to get my heat working as soon as possible and Dowd was able to do that.

Couldn't have been better

I had no problems with what they did. Everything was fine with the quote and what they did. I went with another provider. I have no complaints with Dowd. There was no charge for the estimate. I would use them again for an estimate.

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They are exceptional. They are so much better than another company I used. They don't have the advertising budget, but I'll tell you what: Their people are highly trained, they are very responsive and they've been out here several times. They have my contract. It's a high efficiency unit that not everybody can work on.

It went perfect I give them a Triple AAA+ I don't remember the cost they beat some competitors. They were more reasonable than some other out fits for the same project. I went and got estimates from larger companies and I did a lot of research on the kind of unit and other companies where thousand of dollars higher. I got the same quality product from him at a lower cost. He's local so he's easy accessible to come and do maintenance check. They followed up. They came and did what they was suppose to do literally was thousand of dollars cheaper. I seen their trucks in my neighborhood many times so I was more inclined to give my business to a local person in my community. He did't have enormous overhead and to pay for advertisement. Again it was a win win for me because I was giving my business to the community where I live and they been around a long time I know I can call them in a heart beat and say hey I need you to come over and check on something. I did a week later I thought I smelled something and he was here within 48 hours.

I started using another company. I liked Dowd, but felt that, what happened was, I can't remember exactly, but I had them replace a capacitor or some kind of sort of a start-up motor. It was a relatively inexpensive part but it cost me about $265 after it was put in. It was necessary to be put in because the unit obviously won't run. I know that if I had one on my shelf in the garage, I would have paid about $35 for it and it took 5 minutes to install. Again, I understand that people have to make money, but because I'm a mechanic myself, I know how to do a lot of things. It just seemed like, and I was a regular company, it just seemed like it was a lot of money, so I switched. But, I can tell you that Dowd is no less reasonable than any other company that does this work because I used another company who is ridiculously expensive so I stopped using them as well. Now, I'm doing a lot of that stuff myself because I decided that the tune-ups and everything are, while they're necessary and worthwhile, I can do them as well as they can.

It is still working, although I think a new one would save me a little more money. I'm not going to replace it yet, because it's only 11 years old. Nevertheless, they did a good job. I reached them through Home Depot and they did the installation. They were Home Depot's installers at the time. The price, including the installation, was $6500. I don't think the price was terrible. I have been using them for servicing my equipment.

I had a great experience with this service provider. They were really great. They were quick. They were helpful. Actually, ended up saving us money because, we thought they were going to have to replace the whole thing. They did things that were to our benefit, they didn't have to replace the thing. They were very experience and knowledgeable. It took about 3 or 4 days. They weren't there the whole time. It was getting supplies and going  back and forth. It was reasonable, it was great.

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I thought I was going to have to get a new system then because I thought it was dead. I thought I had no choice. I kind of wanted time to thing about it and not have to do it that day. I didn't have to because they got it working. I just knew that in a few months I was going to have to get a new one, so I did.?They were able to fix it at that time. Everything was fine. I had wished that I didn't need a new one, but that was fine.