Dowd Mechanical Heating & Air Conditioning

They did it in one day. They give excellent personal service. They answer all of your questions, even if they are stupid questions because I don't know anything about that. They explain everything and measure everything. They tell you the difference between the different systems you can get, and what they are going to do. They don't try to sell you something you don't need. For instance, I thought I might have needed a 4 ton system, and he said my duct work wouldn't take it, so I had to do a 3 ton which was less expensive. That was good for me. They have excellent service and want you to be happy. I got there service contract too. Now I am all set. It is piece of mind which is priceless. I know that they are going to come out very quickly to help me with any problems. They are going to do routine maintenance that I kind of never did in the past. Now I am going to do it. They are going to change the filters, which I would not always think about doing. I have used them in the past on my other system that was failing. They did "first aid" shall we say. They would get it back running when it would stop working. I knew when I needed a new one that I would use them, and that's what I did.They make a point of coming out the first six months for any reason. I think that was what the warranty is for. That made me feel really good that I don't have to worry about anything. The workers are really nice and friendly. They are efficient and answer your questions. They know what they are doing and inspire confidence. They have got it down. They are good. I will use them in the future because I now have a maintenance contract.

Service was excellent from beginning to end.

These guys were really good. We had a heater which wasn't working and I had another company work on it, it was the same company that had installed the heater. They blamed it on the thermostat but the thermostat was not actually the problem. We bought a new thermostat and installed it and it did not solve the issue. It would run for a few minutes, then it would stop. Basically Dowd's came out and they looked at it and they found the issue to be a setting in the heater where it was overheating because the setting was wrong. The people who installed it did it wrong. They adjusted the setting and now it works perfectly fine. I plan on using them in the future.

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they are the best !on time,explained everything patiently,left my house as clean as when they arrived.a month later i called with a question.they picked up right away,gave me the info & couldn't have been nicer.once the heating season started they gave me a courtesy call just to check that all was running smoothly,which it is.this is not a company that forgets you once they have your money.(i got ALOT of estimates that were $4,000 higher from people who showed up late,tried to tack on things i didn't need done & didn't want to explain anything)

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I spoke with Joe Dowd, very rude. The breakdown of my bill is $95 for travel, since the repairman came on weekday AND TO QUOTE JOE... IN A HEAT WAVE! $142 for the service and $162 for the part. I called on a Monday morning and they said they could be there in the afternoon. No special arrangements. This company is a rip off ..... DO NOT USE!!

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First of all, the company is incredibly responsive.  I had to call in the middle of the night, in a snowstorm.  An answering service took my call and someone called me back within 30 minutes.  They had a technician out to my home in the morning, who diagnosed the issue, asked for my paperwork to see if he could get Trane to extend the warranty, and was able to get the part immediately.  The whole job was completed that same day, before 1pm.  
Fast forward a couple of weeks and the system is making the same noise.  I again called Dowd (in the middle of the night) and someone called me right back.  They were at my house in the morning and looking at what I thought was a bad motor.  It turns out that the extreme cold put the heat pump into an extended defrost mode, which sounds and looks a heck of a lot like a bad motor.  
The technician was very good about having me come out and inspect with him.  He was even able to recreate the issue, so that I could confirm that was what I saw and heard.
I have been very impressed with the responsiveness, professionalism and work that Dowd has provided for us.  It is nice to have a contractor that we can count on.

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Installed a new Trane heat pump.

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I call to set up an appointment to get a quote on the whole house dehumidifier. At the time I said I live in a condo and I'm not sure it would work but wanted to explore and the guy said that's why we come out to look around and let you know. We set an appointment for between noon and 3 PM and I was told Joe the owner would be coming. About 1:20 Joe called said that he had a dehumidifier on his schedule and wanted to get more information. I could tell immediately that he was not really interested in performing the service. He told me the price he estimated. When the price did not discourage me, he asked me details and said it probably wasn't feasible in my condo (which he had never seen). He said that he did not want to waste his time or mine -- of course he'd already wasted nearly an hour and half of my time as I waited for the appointment that would never come. Joe should let his staff know if he is unwilling to waste his time coming to give an estimate on whole house dehumidifiers for condos. It would've saved us a lot of trouble and I would not be giving a negative review.

All was going famously well - friendly, helpful - arrived to do the assessment and make recommendations.  They then left to go run the numbers and get back with me. They provided a thorough estimate with part numbers etc on 3 different options. Their price I was given on estimate was fair based on 2 other estimates from other ac/heating companies I had out to my house. I chose the one I wanted and all was signed and good to go to set up install appointment.
Joe Dowd, Jr called me and told me he had a problem come up and that he quoted me the wrong price for the equipment I wanted, and that the new estimate would be higher. It was not an insignificant amount - like a $1,500 difference. I told him I understood that these things happen. Now, bear in mind, this now made his estimate the highest of all 3 companies I compared. Furthermore, it was a bit suspicious given the other estimates I received like a bit of a bait and switch. But he seems honest and I don't think he would intentionally do that. So, I asked him if there was any discount he could give me - an amount off the labor or some other perk to compensate for his mistake. He was completely unwilling to budge or negotiate. I told him - listen eat a little of the profit margin for your mistake on this one and you will have a long-term loyal customer that pays for routine annual service as well as the other system that I will buy in 2 years from him as well. Again, unwilling to do anything for me at all - no discount off price, no free service perk, nothing. I have been in customer service at many different points in my life, and this is not the way you treat a customer with "exceptional" service. Literally, he wouldn't give $5 off the price. It was ridiculous. I can't believe he past up a potential long-term customer. I guess Dowd's just doesn't care that much for their customers. It's unfortunate. Their loss.
In the end, I went with Clyde Walton who not only had a better price by several hundred dollars ON THE EXACT SAME Trane equipment and install. I was incredibly happy with Walton's and believe this all happened for a reason and put me with the best AC/Heating company.  Forget Dowd's - go with Walton!

Overall, the Dowd's employees were very professional and completed their work efficiently with a good price when compared to other vendors.  They confirmed that the installation was as we expected during and after work was completed.

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Joe Dowd provided estimate and advise for new Trane HVAC system.  The estimate and advise was helpful and good but was matched and beat by Engel who installed our original system.  We would not hesitate to recommend Dowd's to anyone looking for a new system.

Last winter on Decenber 18th 2013 I purchased the preventive maintenance contract for my heating and air conditioning system at a cost of $180.00 to insure the unit to be trouble free through the winter season. The first service was performed ant he unit checked out to be functioning as it should. The second was to be performed in the spring of 2013. During the winter months starting in December, it came to my attention my electric bills had doubled from the previous year and during the severe cold last winter electric bills had almost tripled. I found that to be unusual after having the heating system serviced and functioning properly. In late May with the hot weather approaching, the heat pump failed when turned on to the cooling cycle and did not work at all. I then called Dowd's to check out the problem. The service person arrived and found the heat pump to be low on freon and could be recharged at a cost of $500.00 with no guarantee that would solve the problem and the Freon would not leak out. There wa a additional service charge of $95.00 which I had to pay being a service call. Dowd's would not honor the $60.00 for the spring maintenance follow up visit which was paid in advance and never performed. So now with the preventive maintenance contract in Dec. 2012 at $120.00 and the follow up maintenance in the spring at $60.00 which was never performed and the service call $95.00 wher the technician tested the Freon level and gave his prognosis. I feel that the charges were inflated and the initial diagnosis in December was not performed properly to insure a touble free unit throughout the heating and cooling season. Total expence $275.00 for the poor service and inflated cost. The entire system has since been replaced.

I am really happy with the overall experience.  They were patient, friendly, communicated well and left everything clean and organized.  And most important to me, they seemed to take a lot of pride in the job they did, which has been rare for the work that I've had done on our house so far.  They even showed me how some existing equipment (like a humidifier) had been installed incorrectly, and they fixed it.  I would strongly recommend them to anyone.