Brandon's Comfort Specialist

Brandon's installed my current AC, but not the furnace (which is 20 years old) . My AC started a cycle of turning on and then turning off about 10 seconds later as if a fuse were overheating, so of course my house was starting to get very hot. I called Brandon's Sunday Night around 8:00 pm (they had hard-sold me on their 24 Hour Emergency maintenance when selling me the AC). The on-call technician called and told me he had two jobs that night and was full so I would have to call back tomorrow and schedule an appointment (this should have been my first sign of things to come). I called their main number and let answering service know how unhappy I was that their "24 Hour Service" wasn't really 24 hours followed by an email. I then received a call about 20 minutes later from the on-call technician telling me he would be by in 20 minutes (those 2 jobs he had sure got finished quickly, right?). The tech arrives and is very professional and pleasant, turns the AC off to check it out, cleans out a pipe that appears to be clogged, turns it back on and it seems to work. I pay him roughly $300 ($95 for the after hours call plus ~200 for the clog). About 2 hours later the AC starts doing the same thing again. The next morning I call them back around 8:00 am, and they have someone over around 9:00 am. They tell me the blower on the furnace is the problem and needs to be replaced (Cost - $900). After locating a blower, the technician calls and says he'll be at my house in 45 minutes so I run to the office to get some files and prepare to work at home until it's fixed. An hour goes by and I text the tech to see where he is; he's 30 minutes away but should be there soon. Finally after 2 hours he arrives and begins working on what is supposed to be a "couple of hours" for the job. An hour and half goes by and I ask him the status, and he says he should be done in "30 to 45 minutes". After thanking him I tell him I really need to get back to my office and that I had not planned to be off and he says he understands. He runs out to his van to get a part and I don't see him for 45 minutes, then comes back in to finish the install. He comes down from the attic and says he had the wrong size of a part and goes back to his van. 45 minutes goes by and he still hasn't returned, so I go out to get my mail and see him lying back apparently asleep in his Air Conditioned van (I don't mind them resting, but seriously? Meanwhile I'm in a 90 degree house waiting on him). He comes back for what I think is to finish the job, and 90 minutes later he comes down and goes back out to his van; I follow him and ask him whats going on and he says he has another tech coming to help him. He stays in the air conditioned van another 45 minutes or so while I'm in the house soaked with sweat. Long story short 5.5 hours goes by and the issue still isn't fixed. He tells me a motherboard on the furnace is bad and needs to be replaced, and he's not feeling good so it "might be tomorrow". I call their company's main number and speak to their "lead technician"; when I explain my frustration and that I need the job completed so I can get back to my office he's defensive and says "It's really hot in your attic" (I understand it's hot; that's why I called "professionals" who know how to do the jobs in the heat), He never apologizes for the time it's taking or has any empathy, just tries to get me off the phone. I go out to the air conditioned van and speak to the original tech who tells me he's leaving to get the motherboard and will call me when he is on his way back (The cost of the motherboard is $300 additional bringing my total so far to $1500). It is now 3:45 so I go to my office to be in the AC and get some work done. I receive a call at approximately 4:40 saying he is on his way back to my house. I meet him back at the house, he gets the motherboard installed, I pay him the $1500 and he leaves. All is good apparently and the house cools down after several hours. The next morning I wake up and it seems to be fixed. Around 11:00 am I return home during my lunch break to find the house warm and AC once again cycling on and off again just like it had initially. I call Brandon's and explain the situation, and they have the "lead tech"go straight to my house. He's somewhat familiar with my situation but not completely and gets to work. We walk outside to check my outside unit and he checks a hose going from the house to the unit and quietly says "Oh no" to himself. After about 45 minutes he lets me know the issue is fixed, something about a pan not being hooked on correctly (I can't really remember exactly what it was, just that it was a simple fix). I then said "Wow, so what caused this wasn't the blower or motherboard at all huh?" and he said "That's right". I then said "so had you been here Sunday evening instead of the other technician this would have been fixed then" and he knodded affirmative. So lastly I said "So I spent $1500 replacing two items that aren't responsible for causing the problem" and then he apparently realized where I was going and for the most part quit talking, just saying "Since I wasn't here Sunday I can't really tell you what that technician saw or didn't see" During this 2 day ordeal I never once got a sincere "I'm sorry" or any feeling of empathy from Brandon's, just defensiveness. Most importantly, I apparently spent $1500 unnecessarily on parts for a furnace that is 20 years old and will have to be replaced in next year or two anyway. Needless to say, I have concern not only for the competence of their technicians, but the 45-60 minute rest periods the technician took in their air conditioned van while I sat in the 90 degree house sweating just add some insult to injury. So, in 2018 I've spent about $2000 on repairs I apparently didn't need and on a "maintenance agreement" that apparently is no value whatsoever as I've never seen a technician at my house other than when my AC has broken and still had to pay out the wazoo for those service calls. Meanwhile, Brandon's has a nice little wad of my cash. Never again. For grades, I gave them F in everything except responsiveness since they showed up quickly for the last repair, and a D for professionalism since the technician who showed up for my initial service call acted very professionally.

We have a semi-annual agreement with Brandon's. We bought our big Trane from them in 2006 and haven't had any trouble of any kind with the unit or with Brandon's employees. They are well trained and knowledgeable. Very professional. We would recommend them to anyone who needs their services.

Don't know

Good would recommend.

They disconnected it and told me they needed to order a part. They left it disconnected and didn't end up ordering the part. They just lied to me. I ended up having to hire someone else who told me that the unit didn't even need to be disconnected in the first place.

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unknown

Mike did routine maintenance.

Lost heat during coldest part of the year. Called and showed up within 2 hours of call. Fixed my heathing issue with very little hassle.

They were nice and the technician was super friendly. They informed me that my A/C needed to be replaced and it was going to be $10000 to replace. We decided to get a second opinion and got a quote for $6000. I thought the people were very nice, and I just don’t think he was giving me all my options, and we could just replace it at a later time. We found someone to fix it temporarily for $150 until we can replace it later in the future. I would use them in the future for maintenance, and I thought their price was a little high, but they also use a better product.

I called about 9:30 AM in regards to my AC not working. Unit & job 2 hours.There was tech at my house. We was very helpful and repaired my AC first.

Very well. On time and took care of everything quickly.

unknown

Brandon's installed 2 Trane AC units for our home.   Top rate installation and servicing since then.  Admittedly, we were a bit hesitant because of the cost, but they worked us through all of our questions and issues.   The installation went very well, despite being over a holiday.  Very professional, considerate, precise, and knowlegable.   AWESOME company.  As part of the AC package, scheduled, seasonal servicing is provided.  Brandon's has performed 2 servicing visits and I was impressed with both!  Only 1 unplanned issue came up....after a power glitch, the main thermostat through an error code.  We looked up the error code, then decided to call their emergency support phone #.  They responded immediately and assured us the unit would reset itself.  Sure enough, with a few minutes, it did.  Problem solved promptly and with courtesy.     Despite my initial concern (due to cost and some issues listed here on Angie's list), we have been extremely pleased with Brandon's and intend on remaining a client of theirs for some time.   I highly recommend them to others!!!

unknown

Mike was very/extremely through.

I went back to Angie?s list and found the first ?A? rated company in my local area with a significant number of good reviews and multiple good reviews in my immediate neighborhood.  This company was DT Air Conditioning and I solicited a bid to repair the unit based on Brandon?s diagnosis.  Instead, DT said they would come out to the house and inspect the unit again.  They waived the service call charge since I had just incurred one.  They arrived at the house at 5:00 p.m., the appointed time, reinspected the unit, then confirmed the diagnosis and that the part was still in warranty. DT provided us with a quote of $850.00, turnkey, which included a new dryer, pulling a vac and adding 8 lbs of freon. The repair took approximately 2.5 hours to complete the next day and the unit is now running better than ever.  Kudo?s to DT for their timely, fair and quality repairs.  I?ll let you draw your own conclusions about Brandon?s.  However, I will say this, while many of us know better than to accept suspicious bids at face value without getting second opinions or comparison bids, there are many of our elderly neighbors and some just uniformed,  who do not understand this fact and fall victim to this type of unscrupulous method for conducting business, believing they have no alternative.  Do not fall victim to this.  Please beware of this, especially if you are thinking about considering Brandon?s.
 

Brandon's Comfort Specialists performed a preventative maintenance service on our furnace on 11-16-2011 assessing that everything was in good working order.  On 12-1-2011 our furnace stopped working.  They came out quickly to check it and said the blower was locked up and would need to be replaced.  The part was ordered and they came and installed on 12-5-2011.  I told the serviceman to leave the old blower with me.  It seemed odd to me that the blower went out less than 2 weeks from the preventative maintenance service appointment but then again could be just a coincidence.   When I checked out the old blower it did not seem "locked up" and turned very easily.  When I called the supervisor he explained that the lock-up could have been caused by something in the circuitry related to the blower.    I asked if the serviceman could have accidentally done something during the preventative maintenance visit to cause the blower to fail and he said "no".  I didn't get a 100% "confident" feeling in my discussion with the supervisor.  He quickly pointed out that while some heating & AC companies pay their service people a commission on repairs, he doesn't as to discourage against any potential unethical activities.   I want to be careful here to point out that I have no evidence that Brandon's did anything wrong on my service, although I just wasn't 100% at ease from the answers I received related to the blower in my system.   I'm not sure if I will use them again in the future.    

02-21-2012:  In response to Brandon's Comfort Specialist on 01-24-2012:   I was never told the motor was drawing high amps.  In fact, I was told everything had a clean bill of health directly after preventative maintenance...and no issues noted on the inspection sheet.  Again, I want to emphasize that I have no evidence Brandon's did anything intentionally wrong with my service, however  their response to my initial report is not accurate.

First visit was to repair my existing AC. I was told it might and then it might not last. Fair enough! I ask the service person what he would suggest. I know that this is my fault for having trust, who would take advantage of an old lady! I believed that, since he was the expert, he would inform me of what I needed. By the time he left, I signed papers for a new Trane System and was told that if I canceled the deal, I would have to pay a $1000 restocking fee. I know this is a wonderful brand but it is way too big for my house. Only 1450 sq. ft, I now have a 31/2 ton, High Efficiency, $7000 Trane!! That was only the beginning of the problem. The thing was so big that it had to be taken to the crawl space in pieces and what was supposed to take about three hours took until midnight from early in the morning. I heard a lot of swearing going on up there, the poor guys had no room to work and it was very, very hot. My house was a mess, the papers were not given to me, I found them in a heap, in the garage the next day. I found out later that a part of it isn't even hooked up because I didn't need it! The entire experience was a nightmare! Beware! The only thing good I can say is when my original AC went out, on sunday, they did come out to fix it.

see above

It was a great experience and could not be more delighted! Brandon was very professional and helpful during the buying process, and his installers Leo and Gus were top notch as well. The office staff was, great to follow up and make sure everything went off without a hitch too. I would recommend them to anyone!

My girlfriend called me at the office and put the technician on the phone. He told me that had found some water in one of the unit's ''emergency'' drip pan and advised me to replace the unit ( $3300) before it rusted through (by the end of summer?). I got a slightly lower bid from another company. A third company's owner said he was happy to bid the job...but suggested (no charge, over the phone) that I clean out the primary drain line first (hmmm...didn't the 1st technician do that?) to prevent water backup. He also suggested that unless the pan is already very rusty, it probably won't rust through by the end of summer. The unit continues to work well. I haven't seen any water in the pan since all that. Neither Brandon's nor the other bidding company has called me back to follow-up.

I did a lot of shopping before going with Brandon, he was prompt, professional, and you would have not even know that they were even here. They also don't try and sell you thinks you do not need.