Gilman Heating & Cooling

.

The tech showed up and showed me what the problem was. He even made the comment that this would be his easiest call all day. I was never given an estimate or told about the $90 charge just for someone to come out. They could've at least told me that when I made the appointment. After he finished about 15 minutes later, he said he would get my bill. Ten minutes later he comes back with a bill for $255.40! It was a $90 service charge, $105 for 'miscellaneous', and $60 for the washer. I gave him my credit card because I figured I had to pay at this point. He had me sign a line on his tablet and never explained what I was signing for, nor did it say on the tablet either. I thought I was signing for the credit card. Then I had to sign again. When I got the emailed receipt, I saw that the first time I signed it was actually the invoice, where I was agreeing to have the services performed and to pay the amount quoted. If I saw this invoice before he did any work, I would've told him not to continue. When I finally was able to speak to a manager (I had to call twice and then get a return call) he said that the tech overcharged me for a part and was willing to refund me $50. He agreed that I should've been given an estimate. Well, after going back and forth for a bit, we agreed he would refund me about $130. He said they didn't run the credits cards until the evening and it would be fixed then. It wasn't. The card was charged and I had to call again. I was told they would mail a refund check. Finally, almost a week later, this was resolved. This business says they offer a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee but those are just words on the page. I feel like the tech purposely didn't show me the invoice ahead of time and took me for a fool. And I am definitely not satisfied.

Jose came for the estimate, and he was terrific. Explained everything very well, and gave an on-the-spot written estimate via email. Once we accepted the price a day or two later, we were scheduled for install in one week, and the install team came on the day promised. Install was completed in one day for each unit, just as promised as well. Units are working perfectly, and installation was perfect. Jordan was extremely professional and courteous. Gilman is my new HVAC installer/maintainer of choice.

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

He got upstairs and got the thing for 5 degrees to 10 degree. Their work was good.

Gilman installed an HVAC unit in 2005 for the prior owners of our current home. In 2006, those owners moved into a new home and the house sat empty for 2 years, when we bought it in 2008. The unit services only the second floor of the house which consists of 3 bedrooms which are only used when we have guests (which is very infrequent), so for the past 6 years, we have had the unit set high in the summers and low in the winters so as not to heat and cool a large area of the house that is unused. We have never had problems with the unit - it has worked well when needed and therefore we have had to do no repairs. This week, we discovered water running down the outside wall of our house. There are no plumbing pipes in those walls, so we assumed the air handler in the top attic must be having an issue. When our HVAC technician arrived, he found that when Gilman installed the unit, their installer did not properly contain the wires in the unit and put the panel in place - what he found were the low voltage wires connecting the float valves (which control the unit if there is too much water in the pan) sitting in 2" of water. If we hadn't by chance seen the water coming down the side of the house, we would have had an overflow of water coming from the pan down into the ceiling of the entire upstairs of our house. I contacted Gilman because I was upset that the install was handled improperly. I was aware that it had been nine years, but I also knew that the house had been empty for 2 of those years and that we had never had anyone service that handler. After speaking with a very pleasant employee, April, I asked to speak to a manager. I was transferred to the actual principal of their company, Mr. Winston Hancock. I explained politely that I was a bit concerned that I was having to pay someone to fix something that was improperly installed and had not been touched by anyone since their install. He said "lady, we haven't been out there since 2005 and I can't believe you would insinuate that this is somehow our fault when someone else could have done it." He was so inflammatory, that I gave the phone to the HVAC technician who was witnessing my conversation, and he explained to Mr. Hancock that given that the house was only occupied for a year after his company's installation and sat empty for two, either their install failed within that one year and the prior owners called someone to fix something that should have been covered, or this was their original work. After several other verbally abusive statements after I informed my HVAC person that I was just going to file a complaint, Mr. Hancock's response was "you don't even know who you're talking to." Clearly the man gave me his name when he picked up my call - when my HVAC tech told him that we did know to whom we were speaking, he asked our technician if he was "familiar with Lowe's." My tech replied he was and Mr. Hancock told him (and I quote) "then drive over to one and buy a bag of sand and pound on it." Then hung up on him. He went on to state that Mr. Hancock was SO rude that he wasn't even able to tell him that the rest of the install looked very good, just that it appeared that they left the job to test the system with the intent of finishing and probably just forgot. When discussing this with my husband, my point was that whether or not they were agreeable to provide some sort of help with the cost of the repairs was of a small concern compared to the absolutely appalling way both the technician and myself were treated by the owner. As a person whose husband and father both own small business, I am shocked that anyone would treat anyone - customer or not - in such an unprofessional, rude, and derogatory manner. If he had kindly said "I understand your concerns and maybe it was the fault of our technician, but after 9 years, I don't think we can help you" I might have been slightly irritated but would have accepted that decision and moved on; however, that was not the case and after being verbally berated and embarrassed to see the same happen to another HVAC professional in my home, I felt compelled to let others know that you should beware of using their company - the customer service from the owner is absolutely atrocious.


As a follow up: I spoke with the prior owners on July 25, 2014, and they confirmed that they did not have anyone out to service that unit prior to moving or during the time that it was vacant in 2006-2008.

Very prompt! I called Gilman Heating & Air after reading reviews on Angie's list. They scheduled me for an appointment from noon - 2pm and they showed up right on the dot. They sent out a technician to perform the tune-up and an advisor to look at our system to see if it fit our house; as our upstairs gets pretty hot in the summer. The advisor advised us that our unit was the appropriate size for our house. He also gave us some tips on how to help cool off the 2nd floor.
John, the Gilman Technician, was great! He showed up and performed the tune-up and was very professional and courteous. He even helped to move our thermostat and found that our unit was not properly draining and helped to get that working again.

.

Did a great job. Responsive to all questions and concerns.

Their pricing was reasonable, they came out and did the work that was needed, they were always reasonable to deal with and it is just a class operation. They knew what the issue was to begin with and they took care of it.

We had used Gilman in the past and chose them for this project because of their excellent customer service.  The bid was on the high end but still competitive, and they worked with us on the price.  The follow up was great as well.

Gilman rep Greg McLean devoted considerable time to:  conducting the load analysis, providing detailed recommendations / options, and responding to my questions.  The technicians assigned to install the system arrived on time, were courteous and professional, and took great care to protect our carpets and flooring as they moved large components to/from the third floor attic space.  Mr. McLean was on-site periodically during the installation to check its progress and oversee testing and intitial operation of the system.  The new heat pump has worked flawlessly through the summer, and I am completely satisfied with the work.
Although I have used Gilman several times over the past seven years for maintenance and repair of the two heating/AC systems in our home, I sought competing bids for identical systems from other local contractors for this project.  Gilman was not the lowest bidder.  However, based on the professionalism displayed by Mr. McLean in preparation of Gilman's proposal, and my previous experience with their technicians,  I was very confident that Gilman would do the job right.

We live in a tri- level. AC is not the only change that was necessary. Tracy made great DIY suggestions my wife and I could use to further insulate and improve quality of upstairs in a way that no one else did. We like the fact that Gilman was seeking to provide a quality product in a thoughtful way and not merely trying to leave us with a huge invoice by adding a lot of things we could do ourselves. Payment program was also most reasonable of all estimates we sought. Highly recommended, will go back to them in future.

fine!

When I call them they come.  They know what they’re doing.  They give me options of what I can do and then they do what I ask them to do.  They do it professionally. The technician Garfield is a hoot.  They send the same guy to us every time.

I think it was on the service plan I had.  I don't think there was a charge at all.  They schedule the work and do good work.  I've been using them for a few years.  I like them.  It was fairly cold the last time I had them here.  They came out the next day.  Their prices are comparable to that of other providers.  I think their main office is in Richmond.

It was in the middle of a heatwave. It registered about 130 degrees in our attic. Two men came, worked in the heat without complaint. We kept them with ice water. Very reasonably priced and high end equipment.

They are very, very good. On a whole we were very pleased. They seemed very competent and they were imaginative in finding solutions. We are happy with the equipment they installed. We were very happy and we would use them again.

They were just great. They'd come out in the middle of the night for you. They're responsive; they're right there for you when you need them. Servicemen have been professional, knowledgeable and well-trained. They're always looking for ways to get the job done right and with the right price.

The service has been fine and the technician is very knowledgeable.

I was looking for a reliable, reasonable company to service our new home. This company ain't it! They wanted $700 to install two $50 programmable thermostats. Moreover, they seemed totally uninterested in acquiring a new customer.