ABS HEATING & AIR COND

They were the most responsive with comparable prices. They did not try to oversell.

Bob came to my home and did an estimate for my new A/C installation and he appeared to be knowledgeable and thorough in his analysis. He said he has over 30 years experience so I felt like he knew what he was doing. He provided a written estimate the following day, which I liked, so I quickly got together all the paperwork to get an expedited HOA request approved in my townhome community in order to schedule this job for early June. I received HOA approval within a couple weeks and I scheduled the job with ABS for 3 weeks out, on June 6th, 2017. After Bob did his initial analysis, he turned me over to work with their admin, Trish, and that's where everything went downhill. Trish and I emailed early in the process, a couple times, as I was trying to make sure they were ordering the right capacity unit and I was confirming if they had everything they needed to do the job. Trish assured me they were all set for June 6th. On Monday, June 5th in the afternoon, the day before installation, Trish calls me and says they just pulled the City Permit on Friday, June 2nd, one business day ago, and they found out that the AC unit they quoted and ordered for me does not meet the city guidelines for the decibel rating in my area so they cannot install the AC unit as planned. Are you serious?! What a huge error on their part, the wrong unit, and to learn about this the day before the install, instead of 3 weeks ago when they were estimating the job! Wow, so now I submitted the wrong specs to the HOA, we got the wrong unit approved, this was really sad. I asked Trish why they didn't check this 3 weeks ago when they were estimating my job? She said there are only 2 of them and they are too busy to pull permits until a couple days before a job. Too busy to make a phone call to check city guidelines to make sure they are ordering the right unit?? Instead of a few minute phone call, now hours are wasted having to deal with this issue the day before install! Trish also said the city specs change every year and they don't know the changes until they pull the permits. So, if ABS knows they change every year, ya think they would have called the City to find out if they are quoting the right unit for the job?! Trish then started discussing a cover that may decrease some noise, but she didn't know if there are any in stock. I asked more about the cover and if it affected performance and cooling capacity of the unit. She said she was not an engineer but she didn't think so per the specs. She also mentioned a slimline unit that would cost $1000 more but it was still over the decibel rating and she still had no idea if the cover would be a suitable option. At that point, she stated she is putting my job on hold, which was so upsetting after the weeks of effort and preparation to make this install happen. I then said "please have Bob call me before you put my job on hold" and she said Bob won't be able to do anything more than she is. I said again to please have Bob call me before they put my job on hold, and she gave me every excuse not to have Bob call me, so I ended up emailing him later that afternoon. In follow up emails from Trish, she stated they did not make any mistake here, that this kind of thing happens with townhomes...wow, but IT ONLY HAPPENS WHEN A COMPANY FAILS TO DO THEIR DILIGENCE before quoting a job! No one makes that kind of mistake because companies would lose lots of money over errors like this. Soon afterwards, I got an email from Trish, saying she is canceling my job and she blamed it on my level of frustration. So instead of this company owning up to their major errors and trying to make it right with the customer, they just outright canceled my job after all this. I was truly stunned...now I literally need to start all over again, which is so very discouraging. So many errors by ABS before they even started the actual job, from quoting the wrong unit, not knowing the city guidelines, not taking the time to check the guidelines before ordering the wrong unit, waiting until 2 days before the job to even check with the City, notifying me the day before install of this huge problem, and when I voiced serious frustration to all this, they outright cancel everything instead of making it right. Such a negative experience with ABS...everyone out there should think twice before hiring this company as they proved their lack of knowledge, their lack of customer service, their lack of quality in their processes, and they definitely do not stand behind their mistakes.

We go back to them.

the team showed up punctually and finished the work ahead of promised time. They did everything that was promised and was very patient in answering my questions. They checked the furnaces and cleaned up everything before they left.

In a word, fabulously. I found out about ABS from a property manager, so immediately the value of that referral went up (a property manager can't afford to fool around with any old company when doing jobs for apartment/condo owners). Besides having worked with ABS before, this property manager friend also had a new furnace installed in his own home by ABS. So it was a double-referral if you will. We have been planning to do a major remodel for a few years now, and had plans in hand, but one thing after another delayed the project. Finally we decided to just put the project on long-term hold. I tell you this because Bob (owner of ABS) came out on three different occasions before actually doing this job. The first time was because our existing A/C compressor wouldn't stay running (a 20 year-old Lennox system) - it would start but almost immediately trip the breaker. Bob came out and found something simple wrong. He didn't even charge us, saying that he would just call his visit a sales call (i.e., that the reason he came out was to provide a quote). And at that moment in time, we weren't actually requesting bids. So our old A/C was up and running again for no charge. Pretty nice :-) Very good business practice too :-) Anyway, to cut the introduction part shorter, Bob came back two more times about a year apart to provide a quote for a brand new system. Once we realized that our big project wasn't going to start anytime soon, we decided that we really wanted central A/C again (the old Lennox compressor had failed again a few months after Bob's visit, now tripping the breaker every time, even after replacing it with a new one). We asked Bob for a quote, along with two other HVAC companies. Bob's quote wasn't the cheapest, but also wasn't the most expensive (it was right in between). I wrestled with the idea of spending so much money, and called back the low bidder asking for a detailed quote (his original low price was just a number with no detail, and as an engineer, I like some level of detail). The low bidder was slow to respond, sounding almost a bit indignant that I wanted a quote for a job that was going to cost more than $10,000.00. So I contacted the high bidder in an effort to see if he would lower his price or perhaps provide some upgraded equipment. I never heard back. Now I was rushing against a deadline - California enacted new tough standards for the HVAC industry with the desire of saving the planet by reducing the cost of running a home HVAC system by reducing leakage in the system. Consumer Reports and other sources rate the average loss of heat at somewhere between 25% and 40%. In other words, most duct work is so leaky and/or poorly insulated that as much as almost half the heat escapes into the attic or under the house before ever reaching the duct work. 40% is a lot of heat to lose due to leaks!!! This all sounds great, but like most perfect stories, there is a price to pay somewhere. That price is in the bottom line cost to the homeowner when replacing a furnace. That's because every new HVAC installation must be pressure checked for leaks by an independent company! I understand that some HVAC companies would see a reason to cheat on their numbers and say there was less heat being lost than actually was. But I think that is kind of unfair to pain all HVAC companies as cheats. Plus, it adds a significant cost to replacing your furnace (I have seen estimates of as much as $2,500). I am not sure if new duct work is required, and if it is (as opposed to just taping up all the leaky joints), that will double, triple, maybe quadruple the price. Back to ABS. So I am sweating this deadline and I finally call Bob back to book the job. Thankfully, he is able do the job the last week in June (right down to the wire!). I have a little bit of trouble getting in touch with Bob over the period of time between the original quote and the start of the job though. We decided we wanted a better, quieter A/C compressor than the one quoted, plus we want the next line up of furnace (such that both the furnace and the A/C are from the Infinity line of Carrier), and because Bob is very busy and is not a giant business, it takes me about a week to get answers to questions each time I request something new. But this is a small inconvenience compared to how well the job came out. Oh, we had one other item we upgraded - the thermostat. Originally I wanted the Nest thermostat, but Bob advised me that using the Carrier 'stat would be much better because Carrier (like everyone else) uses a proprietary communications protocol to accomplish extra tasks besides just switching the A/C or furnace on and off (things like fan speed, humidity, and gas flow rate. Still one more thing. Bob suggested that we steer clear of the fanciest high-end 95%+ efficiency furnace. Why? Because, well, just like any other brand, the more complicated the stuff and the more different circuit boards they have, the better the chance there will be a problem (a repair). In other words, Bob was suggesting lower-maintenance equipment. By choosing to buy a standard 85% variable-speed motor (and 2 stage gas valve) furnace versus the considerably more expensive 95%+ furnace, and instead choosing to gain efficiency by getting new R-8 duct work, we will end up saving more money in natural gas costs. Plus, our existing duct work was un-insulated, and not as big as would be optimum for the volume of air needed for central A/C. The same went for the air conditioner. Instead of buying the fancy multi-stage model, we cose a single-stage Infinity model. Okay, last paragraph. Bob and crew arrived on time and began the job the last week of June (June 23rd). He designed the new ductwork while his crew removed all the old ducts. He confirmed the design with his most senior crew member (wise in my mind - this is called a and quot;peer reviewand quot; in the engineering world, and is a great way to be sure everything is just right). Before he started the job, he asked if we wanted to get R6 or R8 insulation for the alumi-flex ducts. Although R8 cost more, it was one more energy-saving thing we could do. The job went well but a little slower than expected (they had to do some digging in the crawl space so that all the pipes could be installed perfectly per plan), so on Thursday afternoon, Bob told me that his crew might need to work Saturday to get everything done and would that be okay with us (the home owner). But on Friday, the crew successfully finished the job and around 5:00 pm we tested the furnace (that was unpleasant given it was 95 degrees out) and then the air conditioner. They both worked perfectly. So everything worked out just right and everyone lived happily ever after. And the A/C works *so well* that every room is within +/- 1 degree, e.g., the largest spread is 75 to 77 with a 76 degree set point. The flow rate is fantastic, and the variable-speed furnace motor is really nice, making start-ups nice and slowly ramped-up rather than coming on all at once full blast. We haven't needed the furnace yet (it's only September now) but based on how well the A/C works, heating should be great. And I love the Carrier Wi-Fi thermostat!!!