Burns & McBride Home Comfort

We contracted Burns and McBride to replace our home AC/Heating Unit when we switched to gas. We had trouble with the unit in the first year following installation and after much back and forth we learned it was a lemon with rusting of major interior parts (maybe from sitting on a ship somewhere I’m port). Their technician that found this showed us and was horrified and apologetic this unit had been installed in our home by the installation team. The company had to replace the entire unit; thankfully it was under warranty as the company still gave us a hard time trying to fix the parts first to no avail. Now, less than five years later our second installed unit/air conditioning, in the heatwave of early September, stopped working. We had a technician out only to have it breakdown again less than 24 hours later. Now a weekend, we had a technician out again who offered a different diagnosis suggesting there was an issue with a major part of the unit. Burns and McBide wanted an extreme amount to cover the cost of the technician coming out on the weekend evening. They will cover the cost of the parts but expected a steep price for labor to diagnose and fix the unit. We believe that the unit shouldn’t have major issues in only 4-5 years time and worry that we have another lemon which will continue to have issues. We have tried repeatedly over the last month to communicate work with Burns and McBride on a solution or compromise to the financial hit we are concerned about in addition to getting a working unit which we fully paid for. The employees taking our calls gave us Tom McBride’s direct phone number. He however will not pick up and has not called back. It has been miserable for over a month without a working air conditioning unit. While o am hoping to still find a resolution to our issue in the immediate future, I would not recommend this company. They have been negligent in providing the services we paid for and the ghosting of customers in need when their products installed don’t work is criminal.

It was excellent. From the sale consultant, installer was wonderful. Profession in every way. They came on time and clean up after themselves

Showed up on time, followed through with scheduling and installation

great and technician was very accommodating

Excellent. First rare people/company.

Overall a very good experience. Sales and Service people were punctual and did a very nice job.

So far, so good . . . actually great! We got two estimates with "apples to apples" comparison, so we knew that both companies were bidding on exactly the same thing. Steve (salesman) at Burns and McBride followed up promptly after submitting the proposal and was very responsive in answering questions. Although the original proposal from Burns and McBride was higher than the other proposal, Steve was eager to meet and beat the competitor - and threw in a humidifier for no extra cost. He assured 100% satisfaction, stating that Burns and McBride was the largest Carrier dealer in Delaware. Once we accepted the proposal, the installation was scheduled in a timely manner over two days (1st floor and 2nd floor units.) Ramon was the lead installer, with Calvin (I believe that was his name . . . sorry if I am incorrect!) as his assistant. They were very professional and worked diligently over both days. Based on our experience with Burns and McBride thus far, we have no reason to expect anything other than outstanding service for yearly maintenance calls.

Burns and McBride has been fine. They were very responsive. They're our old company. They maintained our furnace for years. It's natural that we would go to them. They've been fine over the years. They're excellent. We had a contract with them so I'm still using them and will continue to use them.

The price was competitive and they are a pretty large company so we took a chance. They ended up sending out a completely inexperienced young technician to do the work. He did such a horrible job that we had to have them out two more times over the next few months to fix duct work that was actually falling down, large amounts of heat leaking from poorly insulated (in some cases no insulation at all) joints and water leaking from the air conditioner and humidifier. Even their own technician was shocked at the low quality of the installation. It was a mess. Also the sale tactics are dishonest. For example, make sure they are up front about their warranty. They offer a long 10 year warranty but to get it you have to sign up for their yearly maintenance service (which they do not tell you up front). For the yearly maintenance service they want to charge us over $500 per year. However, if you don't pay the warranty is invalid. I found the work to be low quality and the warranty and service are not very good. I would just stay away!

I was a bit annoyed that it took them several months to schedule a routine service. It's a hybrid system -heat pump provides heat until a temp is below a certain temp before oil burner is used. It has saved us so much money- we use so much less oil!!

Burns and McBride has taken care of our trash for the past 18 months. The service has declined since they outsourced their trash pick-up. Their holiday schedule is inconvenient, the trash collection time varies from week to week, and the trash collector constantly leaves the can in the middle of the drive, blocking the entrance. We've decided to cancel our service with this firm.

I did not go with this provider as they were not flexible for how I could pay for the service.

They were great. If they forget you, they send someone back out. They even had a promotion at the time - they sent me a $50 Visa gift card.

They do that every year and we've been with them for about 3 years. If something is wrong and needs to be replaced it's a little expensive, but they do quality work. We have a contract with them. We spent and additional $120 to have some filters replaced this year.

This past summer our 21 year-old air conditioner began to struggle to cool the house, so we decided to bite the bullet and get everything replaced (air conditioner, heater, and water heater), as they were all original equipment, and we thought we would thus get a better (bundled) deal. We approached this purchase the same as buying a car, so we got half a dozen estimates, letting each company know that they were competing for our business. Trying to compare apples to apples (among the different brands), it came down to 2 or 3 of the companies. Burns and McBride had a competitive bid, but not the lowest, however, when I called Steve (our salesman) he wanted a chance to match the lowest offer. He called me back within an hour, and with their competitive discount, they beat the price. That sealed the deal, as I felt more comfortable going with a bigger company like Burns and McBride, that has been around for many years. The bottom line was that we got a top of the line system for what most companies originally quoted as a price for a budget system. Installation went smoothly. The two workmen were friendly, professional, and efficient, finishing within 6 and a half hours. All in all, we were very pleased. Lastly, a word to the wise: do your homework and get multiple bids if you want to get the fairest price. It is all negotiable, even things in a contract that you might want to modify.

We use the yearly. The only thing I disliked was their office staff. They weren't professional and they weren't didn't return calls when needed. The guys who worked was fine.

Went with Band M two years ago with a promotion. Prices were reasonable if oil/HVAC/trash and recycling bundled. After promotion ended, prices became very expensive: Cost of oil for 2012 - 2013 season: $4.799. Cost of HVAC maintenance: $368.00/year. Cost of capping oil price: $0.25/gallon. Cost of trash/recycling (with 40% discount) $52.00 and change.

Resulting from comparative shopping, we found Band M to be very competitive in terms of pricing; actually the least expensive of all such services. Service was reliable and they did us a favor on a couple of occasions to take the trash container back to the garage doors at the top of the driveway. The fact that they came late in the day was the only mildly negative, especially as we were used to very early morning pick-up from the previous service. Due to a home move, we ended service in mid-Feb. They were kind enough to credit us with the weeks not used in the first quarter. However, several weeks later, they debited our credit card for well over 3 months of service for a time period where we were no longer their customer. On calling, they stated that it was a mistake and that a refund would be processed. I waited nearly 5 weeks for the refund. I don't consider this acceptable to debit a credit card in an unauthorized manner and then have to wait an inordinate amount of time for the refund. I would advise any new customers to not enroll in their automatic credit card payment program.

If you need an annual maintenance service for an old boiler, DO use Burns and McBride. DON'T worry about the quality of the service. It's top-notch.

We received multiple estimates but we were most impressed with this one--they were very friendly and patient, answered all our questions, and gave us a good price. The crew who did the installation was very pleasant and professional. Very satisfied!

Outstanding service.. .from the experience with their rep, to the installers... this company is a class act! Couldn't be more pleased.

I have been with this company for years, but the service has definitely gone downhill in the past three or four years. It used to be that the guys who came to do the work on my furnace knew what they were doing, took pride in their work, and got it done right the first time. This year - for the second year straight - the tech they sent to do the annual maintenance left a coupling loose on the copper piping that comes off of my oil tank. This resulted in oil dripping on the floor of my basement. Not a huge leak, but enough to send a terrible odor throughout my house and completely soak through the large "diaper" I had put beneath it the first night. When I called to complain, they sent out a more experienced technician who identified the problem, fixed it right, and did his best to clean up the oil that had leaked. He noted that it was the same tech who had made the same mistake two years in a row. The fact that my oil tank was nearing the point of needing replacement, combined with this company's deteriorating service AND the fact that they billed me for the work when I called to schedule it instead of after the service was actually performed, combined to make this the year I switch to gas, which is available in my neighborhood, just not yet at my house. I did get an estimate from them for the conversion - gas piping, emptying and removal of oil tank, and installation of new gas furnace. The price was the lowest of the four bids I got. However, they only gave a quote on one furnace model, whereas the other companies that bid all gave me at least two models to consider and priced out each option). The Burns and McBride salesman was punctual and professional, and he did his best to convince me that the installation crew are experienced and excellent. However, I just couldn't get past Burns and McBride's aggressive billing practices and the bad service I'd had for the previous two years, and I decided to go with another company for the conversion.

It was a good experience, and we had no complaints with the service.

Over a period of 4-5 days, they sent three technicians out until the problem was resolved and our heater was fixed to the point of where it was operating correctly. They initially had some problems figuring it out, but they didn't just let it go and figured out how to do it. The first guy thought he had it fixed, but we called them back and said that we were still experiencing some issue. This was the point where they were real responsive too. They came back and worked on it, and thought that they had it fixed but they didn't. We called them back again and they were very quick in coming out. Then, when they needed a part, the guy contacted another guy that was out on the road and they got the part. So, they did work until we were satisfied. We are under contract with them and all their services are covered under that contract. They didn't charge us anything extra. They deliver well and maintain our heater and air conditioner. I like their services a lot.

Called for an estimate to replace our heat pump, they came out to the house and took measurements, etc. Received a written estimate within a few days. Pretty typical process.