Bay Area Heating & Cooling Inc

Overall - went well. I think "john" was very thorough and checked all parts of the AC system. Found the defective over flow valve that caused the air handler to shut down.

WOULD NOT RECOMMEND!! They claim "Customer Service is our 1st Priority"?? But after taking my $6180 for an AC unit that is not functioning properly - their GM Chris Gourdine has other priorities apparently than following up on our conversation about my dissatisfaction. I purchased a home with a non-operating AC system. I called Bay Area Heating based on the Angies List coupon for a discounted service call. The service call (Vince) resulted in the recommendation for a new AC on July 1. The exiting one I was told 11-12 yrs old and very rusted and not worth the few thousand dollar investment to get it operating. Vince drew up to proposals for a Trane replacement - 1 a lower SEER rating and 5 yr warranty, and the other a better SEER rating and 10 year warranty. Even though the price was a lot higher than I anticipated, the explanation of the unit, venting, etc. - I decided to make the investment. The install team (different folks) arrived on time on July 5th. They quickly - using duct tape- applied the bright orange county Building license to my front door. The installation went fine although the install team did not know that I was to get the Duct sanitizer and air cleaner. I pointed that out when signing the papers and they sent one of the men off to do that. I have no idea of it worked or was done properly, i noticed no difference. They informed me that custom built rain shield was not there and they would come back to install and have inspection done. They indicated I would receive a call within a week. Three (3) weeks went by with out any contact. 7/25 ? I called Bay Area H&C ? spoke with a man (?) who answered the phone. He checked and lo and behold the part had just arrived that morning! What a coincidence! We scheduled appt for 10 AM 7/27. I also explained that the real reason i called was that the unit was not operating properly. The unit would run 24x7 without shutting off except when I turned it off. This was regardless of the temperature. I have pictures of the thermostat when the in house temperature was LOWER than the thermostat setting, yet the AC unit was running for 3 hours!? And - I explained the opposite was true. It would be above the thermostat setting and not turn on for hours. but once it did - it would not shut off. He said tech would check that too. 7/27 ? 11:30 AM ? no tech 90 mins after appt time. I called company and man who answered stated that the assigned Tech JUST walked in the door! Another sild coincidence!! The teach was t the office because the part *was not in house yet* when I he left in the morning, and had to come for it! ( Really??? It JUST arrived 7/25 according to prior call??!!). I was told Tech was on his way over ? 15-20 mins. Tech (John) arrived over an hour later. After installing the part he checked the vents based on my complaint that the AC does not operate properly - that it rarely ever turns off ? runs 24 hours a day, does not cool the house down and runs even if the house temperature is lower than the thermostat setting!? After checking he informed me that "you bought the top of the line AC unit, but your home duct work can't handle the AC unit?!! John said the house has 4? ducts and that AC unit needs 6? ducts. I asked why I was sold an AC unit that is not compatible with my house? He responded he did not know, it was not right and he would look into it when he got back to the office. He then provided a quote to resolve the issue for $3, 940!!??! He also promised the inspector would be out and was kind enough to get solvent to removed the license and duct tape form my front door. Never heard from him again nor inspector. 8/8 ? I called company and asked for a Manager. Was told that I was speaking to the GM Chris Gourdine. I explained the past experience, and that the AC unit does NOT turn off and I am unable to travel without turning off the unit completely or get the AC unit to function properly. I told him my electric bill was going to be 4 digits if this was not resolved immediately. He pulled my file and said he would "look into it" and call me back that day. I also asked why I was sold a unit that doesn't?t fit my house and he said he would ask the techs and call me back. One week later - no return call, no inspector - nothing. I was impressed with the Angies List rating when I signed on, but it is apparent that only the positive experience people are taking the time to respond. They were provided repeated and ample opportunity to respond and demonstrate their seriousness bout Customer Service. This represents that they don't stand up to their slogan. Buyer beware!!

Bay Area was the runner-up in our decision. We decided to use another highly-rated company from Angie's List, but it was a close decision. We felt very comfortable with Bay Area, and would definitely contact them again for our A/C needs.

Very professional and friendly service

If the compressor stopped again, I was told I would need a new one at a cost of $4635. After two days the compressor stopped working. I called the company and explained the situation. They refunded the $129.11 for the part which they returned to retrieve and I used a personal family friend that was in the business to install another compressor for less. There was no problem with Bay Area Heating and Cooling. I just couldn't afford their price for a new one.

They have been real good. It’s an air conditioning company and they have several locations. They have a plan where they come out and check your air conditioning unit. If you have problems, you get 30% discount. I had to call them two hours later to come out and fix my air conditioner since it went out on me. A young man from the company was at the door in an hour after I made a call. I had already bought the plan for $179 and I got the discount on the air conditioning problem, which came to $310. I have a plan with another company and the AC has gone out four times since March. They have also made me wait over an entire weekend each time. If I call them on a Thursday, I will have to wait till Monday or Tuesday. Now that it’s July, I can’t wait so long. So, I called Bay Area and they came right out. They were great. They didn’t try to gouge me as the other companies have. They were helpful and gave me ideas how to help myself. They are always polite. I think they had called me with an offer for a $59 check up on the AC unit and it needed it. So, I went ahead and got it. They have been here a number of times. I would use their services in the future too. Other people had recommended Bay Area to me and they are really great.

The man who came to answer my call was very nice.He did what he had to do to keep my old a/c working till the new one came in. It came in when they said it would, they were here when they said they would be. They even called to make sure my old a/c was still working before the new one came in.They gave me a 10year warenty. I am very happy and satisfied with them. I would recomend them to my friends.

The service guy (Vince) was quick and polite. He even washed my re-usable filter.The service is normally $89 (without coupon) - Good and Fair company from my first impression

Bay Area Heating & Cooling were pleasant, professional and the cost was very competitive with the other estimates I received. Steve Walker was our sales rep. He was never pushy. One of the things I liked most about him was that he treated me as equally as he treated my husband. We're recent newlyweds and because of the real estate market, own two homes. I was paying for the unit at my condo and my husband was paying for the AC unit in our home. Steve never made me feel like I couldn't understand what he was selling because I was a woman. He treated me as an equal decision maker in the deal. (In the past, we've had sales guys who choose to speak directly to my husband and don't even look at me. Needless to say, they don't get our business.) Steve was great at getting me the info I needed (from literature on the unit to letters of recommendation to financing options to estimates). He followed up with me several times via phone and e-mail to see if there were any questions. He had no problems driving out to our house and also to my work place an hour away to deliver paperwork for me to sign. I felt like he really wanted our business and was prepared to earn our trust. Ron was the gentleman who actually installed our AC unit in the condo. While he was dead-dog tired from having worked on an AC unit until very late the night before, he showed up on time and made sure that we had a working AC unit before bedtime. He was very clean and neat. He still had a few minor things to take care of but rather than keep us up waiting for him, he left and came back the next morning to finish tidying up. We're very pleased with the work we had done.

Contact with everyone with this company was a pleasure. Vickie in the office is a very helpful, positive representative for this company. Steve Walker was most generous with his time explaining everything. He went up into the attic and took photographs of the existing duct work and showed me what a mess it was. He came back a second time when I had other questions after our initial meeting and emails. The installation was scheduled pretty quickly. They were on time, professional and very neat with their work. I had a second appointment because I had decided after the fact that I wanted a leaf guard. When it was installed, I decided I also wanted the lightning & surge arrestor, and that was installed at the same time. After that second appointment, Vickie called to arrange for the county inspector to come out. The inspection was great. The inspector was impressed with the work and commented how neat and clean it looked. Inspection passed easily!

The experience was excellent Measurement of home done in accordance with Progress Energy's recommendations Unit recommended and purchased is 2.5 tons, versus other vendors 3.0 ton recommendations The installers were clean, neat & left no debris

Estimate was competitive. Job was completed quickly and professionally. They provided all necessary paperwork for my tax deduction. The air conditioner works very well. My summer bill is half what it used to be. We had one very minor hiccup. There was a tab or some such thing missing from the electrical box. They came back out quickly and made the repair. The inspector rechecked and signed off. It was great that they responded as well as they did. Very pleased with the work. Would use them again and reocmmend them to anyone.

The technician [john] was very professional. He was very good at explaining what he was finding, what he was doing, and giving suggestions to me.

Called Bay Area Heating and cooling up. The receptionist seemed very busy but was very good at rearranging her appointments to get one of her repair reps scheduled to come out the next morning. The man spent awhile looking for the problem, as my AC unit was running almost continuously but did not cool down the house. He informed me that I had a refrigerant leak and I needed about 8 pounds more refrigerant. Cost was 69.95 for the service charge (which he did include the blowout/vacuum as part of the deal) - but then wanted $555.95 to weld the leak, pay for the welding cost, and the $48.00 per pound of refrigerant. This I thought was mighty high, so I called for another referral with another company. The other company came out with a "freon detector" machine that detected the leaks...there was no leak where the first repair man guessed there was (he saw oil...and just assumed the leak was there even though he didn't have the freon detector maching). The second company then only charged me $20.00 per pound for refrigerant vs the $48.00 by this first company. I got my AC fixed by the second referral for only $270...vs the $555.95 that Bay Area Heating and cooling would have charged me. They may be a big company that can get out to you quickly, but I would not use them again due to their inflated prices.

My husband and I were so impressed and happy with this company, they arrived on time, and finished the job in a timely manner. they took the time to explain the unit and thermostat. Work was efficient and clean.

When the technician arrived we immediately had an issue with regard to the "Big Deal" only covering one system (I have a split upstairs/downstairs) configuration. He said it would normally be $89 dollars to do the second one, but that they'd honor the $45 price. My primary concern was the upstairs unit, so I asked him to do only that one. He added some freon, cleared the drain, checked output temperature, and a few other things. He was there for about an hour, but some of that time was spent talking on the phone and/or sitting in his truck, so I'd guess it was about 30-40 minutes of actual work plus the cost of the added freon. If you factor in the freon I think the "Big Deal" pricing was excellent and the work performed produced the desired result - colder air from the upstairs air handler. Overall I was happy with the work done and felt like the "Big Deal" was a good bargain and would certainly consider using Bay Area Heating and Cooling again for similar work.

My AC and heat had been out for several months, and the electrical box took a huge hit during the last storm, so I wasn't sure how much work would be involved. John showed up on time, he was courteous and professional. He also checked all possible reasons for the outage. He diagnosed the problem, and offered alternatives to fix or replace the AC unit. He suggested simple maintenance procedures to follow to increase the efficiency of the heat pump, saving me money in the long run. Overall, I was very pleased with John's performance and will not hesitate to call Bay Area again. They have made a customer for life!

The crew showed up on time. They were courteous & efficient. They explained what they had done upon job completion & cleaned up after themselves.

They were just great. It was freezing cold and had no heating/ac at all. So we had them put a new one in. They gave us a heater to keep us warm. They were just very helpful and kind, we were freezing!

They are very responsive, reliable and reasonably priced. They always do what they say that will.

They are very polite and offered a rebate for the service. They did the job fast and showed me how to prevent this from happening again.

Our air conditioner broke on a Friday evening. We called Bay Area Heating and Cooling and they were out within the hour even though it was after hours on a Friday. Within an hour they had the air conditioner working but advised us that it was just a temporary fix until they could order a part. The charge for the service call-after hours and fix was $300. They advised us that since our unit was about 10 years old and the ordered part would be over $300 plus installation we may want to consider a new unit. It was explained that a 10 seer unit like we had was not anylonger allowed we would need to upgrade to a more efficient unit. A new upgraded unit would be less costly in the long run as well as the federal tax credit that was still in effect to help on the cost. Bay Area Heating and Cooling gave us a credit for using Angie's list, credit for the previous service call and a credit for paying cash. There were only good reasons and no negative reasons to chose to have the new unit installed now. Plus Progress Energy is giving us a $150 credit on our bill.Bay Area Heating and Cooling did everything they said they would do. The installers came out in the morning as scheduled, removed our old unit from the upstairs attic as well as the air return from outside. They stayed until the work was completed.

(August 2010) Bay Area did quality work and were very professional, from the initial estimate thru several follow ups. I would recommend them. I did have one issue with them, but it was unique to my HVAC & duct system and should not necessarily influence anyone else's decision whether to use Bay Area. I have an existing duct system which was poorly designed & installed; this made it tough to decide which contractor to hire for this project because while getting estimates, I got very divergent opinions on whether to completely replace the ductwork (which 2 others suggested) or to just patch it up. Ultimately, since John from Bay Area seemed knowledgable and touted his experience in system design, I decided to choose them since he said that, while he did see problems, we'd be fine just patching it up. But when the installers did the work (and not being privvy to my earlier conversation) they gave me their unsolicited & unbiased opinion that my ductwork really did need complete replacement, especially since I was investing so much $$ in the new air handler & heat pump. The other company/estimate I'd decided NOT to use (in favor of Bay Area) was a FAR better value and would have included the same heat pump AND a complete duct system, air filtration system, UV light and 2 years maintenance for less than what it will now cost me to replace my ductwork. I take responsibility for making the choice, but questionable advice led me to my turn down a much better deal, and caused me buyers remorse. John from Bay Area called (10/5/10) me after seeing my initial A/L report and committed to match the price and additional work offered by the competing company. (June 2011) I had John out to give us an estimate on an entire new system. Although he did want to wait before giving us an estimate on an air handler & compressor, I do need an air filtration system ASAP. I have asked 3 times for an air filter estimate, but just can't get one?!? I also purchased an Angie's List Big Deal A/C tuneup on 5/20 that I am not able to actually GET until 7/13, despite being prepaid (and despite having spent $6200 with them 10 months ago). VERY disappointing.

They are just lovely to work with. They are very accomodating.

Extremely well. Other circumstances, having nothing to do with his co precluded us from using them. We would absolutely contact them in the future and recommend this company to others.