Hessenauer Sprinkler Repair & Irrigation

BEWARE!!!! BEWARE!!! Our Condo HAO has used this company for the last 3-4 months until a couple days ago. They were recommended by our recently hired property manager who told us the owner, Ian, was someone she used frequently. Little did we know what we were in store for. Here are just a few highlights: 1. We have been unable to get a price for him to repair the system. At this point he has charged us somewhere around 10,000.00 and will not tell us how much more it will cost but says he needs at least another 10,000 and will then look at it to see what else it will need for a later price. He gets angry when you speak with him and ask about a price. 2. TWO BOD members met with him (myself included) over pricing concerns and asked for a final number. He told us at that time probably around 2,500.00 - 3,000.00 but has now said he never said that and is back at the additional 10,000.00 plus a reevaluation after that for another price. He gets angry whenever you question what work is going to be done for his prices. 3. The HOA assigned another manager who deals with vendors regularly to speak with him and he went BALLISTIC swearing and trying to intimidate her for even questioning him about what work he said still needed to be done. This guy (Ian) is a piece of work and ended up YELLING over and over saying things like, "GOD DAMMIT!! , GOD ALMIGHTY!!! , JESUS CHRIST WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!!, OH MY GOD AREN'T YOU LISTENING!! CHRIST ALMIGHTY ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! and other choice words and phrases and then hanging up after telling us we lived in a dump and he should have known better than to get involved with our HOA when he drove in the first time. After working in a jail for 30-years I would say this guy exhibits the same hostile behavior I have witnessed many times in my career with people that have EXTREME temper issues and are usually placed in special confinement separated from other inmates for obvious reasons. I was simply appalled. My name is Dennis Warren and I am the Vice President of Winegard Condominiums, Trellis Ct., Orlando

Been with Ian and Emma for 7 YEARS now, but we just parted ways. I've written them checks summing in the thousands, they've done a lot of work on my rental property in Oviedo... I've been happy with them, though expensive, until they did this last job for me... Hessenauer was always on the pricey side, but I was willing to pay for the quality. Then for this last service, things got REAL, EXTRA expensive. I paid $297 for a $15 solenoid and ~15' of wire run. There was indeed a short in the system (as indicated by the Rainbird controller), hard to understand how BOTH of the wire AND the solenoid were shorted at the EXACT same time... anyhow... He came out for a little over 2 hours... That $100/hr in labor was already on the high side, now tack on $97 in parts too, that's a **** of a mark-up?!?!? Additionally, Ian asked me for another $110 for an earlier trip. During THAT trip, he troubleshot no power to the pump... I can't imagine how it was so difficult to determine that there was no power being supplied to the pump... I could have done it in 10 minutes, and I'm not a professional by any means. Turns out, the breaker was tripped... In Ian's defense, the breaker that was tripped did not look like it was tripped. I mentioned he should reset it anyway, because breakers sometimes do that (and i know that one had done so before). But, he was already set on leaving after being there less than an hour! So he brushed off my suggestion. So, total that up to $407 for Hessenauer plus the $100 I ended up having to spend to get an electrician out (to reset the tripped breaker)... That's over $500 for something that just started with a shorted $15 solenoid (which only takes about 15 minutes to replace). When I explained this to Ian, he said I can keep the last $100 and that they'd rather not have my business anymore...

5 stars until yesterday.. Unprofessional. We had signed up for Hessenauer’s maintenance plan (quarterly) that among things promises automatic maintenance appointments. I recently received an email reminder for maintenance so I contacted them requesting a maintenance appointment, and that was kindly arranged by Emma. No indications were ever given that there were any issues. However, when Ian the owner came to the house yesterday, he asked me what I wanted him to repair. When I said that we didn’t call for repairs but for maintenance, he proceeded to sternly tell me that I had told them several times that they can not come to service our system, that I had not stuck to the maintenance plan, that he wasn’t going to have me cheat him, and that he is going to charge me $60 more per visit than the maintenance plan, $240 more per year. When I replied that I never refused service, that I duly responded to the maintenance reminder (to the only reminder I got, as I realize was 6 months after their last visit), that I didn’t receive any other emails nor phone calls to remind me of anything, and that I absolutely have no intentions of cheating him, he wouldn’t have it. He would just repeat to me “DO YOU WANT THE JOB DONE OR NOT?,” “DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT?” Of course I wanted the job done, but not for $60 more all of a sudden. Even when I asked for an explanation of what he meant about my refusing service, even after showing him my email Inbox with the one email from Hassenauer, and even after asking him when they had ever called me, Ian did not offer any explanation nor documentation. When I tried to call Emma, Ian’s wife (no one answered), he just said that “Emma would tell you the same thing.” His tone was making me scared and upset, and I told him that. He still continued in the same confrontational manner, “DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT?” Ian then told me that he didn’t have time for this and drove off, leaving me shaking and dumbfounded. I followed up with further phone calls and texts to Emma asking for an explanation for all this. I have known Emma to be very prompt in responding, but I have not heard one word back from her. Never in my life have I been treated with such lack of professionalism. Unfortunately Sterling is no longer with them.

EXCELLENT...NEEDED NEW CONTROL UNIT, VALVES, NEW PIPING, REPLACED/RE-ALIGNED SPRINKLER HEADS. VERY COURTEOUS. NEVER STOPPED WORKING...NO LAG TIME.

Technician was experienced ; he was able to explain what was needed and had on hand every thing needed to do routine or common repairs. Unlike some providers I was given a detailed description of repairs. The office followed up with a formal receipt.

Sterling Crosby was our tech. He showed up on time, gave us a diagnosis as to what was wrong with our system and a cost to fix it. He did exactly what he said he would do for the price he quoted and in a quick, efficient manner. We could not be more pleased!

I believe their fees were excessive. Between the trip charge and the locator fee and the labor, it equaled $185. I was the one that had to tell him about the message of the short in section 2, because he did not notice it.

Sterling showed up right on time and was very friendly and knowledgeable. He got my sprinkler system back in shape. My pump is very old and I was convinced it was going bad, but he said it was actually fine and I could get some more use out of it. He could have easily sold me a pump but knew I didn't need one yet. Very trustworthy. I am definitely going with Hessenauer from now on!

Sterling quickly came out - diagnosed problem and resolved the issue

Very happy with the services provided. Would definitely hire again.

He was on time and repaired our system

No one would come out to inspect the system or give me a quote for repairs. The owner was going on vacation but I didn't have a deadline for the inspection or quote so I don't know why they gave that excuse. I went with Sun Sprinklers another small, local business and was very pleased with his service.

Excellent. Sterling was knowledgeable and continued to repair the line even in the pouring rain. He returned the sod to it's location so you cannot even tell a repair was performed.

Outstanding. Showed up on time and completed the work faster than expected.

It was a difficult job, They were prompt, professional, and extremely skilled in their trade. They had a tricky job ahead of them but they did it flawlessly and I am very pleased with the results.

This is the second time we've hired Hessenauer, and everything went as smoothly as it did the first time. The first time was to replace the archaic control panel and to fix the front yard irrigation issues. This time we had them deal with the backyard. We are very pleased with the quality and coverage of the updated irrigation and would not hesitate to call again.

As stated above, the provider did not communicate back on the request for service.

Very well, they are a pleasure to work with. On time, knowledgeable and good to ask for advice. He doesn't just recommend what will bring him money he always answered what would be better for me. Did the work great.

I called Hessenauer Monday, and Ian came out Wednesday morning - all we knew was there was a leak from one of the pipes, but I sent pictures which he used to ensure he had the correct parts when he came. In under an hour, he had replaced the cap and vent of the backflow on our irrigation system, tested the system, and then reported the pass results to the county. Ian was very professional, right on time, and very friendly! We will definitely call them with any other irrigation issues we have - would highly recommend!

I am so irritated! I called and scheduled this appointment on Wednesday. I was told that no one would need to be home during the evaluation as the irrigation control box was on the outside of the house and not in the gate. I left explicit instructions on where the control box was, where the leak seemed to be occurring, even that we would leave the side gate open to the backyard for easy access. Additionally, I informed the scheduler that someone would likely be home should they need to speak to a person. Ian called me today (Friday) at 8 a.m. and I missed the call because my phone was on silent. He called me again at 8:15 and again I missed the call - totally my fault. I returned the call at 8:25 only to be told that he had moved on to the next job. I asked him if he'd been to the property (yes) but he refused to provide me with any information on the irrigation system, only restating that he had moved on to the next job. So it appears that he did not attempt to make contact with anyone at the house nor did he do an evaluation of the leak. From what I can gather, he arrived at the house, called me twice and left. Thanks a lot... for nothing. If it is absolutely critical that someone be available to answer your call before you perform an evaluation at the property, it would be wise to inform your customers of that.

The work went very well., Ian initially came out for the estimate and spent over an hour going over with us the plan for the drainage system. He's a very nice guy, and knows irrigation and drainage inside out. On the days the work was scheduled (three in all), they showed up on time, did the work as agreed, and cleaned up.

I had scheduled another provider which assessed they could do the repair. Then took over a week to come, only to say they could not do the repair as we needed to hire a "leak detection" service ($250) before they would dig a hole. Called Hessenauer Sprinkler as it had excellent reviews here. Very nice British lady told me the engineer (Sterling) would call soon. He called the same day and I explained him what happened, he felt all that complication was not necessary. He came in the next day, looked at the lawn and suspect places, dug a hole, found the leak, patched the pipe and job done for much less. Expeditive, precise and excellent price.

I called the company last week because I had some sprinkler heads leaking when the system was off. Emma, the receptionist, told me that they would be unable to come out for emergency repairs that day. She told me where I might find the irrigation valve handles to close off the water and stop the present leaking. She called me back with a date and time to fix the irrigation issues. Sterling, the technician, showed up promptly today. He walked the property with me and we discussed the problems and concerns that I had. He capped off some of the sprinkler heads that weren't necessary. He replaced the broken valve and some bad sprinkler heads. He ran all of the stations and fixed what was needed. I was a surprised at the price of the bill. My late husband had always repaired things in the past. But, knowledge is money. I would use the company again and was very pleased with the service.

The Company is very professional and the technician was most knowledgeable and skillful.

Determined the issue was sprinkler valves as opposed to a bad backflow valve as a prior irrigation company had informed me (and had suggested I rebuild the backflow valve myself). Replaced valves as needed, diagnosed overall performance of zones, determined there's a leak in 1 zone and scheduled a follow up visit to correct that. Stirling is a true professional that obviously cares about the quality of his work. Without hesitation I would use them again.