Universal Air and Heat

The service went well.

N/A. Went with another company.

I was a thrilled customer as the original technician and the two guys that installed were great. The only problem is that despite my tell the office lady in advance I live on second floor and there is no roof access clarifying the need a second floor ladder (which I was assured not a problem --the workers all have on truck), neither worker had a sufficient size ladder. I wish the office folks would have just been honest from beginning rather than the workers expecting me to track down a tall ladder while they are here. The office ladies need to understand the ladder on the trucks are not tall enough for second floor. Other A/C companies I've used understand this. However, zero stars as the permitting folks are lousy. During the installation, I told workers I'd be away for part of the summer, but would have time to test out A/C before I left. I let them know the approximate time I'd be back end of summer. The inspection certainly could have been scheduled before I left, but the company was too slow or not attentive. I've been calling 954-581-7110 and leaving messages to get inspection scheduled. I've let them know what day/times work for me, including my new telephone number. I hear no acknowledgement back. How about this--if closing out permit is so important and appts are so flexible, why don't your team just come by. If I'm home, I'm happy to let you in, And please if you need to get to the roof, bring a ladder, when I've informed the office and the company accepts the job, it isn't my responsibility to track one down at last minute (and probably get sued if something happens).

We just bought a house, and moved to FL from a different state. After a few weeks in our house, we noticed that our unit in the attic is freezing up, so we called Universal Air and Heat to find out the price for cleaning the coils , motor and blower. Some lady on the phone said that she can't give me a price and needs to send a technician to check which will cost me $49 - well ok fine. If I do remember correctly, Ricardo a.k.a. Richard showed up and he checked our unit, took some pictures, gave us a price for cleaning, went outside and decided that we need a new system because the one we have is too small for our house. Our sq footage is 1810, actual living space would be less and the unit we have is 3 ton 4 years old unit (still on the 10 year warranty). Richard told us that we need 4 ton unit, and he will guarantee that my electric bill will go down. Needless to say, here starts the fun part, since we are inexperienced home owners - we believed him. We signed the contract and schedule the installation on the Labor Day - even called the office to find out if they gonna showed up since it is a Labor Day and some girl at the office assured me that they do work on the Labor Day. Well on Labor Day no one showed up so I called the office and a person from their emergency number picked up (I think it was Richard) and said that they do not work on Labor Day but he will check with tech and call me back. Never did, so an hour later I called again and he said that they rescheduled the installation with me...what? nobody called me to reschedule!!! anyway at that point I canceled the appointment and told them that when I will be ready I will call them back. Labor Day was on Monday, on Tuesday and Wednesday I had 3 different companies checking my A/C system. I was very surprised to find out that my duct system is not big enough to hold 4 ton system, that I will have to replace vents and ducts (more money for the Universal Air and Heat), if I would installed 4 ton unit I would have a moisture issues and potential mold in the house, and my electric bill would go up not down. Richard aka Ricardo never did a J-load or J-measurement, he just looked at our system and stated that our ducts are big enough for 4 ton unit. Anyway, on Wednesday I called that company to cancel the contract (3 business days are allowed in FL to clx) and the owner said that I have to pay $295 for the permit they pulled - which was nothing mentioned in our contract. After talking to the owner I went on the Pasco County website to check if there are any permits and of course nothing showed up. At evening time I checked again and to my surprise there it was. They pulled a permit after I canceled the contract and that permit only costs $65 not $295. Why a company would get a permit after the customer canceled the appointment and contract? Interesting. More interesting was that the owner or general manager was arguing with me that 4 ton is a good unit for our house, and whoever is telling me different does not know what they are talking about. Three companies did a J-load/measurement in my house and came up with the same solution - just clean the coils, motor and blower - what we originally wanted, but Universal Air and Heat just by looking at the system decided that I need 4 ton and pay $6100 to replace it.

The worker who said he was the service manager came out to check and service my unit for the annual cleaning and told me after looking at it for over 10 minutes and not being able to TELL how old it was that the unit was probably a 1990 model and wouldn't be worth the money it would cost to take it all apart and clean it, and put it back together. He also said that my He said that the drip pan for the air handler was not supported by anything because the air handler was so old the brackets to hold it were gone. He took pictures and said everything was covered by mold but he wasn't supposed to SAY it was mold because he's not a certified mold specialist. He tried to sell me a new unit and air handler and I told him that I would have to get the money together first. I had to pay $59.00 for the service call that would be reimbursed if I bought the unit that day and he did nothing but take pictures with his iPad - he never even inspected my cold air return to see the filters. He told me if I bought the unit that day he'd give me a 15% discount. After he finished he proceeded to tell me all about how he almost got arrested for road rage from throwing a soda container at a truck, and how he smoothly talked the deputy in Hillsborough County out of taking him in. Two other air conditioning companies came out and BOTH completely refuted everything that the first contractor told me. I told them about the pictures of the mold he'd taken and they BOTH said "they weren't pictures of your unit because there isn't any mold on the condenser or the handler"....they also BOTH showed me how to tell the date of the condenser because it's in the serial number!! What the heck?? These two contractors BOTH informed me that my bill would be substantially lower if I added insulation to my attic, added another cold air return and had it inspected and serviced once a year, which never was suggested by the first contractor. It would appear that the change of management for this company did it no justice.

They did not install a breaker box as stated in the estimate but hard wired it instead which is illegal. They promised to change to the required breaker box but had to be reminded multiple times before returning. We had to call for three months. Each time were told that they would return our call but did not. The unit was not cooling very well and we were told that the cooling coils had been recalled but we had to call them to be told. They replaced the coils at no additional charge. They said they would replace the thermostat because it is not accurate and they have not done so to date.

The service provider showed up on time and did the job quick. He explained to us how often we should do this and showed us one of the reasons it was clogged to begin with. I would recommend this company.

I think they did a great job. They called me back right away, came over next business day, spent about 3 hours going through the house and cleaning all the vents. They seemed knowledgeable, and didn't try to up-sell us things that we don't need, and recommended some very cheap, DIY solutions for problems. Also gave us a military discount. Will definitely call them back in a year's time.

Went well. But he did not do follow up. He stated the proposal would be in email. I was waiting for two days then I called their office on Monday....... I am still waiting for the proposal.

Technicians came out and resolved the issues. Would recommend this company because they back up their work.

They cleaned all the coils, vents, motors, blowers, and deodorized. They did everything they could to revamp my heating and air. They were excellent. I highly recommend them.

This service provider, Universal Air and Heat ditched me 5 times. They schedule their appointments in a 6 hour window from Noon to 6pm. They ditched me 5 times, without even calling me to cancel. Although, the technician Richard had very good customer service when I saw him, was very apologetic, and did appear to be knowledgeable in his trade. Richard was not the problem. This company has at least 5 people who answer the phones. They are the ones who make the appointments, and they are the ones that make the technician's schedule. It is the responsibility of the phone operators in the office to call me if their technician is going to be late or can't make an appointment. They never called me. I just waited around all day waiting for Richard but he never showed. Again, I was ditched 5 times on 5 different days, no show, no call. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I don't think Richard is to blame. There was a lack of communication between Richard and all the people that answer the phones, and his schedule. Richard did finally locate the Freon leak in my unit, using a gel test. The leak was in the coils in the air handler. Although, getting anyone to show up for their scheduled appointment was next to impossible. I never got rude over the phone, but when I was expressing me disappointment, only 1 female on the phone got snippy with me. Obviously, I won't be using this company again. And now that I know where the leak is, I need to find another AC company to either repair the leak, or buy a new system. Oh yeah, these guys won't even begin the gel test until they're paid. They want the check in hand, and then they'll do the test, and add the Freon (to circulate the gel). So, when they say they will be back in 48hrs to find the actual leak, you have already paid in full at that point. Therefore, they don't really have any motivation to come back. I'm surprised they even came back at all. It wasn't until I congratulated them on a scam well done, and told them that I don't care anymore, I'm throwing in the towel and giving up......that they finally came and found the leak. What a headache and a waste of my time. Terrible customer service by the phone operators, or possibly an incompetent manager.

It was a great experience, they saved me money. Other companies wanted to replace my whole system and they diagnosed the problem was just a part.