GERALD BUCHAN & SON INC

in a nutshell stay away from this company. Recommend I replace my unit which is 3.5 with a 5 tom unit. They did give me a option for a 4 but highly recommended a 5. 3 other companies said a 5 was way to big. One company that actually came in and did load calculation stated I only need a 3.5 ton. I had a service contract with them a quickly cancelled. Would not let this company touch my HVAC system.

Moved in to a new house(built in 06') late summer 2007, as the first owner/resident. Next spring my ac wasn't cooling the house(could only maintain about 85) and called the installers. They came by and replaced the interior coils, under warranty. The very next spring, ac wasn't cooling the house. Called them again, and they came out and serviced the ac, stating that they had fixed a "minor leak", topped off the coolant and everything would be fine. This exact scenario played out for 2 more years, each spring when I started using the ac it wouldn't be able to cool the house less than low 80's, and resulted in my electric bill tripling for that month. The service guy would tell me I had a minor leak, that they fixed it and topped off the coolant, and it would be fine. On the third spring of hearing this(4th year in a row of service visits, 2011) excuse, I questioned the service rep, as he only went to the outside unit and was done in 10 minutes. At that time, he admitted to me that they had only topped off the coolant. His explanation was that "I lived too close to the water treatment plant and there were chemicals in the air that were prematurely ruining the ac's in the area"?! I kid you not. He told me this with a completely serious face. There were several homes near mine, built by the same developer with Buchan-installed HVAC units; two of my neighbors that I questioned about their ac's stated that they had several problems and weren't satisfied with the service by Buchan. On one of the service visits, the guy even brought up one neighbor(a very nice lady, that I had many conversations with) stating that she showed up at their office very upset about her ongoing problems, and he thought she might be " a little mentally unbalanced". The service technicians' dishonesty about the work being done, what was actually needed and dragging it out so long, resulted in the warranty lapsing. I could have pursued a warranty remedy with the manufacturer, given the circumstances of my service calls, but it looked like it would be a long, drawn out process and frankly, I didn't want anyone from Buchans ever coming into my house again. I still need another unit, but have another HVAC company on St. Simons come by early every spring and top off the coolant.