JACOBS AIR CONDITIONING AND HEATING INC

If I could give negative stars I would. The owner is a horrible, horrible person. I never imagined someone working in the customer service field would act with such incredible rudeness. During the initial phone call, he (Mr. Jacobs) stated he needed an e-mail to send a billing invoice and I assumed I would have X amount of days to pay, as per usual with other heating/plumbing/service companies. After the visit, he asked for the money while still in my home. Obviously I was shocked and tried to explain the misunderstanding. His reaction was to roll his eyes, shake his head, and insult me by assuming I was making up the story to not pay for his visit. I received his invoice with a zero dollar amount owed, basically writing me off as a liar, manipulator, and someone he already jumped to the conclusion had never intended to pay in the first place. Now as an old-fashioned farmer at heart, telling someone their word is no good when you've just met them is pretty much the ultimate insult. This was on a Thursday. Called him on the following Monday to pay the original amount, despite it being zeroed out, and tried yet again to explain the misunderstanding. He argued with me on taking up more than 5 minutes of his time to explain something he didn't want to hear and stated he didn't want me as his customer. This, from a man who was on a phone call with someone willing to give him money for an invoice he had zeroed out. He emailed me a link with the new invoice and promptly hung up on me. I'm in complete shock at how someone who has his own business in a small, rural area where word spreads very fast, could get away with treating decent, honest people so horribly and still stay in business. Paid my invoice and learned my lesson.

...............................................................

...................................................................

We have noticed an improvement in the performance of the system from what we had. We look forward to a decrease in our utility bill as well. There is one little detail they are working out but we are confident that too will be taken care of.

I am very satified with JACOBS' s job which installed new A/C at my house. All technicians sent by the company were professional. Secretaries showed a coustomer friendly attitude. Keep up the good work.

They replaced the leaky pipe. They came out in a timely manner and took care of the problem right away. I have been a customer of them for a few years and have always impressed by their service.

I was very pleased with the whole service experience. I will definitely use Jacobs again and give them an A+.

I called and asked for estimation on service there secretary said she would talk with Jim and get back to me 20 days later I called back and asked for estimation again because they never called me back once again she said she would have to call me back they never did. I used another company.

The service appointment was for the autumn tune-up on my boiler. I had pre-paid for this service when the same company had tuned-up my air conditioner the previous spring (see the separate report on that service). Jim came to my house for the boiler tune-up. He used a vacuum cleaner to vacuum loose material in the bottom of the boiler. He proceeded to start the boiler and to check the carbon monoxide levels. He said that the carbon monoxide levels were fluctuating, and his final determination was that the boiler was not safe to operate. He turned off the boiler and shut off the gas to the boiler. The recommendation: renovate the entire heating system to switch to a gas furnace. He took measurements and sent me an estimate a couple of days later: $6,700.00 to remove the boiler and air conditioner, install the furnace, modify the flue, replace the duct work, and add insulation over the new duct work in the attic. For compatibility reasons the air conditioner would need to be replaced the following year at an additional cost, undetermined. I felt that the omission of other options, such as diagnosing and repairing the cause of the carbon monoxide or replacing the boiler with a comparable unit (this latter option was mentioned in the written report but certainly not emphasized to me aurally), was suspect. I scheduled carbon monoxide inspections/estimates (see my separate reports on these service appointments for more details) with two other HVAC companies. Their technicians checked for carbon monoxide levels in several places, inside and outside the boiler/flue and showed me the carbon monoxide readings. The verdict from both companies: no carbon monoxide problem; the boiler unit just needs a good cleaning. The technicians did not see any evidence that the system had supposedly been “tuned-up” recently. I was quite dissatisfied with this waste of my time. I did not receive the anticipated tune-up service I had purchased as part of the service contract, and there was no verifiable evidence of a carbon monoxide problem. I wrote to Jacobs regarding the discrepancies. The response from the owner included a continued contention of a vaguely worded "unsafe operating condition" and an offer to refund half of the price of the service contract. I wrote back to request more details about the "unsafe operating condition," but all I received in reply was the check for half the price of the service contract.

I called Jacobs to have a spring tune-up on my air conditioning system. The staff was courteous. The technician Abe recommended adding coolant so the system would run more efficiently. I had a difficult time understanding why coolant was needed when there had not been a check for a leak in the system. The work itself seemed to be professionally completed – no problems. At the time of the spring tune-up, I signed an “Efficiency and Safety Agreement” whereby I also prepaid to have my heating system tuned up the following autumn. See my other report on the service for this subsequent tune-up.

I had been planning to call Jacobs for a seasonal tune-up on my air-conditioning system when I found that I had a gas leak in my hot water heater. I called Jacobs for a second-opinion. Their technician Dave’s opinion concurred with the first: the leak was in a very expensive part and it was best to replace the entire hot water heater. Their bid to replace the hot water heater also included replacing some of the gas piping which was not up to code. This eliminated some flared fittings and other problems that I was already aware needed to be addressed at the earliest convenience. I feel that I received good customer service during and after the installation. Shortly after the installation, I thought the hot water smelled odd. Their technicians worked with me until I was satisfied that the problem was resolved. Four months later my property was inspected, and the inspector took issue with the drop tube on the temperature relief valve. This particular pipe was made of PVC, but the inspector wanted it to be metal. I sent Jacobs a copy of the inspection report, and they came out and replaced the PVC tube with a metal one. Some of the copper gas piping was replaced with corrugated stainless steal tubing (CSST) in the installation. I recently found that there is a possible safety concern with CSST if it is not properly bonded and grounded. I e-mailed the owner of Jacobs with my concern, and they replaced the CSST with black iron piping.

I woke up at 3:30 am because it the dog was wining to be let outside. I noticed it seemed a little colder in the house than normal, took the dog out, and chalked it up to having just risen from my warm bed. I brought the dog back in and went back to bed. I woke again at 5:30, also to the dog wining. When I went out to see what was wrong, I looked at the thermostat to see the temperature in the house was 53 degrees. Both the dog and I were now shivering and that's what he was complaining about. I couldn't get the heater working again, so I checked Angie's List for a reputable HVAC company. Jacob's of Carbondale got a stellar review, so we hired them to come out and look at our furnace. We were told that a tech would arrive between 1-2pm. In fact, Tony arrived an hour early, and was finished with the work - our furnace brought back to life - before 2 when he was supposed to be here. Now my wife and I don't have to curl up with dog in front of the wood-burning stove to get through the night. The tech was professional and speedy, obviously skilled at what he was doing.

We have been having problems with our heater for some time now. I had called Jacob's and scheduled a service call. When the tech came out the next morning, he went over the heater and found that the problem was the control board. He told my wife how much it would cost to fix it. He then suggested that we sign up for their C.A.M.P(Comfort Assurance Maintenance Program). He said that in the fall when they come back out to check the heater, they could replace the part and we would get a discount on the repair.