Master Tech

ZERO STARS - refusal to honor warrantee/WORST PLACE/took original part without authorization/price gauging due to extreme temperatures TL;DR --> Avoid this place at all costs, unless the piles of cash you have lying around are getting too large, and you need to get rid of them by paying to make your furnace run worse than it was with the “broken” part, or you enjoy being yelled at and insulted. I paid over $1000 for the “replacement” of an inducer motor, and was left with a furnace that was still broken. Glossary of Terms (MasterTech) Diagnostics -> actually means: “Coming to your door fee” Warrantee -> actually means: Calling in with an issue, just to be told you just like request unnecessary service visits just to “feel better” 100% Parts Cost -> actually means:“15% parts/85% hidden labor charges” Issue: our furnace was blowing cold air instead of hot air. I scheduled the appointment with MasterTech and was given a 3-hour time window (11am-2pm). The technician, Chris, arrived within this time frame, but instead of ringing the doorbell or simply knocking on the door, he called and complained angrily we didn't come to the door in under 2 minutes. I didn’t realize MasterTech expects the customer to wait at the door for the entire 3-hour time window. After a briefly working with the furnace, the technician says “ooohhhhh….it’s looking pretty bad” and lets me know one of the two motors needs to be replaced, but says it would be difficult to find a place that is open and carries the part, so an extra $175 fee would have to be assessed for the technician to get the part from a town 20 minutes away (conveniently, where his next job is). This was the only part available in all of northern Illinois, apparently. After the extreme pressure to “make a decision in the next few minutes, or be left without heat all weekend, and risk the furnace causing a house-destroying fire”, I decided to go ahead with the repair. Total labor came out to approx. $900 for replacement of an inducer motor, a hefty price gauge because you need repairs on a cold day. I asked several times for the parts vs. labor breakout, but kept being told “the part is $800 itself, since it is high-efficiency, and those are more expensive”. I only found out after I had paid the part itself was under $200, and labor was approx. $900. 3 hours later: after a 15-minute installation, the technician says everything should be good to go. I asked if the "diagnostics" revealed any other issues; was told no. Several hours later, the furnace is barely able to maintain a temperature 10*F less than it was (with a broken part!). In the middle of the night, the furnace goes out again, as before, and also the next day. I gave it even more time, but even now, after 48 hours, the furnace is still nowhere close to keeping up with the furnace with the previous/broken motor, and is still blowing cold/barely warm air, and going out intermittently. 7 hours after the installation, I called in to MasterTech customer service. The customer service rep (CSR), kept asking “so, you’re saying the furnace is working, right?” Also, I was met with rude/yelled responses such as, “but it is blowing air!!! HOW ARE YOU SAYING ITS NOT WORKING?!?!?!” MasterTech did offer to send out a technician, but warned me it would be at my expense. I requested warrantee service, but was again denied, unless I continued to pay them more. I am not sure why the visit should be at my expense, since the furnace was working better BEFORE the repair. Although the paperwork says MasterTech offers a 90-day warrantee on labor, the technician said labor was covered for 1-year. When I would start to speak, I was interrupted with, "Well hold on...I think I'm the service provider here...so I'm not sure how you could POSSIBLY offer any solutions". I tried calling again the next day, received the same response, refusal to honor the warrantee, and refusal to return the original part they took out. Another item to note: the technician/truck were labeled “Carrier”, so this place might have had to change their name at some point.

They are fantastic. They will tell you what is wrong with the car but only what is needed. It is a fantastic company. They don't take advantage of you and they are very responsive.

They came right away. They stayed a couple of hours actually. I called at 8:00, they came at 10:00. They’re nice, they’re friendly, not afraid of my dog. It was fine.

They came to replace the motor on my heater that was bad. They charged a lot, like $700. They did a good job, I couldn’t afford it, but I needed it, the heat wasn’t working. What can you do, the price is the price? They were prompt, they came quickly, all the same as the last one. I know how much the part was. They charged me for their price for installation and what the part was. The part’s the part, I don’t know how to grade that for pricing.

unknown

Smooth as silk they came when they said they were. They installed as they promised they would and most of all we are 100% satisfied

A little expensive. Sixth months later, I had the gas turned off and back on and now the furnace is no longer working. I called Master Tech to tell them about this and they said they only warranty for 90 days. If they come out they will charge me again. I asked for the manager and was given the office manager the owner and she refused to do anything about it.

It was quick, clean and the crew was friendly and courteous. They explained things well and met all expectations. Ryan was very professional.

This company likes the big bucks jobs, like new/replacement installations, then pulls the and quot;customer service rugand quot; out under you. No way to run a company, Ryan.

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I woke up in the middle of the night and smelled something like burning rubber throughout the house. I couldn't pin point it but took an educated guess that it was because of a problem with our furnace. I searched Angie's List and found that Master Tech was nearby and offered 24 hr service. At 3 AM!, I called expecting to leave a message but someone actually picked up. When I explained the smell, he said it was most likely the furnace and then scheduled the appointment for 7 am. At 6:30 am, the Master Tech van was already on our driveway ready to fix it. The technician diagnosed the problem, contacted the shop to make sure they had the part for our 1986 furnace, drove back to Barrington to get the part and fixed it. The whole process took less than an hour. I couldn't be happier with the service. From an answered phone call at 3 am to getting the furnace fixed before 8 am, Master Tech was a pleasure to work with and will definitely call them in the future the next time a problem arises with our HVAC.

Ryan did an excellent job as always. We have used Master Tech before for furnace and A/C cleaning and water heater replacement and have always been very pleased with the level of professionalism and expertise. We will continue to use them.

Great Job done by Ryan and his crew. The work started on time and it was done in a professional manner. They replaced my existing furnace and a/c. Quality of work is high and price is reasonable, as compared to other quotes I got from other companies. One of other thing to consider is how quickly one takes care of any issues/concern after the installation is done. One of my concern was quickly addressed and resolved. I will recommend anyone considering installation of a/c or furnace to consider them.

The heavy storms in Northern Illinois damaged my UNICO air conditioner system. When I returned home, I discovered that the motor was shorting out. I shut the system down, in efforts to save it, and not to cause a house fire. I grabbed a phone book to look for Air conditioner repair services. I found MASTER TECH (847 275 9585) 24 hours service. They state in their yellow book ad: Friendly expert service on all brands. and quot;Open 24-Hour Serviceand quot; (7 days a week at no additional charge), So I called them. (It was around 12:30 in the morning) I woke the and quot;servicemanand quot; that was appearently on call....He was grumpy to start, and I said I was sorry for waking him, and explained my situation to him. He stated he would be out the next day. I was at work, but my wife was home, when they arrived. They were dressed sloppily, and did not look professional. The tall, thinner person was sent up into the attic and the other one started a converstaion with my wife. He informed my wife, he was the person that was woke up so early in the morning. He asked to see where the air filters were. My wife directed him to the hall way. He looked up at the filter and stated that this was the problem and asked to stand on one of my wife's antique chairs to check the filter. She stopped him and brought him a step stool from the kitchen for him to stand on. He opened up the filter grate, and forcefully removed the filter, and tossed it to the floor. He stated that there was nothing wrong with the motor, we just needed a new filter. He then asked to check the outdoor condenser. While outside he was more interested in our farm animals than the job he was called out to do. Upon returning back into the house, the serviceman that had been in the attic yelled down and stated that there were definite issues with the blower motor. He then came down from the very hot attic and said it would definitely need to be replaced. The two servicemen talked about the type of system it was, and told my wife that it was OK to continue to run the A/C unit, since there was a thermal shut off switch on the motor and it would shut off before it would catch fire,...so go ahead and run it. A new motor would be about $1600.00 (special order) and he would send an estimate, and call tomorrow about scheduling a sercive call to replace the motor. We never heard back from anyone from Master Tech. The service call was $95.00. We called a more reputable company who came out immediately, found and located the part that was needed and replaced the blower for half as much. The workers who came were dressed appropriately, acted in a professional manner, were concerned about getting the job done, and also concerned about removing their shoes before entering the house. See reported written for Althoff Industries.

I felt like the price was pretty fair. I called a lot of places. They were nice. They were here on time. They need to be careful about dropping screws, but other than that, they were good. They hauled everything away. They were here with the equipment, and they went right to work. Actually, I thought they were pretty good. The price was pretty average. I didn't have any problems with the quality of the work. I called them out here one time, and he came right out to take care of it the same day.