Hamilton Heating, A/C & Plumbing

We won’t use the again. Last year we had our sewer backed up. I feel they were a bunch of clowns. I heard other people didn’t like them too. Their prices were outrageous. I didn’t like them and it was big mess. I read in face book a friend of mine had them come and she had a bad experience too. They were real nice when they come out. The insurance company wanted the fee break up and they did not want to break it up like trying to hide something. I don’t like business like that.

The entire process was smooth from start to finish. The installers were prompt. They had both of the old units out and the new ac and new furnace in with 6 hours.

They do not provide very good service. I am not satisfied with them.

They were just very honest and very effective. They left no mess. They took care of our problem. They were very good.

They are really responsive. They are very professional.

Our cast iron kitchen drain was so corroded that even a snake or one of the small drain cameras couldn't get through. Disgusting water was backing up in our sink every time we let out the dish water. Paul S. gave us estimates on two possible procedures. The more costly procedure was to jackhammer the basement floor to get to the old drain under the floor and replace it. The other procedure was to run the pipe along the ceiling. He explained both options and the advantages and disadvantages of each option, however, he recommended the ceiling option, which we took. He was friendly and professional and left a written estimate. We had estimates from two other companies, one of which suggested the option to go under the floor and the other suggested the ceiling option. We chose Bob Hamilton because we preferred the less invasive, cheaper option of going under the ceiling and believed his method of attaching to the main stack was a more viable and long-lasting option than the other company's recommendation. They offer a lower rate if you buy a maintenance plan for $10/month. It's an obvious ploy to get us to call them for future work, but the cost of the job plus a year of the maintenance plan were still less than the cost of the job without the maintenance plan. We set the date and were told he would arrive between 8 and 8:30am. After 9am we called to find out why he wasn't at our house yet and were told he was in a meeting. He arrived at 9:30am. We would have liked a call to tell us he would be late, since we had to wait on his arrival to go to work. We felt confident about leaving him alone in the house. When we got home from work, he was finished and everything looked good. He thoroughly cleaned up after himself. He even cleaned some trash that a previous plumber had left under the sink. The pipes are unobtrusive and will not interfere with any other work we might do in the basement. Most importantly, the drain runs beautifully. I was quite delighted to watch the dish water go down the drain so fast. I was very happy with the work and will use Bob Hamilton again in the future.

They were out here off and on over this summer. They had done some work for me, so I ended up using them for the rest of the work. I did some cost comparisons and that sort of thing too. I had worked with them before and was pleased with them. I would rate them highly and would use them again in the future if necessary.

I contacted Bob Hamilton Plumbing after reading reviews on Angie's List. They were near the top. I needed my main sewer drain cleaned. They offered a fair price. We scheduled for Monday Oct 10th between 3-5pm. As we scheduled she asked for contact number. I gave her my cell phone as I no longer have a land line. I had to take off work early but I needed to get this done as we had drainage problems. 5pm came and went. Finally around 6:55pm I called. The lady whom answered the phone asked what I needed. As I began to tell my reason for call, she asked me to hold, and was gone for about 90 secs. She returned and I began again, she interupted me again and asked me to hold. This time she was gone a good two minutes. She returned and asked again. At this point I had concluded that she has helped each of the people who were calling while putting me on hold. She searched for my scheduled appointment and could not find my appt. I was beginning to get a bit frustrated. She then asked me to hang up and call back as it was time for her to get off and go home. My response was...'Say what?'. She repeated the same thing and I obliged. I called back and the lady who answered this time said she had called me and got no answer. I was sure she had not. After awhile we concluded that she had called the wrong number as no one had put on record my new number. She offered to send someone out sometime after 8pm. I have small kids so that was not going to work. I was irritated at this point and asked for a price break. She would not do that but offered to send a gift certificate for future work. I agreed and rescheduled for Friday between 5-7pm. At 8:00pm we left to get something to eat as they again never called or showed up. I believe they have become so big now that the service they built thier business on is gone and now it is just numbers. Very disappointed. To thier credit the gift certificate showed up 5 days later but not a word or comment in. I have no intention of using Bob Hamilton Plumbing again. larry murphy lmurphy11@kc.rr.com

The estimate provided was thoroughly detailed and informative. All of the staff I communicated with were friendly and professional. Key selling points included the lifetime warranty and their willingness to include property restoration (i.e. basement floor) in their estimate (compared to Roto Rooter, which did not). I would recommend this company to friends as a good option for sewer line replacement jobs.

We had new counter tops installed, in our kitchen, and needed our new sink and faucet connected, along with our existing garbage disposal. Bob Hamilton was going to charge us three times the amount for the work as another company we called. Tech was very polite and professional. He even apologized for the price. We did not have them complete the work, but did pay our $50 service call fee. We were so offended with the price, it was very hard to even pay for the service call.

I have been a Bob Hamilton customer since the early 80?s when Bob did the work himself. I used the company mostly for HVAC and drain routing and felt that I would get the work done right at a fair price. Based on my recent experience, I found that it is no longer the case. They now try to sell you a "Service Partner" agreement ($14.95 month per HVAC, $9.95 plumbing, $21.90 combo). They do this by giving you outrageous estimates and then offering to discount them if you sign up. The "discounted" amounts are still extremely high compared to others. I recently bought a rental property in the neighborhood that had been run by "absentee landlords" for 35 years. I asked Hamilton to look over the two furnaces because one did not shut off except by flipping the breaker. I agreed to a list of cleanings and repair for a total of almost $1900 (discounted). I was told that everything was working fine when he was done. At that time I also scheduled a plumbing check to be done about two weeks later. When we did the plumbing check I discovered that the furnace had not been fixed and the new thermostat was left dangling by the wire and not attached to the wall. The plumber called it in and I was under the impression someone would be out the next day to fix it. Nobody came, so I called the company. I was told the earliest they could schedule anyone to come out was more than a month out. I told her that this was to fix work they already did, and that I was a "Service Partner". Hamilton claims that "Service Partners" get "Priority Service" and move to the head of the line. How they can do this and keep their other appointments, I don't know. The person I called said that it didn't matter. Needless to say I was quite upset. I tried to contact them using their web site, both on the survey and the online form. When I didn't hear from them after two days, I called another company. I used All Seasons since they got good reviews on Angie's List. They fixed the furnace for $255. Hamilton finally called after almost three days. They ended up reimbursing me for the work done by All Seasons. Meanwhile, the plumbing check amounted to a plumber going around turning on faucets and flushing stools. Since I know a little more about plumbing than I do about HVAC, I could tell how outrageous the estimates were. For example; when a stool didn't flush right, the estimate was $552.54 for a "toilet rebuild". I fixed this by shortening the chain so it didn't get in the way of the flapper. They wanted $318.80 to fix a small leak from the kitchen strainer. Remember, these are "discounted" quotes. I fixed the leak by tightening the stainer's nut. For some reason, I did agree to have them fix the supply lines in another kitchen for $215.02. Once the plumber started work on it, he said he would have to replace the faucet - the final bill was $646.60! - and the hot and cold lines were backwards! I saw a similar faucet at Lowe's for about $100. I replaced the faucet in another apartment and it took about a half an hour - and I'm an amateur. So it looks like their labor rate is about $1000 an hour - discounted. What bothers me the most, is that this is obviously done with full management approval. The plumber got his estimates from a price list in his notebook. The "Service Partner" language is all preprinted on their forms. It's easy to try to blame someone taking calls, or human errors by a plumber. The fact is, however, that Bob Hamilton and his company have explicitly decided that the priority is quick high profits at the expense of good customer service.

I've never had any problems with Bob Hamilton. You know where you stand with him. There is never any surprises and when he says he can do something he does it.

The tech arrived on time and in uniform and was very professional. However, the estimate was twice as high as the other quote I had received. Our neighbor also had him quote out his work at the same time, and that estimate was almost three times as high for gas line repair. Probably a great company in a pinch and I'm sure they do quality work, but the price was absurdly high.

Like a previous submitter, I called because of a radio ad. The estimate I received on tapping into a water line and adding a spigot was ridiculous. They wanted over $2000 to do this. I told them that I had almost an entire house re-plumbed for $3500 and paid the $60 "fine" for the mistake of calling them in the first place. Yes, they actually charged me to come to my home and insult my intelligence. I had another plumber do the EXACT same work for $375! I have had the worst luck hiring anyone based on radio and TV ads. I am so happy to be a member of Angie's List.

Due to icy and snow covered roads, Bobby Hamilton was unable to arrive at the appointed time. He called half an hour early to inform me of his situation. I had already expected the delay because of the weather conditions. When he arrived he was apologetic, but professional and personable. We discussed the problem and he then proceeded to camera scan the sewer line. He gave a complete and accurate description of the problem. I then asked him about trenchless sewer repair. He described in detail the two options available. As I had already researched the two types of trenchless sewer replacement, the questions I asked were answered accurately and with all the detail I needed to fully understand the work to be done. He then gave me the estimate on what the repairs would cost. Far more reasonable than estimates I had been given by two other companies. I then asked when I could expect the work to be done. He called his office and then informed me that they could do the work on Monday the 28th of February. His initial visit was on the prior Friday. I was very pleased that the work could be done so soon. Before leaving he informed me that he would have one of his employees come out that day and clean the sewer pipe to ensure I would be able to use my facilities until the work could be completed. This was unexpected and greatly appreciated. They arrived Monday the 28th at about 10 am and the work was completed by 5 pm the same day. The problem has been resolved to my complete satisfaction. On Thursday evening, Bobby Hamilton called to inquire as to how I felt about the work his company had done. Needless to say, I am very pleased with the timeliness, price, and completion of every aspect of this task. A side note to this, I was dealing with a very bad case of the flu. Mr. Hamilton made an extremely difficult situation much easier to deal with. I highly recommend this man and his company. I will definitely use him and his company again for any and all work to be done that his company handles.

I called in response to an advertising I received in the mail. Made an appointment with Corky, their sales rep, selected a system based on efficiency and cost. Unit was installed 2 days later. The two installers worked very efficiently and got the job done in about six hrs. The installation was very clean and tidy. The system is working very well and the price was very competitive. I took advantage of a manufacturer's promotion.

We used Bob to service our AC unit. From the minute the service tech arrived, all he did was incessantly try to upsell me on a brand new RUUD unit. This even after I told the tech that our unit was 2yrs old and one of the top of the line Lennox units. All we wanted was for the tech to inspect the unit and service the unit as needed prior to the summer heat. After the tech finally serviced the unit, he claimed we were low 2lbs of freon? Then told us our condenser coil was leaking refrigerant. Paid to recharge the refrigerant. Called our HVAC installer and he checked everything over and found that the tech left a valve half open on the AC unit and left the condenser unit with 2 bolts out of it. Fixed both and we have not had issues since. Called Bob to file a complaint and was offered 50 bucks off the next service from Bob. There won't be another service from Bob. Beware the catchy ads - Bob is a better ad man than HVAC specialist.

We'd had someone out to clean out our p trap/main drain a few days previously and it backed up again. The service person came out promptly on a Sunday afternoon to clear it out again and did not charge us anything saying it was covered by warrantee. The clog was persistent, but so was the service person, he spent a couple hours getting it cleared, and then cleaned up the area in our unfinished basement.

I had a trap in a shower drain that broke. It was on the first floor with the mechanical room below so there was easy access to the drain trap. I called Bob Hamilton mainly because of their ads. Let me mention that I am mechanically inclined but did not want to climb up to complete this job. A young fellow arrived, looked at the broken trap and wrote out an estimate of $910.00 After a short discussion that included my comment of "Are you serious?" " I do know what is involved in repairing a trap" I reached for my checkbook to pay him his required $60 or $65 service call if no service is preformed. He was so embarrassed that he would not take the check. He then confided in me that he hated the policies of the company. He even mentioned that if he were called out to replace the "flapper" in a toilet tank, the charge would be $125. (This is a $4. item at a hardware store and requires perhaps 5 minutes to install by anyone. I then called a recommended plumber, Rick's plumbing if I remember correctly and the total charge to replace the shower trap was $92. I guess that says it all.

The service man did excellent work and was very professional. He did a full walk through of our house and we explained our plumbing issues to him. He gave us a full estimate for each project before doing any work. The prices were pre-set and incredibly high. We would have had a lot more work done if the prices weren't so high. We thought we could have 3 toilets replaced for $1000. We only got one for that amount. I'm hoping that we bought a quality toilet and it's under warranty. The service was very good, my only complaint is about the pricing. I would still use them, but only for an estimate. Also, the work we had done was not on a weekend or any type of emergency work. It was just fixing basic things on working toilets.

It did not go well. They were very prompt and easy to talk to. They were also very clean and professional. However, they failed to use the cleanout and instead used an access point within the house sewer system. The mistake caused them to need to make a sharp turn with their equipment, and also shortened the amount of main line they were willing to clean. (They would only clean 100 feet of line, the house is about 80 feet from the street). They got the line working better, but knew that the entire line was not clean. They then had another person come and video the line. He spent two hours trying to hard sell me on replacing the sewer line at a cost of $8000 saying that the line would probably stop flowing again soon. Sure enough, in less then two weeks, the line was the same as before. We then called a different company. They cleaned the line from the cleanout all the way to the street. They also told us to put copper sulfate in the line and we would have no more problems. They did not believe that we needed a line replacement, and told us that Bob Hamilton had scammed us. We decided that the $100 was a cheap lesson and joined Angie's List.

The reps couldn't have been better. Very nice, knowledgeable, contientious. My sump pump stopped working in my crawl space (and I won't go down there). It could have been fixed for roughly $100, but I knew the pump was undersized for the work load, so I requested a replacement. It was completed quickly and they cleaned up after themselves. I would gladly use them again (asa noted above), and would even recommend them to friends, if only I could afford them! I'm afraid I won't be able to use their services again - they're just too expensive.

They have always been nice, friendly, and competent. They have always responded well. Their fixes have worked.

We were somewhat surprised that one of the technicians couldn't explain to us what was wrong with our unit. The company sent out someone we had worked with in the past with our furnace when we complained about the technicians lack of knowledge in this field. They were willing to work with us and be accessible. We are very happy with the results and their professionalism and would use this company in the future.

They're very good. They're a little bit more expensive, but they arrive within a few hours and they simply know their business. I've stuck with them for that. There was a leak that we didn't know where it was coming from. The guy found one faulty piece of equipment and replaced it, and so far, so good.