Reliable Heating and Air is a local, family owned company servicing the North Shore, including St. Tammany, Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes. With more than 15 years experience, the majority of our business comes from referrals from our satisfied customers. We offer LIFETIME warranty on all equipment. We serve all makes and models. Save yourself a bundle, call us today!
This happened in 2009 and yet the lousy and disrespectful attitude of the technician named James still lingers in our minds almost 7 years later. How they are still in business is beyond me. To make a long story short, wife and I were first time home buyers and unfortunately we didn't do our homework going into the buying process. We ended up purchasing a huge lemon. One week after moving in, our AC freezes up. Being completely green to home ownership, it felt like the end of the world having an AC system fail in the middle of the summer. The purchase of our home came with a "home warranty." Little did we know that home warranties are nothing more than scams to make unsuspecting homeowners feel secure that their warranty covers quality repairs/services. When we called our home warranty service rep, they sent in a technician from Reliable Heating & Air. I explained that my unit had iced over and that I noticed that when I leave my windows cracked for fresh air- it speeds up the process of our system icing over. At the time, I was naive to the science of HVAC. His response to me was, "If your system ices up, then close your window." It was a very disparaging and matter of fact response. When the truth of the matter is that my old system was leaking freon and it had a very low psi. It was as though he didn't want to give me any service at all. When we walked down our hallway towards our air handler- his response was simply, "Ohhh this is just wrong, just wrong, it's for one just old, it's a Goodman, and you can't put an air handler in a closet, your return needs to go in the ceiling, your thermostat is in the wrong location- it needs to be somewhere closer to the middle of the house...etc" Again, he was very negative and seemed like making me feel bad was something he thrived on. I later immersed myself in the world of HVAC by educating myself on the principles and theories so that I wouldn't be taken advantage of by dishonest and unreliable contractors. I now understand that having air handlers in closets was actually very common in the past. In fact, it is not uncommon to find air handlers in closets, especially in older homes because a closet was a more insulated location for an air handler to not overly condensate in an attic location. Today's air handlers are better designed and can handle extreme attic temperatures. Whether an attic is conditioned or not, air handlers can be installed in a variety of locations- put most commonly are found in attics today. He was wrong in stating that the return should be in the ceiling. Returns can be found in both locations but hot air rises and if not done properly could create a negative pressure in getting air to recirculate through the air handler. He said the thermostat was in the wrong location. He was wrong again. Thermostats are typically found near the return especially in a ranch home. Yet today, you can find thermostats such as the ecobee with multiple sensors throughout the home to keep temperatures throughout the house consistent. Also, if you live in a larger home, you might have 2 or 3 thermostats that are zoned. Our home is slightly under 1500 sq ft. It's a basic starter home built in 1988. His recommendation for us was to have a system change out but what he didn't do was give us an estimate on what we needed. He simply stated that with the tax credit, why not bump up our system and get a 3.5 ton unit. Knowing what I know now, I can't even believe how inconsiderate this technician was. First of all, he never did a manual J load calculation. Never looked at the duct work. Never asked questions about the house such as: where does the south sun face? do you have single or double panned windows? how old is your house? ...etc. This guy never even used the rule of thumb method for figuring out tonnage. If he did, he would have concluded that we old needed a 2.5 ton unit. If he did a manual J load, he might of came up with 3 tons due to the age of the home and other miscellaneous variables. Now keep in mind, I was very young and very trusting of people. We had a small conversation about my horrible experience with getting duped by the realtor's home inspector. It seemed like at every corner he was pointing out flaws of the house and stating that he wouldn't pay more than an X amount of dollars. While I thought he was sympathizing with me, it was actually the opposite. When he was finished looking around our home's system, he proceeded to walk towards his truck. That's when I asked the question, "Is that it? Is that all you are going to do for us??" Something in his head told him otherwise and he turned around with his yellowjacket gauge. He checked the system's low pressure side and found it to be extremely low. Yet, he never explained what was causing this- just that the system was "OLD." He did add r22 freon and brought the pressure up after a few cans. My guess was that he added about 3-4lbs of freon to the system. That's when he headed back to his truck and explained that I owed them $65 because "the home warranty people don't pay me enough to do this kind of work." Looking back at it now, I literally do not know what was so hard about what he had done. As a certified EPA specialist, I now see that this guy didn't do anything. He just added freon which in all matters is not fixing the problem. Explain to people what's going on and why you can't repair the system. Explain why finding the leak and trying to fix the leak on a copper evap coil is futile because of it being brittle. Help educate your customers and do not be so disparaging. It wasn't until my wife showed up from work that he decided she was worth the effort to go back into the house to make sure our home was cooling down. My wife was not impressed by his mannerisms. Now that I'm much more educated in the world of HVAC and after speaking to more than a dozen of reputable contractors- I laugh at how there are people in the industry that have enough moxy to act this way with people. The take home message is simple, STAY AWAY from Reliable Heating & Air. The only thing they are reliable for is cashing your check. Do your homework, educate yourself, look for contractors who are NATE certified, do a bevy of commercial work, have been in the business for more than 15 years, get more than 4 quotes, are certified dealers of one brand or another, stay away from guys that bash a brand- remember that it's not the brand but the contractor that installs your system that will determine the longevity of your HVAC. Good luck and again stay away from Reliable Heating & Air.
Description of Work: Repair AC, diagnose the problem.
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
quality
1.0
value
1.0
professionalism
1.0
$65
Response from Reliable Heating & Air Inc
Although difficult to read, we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. We sincerely apologize that you feel we did not provide you with a great customer service experience. We continue to build our business on the relationships we create with our customers, It's our customers who keep us in business. When dealing with a home warranty company, it is a precarious position. Sadly, we are often not authorized to perform any additional services, beyond initial repair. As you mentioned in your review, it may be necessary to look further, we are not authorized to do such. We must have authorization to do anything beyond the initial diagnosis. It puts us in the position of providing inferior service and a strain on our customer relationships. Often times, we have been at odds with the service provider and truly caught between a rock and a hard place. Since, that does not hold with our values, we no longer work with any home warranty companies. We have grown and changed in the last several years and we would love the opportunity to show you. Please call us and schedule your preventive maintenance and let us show you. We would love to turn you into a satisfied customer, too!
Nelson B.
07/2016
5.0
heating & air conditioning/hvac
+ -1 more
Great better than expected
Description of Work: Changed compressor and coil
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$2,000
Response from Reliable Heating & Air Inc
Thank you for your review!
Danny M.
06/2016
5.0
heating & air conditioning/hvac
+ -1 more
.
Description of Work: .
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
Yes, I recommend this pro
$123
Response from Reliable Heating & Air Inc
Thank you so much for reviewing our service!
Deborah B.
06/2012
2.0
heating & air conditioning/hvac
+ -1 more
Since it was drug out over 2 years It is a long story so will just highlight. This company does know A/C systems but do NOT pay until 100% of work complete. They did a POOR install, which they freely admitted, then spent 2 years of delays and changed stories trying to repair their own mistakes, to give us what was sold They were paid in full based on the owners promises. Then the owner came to me and claimed I accused them of stealing (which I never did, if they had, I would have called the police). He said he would not finish work. I do not say to not use them but just be VERY aware and do not pay until totally satisfied. Do not believe their promises. Get very detail in writing and a written confirmation from them of anything they say they will do. This is true for many contractors and we should have known but we were trusting. We have dealt with many contractors in the area and this is the first time we have had a bad experience. That trusting was our error. We are having another another company finish the work.
Description of Work: Replace a heat pump. Their employees (they later said contractors) did the work completely wrong, installed in wrong place, damaged portion of house. Had to come out and completely redo all of the work that was done by first. Admitted that the water pressure issue which they stated would be solved, what NOT solved. 2 years of excuses, changed stories, missed commitments and still not fixed. It took them 2 years to repair access ladder which they damaged. we would be promised every few months that they would be out and fix things but always an excuse.
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
quality
3.0
value
5.0
professionalism
1.0
responsiveness
1.0
punctuality
2.0
$9,000
Response from Reliable Heating & Air Inc
Thank you for the review. We regret your experience with us was a mixed bag. Our goal is to provide superior service. We hope if you're ever in the position to use our services again, that you'll give us another chance!
George B.
11/2011
5.0
heating & air conditioning/hvac
+ -1 more
It went well. He was quick and finished in one day.
Description of Work: They installed an exterior air conditioning unit.
Rating Category
Rating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0
Yes, I recommend this pro
$1,200
charles h R.
12/2007
5.0
heating & air conditioning/hvac
+ -1 more
I have not found anyone as honest as him and he was very reasonably priced. He was very professional and very easy to deal with. I will use him again and recommend him to others.
Description of Work: We had a leak in our A/C and he first came and put Freon in it and did not charge us, and he came form pretty far away. He came back to fix 2 switches. He was prompt and called before he came. He showed us how others who had worked on our A/C had not properly fixed the caps.
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Service Categories
Heating and Air Conditioning
FAQ
Reliable Heating & Air Inc is currently rated 3.8 overall out of 5.
Monday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday: 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Reliable Heating & Air Inc accepts the following forms of payment: American Express,Check,Discover,MasterCard,Visa
Yes, Reliable Heating & Air Inc offers free project estimates.
Yes, Reliable Heating & Air Inc offers eco-friendly accreditations.
No, Reliable Heating & Air Inc does not offer a senior discount.
Yes, Reliable Heating & Air Inc offers emergency services.
Yes, Reliable Heating & Air Inc offers warranties.
Reliable Heating & Air Inc offers the following services: Heating, Air Conditioning