ALL STAR REFRIGERATION

The technician arrived on time and was very personable. He immediately diagnosed the problem - a clogged nozzle on my oil burner (furnace). It took him less than 15-minutes to clean the nozzle, and then to my very great surprise he told me that I owed him $422 and assured me that that price was for "everything." When I asked him what he meant by everything, he said, "Well, I cleaned your nozzle and fired the furnace back up." I pointed out that at $420 for 15-minutes worth of labor comes to close to $1,600 an hour... He refused to come down on the price. Previously, I'd had All Star repair a heater -- and they charged close to $380 for replacing a part that I later found out costs approximately $12 and takes about 5 minutes to replace (because I did it myself the next time it broke). In my opinion, this company grossly overcharges and while they are very reliable, in terms of their keeping appointments, they should be avoided.

My wife had the technician call me at work. I explained what was happening. The technician suggested there was nothing wrong, "It fired right up". I asked him to check again especially the presence of water around the induction fan and the problem was it would not fire again or hold the programmed temperature. I suggested that there might be clogged condensate drains. He made several trips to his truck to discuss the problem with his superior. The proposed fee to clean the drains was $250 and he reiterated several times that he would not guarantee that this would fix the problem. I asked why so much to clean the drains and he stated it was a flat rate even if it only took 10 minutes to do the work. I decided to loose the $75 and try and clean the drain lines myself. After work if found the drain lines and the one that was clogged. Cleaned it and the furnace is now running properly. It took me 15 minutes. Overall the technician was unsure of the problem or how to fix it.

After a lot of struggle to find a company that was willing to do the repair, All Star agreed to come out. They arrived right on time, found the problem, ordered the part, and came back today to fix it - again, right on time.

Ken (the proprietor) called me back promptly. He asked for some information about my systems and then called me back later the same day with a quote. He offered a substantial discount if I were to decide to replace both units at once. He said if the verbal quote seemed acceptable, he would come out to look at the job before writing a formal contract. I asked for references and he said he has lots of satisfied customers, but felt it was an invasion of their privacy to provide their contact info. I ended up deciding to go with another company because they came out and looked at the job immediately (turns out the attic access to my unit was inadequate and Ken's estimate probably would not or should not have held) and provided references. I called Ken back to let him know why I had made this decision and he was very professional and appreciative of my comments. I think he's a good guy, and probably would have done a fine job.

WE WERE PLEASED WITH THE SERVICE WE RECEIVED FROM ALL STAR REFRIGERATION. THEY WERE ABLE TO COME OUT TO DIAGNOSE OUR PROBLEM THE DAY WE CALLED, ALTHOUGH 5 OTHER CONTRACTORS I CALLED WEREN'T AVAILABLE FOR 2-3 DAYS. THEY RETURNED 2 DAYS LATER TO REPLACE OUR AIR CONDITIONER. ADDITIONALLY, THE SPECIALIST WHO COMPLETED OUR WORK ADVISED US ON REPLACING OUR HEAT PUMP WITH AN AIR CONDITIONER, THEREBY SAVING US MONEY. HE WAS FRIENDLY AND WORKED EFFICIENTLY.