Farnen & Dermer

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

Thursday Jan 24th, I discoveredt that my household heating system was not functioning. The Fand D repairman came early on Friday Jan 25th to diagnose the problem. A new heating and air conditioning system was required, since the heat exchanger was cracked. Over the weekend, the house temperature plummeted to 47 degrees. The installation crew arrived on Monday 28 Jan promptly at 830 and worked diligently. The three repairmen made ducting and pounded sheet metal for several hours. The last repairman stayed until 8 PM, but was unable to connect the electrical wiring for my Trane Clean Effects filtering system. I rescheduled the follow-up appointment for Monday 18 Feb. at 830 in the morning. (This is the President’s Day holiday.) As of 3 PM, no one has arrived. My holiday was completely wasted waiting for the repairman. Since they have my $11,000, my service needs are not a high priority. I called several times to inquire as to the arrival, but was given excuses. If you have lots of time to waste waiting for a repairman, then give Fand D a call. This is a disappointment because this company has met my heating, air conditioning, plumbing and electrical needs for more than 5 years. Original installation was long and not completed due to lack of a wiring schematic diagram. The follow-up appointment was not a priority with Fand D. I had asked for an early AM appointment. As of 3 PM no one has arrived. 1. Don't pay the provider until the entire job is complete. 2. Don't believe the excuses for late arrival 3. Don't let anyone waste your time

Farnen and Dermer were referred to us by a friend that is in the commercial HVAC business for our condo unit. We received 3 quotes and although theirs was in the middle we chose to work with them. There were some electrical problems not caused by them and they helped us resolve them at no extra charge. We would highly recommend them and would certainly use them again if needed.

They are very easy to schedule with, called one day and they came out 1st thing the next morning.( I had used them in the past for hot water heater replacement, expansion tank, etc. and had been pleased.) The plumber was friendly and competent. He called in to his office for a quote, they quoted 729.00 I thought this was very high, but since I had taken off work and didn't want to start all over again, I told him to go ahead. He completed this very quickly, about 45 minutes. Gave me the invoice, I paid in full. The invoice does not break down parts vs labor. Unless this is a 500.00 valve (and I'm sure it's not), this was an extremely overpriced 45 minute job. If you're in a hurry, I guess they're fine. (As long as you don't mind paying 700.00 for a job that should probably be 400.00.) I've learned my lesson. Never again.

The person they sent out was very punctual. He got right to the job, and was able to determine very quickly that a capacitor on the heat pump had failed. Within 5 minutes, the capacitor was replaced, and my heat pump was working again. The problem I had was how they worked the billing. While I showed the serviceman the warranty that I got when the heat pump was installed, I was charged $75 for the visit. I didn't think anything about this until I received a postcard from the manufacturer stating that parts and service were fully covered. I called Farnen and Dermer, and asked them about the $75 bill. I was told that since the serviceman came out on a Saturday, there was a $75 additional charge. They also explained that the amount they are reimbursed under the warranty does not fully cover their costs. Whether or not this is true, I don't know. However, while I did not further fight the bill, I am still suspicious of being gouged since the costs were not discussed up front. While I likely will use Farnen and Dermer again in the future, I think they should review their business practices. I also will be more assertive in asking costs before I allow any work to be done by them.

Response time and repair time were satisfactory. I was charged $775 for this Saturday morning job. Subsequently, I found out that condensor fans are not very expensive, so I felt that $775 was a very stiff total price. I wrote the company an email from their website, but didn't get a response. I followed-up with a phone call, requesting an itemized bill, since I wanted to know what the parts and labor charges were. Never received anything. This kind of dis-service pretty much guarantees that I won't use the company in the future.

I had used them in the past and I was disappointed with this service. I don't think I would call them again; I think I would call someone else. This experience was not what I had anticipated it would be. They didn't clean up and there were respect issues with people being rude. I had to say that I was disappointed with how they were talking to me because the owner and his two sons had taken better care of me.

This company came highly recommended to my by two co-workers. I don't think I would have called them or even would have know about them if it weren't for my work works. I'm glad I called. Around October/November 2010 we had a few nights that were cold enough for us to use the furnace. We ran the furnace for about a week and awoke one morning to a 50 degree house. The primary system for igniting the gas and blowing the warm air had failed. We spent the next few days trying to get in touch with many of the local Baltimore Heating/AC folks. This was the most frustrating part of the whole process. Companies would take our info and we'd wait hours or days before getting a sales person to return our call. These are A+ rated BBB companies and they were not returning calls! As I mentioned before, two co-workers heard me talking about poor service and recommended Farnen and Dermer. When I called, the phone was answered quickly. I was put on hold for less than 40 seconds and then was connected to a sales person. I later discovered that I was speaking with one of the owners, Jay. I explained our situation, that we had no heat, and Jay said that he could come out and look at the Furnace within two days. Jay asked our availability and I said I would have to check my wife's schedule as she had to pick up one of our kids from school. I gave Jay an approximate time and said that I would call back once I confirmed that with my wife. Jay asked me to hold again. This time I was on hold for 2-3 minutes. When Jay returned to the line he asked if my wife would be home in 30 minutes. I said yes and he said he would send somebody right over as they were, and quot;in the neighborhoodand quot;. I figured they would be there within 30 minutes to an hour. I thanked Jay for his time and called my wife. I was on the phone with her for 15 minutes when she said somebody was knocking at the door. Jay's brother, Ed (another co-owner) was at our door. WOW! Ed looked at the furnace and said that they could fix the furnace and that he could get a quote to us by the end of the day and that if we signed within a day they could complete the work before the end of the week. As promised Ed had the quote to us on time. We reviewed the price and compared it to information we found on line. They were within $100 of most quotes. It was warm over the next few days so my wife and I discussed repair vs. replacement. We knew the AC had problems too. We called Jay back and asked for a quote for a new system. He got the quote to us within an hour. We went back and forth deciding on models, air cleaners and humidifiers. We decided on the furnace we wanted installed on Monday. By Thursday the system was installed and working great. The installation techs were great. Both were clean and professional. They were punctual and took care of our house and yard as they got right to work. The work itself was a little noisy since they were cutting our ducts; however, I was still able to join a conference call from my house while the work was going on. Because of some damaged parts the install spanned two days instead of one; however, the install tech notified me immediately when they discovered the delay. Rather than packing it up for the night the started on other parts of the install. I appreciate the fact that they were able to adapt to the situation and continued to work! The install techs put cardboard down on our carpets to protect them from getting dirty. They broom cleaned the furnace room when they were done and vacuumed the carpet. When they left after the second day we had heat and everything was working great. Prior to leaving they showed us how to use the thermostat and air cleaner controls, how to change the filters, and how to switch the humidifier between winter and summer modes. Because it was cold when the AC was installed, Farnen and Dermer had to come back and check on the AC system during the spring. We called them a few weeks ago and they quickly scheduled a time with us. The AC tech arrived on time and completed the work. All systems checked out. He even checked our air filter and pointed out that it needed to be replaced. He offered to replace it for us; however I moved it to a and quot;safe placeand quot; for storage and couldn't remember where I put it. I later replaced the filter and everything is working great. These guys are great. My house was warm and toasty all winter and is cool in the summer. I don't expect that I'll need a new furnace or AC anytime soon, but when I do I will call Farnen and Dermer. They were there for us when we were in a tight spot. They worked fast to ensure that we got heat and that we qualified for the federal, state and BGE rebates. They were competitive with their proposal and were within $1000 (500+/-) of all quotes received. I can't say enough about the service they provided. If you're looking for heating or AC, call Jay and Ed!

After the first large snow storm (beginning of Snowmagaden in Baltimore) my furnace started making a loud buzzing sound, but was still putting out heat. Nervous that somehow my gas furnace may explode (probably not) I shut it off and began calling around. No one was returning my calls. Finally I tried Farnen and Dermer. The tech came out fairly quickly, but as soon as he took a look at my furnace he estimated it would cost $1200 to fix a blower motor and flame sensor (both parts cost less than $300 tops). He made no phone calls for part costs. I guess if you pad the price enough it doesn't really matter how much the parts cost. Having no other choice with another blizzard on the way the next day and my daughter's B-day that same day I went ahead and allowed him to fix it. He left for a couple of hours and came back with the parts which took about 20 minutes to install. Later when I called to complain about the price I asked for a detailed break down of the costs. They charged me $150 / hour to pick up parts, the $95 service charge for the initial visit (which was "applied" to the cost of the repair if I went with their service) and an additional $150 / hour for the time that he spent with me during the initial visit. They marked up the cost of the parts 50% (of already outrageously priced parts) and charged another $150 / hour to install the parts (rounding up to the nearest hour). The guy on the phone felt completely justified in charging me that much. Why should I pay Dr. and Lawyer prices for a guy to pick up parts from the store? What is the $95 service charge for if they're also going to charge me for that time by the hour? The amount he summed up was still less than the $1200 they charged. Sure they were punctual, and got the job done, but their prices are outrageous! I feel like I was gouged due to the snow storm. From reading the reviews on this site, it looks like overcharging is standard practice. If you have money to burn/blow let Farnen and Dermer stick it in your HVAC for you.

It was not good. They were professional when they came in, but they tried to go cheap on materials. The way they wanted to do it is code accepted, however it is the cheaper way to do it, and I didn't want that. Once I asked them to do it differently, they did with no extra charges. I had problems with condensation building up on the furnace in the summertime. They didn't tell me that it had to be heavily insulated. They sent one of their workers over, and he said they should have told me about the potential problems and he would tell them, and I never heard anything back from them. I had to go ahead and fix it myself. There were additional problems with the remainder of the venting. I had a tankless water heater, and they never sealed my roof, causing massive leaks. They never addressed anything once they were paid and the work was done. They didn't seem to care.

The experience was very good. My husband said their workmanship was very good and they took time to do everything right. He thought they did a really good job and they took time to make sure it was done right. We had called them before about our furnace and liked the way they approached a couple of years before. They are an older company and we didn't really compare prices.

The person was very professional. Arrived on time. One of the first couple of quotes I got. Provided reasonal Est., however, I went with some other vendor from Angies list, for somewhat better price and their larger size. Cost indicated does not include govt. incentives.

A family member is in the heating and air-conditioning business, so when we needed a new heat pump to provide A/C for our Baltimore row house, we asked him for a reference. We were living in another city at the time and needed a reputable and reliable company to do the work. Our family member connected us his national distributor who recommended Farnen and Dermer and they did great work. Since then, we have had a service contract for them to maintain the unit and change the filters, etc., and have found them very professional, punctual and pleasant to work with. Meanwhile, other workers who have had cause to be on our roof have commented on what a great heat pump we have. In 2012, we returned to Farnen and Dermer to replace our oil-fired heating boiler with a high-efficiency gas boiler. The installation was efficient and pleasant. As promised, the new boiler has saved us a huge amount of money and worked perfectly. The service has continued to be responsive and friendly.

Nice people to deal with; I think the price was high but they were knowledgeable and polite. I used them again later and would do so again.

They came and gave me an estimate the same day and were very prompt. They had another firm come and remove the old one. They went above and beyond to make sure that everything was tidy and cleaned up after their work. The people who came in to install the new boiler were extremely professional and did a good job.

They did a nice job and were very courteous while doing the work. They were reasonably priced in helping me find filters as well.

Great initial contact. Very professional and quick in scheduling appointment for estimate. I was told the work would take 3 days with some spill over into a 4th day. The work was started on Wednesday, by Friday I was told that they needed to return on Monday. No one showed up on Monday. By 3pm on Monday, I called the company to find out why no one showed up or called me. Apparently someone called in sick, which still did not explain why I did not receive a call stating that no work would be done that day. Work picked back up on Tuesday. The installers also worked Wednesday as well. By now it's day six and the work which was suppose to take 3 days was still not done. When I called the company, Mr. Dermer stated that they have personnel issues and not having my work done on time was costing his company money. I stated that his personnel issues were not my problem. He stated that he has "lazy workers" and if he has to "crack the whip" he will. Work finally completed after 7 days! Based on the owner's characterization of his own staff, I question the quality of work.

Very very well. They did exactly as they said they'd do in the amount of time they estimated. Ed, one of the owners, was very helpful to me when selecting the best unit for my place.

Company was the only one who could schedule an emergency visit over a weekend when the temperatures were in the 90's. Technician was thorough and work was satisfactory.

The team arrived early and worked from 8:30 AM to 3 PM including a lunch break. The work was noisy, but the team was courteous and efficient. They cleaned up the trash from the job and removed the equipment boxes. The team left user manuals for the equipment and demonstrated its use along with answering maintenance questions.

I had a good experience with this company and I would use them again in the future.

THE WORK DONE WAS OF A HIGH QUALITY. THE WORK WAS COMPLETED IN A TIMELY MANNER BY COMPETENT PLUMBERS, AND ELECTRICIANS. THE COMPANY WAS RESPONSIVE TO THE CUSTOMER.