HomeSmart from Xcel Energy Minnesota

I was transferred to this service after I completed my business with Xcel Energy admin office. It was mostly a sales pitch. I was not impressed with the service.

I love them. I only pay $20 per month and only have one call and recovered my money for the whole year. We probably have at least one call per year.

Wanted two tree branches removed from my neighbor's back yard that are getting into my power lines. In every other city I've lived, you call the power company. Not here. Xcel will shirk work any way they can, overcharge you, and take days to get your power back on w/out caring about any customer in any way, shape, or form. I wish I had a choice but to use them.

Home Smart contracts with local service providers. We have had them send Ron's Mechanical out for our problems. Furnace ignitor, blower motor, A/C stat capacitors, etc. They have always responded to calls and never seemed to short change things because it was a service contract.

They were a $1000 less than Pronto heating and air. I had another bid which was super low but the rep didn't seem knowledgable enough. The furnace and unit they put in was a better unit, not only did I pay less but I got better product. They were on time, considerate, clean and they even went above their job. They took the time to do a great job and were very proud of their work. I think they were wonderful.

They were the ones that checked and told me that another company that I had used had gimmicked my air-conditioning. So they were really upfront and honest. I pay them monthly for the coverage and it is well worth the money.

All repairs were done correctly and were completely covered by our service contract.

They are fast and reliable. I've used them twice. I am very satisfied with them.

Currently everything is working fine and if there is a problem I know I can call them

It went painlessly, and Homesmart checked back often to see how it was proceeding.

We used their monthly service premium as coverage for when things went wrong. When the washer transmission went, they completely rebuilt the machine. That was more than a thousand dollar repair that cost nothing. They maintained the furnace and air conditioner for years, with yearly tune ups on both appliances. Never paid a dime more than our monthly premium. A MUST for anyone who owns a home. Doesn't cover dishwashers. :-(

They are wonderful and they do a very good job. All of the companies do a wonderful job. We are very happy with the work. We are glad that we have the service. HomeSmart will set up the appointment with the companies and they will show up in the window time scheduled or if they are in the area they will call and come ahead of schedule.

Todd Riebe from Homesmart (Xcel-Minnesota) was the sales representive who came out to give us an estimate. He was punctual, professional and extremely knowlegeable. He made the same observations the other companies made however he had a far greater depth of knowledge of what was necessary and why. When you are spending several thousands of dollars, you want to feel comfortable of why you have to spend that sum of money. The bid was also the best compared to the other companies. Once we decided we wanted to go with Todd and Homesmart he had someone scheduled to come out within a few days. Thank goodness since the temperature was hitting 90. Homesmart contracts with KB Services. Todd was in contact with KB Service the day of the planned install to make sure things would go smoothly. We did hit a snag with KB Services but contacted Todd right away and he was on top of it. The install took a little longer than expected and KB Services came out the second day without issue. Overall, I was very happy with the service and would definitely use them again. The price, professionalism, knowledge, and timing was far superior compared to the other 4 companies we spoke to. I would also highly recommend Todd Riebe as the sales representive.

I would recommend Jim Ernst to others, excellent job. I do not recommend the customer service at Xcel Engergy, they did a poor job. They stated there were three options to choose from for the energy audit and I chose one which actually they don't perform in MN so nobody contacted me about setting up the audit, I had to call back after two weeks to ask what's up. After it was fixed Jim contacted me that same day and was out to my home in a couple days.

I had no idea who had done that and called the power company (Xcel Energy); they said they had no idea, that they hadn't ordered it. I called the city and they had no clue. Then a week later (!), a card mysteriously appeared on my front door from Asplundh saying they had been contracted by Xcel Energy to cut my tree because it posed a and quot;hazardand quot; to the power lines in my back yard. (They strangely ignored all the other tree branches in other yards that were just as close if not closer than mine.) Because mine was deemed a and quot;hazard,and quot; I was told I have to remove the branches/tree trunk top. These are THICK branches, as in top of the trunk, and long. I pointed out that they just created a hazard for ME in that anyone who wanted to break into my house could use these thick, spear-like branches to break my windows--but of course, they didn't care about that. In fact, the guy I spoke with on the phone at Asplundh (Dave Trenson) said as far as they were concerned, they had and quot;fulfilled their obligationand quot; -- meaning to Xcel Energy. They could care less about me, the property owner. They can just waltz onto my property and cut down half a tree and not consider that trespassing. What makes this truly bizarre is that this guy said that his crew talked with some stranger in my back yard who assured them that he and quot;would take care ofand quot; the branches, i.e., cut them up and remove them. They didn't get the man's name, never even ASKED the guy if he was the homeowner. (The only person I can think of is a neighbor of mine who is home all day and who has taken liberties with my property before. But I have no way of knowing for sure.) The point is, Asplundh never even bothered to verify the identity of the man and just ASSUMED that he owned my property. And when I called to tell them that *I* was the owner, that they should have asked ME, they were totally dismissive. I called Xcel Energy again to tell them about this. The woman I spoke with (Kara in Wisconsin) was very sympathetic and said she'd file a complaint for me, but nothing has come of it--the branches are still there. I don't have a chain saw so I can't cut them up. I don't have a truck, either, to haul them to the dump. The city's recycling company won't take them unless they are in smaller pieces. I also asked Xcel why they picked only MY tree and not all the other neighbors who have trees just as close to the power lines. She waffled and said she had no idea. On the same day I discovered my tree had been chopped off (it looks really ugly now, too), I noted that all the trees along my street had been trimmed and huge piles of limbs were left next to the curb. The next day, they were all removed. By whom? The city? I called them (St Louis Park) and they had no clue. I thought it was very coincidental that my tree was cut the same day as others on my street. If Asplundh could remove truckloads of branches from my street, couldn't they have carted away my branches, too? Apparently not. I refuse to pay to have them cut up and removed, so there they will continue to lie. (This is why I entered and quot;$0and quot; in the box above; I have no idea how much it would cost to cut up the limbs and have them removed, but I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap.) I am so fed up with supposed and quot;professionalsand quot; doing a lousy job and not caring about the customer. Asplundh only cares about keeping their lucrative contract with Xcel Energy--they could care less about the homeowner. I am equally fed up with Excel Energy for not bothering to follow up on this matter. Shouldn't they be obligated to ASK us first to enter our property to cut down trees?!? Or at least contact the city? Does *anyone* monitor what Xcel and their contractors do? Apparently not; they can cut down trees wherever they feel like it and say it is a and quot;hazardand quot; so they don't have to remove the debris. (I'm not thrilled with the city, either, because they should know what's going on!) The real kicker is that I have to pay ever-increasing fees for electricity AND to the city. For what?

It is a service that we continually pay for from month to month. We were able to call them after hours at no additional charge. We were very pleased with them coming in. He didn't have the right part in his truck but he kept working and got it going. We had to ask them to order the correct part for the furnace because they like to put in generic.

I learned a lot from this. Isaac said I should have my attic air sealed before I do anything else. He took lots of pictures. I think there is a written report coming some day. Someone else said theirs took two weeks. I am sure it will be informative and will give me exactly the information I need to move forward, but I wish I had it already. It has been 12 days. I am considering hiring Sustain Max to do some of the remediation once I get a report and a couple of estimates.

The service call did not cost me anything because it was covered under my Homesmart plan. Anytime I have used them they have been good. They are neat and clean. Last year when they checked my furnace the technician shoveled my deck for me! They are punctual and the technicians are really good. They are always very, very nice and personable. Most of the time they follow my directions.

I spent about $5000 on the job. The work went very well. There were some technical problems with the air conditioner, but they came out and fixed it right away. I will use them again in the future.

They are a fine company. They are dependable. I don't have any complaints.

Good, they set up the appointment with K and B Service, which we've had in the past. They came when they said they would and Xcel covered the charges, as they said they would. That was helpful.

It took several weeks to get it scheduled but other than that, we thought that having a blower test as part of the energy audit was extremely worthwhile. My husband was home when the test was done and he said that it was very easy to see where a lot of our heat was leaking out of the house through a poorly insulated attic and some crawl spaces. We had an energy audit some years back without a blower test and we did not really get good information. I would highly recommend spending the extra money for the blower test. We got a written write-up on the audit results about two weeks after our energy audit. It was a great way to help us figure out where we would get the best return for the money spent to increase our energy efficiency.

Very well! It took about 10 days to get an appointment, but it was worth the wait. The auditor was an independent who contracts with Xcel to do this work. He was very professional and seemed very experienced and knowldegable about energy use in the home. He had brought with him a historical listing of my Xcel energy bills (gas and electric) over the last year and then also asked me questions to give him background info about the house. He provided me with an informative analysis of all this info.Then he did the blower test followed by the infrared scans. The infrared scans were by far the most informative part of the audit. He left me a CD of over a dozen photos of the air-leak spots of my home. I feel I can now hire an insulation contractor knowing what areas need to be addressed (and not be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous insulating company) and the photos will also help the contractor see what needs to be done. The auditor also left me a written report of his findings and recommendations and answered my many questions. Overall, I was VERY pleased and felt it was well worth the $100, especially considering I may spend a couple thousand dollars paying an insulating company to do work. This report will give me confidence in hiring a insulating contracor.

Seems like a great company. Prices are reasonable.

Mike came out to give us an estimate and knew we had to make a decision quickly because our old furnance had broken down twice already in the winter season and it was only December. After having all the estimates we decided to go with Xcel who then sub contracts the work out to another company which was Haley's company. This made us a little nervous if something went wrong and who we would call etc., but we figured they were the company our electric and heat were supplied with, so they shouldn't be a problem, I was wrong. We had an appointment to have the furnace installed on January 2nd @ 8:00am, and they said it would be done in one day and we could have the inspection done another day. Well the morning of the appointment they called to say one of their techs called in sick, and would have to reschedule. This was upsetting as I had taken the day off work and now would have to take another day off to have this done again, also I wondered if I had an problem and the tech called in sick how long would I wait for service. The next week we set up another appointment for a couple weeks later. The tech came, but only for a few hours and said they would come back another time to complete the work, well several weeks had passed and I heard nothing so I called them about coming to finish the job. They had come back one evening to finish the work, because I was not going to be taking another day off work for them to complete what should have been done in one day. The tech finished and left not letting us know how to change the filter or how to program anything and the caulk used had holes and was letting all the heat out, also the pipe outside had to be moved away from the windows by state code and that also was not done. I called to have the tech come out once again to fix these problems and again they had to come out and complete all this work. This was way too many trips and time for something that should have taken one full day to complete it had been 4 months. Finally I thought this nightmare was over. When we purchased the furnace we were told we would recieve a gift card, well that finally came after all the time we had to wait to get this completed and the gift card was wrong. I had been told they knew what I had been thru and would let their supervisors and others know what was going on, but they never made an attempt to resolve any of these issues. They were all talk but no actions were being done.