PENCE HEATING & COOLING

Disclaimer: this review is JUST for the installation of my new heat/AC units. I have had an excellent experience with Pence's maintenance guy, Andy. He is a great guy and we will continue to use him for anything HVAC related. For this install... I contacted Pence's for a bid for a new heat/AC in home on a Saturday, Bob (owner) came out at 8 PM at the beginning of the following week. Was a little late for my taste, especially with a 2 year old, but I didn't have to take off work, so I was happy. He did a quick assessment and came back with a reasonable cost, so I called back the next day to give them the go-ahead. The installation was scheduled quickly and for the same week (probably since it was fall/off season). My wife and I were gone while they were there; they came and left in a 6-8 hour period and everything was basically "done". I went down to check out their work when I got home, and found a nice sheet of dirt covering my basement floor, with several shards of duct metal and screws scattered around. My immediate thought was, "Wow. That's how you leave a job site?" Bob said he had to come back and finish a few things, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed things would look a bit better when everything was completely finished. Well, that didn't happen... I asked Bob to call me or my wife to let us know what time he was coming to finish everything. She works nights, so likes to sleep in when our son allows. We received no call, and he showed up at 8 AM. She was none to happy, and I think Bob got the hint. He said "Sorry to wake you", but as my wife so eloquently put: if you were sorry, you would have called like you said you were going to. That wasn't a big deal overall, it's just nice to know when people are coming to your house, especially when you live in the country like we do and visitors are few and far between. Bob was only there for a few minutes, he installed something and left. Here is a list of the complaints I have with their work: 1) leaving a FILTHY mess in my basement. Granted, we don't keep it that clean, but we do sweep up after ourselves. I sucked up the dirt in my Dyson so I could get a visual of how much dirt there was: it filled up half the canister! Not to mention the sharp pieces of metal in random places and the screws- you know I have a toddler running around! 2) showing up unannounced, as I've already mentioned. 3) the air filter they put in the return duct didn't fit, not by a LONG shot. It stuck out of the duct by a couple inches. Seems like a no-brainer, especially when I had a new one that fit it lying next to the furnace. 4) they had to cut a new hole to the outside to vent. that's fine... but when you cut the hole WAY to big and don't seal it? You can see the outside from the basement by looking through the hole... again, seems like a no-brainer. And they also left their empty caulk tubes outside... Apart from those issues, the fit and finish of our new units is not great. There are several PVC pipes leading to my floor drain now (more than before), I would have joined all of them into one pipe that goes to the floor. The AC unit isn't sitting on the concrete pad outside, it overhands by an inch or so. And the extreme amount of caulk on the house now is just an eyesore. It's also important to note that I did not contact Bob or anybody to fix any of these things. I only hire out what I have to for home maintenance, so I can sweep up their mess and fix a gaping hole in my house easily enough. Frankly I didn't want to speak with them at all, and will try to avoid speaking with them in the future.

I was impressed with the repairman and felt he was friendly, professional and honest.

unknown

These June, 2007 calls were an extremely unpleasant contact with this company's owner. I was a good customer and expected to be treated with at least some common courtesy. I felt like I was talking to a 2 year old in the midst of a tantrum. He seemed was upset that I had changed my mind and decided to repair a 5 year old Maytag, rather than buy a new model GE (even though his company would be doing the repair work). I guess I would suggest that he's ruining his own business by this kind of behavior with customers. Needless to say I cancelled all service/ repair visits and will never use this company again (despite the fact that Andy is a great repairman).

EMPLOYEES WERE COURTEOUS AND HELPFUL.