Universe Home Services

It was great! They found the leak really fast and repaired it really fast, and then they were on their way. They advertise a lot, that's how I learned about them. They were here early.

It went well. They returned my call promptly and the day before the appointment they confirmed the appointment. He was prompt and courteous. He didn't just replace a dial, he also checked the belts, pulleys and gas coils. The technician asked if I had a vacuum so he can vacuum the inside dryer since he had it open and checked to make sure the dryer was venting correctly. Now, my dryer works better than ever.

They were very good. Overall it was excellent. They did all that they said and did it in a day. They did it all and cleaned everything. They did an excellent job. I never had oil and I refused the oil...I was going crazy since I always had gas. I looked and called for several people. I forgot the other ones but this was the only company that knew what they were saying. They said that they could do the job and they itemized everything. They did an excellent job and I had no problems with them. Everything that they put on the piece of paper and said was done. Their pricing was a lot but I had no choice. They came on time and did exactly what they said.

The salesman came to my home and gave an estimate, he did not try to pressure me in to buying right away. The price was probably a little high, but I decided to go with them because of their reputation. Once I signed the contract the started the job right away. The installation crew was neat and worked quickly. After the crew left I discovered one of the zones was not working. After calling the company they had a technician at my house within an hour and the problem was fixed. Over all my wife and I are very happy and would use Universe appliance repairs gain.

This is a revised review. I initially had an issue with them regarding use of a coupon and this was satisfactorily resolved by their office.

excellent.......courtous, knew what he was doing and compled quickly.

The tech was here for barely 2 hours to complete a basic job and charged us $650.00. When we first called, the woman said initial fee was $110 and upon assessing job, tech would give us price as they couldn't quote a price over the phone. It's obvious why they don't give price over the phone. So, it basically cost us $325.00 PER HOUR for a simple job. Then, the next morning, we observed an appreciable amount of water under the master bathroom sink. It turns out that when the tech installed the new pipes, he forgot to tighten a connection which resulted in a constant leak throughout the night. In addition, we observed that the tech did a messy job of sealing the sink and didn't even seal the rear portion of the sink. For $650, obviously we called them back to tighten the pipe and properly seal the sink. The tech was polite, but did a poor job.

Called them in the morning of the 24th explaining I was home bound after back surgery and my heater (floor based forced air)wasn't working correctly. I had heat but it didn't seem to be flowing up the floor vents with any force. They told me they'd be. Here between 10 am and 1 pm .they got here at 10:30 or so. Charged me for a service call ($119.00) and said they'd have to find apart for a 22 year old gas burner. It might not be same day! Mind you this was on one of the coldest weeks we've had so far on Long Island. Eric was so concerned about my comfort he tried to get the old blower started but it was just shot so he told me to call the office after 2pm and follow up on the ordered part. Initially they had to order it from Pennsylvania and I was looking at a cold weekend, but after I spoke to them at 2:30 or so they called me back and located the part locally and would be at the house sometime between 4pm and 8 pm. Joe showed up a little after 4 and had a very hard time getting the blower motor out of the housing but after a lot tries got everything done and I had heat by 8pm . I can't tell you how satisfied I was with the service and caliber of the service staff. I couldn't ask for anything else polite, knowledgable, and cleaned up the work area. This was not an optimal work area either. As for the price, well they credited me for the first call rolled in a PM policy for my heater . Was the cost of install and part excessive, frankly I have no idea, but being in a form of sales my self , I can tell you....there's always someone who can do it cheaper . For me the peace of mind that I have someone I can call on anytime that says what they'll do and does it well is more than worth what I paid. I am totally satisfied with this company and the service they provided me.

Technician was on time, courteous, professional, and repair was done perfectly. However, the cost of service seems to be way too high. The repair only took about 20 minutes. The bottom hinge that was replaced did not look like a very expensive part. Therefore, the cost for service of $255.00 seems way excessive.

Came on time and were very professional and courteous. Explained everything thoroughly and did an excellent job installing everything. Heating and sink work great with no problems. Cleaned up very thouroughly and were very friendly and helpful. Highly recommended

It went well from beginning to end. Excellent service and I would recommend it to all our friends...

Excellent! Joe,the installer was courteous,professional,and KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING!!!!! He explained everything and was friendly! I would recommend Universe Appliance........and Joe wholeheartedly!

Our faucets were at least 20 years old. Expeditiously changed them with new parts he had in his truck.Clean work. Previous plumber did not know if parts were still available.

Tune up gas burner for heating system

The guy came on time. He was courteous and honest. He balanced the machine and offered to get a part for it if balancing did not work. We said OK order the part. His simple balancing of machine fixed it. I did not need the part.I called them to cancel the order of a part and they cheerfully complied.

Please see all of my details above.

From contacting them via the messaging on here to making an appointment to the actual job, it was great. Everyone was very friendly and courteous and the job was completed and tested and runs great! I would highly recommend this company!

Replaced computer part in refrigerator.service completed in less than 5 minutes.

It went fine, although Angie's List shows a member coupon of $25 although I was not home and my husband forgot to show the repairman the coupon, they should have given us the discount--whick I mentioned when making the appointment.

So I never really write reviews about companies that did no work for me - I absolutely cannot vouch for their work, which is very important, but I can vouch for my negative experience with them. The man who came was nice enough - he was punctual, he took a look at everything, and told me he would leave the estimates in my mailbox by the next day. I was a little taken aback because most estimates are done online, but not everyone is good with computers so I understand. Two days pass - no estimates. He calls 3 days later and apologizes that he had to leave the state for an emergency and would get me the estimate in another day or two. I told him I hope everything is okay, not a problem. Needless to say, no estimate or call ever came after that. I never called back to inquire because honestly, I don't want to deal with a company like that, and I had many other good plumbers come and give me great estimates in a timely fashion. My other big complaint: the man who gave me the estimate told me flat out that central air could not be done in my home - that it was not feasible and anyone who told me they could do it were either lying or could do something he couldn't. Well - they could do something he couldn't, because another fantastic company installed my central air conditioning in 3 days. It was challenging, yes - but feasible. I found this as a red flag that possibly this company does not really work with challenging situations.

I have used Universe Appliance for many years, and they are ALWAYS professional, competent and polite.

Tech arrived and diagnosed problem quickly. Repairman called office to even get us out of even being charged. They answered our call within a day.

I called around 8:45 am and the repairman showed up about an hour later (great responsiveness). I showed him the problem I had, and asked if it were possible to repair the boiler instead of having to replace it (I don't have $1000's to spend at the moment). He said he may be able to repair it, but since the boiler was so old (40 - 50 years old), he said he couldn't make any promises (I appreciated his candor). He suggested that we have someone from Universe Appliance come out to give me an estimate on a new boiler, and I agreed. He got to work and made repeated trips out to his van, and about 90 minutes later he showed me the work he had done, which was to put a new 6" pipe with a new valve coming out of the low-water shut-off (it was rusty, and had fallen off, which is why I called him). He also replaced the glass tube of the water feed. Apparently it was cracked, which I hadn't noticed, but saw afterwards when he showed me the broken part. I was very impressed with everything he did. Then he gave me the bill. He said the glass tube replacement was $236 and the drain valve was $309, which both included the labor costs. I asked him how much just the parts cost, not including labor. He said that Universe goes by per-repair pricing, so whether the job takes 20 minutes or 4 hours, the price is the same. I told him that those parts couldn't have cost more than $50 - $100 total, which means he was getting more than $400 for 1.5 hours of work. He insisted these were book prices, and that he wasn't personally getting paid that much. I'm absolutely floored that Universe can charge these rates. The guy did a great job, and feel he deserves an "A" rating in everything but pricing: but I was expecting to pay half of what I was charged.

Workers were courteous, careful and professional.

I like Universe's size. It's big enough that they can send an estimator or repairman days before smaller, more local companies can. Their hardware is well reviewed on the Internet, from companies that are big and old enough to offer online support. I called Universe and a couple of other companies for estimates when HomeServe (my regular service-only company) shut down my old unit at its fall checkup. It had become unsafe. The estimator came in a timely manner, and was well equipped with product glossies for the Slant/Fin Galaxy models (They're made on Long Island!) and had a tablet computer to help with the sizing and estimation. Unlike the estimator from the other bidder, Universe threw in a fire sprinkler head, a critical safery feature for me given the central location of the boiler room in my house (a closet off my kitchen under the stairs leading up to our bedrooms.) The next available time slot for an install was the following Monday. I would need a three man crew. I turned down the offer of a temporary electric hot water heater to carry me thru the weekend, because it was still warm and I had figured out how to survive Colonial-style after Hurricane Sandy. The install crew (three young men and a helper) arrived at 7:50 AM Monday morning, 10 minutes early. They spread tarps on my kitchen floor, and set to work emptying and removing the old boiler, pumps, and valves. I settled down at my kitchen table to watch, and to answer questions about the system. It was 30 years old, and the prior owner of the house had been in the heating/AC business, so he had time time to put in a six zone system. Every serviceman who has seen my old system has been surprised by its complexity. I offered the crew a few old pumps and parts left by the prior owner near the boiler, and they did me the favor of removing them too. The new boiler unit arrived promptly from the wholesaler, and the crew set to work installing the unit, hooking it up to the water and gas pipes, and to my radiator system. The helper sat on the kitchen floor tarps, preparing the cast iron pipes with teflon tape and plumber's putty, (with a word of correction from one of the plumbers about technique) , while the other three plumbers worked in the boiler room building up the system around the new boiler. The new system leaked at a few copper connections and at a critical cast iron connection into the boiler. The team lost an hour disassembing and reassembling the leaky joints, then proceeded to the wiring part. They worked their way through my 6 thermostats, verifying they triggered zone valves and marking the zone valves with their room names. Three thermostats were replaced along the way, at no extra charge. An extra master shutoff switch was added inside the boiler room, in addition to the master switch outside the boiler room. My "old work" electrical box inside the boiler room didn't quite fit the "new work" cover's screw holes, so the cover was held in place with only one screw. (It was on the back wall, out of the way.) They verified the hot water temperature at the kitchen sink, and showed me how the mixer valve could be adjusted for hotter or colder water. They swept the boiler room, rolled up the tarps, gave me my user manuals, and I went for my checkbook. It was 5 PM, and they had worked straight through from 8 AM. One of them noticed a copper piping leak, and (with the help of a second torch-holder, managed to re-solder it under pressure. After they left, I noticed I had no flow from my kitchen sink hot water tap. I phoned Universe, and asked for a callback. A quick look at the boiler gave me my answer - a valve had been left closed for the last minute repair. A return call from the install truck verified my diagnosis, and a simple flip of the valve got me my hot water back. Saturday night, after two loads of laundry, my Leak Frog in the boiler room sounded. I placed a pan under the boiler, to catch a leak. Sunday morning, the water level in the pan had risen, so I called Universe for the leak. I also noticed my master bedroom was warm, though the thermostat wasn't calling for heat. I didn't regard it as an emergency, but they showed up to look at it Sunday. The warm bedroom was due to a zone valve that was left latched into the "on" position, allowing heat from the laundry loads to flow upstairs. We double checked the zones, this time feeling radiators to see if the radiators would respond to heat calls from their thermostats. Two of the six zones were crossed. We scheduled work for Monday, to fix the leak and rewire the system. Monday's repairman re-did the cast iron connection that was leaking, adding lamp wick to insure it wouldn't leak. He had to re-wire the zone valves and the pumps , re-thinking the scheme because of its complexity. The first crew had assumed zones 1,2,3 would be on one pump, and zones 4,5,6 would be on the second pump. The radiator piping turned out to feed zones 1,2,3,5 into one pump and zones 4,6 into the second pump. The serviceman called in a supervisor to sit with him while he did the complex rewire. Every zone checked out okay this time. A few days later, I noticed one of the controls (a Taco Low Water Level sensor) was no longer showing power through its green light. Universe returned to rewire the control, which had lost its power connection during Monday's work. Having lived with the system for a couple of weeks, I noticed a pattern of late and inadequate hot water supply on warm days. The new boiler came with a Fuel Smart Hydrostat model 3200, with a detailed manual describing its settings. A little Internet education and a few days' reading and re-reading of the manual later, I checked the settings: the high limit was 181 degrees, and the Low limit was 113 degrees. This was a cheapskate setting. I reset the LO limit to 144 degrees myself, and enjoy adequate hot water now. I have a high quality system, with 6 zones, and Universe to back me up if there are any problems.