KMA Electric, Heating & Cooling

We had a lightning strike that required 400 ft of underground wire to be replaced. They charged (our insurance) $18,000 to replace it. Now I find they did not put it in conduit (direct buried) and put in smaller wire than they claimed (only put in #2AWG aluminum rather than #4/0 wire). It took a few years, but now we have to pay to dig everything back up and replace it properly. Amazing incompetence and FRAUD.

I will NEVER recommend KMA as they are scam artists! Technician Roberto Del Pinal was out to diagnose our slow AC yesterday. He recommended a full replacement of both furnace and AC, which was red flag number 1. AC wouldn’t not work immediately after their visit. I called and their immediate response was “well if it isn’t covered by warranty, then you’ll have to pay”….. I didn’t even ask about payment, I just wanted it fixed. Red flag #2. Turns out, he left a wire disconnected to the capacitor. The wire is connected in such a way that it isn’t easily disconnected, could have fallen off or been bumped off. He intentionally left it disconnected while they were quoting a $10k-$15k system…. Do NOT hire them, they will try to scam you!!

Really good. Very fast and get there the next day.

I called this morning and the technician came out this afternoon. Fixed the issue quickly. Our air conditioner has not worked correctly since 2014. Finally yesterday the air conditioning company suggested we contact an electrician to have the circuit breaker changed. Problem has now been solved. KMA's technician offered some advice concerning the aluminum wiring that still exists in part of our house. We were not aware that there was a solution which we definitely be calling them back.

Terrible! The contractor did a terrible job. Left the ditch that he dug wide open and did not cover the ditch properly. Also, added a junction box on the basement wall but did not terminate properly. Left cover off the box. Price was too high for the work performed. Contacted KMA and asked for a different person to come correct the work. They sent the same person.

My father (over 80) called KMA and explained the problem they had. They said it would cost $250 to fix. They came out to the house and it turned out it was something simple and it was fixed in LESS THAN 5 MINUTES without requiring any results. THEY STILL CHARGED HIM THE $250!!!!!! DON"T USE THESE GUYS!!!! CROOKS!!!!!

I found them to be extremely expensive, unsuccessful on first visit to fix smoke detectors, interested in providing other expensive services.

This is the only way I know to let people know to avoid this unscrupulous company. Was not sure what all was involved with fixing our meter box to the satisfaction of the electric company. Actual work involved was removing cover from meter box, removing screws from back, straightening meter box and pole, putting in new screws and attaching a couple of cheap brackets to the house. Actual work done took less than 30 minutes. Mitchell, the technician talking in an attempt to justify the cost took around an hour tops. Cost was $660. I imagine MItchell was driving away laughing and saying "SUCKER!!". There is a reason the company can respond to your call quickly as I am sure they have a bad reputation.

They did a perfect job.

Called around for additional quotes, will not be using KMA.

The worst responsiveness ever. They were completely incompetent.

Our electric meter was inspected by the power company, and determined to be in an unsafe condition. I called KMA, and told the receptionist that an inspector said that the lines feeding into the meter from the box at the rear of the house were pulled too tight. She said it sounded like I needed a new meter which, in hindsight, makes no sense (but I'm not an electrician, and I assume she isn't either, or she wouldn't be answering the phone). As the electric was going to be shut off in two days, I asked them to come out. My wife was home at the time. The tech came out, and my wife called me at work and said he quoted her $4,200. He told me the existing lines needed to be dug up and entirely replaced, because the sheathing was worn off and the bare wires were almost touching each other. He said he could not splice the wires, because he was "...scared to touch them." He said he was surprised the electric was not immediately shut off. He said the job required a city permit, digging up the existing wire, installing about 100 feet of new wire, and moving the grounding rods by the meter. I told my wife to go ahead and charge it. The next morning, I thought about something my wife said. She told me that when the tech was at the house, he kept writing things down to give an estimate. My wife asked him if it was going to be over $5,000. He said no. He wrote up an estimate that was over $5,000. But, KMA was going to give us a 20% discount and a military discount to get to the $4,257. I asked my wife to call them to put a hold on them coming out to do the repair so we could get another estimate. She called Access Electric, explained the problem, and the tech said the wires should be maintained by the city. He said if not, it sounded like a $2,000 job. My wife called the city, explained the situation, and they sent somebody out. The tech from Access showed up at the same time as the tech from the city. Both techs said the wires could just be spliced. Either that, or the meter could be lowered. The city tech spliced the wires. IT TOOK HIM 10 MINUTES. My wife called KMA to ask for a refund. They said that they would have to send us a check. I guess, for reasons unknown, that the charge cannot just be refunded back to my card. This is causing me great concern. Both technicians above agreed that KMA knew they could have spliced the wires, instead of quoting for trenching the yard, running 100' of wire, and putting in two grounding rods. My wife left a message for them, asking them why we were quoted so much when they knew (or should have known) this job could have been done for nothing. As of the writing of this review, there has been no response.

Very knowledgeable about system, he diagnosed the problem, and didn't try to sell me a new unit. The only sales pitch he made was for me to be more proactive on maintenance of my unit. So I now have a service contract with KMA to keep my HVAC working good in winter and summer. I should have had a professional maintenance provider from the start, and I won't have had a problem at all!

Called Monday and spoke to a very nice lady and set an appointment for Tuesday @ 9am. Tuesday @ 9:45am I call because no one has shown up. The lady said she would check and call me right back. Twenty minutes goes by she finally calls back and says the technician has been delayed and can't get here until 12 noon. I declined and went with another company I had used in the past that is reliable.

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Excellent! They checked the service panel and provided additional information and really went above and beyond.

Called 5 days earlier and had the service date and time set. The day of service and 2 hours past the time I had to call and see where they were. A lady called me back and said they would be there the next day due to the spa wasn't at the location yet. I had the time set for noon because the spa was going to be here before noon. They came in the next morning and performed the job. They left and failed to clean up the mess they created when drilling thru the wood for the wires. Now I have to clean up their mess.

I was told that the estimator would reach out to me. He came out and spent much time determining problems and looking at the house. He was supposed to get back with me with the estimate. I waited 5 weeks. I called and they acted like they just got it all ready and were about to call me. Truthfully, they forgot about me and they tried to act as if they didn't. If he forgot about the estimate what else would he forget about. Poor business practices.

On Sunday afternoon, I made an appointment with KMA for an electrician to come to my home at 9 am on Monday morning. At 8:30 am Monday morning, KMA called and said that that the electricians were in a professional development meeting that day and would not be able to arrive until noon. At 11:30 am they called and said that no electrician was available to come out at all that day because they were already occupied with other jobs. (What happened to that professional development meeting that was the original excuse?) They asked if they could reschedule me for another day. I said no, because with 2 broken appointments and inconsistent excuses, I did not feel that this company could be trusted.

Representative was to arrive at 9 am. At 9:30 I called to check to see where they were and I could tell that we were not really scheduled. They moved estimate to 11:00. Rep arrived on time, took a look in the basement and outdoors and then explained the issues to me: replace breaker box, fix wire outside, replace dryer outlet. We went to the table to discuss and the first thing he asked was whether my husband was home and if not, was I allowed to make financial decisions. That did not sit well with me at all. He then proceeded to text back and forth with his wife while we sat there. He explained that there was a minor emergency at home, but he could have told her he was with a client. He also asked me if I was going to offer him something to drink. I did not realize we were going to be sitting and chatting. Once he actually wrote the estimate out, I was flabbergasted. The costs ranged from $6200 with a five year warranty down to $4200 with no warranty and sub standard equipment. They also offered financing that was tied to Wells Fargo Home Equity Line of Credit which I found odd, but perhaps that's just me. I told the rep that I would need to get more estimates. He did not seem happy about this of course, but he was never really rude or anything... just a feeling I got that he was on commission and was just not being completely above board. I ended up using Angie's List to find another company. Job was just completed today and was $1400 less than the lowest estimate that KMA gave me, and did not include sub standard equipment. I had to pay the $59 fee for a service call, although no work was completed. I believe that is because that's the way it was called in to them originally. Not as an estimate, but as a work call. He also would not leave the estimate sheet, but I did take a picture of it with my phone.

After a long and convoluted effort to get a temporary power line buried at my home after the underground line had been damaged by a contractor that hit it while installing a new deck, KMA Electric came to my house and, over a two day period, managed to hit my sprinkler system in three places, hit the gas line going to the house, causing us to have to evacuate with our pets, and did several hundred dollars worth of damage to my yard and landscaping. I can understand some problems when digging near utilities, but was told that this job would be so expensive because it had to be "hand trenched." I thought that meant digging the trench by hand so that the problems were avoided. Obviously not, since the trenching machine was used. I guess I misunderstood since the trenching tool requires a persons hands to be on it in order to run it. It seemed as if the work done by KMA Electric was haphazard, at best, and frighteningly dangerous, at worst. To add insult to injury, once the weather turned warm enough to require me to start watering my yard again, a sink-hole developed where the trench and large pit had been dug in order to fix the original problem. I called KMA to let them know about it, the person I spoke to told me she would have someone check it and would get back to me. No one ever got back to me but when I got home, I noticed that some of the dirt from the original dig had been shoveled around. The problem was never fixed by KMA, I ended up taking care of it myself since I no longer trust them to do anything right the first time, much less correct the problem later. This has been quite a disappointing yet eye-opening experience.

KMA did an initial assessment, very thorough. However, by scheduled date for install, the installation plan had gotten lost in the interim. Have the technician provide you copies of not only the proposal, but drawings, sketches, etc. Due to the necessity of needing to re-evaluate the installation plan in a somewhat impromptu manner, some components had to be located, ordered, and/or picked up, delaying the installation process; and the finished installation at the transfer switch was somewhat different than described during the assessment. Our installation required a substantial trench (approximately 125 feet) for the cables from the generator and house propane supply being replaced as part of the project; included in the original installation assessment. The trenching equipment utilized was somewhat in poor repair, but serviceable; issues during the trenching operation further contributed to the project's delay. To the installation crew's credit, weather conditions were miserable, 95+ degrees, very humid, the entire project was in direct sun, they worked 10 to 11 hours both days of the primary install and the lead actually returned to resolve a troubleshooting problem with the test run on that Saturday morning to complete the installation. I was somewhat perturbed by the conduit installation under the deck, but not a major issue, easily resolved. KMA provided the quoted product, although slightly off schedule, in less than optimum weather conditions, at the quoted price. They did an excellent job of coordinating their work with the propane supplier, providing ample guidance and notice to facilitate a seamless transition from the original propane supply to the new.

The technician was very courteous, skilled, and helpful. He did a great job installing a new light switch/celing fan box, and running electrical to the fan with doing minimal damage to the drywall. Although they claim they are not responsible for repairing drywall, he offered to screw drywall cutouts back and plaster them (if I provided plaster). He did a decent job plastering peices of celing back He also repaired a burnt out junction box in our finished basement. The current wiring was not very clean and did not properly follow code. He repaired the junction box, trimed up wiring and stabled it down properly. He also installed a breaker on the outlets facing the unfinished side to conform to code. The work was quick and he did a great job.

A house power problem had occured December 10, 2009 which KMA Electric out of Newark, OH was dispatched for a Emergency Service call. Upon examining the situation the service man said our power fuse box was obsolete and a generator previously installed had been installed improperly. He informed me he could install a new 14K Generic Generator for $7,000.00 to include a five year warranty (written of the receipt) which that amount also included updating the old fuse box. After the first power outage the generator did not operate. A battery had been hooked up wrong ( by a previous installer working for KMA Electric) and had exploded. It was repaired and everything seemed fine until the second power outage when the generator was running but not putting out any power. KMA was called and again it was repaired. The last power outage June 30, 1012 the generator came on and ran for 18 hours. When our propane tank ran out of fuel we hooked up a reserve full tank which after installed the generator would not start. It would turn over but not start. After 2 1/2 years KMA totally ignored our pleas to install a new generator starter during the power outage of June 30, 2012. They deceptively told us (including the Owner) for two days that they would be out to repair the generator and which they never showed up. KMA Electric also informed us to take my homebound 99 year old mother to McDonalds so she could cool down. Totally UNACCEPTABLE. After two days of being ignored by KMA Electric we dispatched a engine machanic and after two hours of testing found out it was a bad starter. I found out that JD Power and Equipment out of Grove City, OH had the same brand of Generic Generators and had a new starter in stock. A licensed electrician was dispatched by us to install the new starter. (We were told by the owner of KMA that a licensed electrician had to install the new starter in order not to void the warranty). After installation of the new starter everything is working fine thanks to Mid Ohio Electric Company and JD Power and Equipment. JD Power and Equipment said it would honor out warranty for the rest of 2012 only not sure if it would cover the new starter.I want it noted that without power our house has no water, airconditioning, heat or utilities of anykind. It has been an absoulutely Bad experience dealing with KMA Electric, Newark Ohio.