HEAT MASTER CORP

They put a new igniter in the furnace and installed a programmable thermostat. However, they overcharged me. They billed me $395 for the thermostat, that regularly sales for under $100.00. When they arrived today to do a furnace examination, I fired them.

Scheduling them to come out and bid on evaluating our furnaces and AC unit was challenging (Jerry was hard to reach and to pin down, and didn't return phone calls as promised). When I finally did get him to send a guy out, the guy did seem to do a good job explaining how my heating and AC systems worked, and offered to go into my crawlspace to check a few things, and also to check the AC unit out to see how functional it was. Near the end of the visit, he lit up a cigarette inside my garage. I didn't appreciate it, and moved the conversation outdoors where I didn't have to smell it. Then I asked what the next steps were for getting back to me for a bid on the work he thought needed to be done... he said Jerry would get back to me, but first, he would "have to collect for the visit" that day. Given his 6'10" height, and insistance that I provide him with payment, I complied... I planned to dispute the charge after talking it over with Jerry. He assured me Jerry would call me back or e-mail me to discuss the bid. They never called me, they never e-mailed me. I regret handing over my credit card. I'm asking for a refund, and will update this review when (if) I receive a call back from them. Note: This was the only company that I had come by that insisted on getting paid to evaluate the furnaces and AC unit and produce a bid for the work to be done. Other companies spent as much as 2 hours doing a thorough evaluation, and charged nothing, and followed up with a detailed bid/response.

Found out this company purchased phone number from D & R Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc., whom we had used 7 years earlier without any problems. Now called Heat Master Corp., DBA Mr. Furnace. Troy Hill showed up unshaven, unprofessional, and not appearing to fully know what he was talking about or doing. The service call to turn on/check outside AC unit was $117 - nothing wrong with the unit, just needed cleaning. He charged $139.00 to spray a chemical on the unit and hose it off! He wanted to charge same or more to turn on attic furnace/ AC unit, but when told this was ridiculous, he said, since he was already on the call, he would only charge $82.00...when this was debated, he ended up not charging to turn on and look at furnace/AC attic unit saying it was considered a part of the outdoor AC unit; This, after he clearly stated that other service companies would charge to look at both units. I had called a couple other service dealers while he was looking at equipment and knew I was being unfairly overcharged and this guy did not know what he was doing! The 2 companies I called said they would come out and look at both units for less than $99.00 total. Because of this, I did not even ask him to figure out the real problem...water had leaked out of attic unit onto floor. He turned on unit and said it was fine. I did not feel confident that he would be fair and honest in diagnosing and charging for a problem, so I paid him to leave. Total fee for this call that did nothing but chemically hose off outdoor AC unit = $256.00!!! MY BAD for not throughly checking Angie's List before calling the company and assuming that just because the same phone number belonged to an HVAC company - it was the same company used 7 years ago. Another company I called to come out and diagnose both units and the attic unit's water leaking problem the following week was here 2 hours and only charged $75.00!! Lesson learned! Don't make the mistake I made!

The end result was fine, but the process was painful. Scheduled 1 day out - great. Promised to have technician call prior to arrival so I could be there to let him in. Forgot to do this so the tech had to wait and I had to rush. I was very clear in requesting a programmable thermostat, but they installed simply a digital manual thermostat. During the post-install run-through, I noted this and mentioned that I was under the impression I was getting a programmable model. Tech called the office and they agreed to replace with a programmable without additional cost (I thought $257 was what a programmable should cost). During install of the new thermostat, the technician had several problems and thought it was not starting up properly. Turns out he forgot there is a 5 minute delay on start up if the furnace has been powered off to protect the compressor. You'd think this would be pretty common knowledge for a technician. Anyway, end result was OK.

Jerry was a great help. Found us just the unit we needed for our home & had it installed within a few days. Look forward to working with them in the future & referring them to friends & family.

I CALLED AFTER 6:00 PM. THEIR SERVICEMAN WAS AT MY HOUSE ABOUT NOON THE NEXT DAY WITH THE SERVICE PERFORMED VERY QUICKLY. HE WAS COMPETENT, PROFESSIONAL AND PROMPT. THEIR FEE SEEMS FAIR. CAN'T ASK FOR MUCH MORE THAN THAT!

LAST WINTER OUR FURNACE DID NOT SEEM TO BE OPERATING AT PEAK PERFORMANCE. WE CALLED HEAT MASTER TO COME OUT AND SEE WHAT WE COULD DO TO MAKE OUR FURNACE MORE EFFICIENT. AFTER THEY CLEANED THE DUCTS AND REPLACED THE AIR FILTER IT WORKED MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY.