Austin Star Services

It went very well, they help me get free energy efficient rebates in the city. It was for 10000.00 before rebate and 8500.00 after rebate.

Austin Star services calls the day of the appt to schedule the appt -- that is fine. However they called me at 9 in the morning to let me know that the service was going to be from 9-12 -- that was fine. then they told me to shut of all my AC's now so that their tech would not have to wait to do that. They explained in case the AC was frozen or overheated. This was not my problem - i had a problem with an AC bearing. I let them know that i had an elderly person in the home and could not leave the AC shut for 3 hours and the person may have a heat stroke. I was told that their technician would charge me $65/hour then. This is in violation of HWA rules which states a $60-$75 flat service charge. I told i understood their need but could they at least let me know an hour in advance and i would shut down the AC as I felt a hour was tolerable for an elderly person but not 3 hours. They told me that they will call 30 minutes in advance and that i could be liable for the $65/hour charge if i did not shut off the AC now. I said ok but i will turn off the AC but if they are running late -- could they let me know. They refused. I then called HWA and cancelled the service with them. It seems to me that they were just trying to find ways to charge me more even before they got here. § 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = Backspace Tab q w e r t y u i o p [ ] Return capslock a s d f g h j k l ; ' \ shift ` z x c v b n m , . / shift English Deutsch Español Français Italiano Português ??????? alt alt Preferences Preferences § 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = Backspace Tab q w e r t y u i o p [ ] Return capslock a s d f g h j k l ; ' \ shift ` z x c v b n m , . / shift English Deutsch Español Français Italiano Português ??????? alt alt Preferences Preferences § 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = Backspace Tab q w e r t y u i o p [ ] Return capslock a s d f g h j k l ; ' \ shift ` z x c v b n m , . / shift English Deutsch Español Français Italiano Português ??????? alt alt Preferences

I filed a claim with my home warranty company and Austin Star Services was sent to my home. Austin Star Services has been to my home twice over the past two weeks. The first time I was told a spider tripped the breaker. The following visit, a starter kit was installed however the breaker has continued to trip. It tripped a total of 10 times yesterday. The technician asked me not contact my warranty company with any additional problems but to call them directly. I called them Thursday afternoon. I was assured that I would receive a return phone call either Thursday evening or first thing Friday morning. At 5:30 Friday afternoon I called them again. I spoke to Jon, the owner. He stated that he was awaiting a phone call from HWA (the warranty company) and would call me back by 8:30pm that evening. I waited an hour and at 6:40 pm called my warranty company for a status update. The warranty company informed me that 10 minutes prior to my call, Jon had called for the first time stating that my breaker was continuously breaking and that he had to do further diagnostics. The warranty company was awaiting instruction from Jon. I called Jon numerous times. Not until I left a message stating that I was being told conflicting stories and wanted to give him an opportunity to tell me what was going on before filing a complaint did he call me back. Jon continued to state that the delay was a result of waiting on direction from HWA. When asked directly if he had called HWA and informed them that the starter kit was not properly working, he answered no. When asked directly why HWA would call him with direction if they had not been made aware there was an issue with the unit, he apologized for any "miscommunication." Ultimately Jon stated that his first call to the warranty company was at 6:30, he had not made them aware of the issue earlier in the day as previously said BUT the warranty company was refusing to fix the unit until it "completely failed." He further stated that HWA told him that there was nothing that could be done and if he drove to my house the only thing he was authorized to do was to flip my breaker. I called HWA, I was told that no such thing was said. In fact, I was told that a continuously tripping breaker in the Texas heat is considered an emergency under their policy. When Jon was confronted with this information and asked the name of the person he spoke to directly, he stated that he spoke to "like 7 different people about it" but doesn't remember their names. Amazingly, none of these 7 people made any documentation regarding their conversations. He then, again, apologized for any "miscommunication." This company took my service call fee, is paid by the warranty company and not only did not fix the problem, but lied numerous times about the status of the work. I realize there are unforeseen issues that arise but I do expect that when I allow a person into my home, that are honest and trustworthy. This company is not.

These guys are great. I got their name from a well known appliance store in town. I needed a new vent hood installed with new ducting that had to go out to my garage, up through my attic and out a side wall. John came out quickly to give a quote and discussed several options to make sure the project was functional and economical. I was not sure of the best person to call for this so I was happy when I found out he had done this many times and knew all that was involved. John decided how to lay out the vent lines to make sure to have the best air flow I was emailed an estimate the next day. It was very reasonable. They came out within a few days, installed my system with great care and cleaned up their mess. My new vent works great and looks great. I would recommend these guys without hesitation.

Jon Esquivel is the owner and he runs his own business. We were not happy with him. In the beginning we thought he was great and very well spoken. He gave us a great professional written estimate. He basically didn't really show up on time. He wanted payment differently than what was written in the contract. I thought it was great that he didn't ask for anything up front. He was supposed to do half the work and we would pay him half the money. Then the second half was supposed to be paid after it passed inspection and he guaranteed that it would pass inspection. We thought it was great that he was going to stand behind his work and make sure that everything passed inspection. He started asking for payment before he was finished with the job, but we went ahead and paid him. He wouldn't answer our phone calls after that and he wouldn't meet the inspectors, as he said he would. We ended up failing a couple of the inspections. He kept saying that he would come and fix the things. He hasn't shown up and he outright lied to us about scheduling the inspections. We had to find a way to schedule the inspections. He got a little bit argumentative about what we wanted done. The work started in May and didn't get done until after September. It was over four months, but some of that was not his fault. He didn't put the wiring where the electrician wanted it, and we had to pay an electrician to move it. We also had to pay him extra for some small things. We had originally gone with him because his price was a little lower than some, but he wasn?t the lowest.