Southwest Chimney & Stoves & Air Duct Cleaning

did a great job

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Excellent

The technical job was well done to my satisfaction. However, the Master Cool evaporative cooler, when replugged into its electric receptacles, was plugged in incorrectly, which resulted in hot air blowing from the vents rather than cooled air. I then called an airconditioning company (AC) to "fix the system." When the AC technician came, he replugged the electric plugs into the receptacle in the correct order, and informed me as to what the problem was. The system had been working well before Southwest had come to my home. We were in the midst of a heat wave even for El Paso and my home had been quite comfortably cool, so I came to the conclusion that their Southwest people had touched the Master Cool. I then called Southwest. Southwest immediately stated that I had said everything was satisfactory and signed a type of checklist as their service people were leaving, and that I should have called them if I had a problem. Therefore, they would not even consider reimbursing me for something they could have addressed. I told them I was not aware at that moment that the Master Cool machine had even been touched by them; I did not service it myself and was unable to go up on a roof to look at it anyway. It took a number of weeks, phone calls, threats to contact the Better Business Bureau, and an extended email on my part to be reimbursed for the AC charge I encountered from another company. I would recommend their work highly. HOWEVER, do not just sign the checklist sheet or look around and "see" if everything appears okay. Personally check any area where technicians had to touch equipment and/or disconnect it to make sure the equipment is back in the correct configurations as it was originally and working correctly.

Their was a little glitch in regards to patching the drywall but they were able to fix it at their cost. They are very reputable and knowledgable company. I have used them previously and they are always neat with their clean up.

Great. Tech showed up early, went to work, made some suggestions, cleaned up and left.

They actually have brushes to go all the way through and they open the ducts up to get inside. I talked to a couple of other guys around town that do duct cleaning who said that Southwest Chimney & Stoves & Air Duct Cleaning is the only company in town that does have the appropriate equipment to do it right. They have a truck that has big vacuum and stuff like that. It takes them a day or two to do the work. Their quote was $1795 for the whole job which is a lot more expensive than the other guys. Mr. Kennedy is the vice president of the company. I thought that the price was a little high. However, when I saw what they were doing, I felt that it was right for the amount of work that they do. I got referred to them by other duct cleaners. They take all the registers down and wash them. They take the air conditioning unit apart because they are also licensed air conditioning contractors. They clean and lubricate the inside of the air conditioning units. They have these big brushes that run through the ducts. It will literally scrub the whole thing. Then they check it all for any leaks and stuff like that. My house is not that huge and I have one air conditioning unit. It is still going to take them almost two days to do everything. They were right on the spot when we called them to come out and give us an estimate. I have seen them in the neighborhood doing other people?s houses also. I know that they have a lot of equipment and they seem to really work very carefully. They are very professional. They have all kinds of pictures and referrals. They also belong to a bunch of organizations. I am planning on using them in the future.

The men were efficient, tried to clean up their mess and mostly succeeded, and did a nice job generally. I would use them again BUT, and that is a very big BUT, when someone reassembled the larger air condioning unit, the pump was plugged into the clean machine outlet, not the pump outlet. As a result only hot air flowed through the house for about a day. The men finished about 6 PM or later. I was handed a checklist which had checked off what had been done, among those items being a notation for the air conditioners being on and working. I signed it. That evening I did not sleep at the house, and our evenings were turning cool so I did not notice that the cooling aspect of the larger air conditioner was not functioning; I worked in my office and that smaller air conditioner did cool the office and the nearby masterbedroom. The next morning the duct people came very early and I let them into the house. They examined the ducts while I was outside in the garden and I chose to replace the whole long vent line rather than just the portion that appeared to be rusted out. That was a good choice; more rusted areas were at the bottom on other parts of that long piping and they were of course also replaced. I was in the house far more on the day the duct people were there and mentioned that the house was quite hot; the men said that was to be expected; they had dismantled so much of the duct work that the air was blowing here and there in the attic. I left and returned later in the day. I was then shown the vent pieces that had been replaced and also mentioned to the men that my larger air conditioner seemed to be giving off only warm air. One of the men went to the unit on the room and reported to me (while laughing) that someone who had fiddled with the air conditioner obviously couldn't read! I authorized the man to fix it correctly which he did, and I had to pay $60+tax for that piece of the service. I did not realize that on the day before Southwest Chimney had fully dismantled my air conditioners until I spoke with someone in their office that night or the next morning, just on the chance that THEY had moved the electric plug. YES, they had worked on that air conditioner. I then told them the situation and that I'd paid $60+tax to fix something their men had messed up. Ultimately I was informed that they would not reimburse me because I had signed the original checklist and was to have called THEM if I discovered anything amiss. I HAD called them when I'd seen a mark on the wall that was brought to my attention by one of the duct men early on and someone came out to clean it off the wall. I DID NOT KNOW at that point about the misconnected air conditioner nor did I really understand it could have been the result of a stupid action on the part of Southwest Chimney. So....if you use them.....check anything that they have to dismantle and reassemble in the process of their cleaning job. Otherwise, you will get stuck with the costs if you don't know enought (as I DID NOT) to connect their errors with the problems they've left in your house and call them "yesterday!"