Aramendia Plumbing Heating & Air

Were prompt, came on the day/time frame they specified for an emergency situation after hours, notified when they were on the way, arrived on time, performed professionally and serviced the equipment that was broken. Left no mess to clean up and the equipment is working beautifully.

An immediate call to Aramendia resulted in a timely response before noon. While the cost was more than anticipated, the two gentlemen were very professional, even though the temperature was very cold that day and winds were swirling in my garage where they were working.

The plumber arrived and said that the softener had a 5 year warranty. He checked the softener to see if it was operating correctly and showed me all of the features and how it operated and any maintenance it required (when to put in salt etc). He then checked the water to make sure it was softening. After he made sure everything was good to go he changed the information on the warranty and said if I ever had a question give them a call...Although I didn't buy the softener they transferred the warranty and were very punctual and polite. I had a very good experience with this company and considering it was an "after" the sell experience I would call them again if I needed a plumber. Good service is rare in San Antonio....

They cleaned out the drain and it worked well for a couple of months but ended up slowing again. Their work had no guarentee which they informed me up front.

They were very prompt and efficient in the service. The service guys were cordial. Now the bad part. If you financed the job (0% interest for a year from Wells Fargo) like I had to, they jacked the price up another $200 up front, so 0% interest financing is misleading. Also, you couldn't use any discount deals if you financed. I think that the price was already a bit high for installing a mid-range 50-gallon tank. After just having paid cash for having my foundation leveled from another company, I was cash poor at that time with no hot water. I was in kind of in a bind and had to unfortunately finance it. Never again, I think I'll take cold showers. They also said their office was going to have the city permit department review their work. I never heard from the city, nor any quality follow-up from the company. The water heater works fine, however, because of the high price .... I suggest if you can, look elsewhere.

They showed up on time and the service tech was very knowledgable. I have used them before and each time they showed the same professionalism. They do not pressure you to get additional services that you may not need and explain the problem in detail and how it can be fixed. They charge what I considered premium prices but will try and work with you. I guess you get what you pay for premium prices for premium services. When they fix something you can be assured that it will be properly repaired and remain fixed. They also stand behind their work with a one year guarantee. Another plus is their service calls to diagnose the problem are free.

Whenever I have a plumbing issue, I call them. It's a big outfit. What they are good at is if there is a problem, they are out to the house quickly. They are Johnny on the spot if got a problem.

I had a break in the main line going to my house caused by a tree root. They had to do a bit of digging to reroute the line but overall pleased with the service. I've had my main valve and pressure limiter replaced by them as well as a water heater and while they do a very professional job, they will try to upsell you on some stuff (like another expansion tank that they replaced the year before). They are also fairly expensive but once again, they do a good job.

On New Year?s Day 2014, we awoke to a flooded garage and a broken water heater. Fortunately, I knew exactly what to do: call Aramendia. I had found them on Angie?s List back in 2008, and I?ve been using them for everything ever since. Unfortunately, this experience didn?t go quite as smoothly as in the past. Because it was a holiday, I didn?t get to talk to a real person. Instead, I got shuffled through an overly complicated phone tree and was finally able to leave a message. In the end, I left four messages and never heard a word from Aramendia. I called another plumber out of frustration, but he recommended I let Aramendia do the repair because they had installed my now-broken water heater in May of 2010?so it was still under warranty. Meanwhile we were sitting in a house without any water because I had turned it off at the street. I called Aramendia again first thing on January 2nd and talked to a dispatcher. He told me I should have called the emergency number. But I had called the ?24-hour? number on the website! He said if I had listened to the very end of the recording on the phone tree, I would have heard instructions. He was acting like I was an idiot for not figuring this out. But I didn?t feel like arguing because I just needed my water heater fixed, so I let it go. They sent out a crew a few hours later. But here?s where the real fun began. When the plumbers looked at my water heater, they said that the previous installation did not comply with code. Because my gas heater vents out the side of the house instead of up through the roof, I needed a ?direct-vent? heater?at approximately five times the cost of a standard ?atmospheric-vent? unit. I told them they they had installed my old water heater and asked why this hadn?t been mentioned in 2010. The best explanation I got was that the person who did that no longer works for the company! Because the 2010 unit was still under warranty, they would deduct the cost of the original unit (but not the labor). We want our house to be up to code, so I bit the bullet and agreed to the higher-priced unit. After a long period of calling around, Aramendia could not find a direct-vent water heater anywhere in San Antonio. They said it?s a ?very rare? type of water heater. I don?t believe this, by the way. My entire subdivision is built the same way as my house. But there was nothing to be done for it. They would have to order the heater, and it would arrive on Tuesday, January 7. In the meantime, they looped the water lines to bypass the water heater. So at least we had cold water. So for the next six days we boiled water for bathing, and I washed my hair with freezing cold water in the mornings. All the while, we were focused on Tuesday, when the new unit would be in. Then came the Polar Vortex of 2014, sending temperatures across the nation into the basement. This made our water even colder and my morning hair-washing regimen even more miserable. And it delayed the arrival of our water heater. Luckily, it did finally arrive on Tuesday evening, and the plumbers came out to install it on Wednesday. So we are now grateful to have hot water once again. I?m happy with the final outcome, but I?m considerably less happy with some of the things that transpired during the first week of January 2014: 1. I didn?t appreciate being treated like an idiot by the dispatcher who said I should have called the emergency line. I called the number on the website. I believe their phone tree message is faulty. Whenever you call a doctor?s office, the recording always says, ?If this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911.? I believe their off-hours message should have something similar right up front rather than expecting a frazzled customer to navigate something more complicated. Of note, I called Aramendia the following Sunday morning because I wanted to verify what the phone message had said?and I got a real person! So I guess this only happens on holidays. In any case, I was not happy with this. 2. I am shocked that Aramendia had performed a non-code-compliant installation of my water heater in 2010. If the issue had been mentioned to me at that time, I would have bought the more expensive unit back then. While I appreciate the deduction of the unit?s cost from my final bill, I think it would have been appropriate for them to refund at least some of the labor cost as well. 3. Communication from Aramendia was practically nonexistent during the week I waited for the new heater to arrive. I never received a single call to give me a status update. In fact, whenever I did call them to find out what was going on, I never got the impression that they had been talking with their supplier to track the heater. I appreciate that much of the delay was out of Aramendia?s control, but I feel they owed me a daily update. 4. Aramendia has what I call black-box pricing. The actual unit and its installation are given a single price, so I have no idea what anything really costs. I tried to get some real numbers, but they were evasive. I don?t know whether I will use Aramendia again.

My furnace did not work. I called Aramendia to fix my furnace. They sent a man out who diagnosed the problem as the evaporator coil was dirty and a circuit board that controls the furnace was bad. He gave me 4 options ranging from a cheap fix of cleaning the coil and replacing the board to buying a new unit. He appeared to be pushing to buy a new unit. The decision was made to clean the coil and replace the board. The man who diagnosed the problems fixed nothing. He said some else would be doing the work. The 2nd man arrived with a new board that looked different from the original board. He cleaned the coil and replaced the board. He assured me I would have heat . I got home from work turned the furnace on and the air blew cold. I called Aramenida the next day and explained that the furnace still did not work. They sent the man who did the work back to fix the problem. After a few minutes He realized He did not turn the gas back on after performing his work from the previous day. He tested the furnace to see if it work. It did not work. He did some checking and said the gas valve on the furnace bad. The part would cost $450 to replace. After having spent $1425 ( $600 to clean the evaporator coil and $825 to replace aboard) I told him I would think about replacing the valve. I had independent. AC / Heat man come out to evaluate and fix my furnace. He determined that the board could be bad. He replaced the Aramendia board with a factory recommended board. The furnace started up fine and has worked ever since. Total bill for everything was $500. $925 less than Aramendia. After this fiasco with Aramendis I will not use them or recommend them.

Came out and measured to alter the gas line in November. I was promised a bid in 2 days. Never happened. I called back and was given excuses and another rep came out first week of December. He promised me he would get me the proposal. NEVER HAPPENED. I called again today Jan 3 and more excuses... we are sorry, he is out of the office. I asked them to please call me and verbally give me the bid. A huge disappointment.

He provided explanations of each option and did not "strong arm" me into choosing any one option. I chose, another technician came out, started and completed job within the time he said, and I was back in business. Very professional, very punctual, and I'm very pleased with the work they provided

It was easy to make an appointment and the technician was on-time a very professional. He adjusted the burner and was going to also install a secondary shut-off valve (also to meet code), but he said they were going to have to tear out drywall and gave me a quote of about $850 for that job. I ended up hiring another company that gave me a rough quote of $250 based on photos I sent them, did the job without cutting into ANY walls, and then came in under that quote when the job was done. I wasn't happy I paid $155 just to have a pipe turned 45 degrees.

All went well except the cost was way more than it should have been. I have had the same company do a leak last summer where they had to drill and search and replace pipe and it cost less than this very simple job. I did receive a quote before the work and did agree to have the company do the work because I needed to have it done as soon as possible. I hate wasting water and when the work was finished the workman charged me a little less that the quote but still $333.00. I mentioned that I had a coupon from Angies list and he said his company gives a 10% discount to just about everyone. I mentioned also that I was a senior citizen and maybe I could receive additional discount but he said they don't give multiple discounts. I said that my membership to Angies List was not meaningful then to his company and he agreed. He left the hole dug covered with the soil he dug up but it is lower than the rest of the yard and i will need to fill the hole up before the grass will grow back I understand that is what I should expect but for that price I am not a very happy customer.

My garbage disposal was jammed and had a leak at it's base. Though the service person was very courteous, I was charged $150.00 for the same exact garbage disposal that I previously purchased at Home Depot for $90.00. As well, I was told I would not be charged for the attempt to repair my disposal in order for the blades to turn. The technician was unable to get my original disposal to work, but for the price I was charged the fee had to be a part of the total charges. Never did I expect to pay such a large amount for such a simple repair. As well, I located a $50.00 coupon prior to completion of the work and the technician was initially hesitant to accept the coupon. It appeared that the technician had a set price in mind and was not going to go below the $300.00 range. The company appears to encourage their technicians to be salesman in addition to repair technicians as evidenced by the technician telling me I had a short in the switch for the disposal. Waiving of the trip charge proved not to be to my best interest and not having a estimated charge for this particular service available prior to the service did not allow shopping for the best and most cost effective deal. Had I chosen not to complete the work, I was told I would still be charged $175.00 which was the price quoted for attempting to get my disposal to work. I will never use this company or any company that does not give free estimates to allow price comparisons.

Why I called: Was worried about my heater, because it was running non-stop and sounded like it was using a lot effort to run. I noticed that the entire unit was covered from top to bottom in ice, and inside the unit, I also saw the pipes completely frozen over. The past couple of days I'd noticed that my house didn't seem to be heating up and when I felt the air coming from the vent it was coming out cool. After delaying calling anyway, I finally decided after an uncomfortably cold night, that I needed to contact someone. I found a couple things when I started trying to figure out who I was going to call: 1) companies had service call or a trip fee to diagnose the problem. 2) It's really hard to find a company who is available on a Sunday. 3) When I called another company that said they were open on Sunday, I got a voicemail. Initial Experience with Aramendia was: wow they're open on Sunday! And...there was no "trip" fee! Both MAJOR pluses. I called to see if they could send someone out, and figured it would probably take a while, but there a few people ahead of me and they would send someone out--same day. The technician they sent out was very knowledgeable and friendly and helped me through the options. He even took pictures of the problem up in the attic (there was a leak, and it was leaking oil, the heating coil needed to be replaced), which I really appreciated, because as he was explaining, I could follow along. After going over everything from the most expensive to the basic, I decided that it would be a good idea to replace both inside and outside. This is a major purchase/upgrade for my home and even though I contemplated getting another estimate, I talked it over with the technician and decided to go ahead and proceed with a complete change out. I think the process could have been overwhelming, but it was actually very easy. Before the technician left, he set me up with the emergency heat setting, so I had a comfortable warm night. Also, the only reason I gave price a "B" is not necessarily because of how much I paid, it's just that spending $7,000 for something that isn't a vacation or something else "fun", just doesn't deserve an A. :) The following day, I had two people come out to do the change out of the systems. I was also very happy w/ the professionalism and care they took to care for my home, such as covering my clothes (my attic is in in my walk-in closet) and my carpeted steps. It took less time than was expected, and I was very happy with the whole process, start to finish. Summary of all above: They're open everyday, their employees are professional, knowledgeable, and friendly. They're a great company, and do great work. I recommend.

It went well. All stoppages were cleared and pipes replaced

I had a leaking problem that was created by the original builder (4 year old condominium) on a copper pipe that finally gave out. I also had a water filtration system that was installed 10 months ago that was installed with sub-standard materials and installed in a non-professional way (too many elbow joints; pipes installed over top of heating/air conditioning unit; input / output improperly connected). The plumber, Raylon Schleuder, was extremely knowledgeable, extremely informative, extremely professional and extremely efficient. He was very considerate of any time constraints I may have had and also kept me appraised of the situation as their repair was being completed. Great communication of price, process, parts and labor required. Very informative / fantastic explanations. Very professional and customer friendly. Made some great suggestions for future considerations. Excellent service !!! Extremely pleased !!! Will definitely use them again for any future plumbing and air conditioning needs. Great value !!!!! Thank you Angie.

We were in a jam with a broken water pipe on a Saturday night. Aramendia came out, repaired the pipe quickly, and gave us a 90 day warranty.

Our existing water softener had a leak and had never been performing very well since we moved in. We called Aramendia and got scheduled for visit. After inspection Aramendia offered 2 options of different price and value. I chose the higher value option which provides noticeably better water quality. This is noticeable both in the dishwasher and the shower. The installation was quick and well done. All necessary equipment and parts were in the truck.

It was great! Half an hour after getting the call that they would be on their way they were here. It took an hour in total to complete the work. They were friendly, professional, courteous etc. They were about $100 less than another company we had called even with the military discount. We probably could of replaced it ourselves for less,but considering the condition of them we wanted to be safe instead of sorry. Initially we found them through Angie's List, but the number I called the woman could of been nicer. I was also told there was no discount or payment plans. I went to look in the phone book and found more numbers for them. The woman I spoke with was very friendly and gave me more information.

Fixed the problem. Funny thing was that we told the repairman exactly what was wrong and how to fix it.

Jacob and his assistant came out after they called first to let us know they were on there way. The first thing he did was show me his plumbing license which was current. They worked with my husband because he knows more than me about water heaters. After they assessed the heater and did some measuring around the house they came to the door with options. Jacob explained everything to me and answered all my questions. When I didn't understand something he would explain further. It can get quite technical. We had the option of replacing our 75 gallon tank or going through with a tankless water heater. The first option there Bradford White tank had a great 10 year labor and parts warranty for there premium model. This is what consumers research says you should look for in a water heater. the next option was tankless which was quite expensive but he explained the reasons why. I did my research on tankless and it has been around for awhile, especially in Europe. It works really well but initial cost is around 6000.00 depending on what they need to do to install it in the home. Most new homes are going with tankless. It saves you money in a year but you pay initially. In the end Jacob gave us a written estimate broken down with discounts included. He also told us to call him anytime on his cell with any questions. We told him we needed to do some research. He was very professional. Overall very professional but a bit pricy.

All of the employees from the first contact that I made were very polite and precise in communicating the arrival times, quotes and returning calls to expedite the service. The technicians that did the installation took pride in their work and were very neat and cleaned up everything before they left. All paperwork and warranties were explained as well as showing me features on the outside unit as well as the inside furnace and thermostat. This company and their employees go above and beyond the A+ rating.

Went beautifully. Water heater started leaking on a Saturday night, and they came out within an hour. Turned leaking off, ordered a new water heater. Came out Sunday AM with the new water and installed it. Works great ever since. Would certainly use this plumber again.