United Air Comfort ripoff poor installation, permit problems in SF Bay Area, Don't use this company. Santa Clara, Martinez California

United Air Comfort of Martinez agreed to install a central air conditioning/heating system for $7295. The said they would handle all the building permits. And start the job on 1/27/04. They did not show up and it wasn't untill 1/29/04 before "Joe" returned my call to tell me that installation wouldn't start till the next week.

Steer clear of this company in the San Francisco Bay Area. The job isn't finished yet and they are trying to cut corners. They agreed with the electrician and us that they would get all the permits but they tried to reneg and still haven't taken care of the electrical permit.

The installers can't seem to get here before 1PM and then only work for an average of 4 hours per day.

The ceiling was butchered for the return air duct. We asked that they install the duct flush with the drywall under acoustic tile. The ripped the tile off about 4 inches all around the duct grill and it is ragged and ugly. The managers have been shown this and said, "I don't know what he was thinking" about their installer, but did not offer to make repairs.

The gas line they put in looked dangerous. They didn't want to have to drive two miles to the Yardbirds store to cut the pipe and tee off to the furnace so they put in a bunch of fittings and flex lines that were obstructing the garage sink and replaced the rigid black pipe with a flex line that was two feet off the ground to complete the run to the water heater and dryer. I had to make them re-run the gas and refrigeration lines so they weren't posing a danger of being easily broken due to the exposed nature of the run. The refrigeration lines blocked access to the storage area in the garage overhead.

I had to argue with them over two scrap metal straps with exposed sharp edges they wanted to use to hold up the refrigeration lines. I would guess a $1 item and not requiring an extra trip to the store.

The California Contractors State Licensing board shows their license is suspended for failure to comply with Workmens Comp. requirements and there is "pending disciplinary action in the form of an accusation" as well as prior citations they have completed the requirements for.

I thought that maybe these citations and suspensions might be normal for contractors in the course of business so I ran the check on a company I painted for several years that has been in business since the 70's. All that came back was "ValueStar Certified". That's not to say we didn't have problems but apparently they were all handled without need for any complaints.

This is not the whole gamut of our complaints. I won't list them all. Don't use this company. Their employees need to work for a reputable contractor for a while so they can see what the difference is between a problem contractor and a good service company. There is no shortage of jobs for good HVAC techs here.

David
Concord, California
U.S.A.