Steve is a hardworking, talented repairman, who isn't afraid to put a lot of elbow grease into a…read moreproject, and genuinely cares about doing the right thing by his customers. He responds promptly to calls, and maximizes communication -- calling while he's on the way to make sure you're there, letting you know in advance what the price range likely will be, etc. We have used him twice, both times for 20-year-old Panasonic air conditioners. On the first one, it was the hottest day of the summer, of course, when the thing quit. Steve pulled the thing apart, showed me where the problem was, explained that repairing it might not be cost effective and that the repair might not hold for long. On that day, I was willing to take the risk because we just need the cooling. As it was, he worked for a couple hours in the brutal heat, fashioning a repair of the broken metalwork inside the air conditioner. It has run great ever since. On the other one, the fan died and I knew the part would be expensive, so I just bought a replacement new air conditioner and asked Steve to install it. Good guy that he is, he pulled the old one apart first to see if it could be cost-effectively repaired, telling me that if it was fixable I could save some money and return the new one. As it was, he pronounced it dead (frozen, rusted fan motor, an expensive part), but at least I knew I wasn't wasting money. His price to install was comparable to PC Richard, but he came right away after I bought the replacement, as opposed to waiting a week or more for the PC Richard installer. He's also the kind of person I am happy to pay.
As to people saying that he has an attitude or something -- give me a break. He is a one-man operation, who has to do his own scheduling, accounting, everything. If he drives across Nassau County to an appointment and you're not home, that comes right out of his pocket. So I don't mind that he is very precise about the time window in which he is hoping to arrive, that he calls in advance to confirm that you're there before he comes to you, and that he says things like, "Be sure you're by your phone," so he can call you if he can't find the house, as he couldn't with ours without help. He also asks a lot of questions to make sure he can help you and that it's worth paying him to come. He will often be taking your call while he is at a job, and he often asks if he can call you back when he's finished with that customer. He is hyper-reliable about calling back, and super-organized as to who he has to call and where he is going next. All of these things are designed to make your life easier and cheaper, and to manage his business efficiently. He wants happy customers. Yeah, he is direct in his communication, like most New Yorkers, which I think is a good thing. He is proud of his reputation for honesty. His prices are more than fair.
This is a very-competent, very-experienced repair person who wants repeat business and doesn't rip people off like some do. He is very-busy (just count the number of calls he gets while he is at your place), but tries like the dickens to come the same day or next day, which is wonderful. He knows that it's an emergency to you. I genuinely like the guy, and he is welcome in our house any time.
