I rarely leave negative reviews, but this experience warrants one so others can make an informed…read moredecision.
Boston Standard sold and installed a brand-new heat pump HVAC system for my home, representing that it was properly sized and appropriate for the unit. The installation itself appeared to go smoothly, and cooling worked as expected through the summer and fall.
However, once winter temperatures arrived, the system failed to perform. For 16 consecutive days, my family was unable to get our home above 63°F, despite repeated assurances that the issue had been resolved. Our infants slept in sweatshirts and we relied on space heaters during that period.
Over those 16 days, Boston Standard made five separate service visits, each time diagnosing a different root cause:
- First guy reset the system then told me it was working like normal
- Then, second guy diagnosed an electrical/wiring issue and said that was fixed
- Third visit was improper airflow causing the gas to blow out
- Fourth was faulty sensors and a replacement control board
- Finally, they resolved after troubleshooting live with the manufacturers support where they had to rig the control board wiring in a confusing way
Throughout this process, communication was inconsistent. At various points I was told parts were needed, then that they were not. I was repeatedly told the system was "fixed" when it clearly was not. Escalation was difficult, and it took multiple attempts over several days to reach a service manager Joe Trainito.
The most troubling part is not that there was an issue, but that Boston Standard did not fully understand how to install or configure the system they sold me. From a homeowner's perspective, it felt like troubleshooting & training was being done live on my house, at my family's expense. Several people at the company acknowledged that they were having widespread issues with these new installs.
When I asked what they would do to make this right, the primary offer was a 10% warranty extension, which was not meaningful after a prolonged failure. A request for a partial refund was met with an offer of $1,000, less than 4% of the total project cost, despite the system being unusable for heat for a significant portion of the winter.
This was a full, ground-up HVAC replacement that should have been correctly designed, installed, and supported in the first place. Unfortunately, the experience fell far short of that standard. I cannot recommend Boston Standard based on reliability, execution, or post-installation support and will not be using them again.