Mohamed R. came out to provide us service and an estimate for additional work. He was courteous and showed up right on time and was knowledgeable about heating but I was pretty disappointed with the repair service and the quality of quote I received for future work. Mohamed was quick to diagnose and replace a blown fuse to fix my thermostat. This is where my issues began:
1) The quote he gave me for future work included him walking around looking at my HVAC, pointing out places they could try things and saying the changes I wanted would cost $3,000 or more not counting work that would be done by others. No real estimate of materials, labor or anything for himself or other contractors he said I'd have to hire (electrical and general contractor for drywall repairs.
2) Since he was there, I hired him to add a slot for a furnace filter (original installer from before I purchased the home forgot). Unfortunately, he didn't have the materials he needed so I ran to a nearby hardware as he began the repair. When I returned, he needed another part so I ran to the store again and was told to hurry because he had to leave soon (though delays were because he didn't have basic supplies).
3) While knowledgeable about furnaces, he is not great with metal work and I was left with a rather unsafe hole of twisted metal in my duct with a sharp sheet metal door that didn't slide, multiple holes drilled into the metal, and a filter which didn't fit tight against the opening to the furnace.
4) This was held together with metal screws that weren't biting into the metal duct and pulled out when yanking on the "door."
5) When I pointed this out to Mohamed, he told me to make the sharp edges safe, I could buy some HVAC metal tape and cover the sharp edges myself. With regard to the poor fit of the filter, he said he couldn't bend the metal on the other side of the inlet out of the way because he couldn't reach sheet metal in the other side of the vent through the hole he, himself cut.
6) Three trips to the store later to get different size furnace filters, I was charged for the full time Mohamed was onsite and the fuse he replaced and told that was lower than I should be charged based on the time he was onsite.
I spent the next 45 minutes bending in all the metal myself so I wouldn't get cut when changing my furnace filter. Reaching my arm and leg inside the unit to bend the sheet metal he couldn't reach so the filter fit the space properly, and replacing the metal screws he used with bolts so the the slides he installed were functional and didn't pull off the unit. Attached is the image AFTER I spent an hour making it work better. Overall, I was really disappointed in my choice and basically paid for a few hours of HVAC expertise for a repair I ultimately finished myself to avoid paying him more to stay and try to improve on the work he did because I wasn't confident it could get better. read more