Contacted Valentino Contracting in May 2017. I met with the owner, Tony, to go over our issues. Our old unit was simply not big enough for our building and use (1800 sq. ft., commercial building.) I also showed Tony about an expansion project that would require a bigger load in less than a year (it involved additional machines and people within the building that would create a higher demand for air conditioning.) Tony designed & installed system that was too small--even before our expansion. The day after the system was installed, we already needed additional sources to keep our building cool enough. (Other contractors took loads of our proposed expansion and we likely would have been better off from the get go.)
We expanded our building in the winter of 2017/2018, and I contacted Tony again about adding another system that would keep up with our demands. Being a busy, fellow small business owner, I contacted him repeatedly in April/May 2018 trusting he was in our corner and would get us set right. The e-mails and phone calls largely went unreturned. We weathered a hot 2018 and relied on window units to keep our building bearable. I attempted (again) to get a hold of Tony in Feb/Mar 2019. We finally heard back from him in June when he randomly visited (without notice) and wanted to go over our ideas to expand the system. The very next day our system shutdown and we called him to take a look at it (almost 2 years to the day of the actual install.)
While going over steps on how to fix the system (next paragraph), he made accusations of us not being trustful to pay final bill (this was after Tony had said he wasn't sure if the parts/labor would solve our problem.) We've been in business since 2009, have paid every bill immediately, no collection notices and no liens on our business.
He has an awful "bedside manner." Very elaborate discussions that were unnecessary for providing an actual solution. 45 minute phone calls that probably could have been condensed to 5-10 minutes--this is in the middle of the summer when I'm sure A/C calls and jobs could keep him quite busy during this time instead of being on the phone.
It took SIXTEEN DAYS to get the part in that we needed. While waiting, he blamed Mitsubishi and took no ownership for being a contractor that works exclusively with them. It seems if Mitsubishi chooses to operate with 2-week lead times for parts, a smart business owner might not align with their systems. We had already installed our system 2 years prior, but if I knew in the middle of summer we might be without A/C for 2 weeks, I would have looked elsewhere.
The part arrived and was in his hands by 9am and his assistant said we were "his highest priority." He showed up at 9:30PM! PM! Literally, over 12 hours later. I was incredulous. He DID get the system working and everything has been fine since then (July 2019.) We would not recommend using him from a system that was designed too small for our needs, over two weeks to get a part in, and horrendous customer service that was frankly rude at times. We have used another HVAC company since then for a full install and have been very happy with the results. read more
