good and bad repair service
James J. Lippard
purport to offer service in air conditioning repair, plumbing, electrical
work, etc., are businesses that are so busy that they don't have time
to return phone calls, show up for appointments, or do the work they have
been hired to perform.
Here's a list of a few bad ones, and a few good and reliable ones I've
found, all in the greater Phoenix area.
I'm still looking for:
* chimney cleaning
* pool remodeling
* landscaping
* wall/fence/gate repair and building
Electrical
Arizona's Most Wanted Electric. Showed up on time, cost was very
reasonable, and the quality of the simpler stuff was good. The
grounding of an electrical panel was OK, but looked a bit ugly.
Valleywide Electric. These guys showed up for the first appointment,
and spent 2.5 hours without finding the cause of an electrical
problem. They told me they would have to have two guys come out, and
they'd have to rip open drywall and ceiling to try to find the cause
of a wiring problem. I went ahead and made the appointment, but they
stood me up--twice. They charged me for the first visit even though
they accomplished nothing.
I then went to Knox Electric. Daryl showed up a bit late for the
appointment, but he found and fixed the problem that Valleywide
couldn't find in less than 15 minutes, without making any holes in any
drywall. I then used Knox for all the rest of the electrical work I
needed done, which Daryl did in a timely manner, at a fair price, with
no problems. Outstanding service.
Plumbing
Ready Rooter: This is a ServiceMaster company, sent out by American Home
Shield to fix a broken hot water heater. It took three or four attempts
to get an appointment, and a full two weeks for them to come out and
do the work, which they did sloppily, replacing the heating element and
leaving things in a disarray. My complaints about their failure to
set an appointment for over a week led to a lot of finger-pointing between
American Home Shield and Ready Rooter, even though they share the same
parent company and I didn't care whose fault it was, I just wanted it
taken care of. I've had American Home Shield for years, and I would be
done with them if I hadn't been given the new contract from the seller of
the home I just purchased late last year.
Westside Plumbing: These guys took forever to return messages left for
them, and then finally ended up blowing me off without ever coming out
to even look at the problem.
Mr. Rooter, Tempe. They actually have someone who answers the phone,
and after taking down my information, said I would receive a call to
schedule an appointment within about five minutes. I received the
call, and an appointment was made for later that same day--about 45
minutes later, in fact. Manny came out and fixed everything on my
list that day, and did a good job. He explained everything he was
doing, and solved the problems I wanted solved. It was a little
pricier than I was hoping, but was fair. Manny came out the next day
to make one repair that I found was still a problem--no charge. Highly
recommended.
Air Conditioning
Chas Roberts Air Conditioning. I had heard they were highly recommended,
and paid for their annual service contract. I've only had the heating
service, which ended up costing me an additional $150 on top of the service
contract for a repair. It remains to be seen if this was worthwhile.
Lee Collins Air Conditioning. These guys stood me up a couple of times
for appointments, and had to make the same repair three or four times
without ever getting it right. Another American Home Shield vendor--I
had to specifically request another vendor after the second time being
stood up.
Able Air Conditioning. These guys finally fixed what Lee Collins couldn't
do correctly.
Pool Service
Poolman. Reliable, never had a problem. Installed a salt-water chlorination
system and repaired some major problems with an old system, to my satisfaction.
Recommended.
Chimney Cleaning
Chiminy Cricket. Didn't return multiple phone messages.
--
Jim Lippard lippard...@discord.org http://www.discord.org/
GPG Key ID: 0xF8D42CFE
Tom S.
"James J. Lippard" <lippard...@discord.org> wrote in message
news:slrna6e60c.ijh...@chaos.discord.org...
> Over the past few years, I've found that a lot of Arizona businesses that
> purport to offer service in air conditioning repair, plumbing, electrical
> work, etc., are businesses that are so busy that they don't have time
> to return phone calls, show up for appointments, or do the work they have
> been hired to perform.
I've had one dipshit (landscaper) leave three flyers on my front door over the
past year, but when I called him after the first one, they said they only do
commercial property. Evidently someone is getting paid to deliver flyers, but
it doesn't matter WHERE.