Preferred Air Conditioning & Mechanical, LLC

Yesterday my AC died. I called Preferred Air Conditioning & Mechanical. Nicole answer the phone and scheduled someone out to diagnose. The technician came in, diagnose a faulty board and said he would have to order the part and that Nicole would call me next day. Next Nicole call to collect the $79 fee for the diagnosis. When I ask her when they can come out, she said we are not going to talk about it until you pay the $79. Needless to say I was shocked at this, and the tone of this person. When I tried to ask if she can at least give an estimate of the total repair she kept cutting me off, rude and interrupting and finally hanged up on me. I then called their main office in Palm Beach and asked to speak with the owner Donald O'Bryon who was totally ok with Nicole's rudness and did not want to even address it. Goes to show that employees behave exactly how their managers train them. They do not give a hoot about the experience of their home owners. This is not the first time that this Nicole person has been less than professional and rude, they have been servicing my home for four years and it was always a bad experience talking to her, but as this story shows, she is just reflecting what has been endorsed by the owner. This is quite prevalent behavior here in FL. To make matters worse, another company came in a discovered that the diagnosis from Preferred Air was incorrect and replaced different components that were damaged by Preferring Air such as my nest thermostat and another electric switch. The Preferred Air tech caused three times sparks and smoke to come out of the electronics part inside the AC. I can not help but think he purposely caused damage to create a bigger repair bill. Stay away from this company.

Service was great. Henry the technician did excellent work. Henry was thorough and explained the process. Kaitlin in the service department was courteous and gave us a fair price for maintenance. Will definitely use them again and recommend them to my friends.

Company has been servicing my unit since I moved in on Feb 23, 2016. Very reliable and the techs that have come out have been very knowledgeable and accommodating. Their office staff is top notch. I feel confident with there recommendations and repairs.

Very professional, very responsive, moved very quickly, on site installers were very polite, professional, clean, left my home better then before they arrived. I have never had a better experience with any other contractor or service provider. I highly recommend them whole heartily.

Don't hire them!!!This company takes LOUSY customer service to the next level. The only responsive person is their sales manager. The owner Donald has no ability to communicate with the customer.
They installed a Trane 31/2 ton AC unit in my house the end of May. We had a Water Damage a month later which destroyed my daughters bedroom. The air handler was installed in the attic over her room and the water backed up in the pipes and overflowed all over the insulation ceiling and down through the carpet destroying the bedding. Preferred AC did come out and made the repairs to the unit but blamed an old pipe for the damage. Well if you put a new unit in and think that the old pipe needs to be replaced then do so. They never advised me to do this at the time of the install. The pipe was operating correctly for many years.Their techs used a substance that is supposed to flush the drain except they didn't flush it properly and instead clogged the drain so the moisture had no where to go. So it overflowed into the bedroom and ruined everything. I spoke to Don the owner and asked him if he would help pay for the damages and he said he would think about it. I never heard back from him after several attempts to reach him and get some response. Don't EVER use this company because they don't accept responsibility for their mistakes. This is a BIG one!! They have no clue how to manage their work or customer service. It takes multiple phone calls and emails to get anything from their office staff. I would never recommend them and hope everyone reads this review so you protect yourself from a company who should not be doing AC installations. It will cost me a lot to replace and repair the room damages and my insurance will go up because of their errors.This is the company located in palm beach county.

You can be the judge... here is the complaint to BBB and Holly's response

Erroneous billing for a service charge

service summary:

Technician came to the home, diagnosed the issue and came back the next day to perform the service. After the initial visit, i called preferred air and asked for the total cost so i could leave a check w/ my mother to hand to the tech when the service was finished. I was given a verbal $135 and I still left a blank check with my mother who would be there with the technician in the case of unforeseen issues. There were no other issues and my mother wrote in the amount ($135) that was due and the tech went on his way. 3 months later i receive an invoice for a diagnostic fee of $79.

Dispute

Holly, preferred air service manager, made false claims that she had conversations with my mother and gave her all of the costs and she was aware of the charges and agreed and was acting on my behalf. This is incorrect- My mother was only involved to facilitate access to my home when i wasn't there so preferred air could perform the service.

In summary- I paid for a service in full and 3 months later im hit w/ additional fees on the basis of conversation that never happened.

Timeline of events

5/9/18 my Check was cashed for service $135 for the AC Repair

8/18/18 I receive an additional invoice (dated 5/10)in the mail for $79.

8/20/18 I contacted Preferred air and Tricia forwarded my email to Holly Gabriel to handle (no response)

10/1/18 I receive a "final notice before legal action".

10/1/18 I contacted Preferred Air via email and asked for an update to my previous email. Holly made false claims as to conversations she had with my mother

Hollys Response to BBB

My claims are not false I spoke to his mother before we arrived at the home and the technicians gave the information while there. The cost of diagnostic of $79 was given PRIOR to our ever arriving at the home to find the issue. Upon arrival we found the motor faulty and gave a price of $153 to replace the motor we attempted to collect the $79 and the homeowners mother requested that we collect both invoices the following day when we were there to install the motor. We do not normally roll invoices to the next day and require payment at time of service however we agreed to collect both invoices the next day in this case as a courtesy. Once we completed the motor install the check given was only for the motor install itself in the amount of $153, leaving the $79 unpaid. An invoice copy is sent monthly as a reminder of payment due and like most companies once an invoice goes unpaid for a lengthily amount of time they are turned into collections. In emails from the customer he sates that he is fully aware that he owes it but since the technician installing the motor did not ask for it we should credit it for him. When we did not agree to credit an invoice he admitted he owed because of a mistake by the technician he then threatened to leave us bad reviews.

Words cannot express how much I love this company! They are 100 percent reliable. Always there when I need them and quick to respond. Everyone there is very friendly and easy to talk to. Especially Kate. She was sympathetic and caring of my issue. She listened in great detail and was able to get someone to my property promptly.

After reading most of the reviews I was a little hesitant to contact this company. I was looking for a quote on a monthly maintenance contract for our company. It ranged approximately 1000.00 a month from quotes from other companies. I spoke with Vanessa who was super friendly. She promised to have Holly call me that afternoon to set up a time for someone to come out and give us a quote. Five days later and NO RETURN PHONE CALL. I can only assume that the negative reviews were correct. Maybe our contract wasn't going to be large enough for them to bother.

Great experience!! Very fast! Same day I called in that my AC broke, they had a new one being installed that afternoon. With a 1 year old that is very important ! Gentlemen who came to install were very nice and professional!! highly recommend!!

The Carrier air conditioning on my new-construction home has been experiencing performance issues. Preferred Air sent out three techs over two weeks to troubleshoot the problem, but walked away after the last visit saying that the unit is running normally. Unfortunately, that's not the case as the A/C runs nearly continuously, even when the set point is close to or at the outside temperature and well after the ambient temperature reaches the thermostat setting. A reputable company would honor the warranty and work hard to resolve the problem to the full satisfaction of the customer -- no questions asked. Instead, in a twisted turn of events, I've somehow been blamed (yes, you heard correctly) while I confront more refusals and excuses (it's not our problem!) and am left to figure out how to find a resolution on my own. So let me ask you -- do you really want to do business with a company like this?

And incidentally, I never refused another service visit after 30 days as the owner indicates below. It becomes very convenient to make up one's own truths, no?