Central City Air

Jose was very nice and respectable. He made sure he took care of the problem I was having with the a/c. Was very knowledgeable. He did the a/c check list to make sure everything was working properly.
Thanks for the wonderful service you and your company provide.

I had Central City Air design HVAC systems (2) for my 5 story townhouse. It is a complicated place to cool in Houston weather conditions.
Both systems were replaced in less than 4 days time and they work perfectly. I can control the systems via the internet and my cell phone which is convenient when away.
Suzanne and her team did a fabulous job installing the systems ( which included use of a crane to hoist the 2 condensers up to the 4 the floor). My house was left untouched by all the workers going up and down the stairs and using the elevator.
This is my 3rd time to use Central City - the first was over 25 years ago. Each time they have surpassed my high expectations.
Regards
Raul happy homeowner.

Wonderful service-whether for annual maintenance or big issues. They are reliable, easy to work with and very professional. Happy that I can count on them with this Houston weather! Have used for many years.

I’ve been a CCA customer for more than a decade. They’ve done big jobs for me as well as my regular maintenance. Over the past decade , the same folks answer the phone, and make the home visits, so very little staff turnover, a very good indicator.

I have been a fan of Central City Air (CCA) for more than 20 years - I appreciated their late founder's innovative engineered approach to AC systems that was in stark contrast to the typical industry cookie-cutter solutions. CCA installed our last AC system in 2000 for $9,200 (a lot of money back then) and I'm happy to say that it continues to serve us well. Their service technicians are courteous and competent, but I continue to be disappointed with their service/repair pricing, particularly their crazy mark-up on parts. Strange business model: build and install some of the best HVAC systems in Houston and get a premium price for it - fair is fair after all, but then extort their customers on repairs giving their customers a reason NOT to choose CCA to design/install their next system.

In 2013, CCA came out to replace a contactor and the cost for the contactor was about 10 times the retail price - CCA charged $350 for 20 minutes of labor and a $20 contactor.

Last night, the compressor turned on but the indoor blower fan didn't. The night was going to be reasonably cool, 71F, so I left a voice message on CCA's system asking for service call in the morning - I also made an online request for service and followed up with an e-mail with our particulars. We didn't get a call from CCA in the morning, so we called them at 9:30. Our previous requests hadn't been acted on. CCA said a technician wouldn't be able to come out until 4PM.

While waiting for the tech to arrive, I began to worry that the fan motor might have failed, and, being late on Friday, I could just imagine being without AC until a replacement fan could be secured on Monday. I confirmed that the fan motor worked when connected to power - I added a jumper to bypass the HVAC control board. My suspicions then focused on the fan switch built into the HVAC control board. I found a replacement control board on Amazon (among others) selling for $91 plus shipping.

The technician arrived at 4:15 PM and, in less than six minutes, he confirmed that the motor was good and the control board had indeed failed. He had a replacement board on his truck and offered to install it for $545, which was their discounted price (6% below their standard pricing). The installation would involve unplugging 12 wires from the old board and plugging them into the new one - probably 10 minutes at most. I really wanted CCA to get a sale - after all, the tech drove an hour through Friday rush-hour traffic, but $545 was just a ridiculous price for that scope of work.

I called their service manager and the tech called the owner to see if CCA would consider doing the job for, a more-reasonable but still highly-profitable, $300, but CCA's management refused to budge on price, so, unfortunately, the CCA tech left at 4:40 PM with only the $70 trip charge. I purchased the control board on Amazon and wired in a remote switch to turn the fan on and off when needed until the control board arrives on Monday.

Had CCA been more reasonable on pricing - or at least been willing to negotiate, they would have walked away with at least $230 (and perhaps a bit more) in additional service revenue without spending much additional technician time, and I would have nothing but praise to heap on Central City Air at this point. Oh well.

Central City Air has been my choice for AC maintenance and repairs for more than 20 years. They are great to deal with and have always been there when I need them.

Have been a CCA customer for over 20 years but have recently decided to abandon them due to their almost total lack of response to service requests. They're too busy and have too few service technicians to respond to any request that isn't an emergency in a reasonable time frame. It takes weeks to have a routine inspection after repeated phone calls to have them show up. This is after we've purchased 2 new complete a.c. units and 3 new evaporator coils from them over the years, costing close to $20000 total.

Outstanding Service.

What a job that Central City Air does for me. From making the appointments .(Ms. Lyndia) and the Service Tech's who preform the work.
I have been a customer for over 15 years.
Thank you,
Bob

Quick, thorough and pleasant Workers! Thanks!

Do NOT use them! Series of miscommunications, slow and poor technical help, unprofessionalism. Below is a timeline of my terrible experience, which they confirmed during my last call.

1. June: First service call. Checked house unit only, did not check garage mini-split as requested.
2. July: Second service call. They serviced the garage mini-split but after instead of fixing the unit, the minor dripping I previously had turned into a steady stream of water!
3. Aug: Third service call. Took pictures of the unit and minor water damage caused by increased mini-split water leakage. (I had to call 3 times over a month to make this happen)
4. Aug and Sept: Reassured over 3-4 conversations with dispatcher to expect a call back from the design department to replace mini-split. I even asked to speak with someone in charge that should be making sure the design department calls customers back. Never any call backs, just apologies and excuses from dispatcher in reaction to my calls.
5. October: I write this review and hope that others don't use them OR the long shot that someone new at Central City Air reads it and cares.