James River Air Conditioning Company

**Update** Long story short, mistakes happen. That's what customer service is for, to apologize and remedy those mistakes. In the case of this incident, customer service had a single source failure and nothing in place to catch unhappy customers if someone is unavailable for extended periods of time.

A member of the acct team reached out at 6:30pm (Wed) to say he saw our Google Review and that he would ensure someone gave us a call. Their web page chat feature promised to have someone reach out as well.

Ultimately, it was simply emailing the technician who sent us the invoice on Monday afternoon, giving him a heads up and again thanking him for his work and professionalism but letting him know he may get some questions. He came back quickly with an apology, some context, and admitted the mistake. He promised that someone will get in touch with us and sure enough a gentleman, Tom Pugh, called the next morning (7:30 AM) and demonstrated their preferred approach to customer service. He was incredibly sympathetic and helpful and because of this I will consider them for future work given the technicians and the efforts of Mr. Pugh. As for their customer service dept, build a process that eliminates cases like this, things happen, have a mousetrap to ensure it doesn't impact the customer.

____________________________________________________
AC was blowing warm air. Googled and found James River Air. Requested an appt online (Sunday) and on Monday a very nice lady called me to set an appt.

She explained that there would be a $127 "Dispatch Fee" and that if any repairs would be required, they would provide a quote on the spot and most likely their trucks are well stocked and could perform the repair the same day, or they would follow up the next day to complete any repairs. I agreed and made the appointment for later that afternoon.

For the $127 fee, it made sense to me. Overhead with the website, the lady who had to call me, the technicians time to show up and identify the problem, the wear and tear on vehicles and gas etc... $127 sounded about right since I could simply say "No thanks" to their repair quote and they would be unable to be compensated otherwise.

2 techs showed up, were incredibly polite and professional. They went to my attic, pulled off two panels, played with a multi meter for 10 minutes, put the panels back on and headed to my thermostat. They popped it off, pushed on some wires, replaced the thermostat and then headed to the outside unit. They then popped off one panel, again played with the multi meter on a few wires for 5 minutes, felt the brass fitting to make sure it was cold, then replaced the panel, stood up, and told me it was a busted thermostat.

I was relieved, since I can replace that myself, but they were there, so I inquired how much it would be for them to do it if they had one in the truck....$600 for a Honeywell Color Screen Thermostat. I smiled, told them thanks but no thanks. They headed to the truck, I headed inside, and pulled out my CC ready to pay my $127. They had been there barely 40 mins and wore blue booties, were all yes sir/no sir, and incredibly polite. Then I was presented with a bill for $243.I smiled and paid it, knowing full well that debating the issue of $243 vs $127" was pointless with technicians.

I went directly inside, called their customer service line and well... got no where. The appt setter said nothing about an additional fee, nor did the technicians quote me a $114 fee to step into my house and diagnose a problem. I am not sure what the $127 is for, perhaps to simply have the privilege of getting an appt.

The additional fee $114 I asked to be escalated to a manager, they said sure, we will put you through to "Charles". I left a message. Well here it is 1:30 Wed, still no call back from "Charles", I called again this morning and left another mssg.
Someone either failed the script or they are being deceptive with their fees. $243 for James River Air to come out and diagnose your systems issues.

We were without hot water in our shower for a long time at my house, which is never what you want to be. Miserable. We had at least five plumbers come and try to restore the hot water. None of them knew what was wrong and suggested replacing the shower cartridge or the water heater itself. $$$ but if that was what we needed to do we would. No plumber knew how to check our tankless electric water heater so I called James River Air because they are Bosch (the water heater brand) certified. Anyway, Ryan came over and fixed it within twenty minutes… the culprit was the shower head was clogged. Now we have both had hot showers once again and are so thankful … and perplexed that it took so many plumbers to find the issue. Thank you so much Ryan and JRA!!

the annual inspection of our air conditioning systems was performed promptly. Service technician was very polite

Update: They called to get additional feedback on issues and to make it right, gave me a credit to account. I will continue to use them for HVAC Maint - have been for 20+ years and generally like them - and hope issues continue to be ironed out. I appreciate the follow-up and concern.

I had two different models of thermostats on hand. Installer put in first thermostat, said it didn't work, installed second thermostat, system was working when he left. However that night the thermostat went out. Call for emergency repair at no cost, second installer found a loose C wire and fixed it.
The original installer should have caught this. The first thermostat should have worked but I returned it to the store as malfunctioning. Second issue; humidifier cylinder change out didn't occur because no one delivered the part.
Lots of wasted time and effort.

Mike J is a very Great technician- very detailed and takes the time to do the job right. Do hope that he can continue to service the AC/Heating system for our house as representative of James River. Thank you Mike - Kevin & Angie P

Had problems with my home warranty and called James River. They came out very quickly and got my heat fixed in a couple of hours. I would recommend them to anyone and will be using James River again.

Someone came out to my house and was supposed to provide a quote. It's been 5 days I haven't recieved a call or email. I called and left messages still no response. Poor customer service!! It does not take over 5 days to provide a quote. No thank you!!

Jon Brennan did an annual maintenance check on our oil furnace, he was very thorough and professional.
We have been using James River Air since the early 80's.
They stand by what they say and the work they do!
Tried others a couple of times but I always go back to James River Air!
Keep up with your great employees and work you all do!

We've always had good experiences with James River. Franklin was our technician today and was really exceptional.

They’re not the cheapest, but you get excellent quality work. I was very pleased with my experience. I think it is worth paying a little more for the high level of quality.