Mechanical Control Solutions

Oversold, overpriced, horrible service.
If you want to end up paying someone else to fix their screw-​ups, go ahead and hire these guys.
I allowed this company to bid on a new heater, and got upsold to an air conditioner that turned out to be far more powerful and expensive than my little house requires.
I no longer actually use the air conditioner; at a cost of $ 9000 it tripled my power bill and I plan to pay to have someone rip it out so as to be replaced with something more practical. The furnace is excellent and I am satisfied with it.
The customer service office is not capable of understanding the distinction between a HOME phone number and a WORK phone number. While I was at home waiting for the service team to arrive, the idiot at the customer service desk kept calling my work number and canceling the appointment since I (obviously) was not at the office to answer. I was busy sitting by the phone at home, having taken the time off work to accommodate the service call. This is the reason I have been unable to use my «free» service appointment, which was included as part of the overpriced installation fee. Today is the fourth time this has happened. Every time, I call the idiot in customer service, who asserts that she’s called me multiple times at the «number the computer has listed». This is despite me having called to set up the appointment in the first place. They don’t even attempt to call the number where there’s going to be an actual human present, and they refuse to send a team out for a call that hasn’t been «confirmed». On the off chance that anyone from this company reads this review, here’s a tip, honey: WRITE DOWN THE CORRECT NUMBER for the home, and make sure to use that number. It’s not as though this has been a one-​time problem. Before today, I’d told you three times. How is this information not sinking in? Oh right: The Computer Sez. If the computer told you to smack your head into the wall, would you do that? Are you capable of independent thought, or of using a fantastic new technology called a Post-​It note? Nope– apparently not.
Anyway, if you become a customer, expect to have to take multiple days off work if you have a one-​day installation scheduled. The first day, you meet with the sales rep, who has trouble keeping his hands to himself. The second day, which occurs after the sales call but before the installation, there’s some kind of «pre-​inspection» where a technical expert visits the site and makes sure he understands the scope of work. The third day you lose from work is when the team comes out to do the installation. But, oops! They don’t have the parts on the truck to do something basic such as installing a water line to an air conditioner. «Couldn’t we just hook it up to your water hose in the back?» No, bunchkins: if I want something that looks like a DIY Home Depot hack, I’ll do it myself and save the installation fee. And, exactly why did I lose a day off work for that «pre-​installation inspection» bunkum, if the parts necessary to complete the scope of work did not end up on the truck? You might end up having to make a Home Depot run. I didn’t, because one of the work crew went back to the shop to retrieve the necessary part which should have been on the truck if anyone had bothered to read the pre-​installation report.
The fourth day is when the City inspectors come out. What they don’t tell you is that you have to take yet another day off work. Neither the electrical nor the mechanical inspection passed. So, on Day Five– do you get that I’ve lost an entire week’s worth of income by this point– the mechanical team came back to correct the work, which did result in a pass by the inspector. But, oops! They didn’t bring the electrician. The electrician showed up later, to fix the grossly mislabeled panel, but unfortunately when the electrical inspector arrived to inspect it (you guessed it, Day Six) the documentation was still incorrect. Meanwhile they left a ladder, hoses, and other assorted things lying around the yard.
CrackerJack called, they want some journeymen’s tickets back.
I wound up talking the City inspector into signing off on an incorrectly labeled panel, and fixing the documentation problem myself.
Overall, I’m satisfied with the furnace but I hate the «BreezAir» air conditioner. It is noisy, grossly overpowered for my tiny house, and it sucks power like a politician at a press conference. I’m in the market to pay someone to rip it out and replace it with a more reasonable evaporative cooler.
After today’s maintenance appointment fiasco, in which I waited around during the 8AM to noon time window while the maintenance team didn’t show up because the idiot at the customer service desk insisted on not calling me, I called the customer service desk. The woman told me she could have a crew out «in 20 minutes» but I told her not to bother, and to not have anyone from the company call me ever again.

A little over a week ago I was accosted by a HVAC sales person as I was leaving Costco. I admitted that I had a new high efficiency furnace and needed a tune-​up to maintain my warrantee. She said they could do it for $ 59. That seemed reasonable so I filled out the contact information card. Long story short. A week later I rushed home from work for my furnace service «appointment.» Three hours later I called and learned that the technician is on the way back from a service call way out-​of town, and there is someone else before me. Note to self: Why did I schedule an «appointment» a week ahead? A couple hours ETA slack seems like enough for waiting a week. In an emergency a simple courtesy call would be in order. Instead the response I heard was: «That’s why we have approximate ETA’s.» Apparently the «ETA» is all day and half the night. Perhaps I was lucky, because after reading the other Unilocal reviews I think I will cancel the «appointment.» Thanks Unilocalers for the reviews! I trusted that a vendor selling out of Costco would be vetted.

I recently had a brand new unit installed. The «journeyman» completing the work told me the unit would be installed identically to the previous A/​C. Instead, new holes were drilled into my house without permission and the line was ran in a completely inconvenient place where it could easily be tripped over on our roof. The unit also started leaking a significant amount of water INTO my house. A part had to be ordered overnight and when it didn’t show up I had to call myself to check on the status. The part was delayed and I was told to shut off my brand new $ 9,000 A/​C for 3 days until the part came in. Then, after notifying the salesman (David) he suggested that we had gone up onto our roof, opened the A/​C unit, and broken the ridiculously hard plastic piece ourselves. WORST SERVICE EVER!

Purchased a Groupon voucher for an «20-​point A/​C Tuneup» which should have been titled «20 point inspection» with absolutely no work performed, much less any type of tune-​up. The HVAC tech was very knowledgeable and sincere, but at the end of the day, he’s also a salesmen. I knew before hand, the ultimate goal of any HVAC tech coming out may be to land a sale and I have no problem with that because that is part of their job; however, in this case, he was trying to sell me a $ 15,000 new A/​C and furnace. I’m a little familiar with how much A/​C units cost and I know they are not cheap, but when $ 15,000 was thrown out, I immediately said that sounded very expensive. Of course he knew statics and metrics on energy efficiency and told me the break-​even point when it would pay for itself and then of course the fact that Mechanical Control Solutions is one of Costco’s vendors, etc, etc, etc. I called my wife who’s parents just had two brand new Lennox units along with a new furnace installed in their house and they paid $ 9,000 for both units and the furnace. Clearly this company is either trying to oversell products to customers that aren’t needed or are simply way overpriced. There is nothing that was performed for the $ 50 Groupon that wouldn’t have been performed for free from any other HVAC company to probably include Mechanical Control Solutions if you called them up for a quote. Be weary of this company for sure.

ABSOLUTELY UNTRUSTWORTHY. PAID FOR A TUNE UP SERVICE FOR MY SWAMP COOLER VIA GROUPON, THE TECH WHO WAS LATE ARRIVING SAID I NEEDED NEW PADS, QUOTED ME OVER TWICE WHAT THE GIRL ON THE PHONE HAD SAID IT WOULD BE, THEN LEFT AFTER SUPPOSEDLY BREAKING SOMETHING ON MY COOLER, ONLY TO RETURN OVER TWO HOURS LATER TO «finish up.» The tech only wanted to upsell me on various other services including replacing my whole system with an air conditioner, kept claiming how old and ineffective my system is. Cut to two weeks later when it’s actually time to start using it, and it doesn’t cool. I called to inquire with them, and the girl on the phone tells me they only cool 10 degrees below the outside temperature. This is complete horse shit. I called a friend who came and fixed it in 15 minutes. The tech did NOT perform duties he should have to properly prepare the cooler for use. The channels for the water were 70% clogged, several of the hoses had been disconnected, if the pump had been running, then the hoses would have been hitting the side had they actually been connected. The only thing that was properly installed were the pads… the only extra service paid for past the groupon deal. I am extremely dissatisfied with the poor customer service and horrid follow up. If you don’t want to perform a service properly, don’t offer Groupons!

I used these guys in November for my furnace in a house that had been vacant for some time. They were great. It was a Groupon deal, and they earned my repeat business.
I tried to give them my repeat business this month to get my evaporative cooler up and running. It needs a major tune-​up since it’s been sitting unused for so long. Plus, I wanted an estimate for a crazy expensive conversion from evaporative to refrigerated air. I’m prepping myself to spend massive money with these guys…
My appointment was for Friday. They had to bump me because of an emergency with the technician. I totally understand. They let me know on Thursday, so I had ample time to rearrange my work schedule accordingly. I confirmed a time for them for Tuesday, 4−6PM. No one showed. I called. Sandy remembered me and said that she remembered me on the schedule and that she’d check and call back. Someone else called back apologizing profusely because they didn’t confirm a date/​time. But we did. I’m confused. Anywho, I sat around waiting at home for a tech that never showed and never called. Since they have 24×7 service, I asked if it would be later today. No.
I understand that mistakes happen, but when you bump someone and then miss their rescheduled appointment, you’ve got some issues somewhere.
Further, if you’re always transferred to Sandy when you call, why can’t Sandy just answer the phone to begin with?
Four stars for November, one star for this incident, so two stars from me…