Sheldon's Heating, Air Conditioning & Plumbing, Inc. — Attraction in Riverside

We had used Sheldon’s a few years ago and were pleased with their service so gave them a call when our upstairs unit was blowing warm air. The tech came out next day and immediately said it was likely our filters before he started the inspection. Made sense as they hadn’t been replaced in some time. Our unit is 15 years old, so we were expecting that any repair would be significant. Then, he inspected the unit and said we needed to add more refrigerant, which was going to cost almost $1,000. Then, during the process said that since we needed so much refrigerant, we may have a slow leak and charged us another $1,300 to shoot dye into the system that would go through and repair any leaks. Told us it was company policy due to the amount of refrigerant needed. The tech said it would take 3 days to go through the system and repair the leak. When the tech left, he didn’t close our returns - he left everything open. We had cold air that night, but The following day it was hot air again. We turned off the unit and left for a long weekend. Got back Monday and turned on the air - still warm. Called Sheldon’s and the service manager said he didn’t know why the tech said 3 days, that it could actually take a few weeks for the leak to be repaired. The service manager said to stop running the air and they sent a tech out on Thursday. We shared with the service manager that we didn’t feel good about the treatment and that we felt we were being taken advantage of. Considering we had already spent close to $2400, it was disappointing that we had to wait until Thursday for the tech to come out. Same tech comes out and decides to actually climb into the attic to locate the leak. Not sure why he didn’t do this when he was initially dispatched, but this time he found the leak and advised it was the evaporator coil. He told me that when they added the refrigerant and dye, it probably caused the leak to completely blow out. It really didn’t make sense to me and I found myself questioning why he didn’t check the entire unit, including in the attic, before attempting any sort of repair. Told us he would request a quote to replace the coil, to replace both the coil and condenser and finally a quote to replace the whole system. We asked about the $2400 we had already spent on the repair that didn’t repair anything and he said he would ask about getting us a credit. When he left, he left the upstairs unit on after his service manager had advised us not to run it. We received an email with three quotes by the end of the day. No one offered to go over the quotes with us and since we don’t work in the HVAC industry, they were confusing. The quotes did include an $860 credit for the $2400 we spent, but they wanted another $5k, $12k or $19k depending on the option we chose and the quotes were only good for 5 days. My general complaints are that they didn’t do a full inspection for a leak before they started telling us costs and kept bumping up what we needed to do. They acted on an assumption instead of doing a full inspection and we are out $2400 as a result. They should have done a full inspection including going into the attic before they started any repair work. Seemed like the tech wanted to do the least amount of work possible. The tech left things open when he left and didn’t provide clear responses to our questions. We called another company out and had an infinitely better experience. They were professional, clean and answered all of our questions in a way that made us confident they knew what they were talking about. The tech sat down with us and went over the quotes explaining everything that was included. Sheldon’s has a lot of positive reviews, but the negative reviews really resonate with the experience we had. I would think twice before...

Lack of professionalism and over priced. We repaired what they suggested however it did not resolve the issue and they then said it was the unit that needed to be replaced. We are out 7,000 and they still wanted us to spend more money with them when what they replaced didn’t work. Dean was the tech that Inspected the unit prior and then Art the manager definitely did not take any responsibility even though when we first talked on the phone he told me he had no idea what was going on and he was wanting to hear from me what the problem was. They seemed to just want to take our money but failed to take responsibility. We have surveillance in our business where it shows my husband showing and telling him what the problem was. Still they are washing their hands. We had another 2 techs come out to check and they said the unit should have been the first thing to be replaced. They also quoted 5,000.00 less to replace the unit than Sheldon’s, I would stay away from this company. Update. Our CC company gave us our money back as Sheldon’s did not do the correct work and then Sheldon’s decided to file a lien against our landlord/building forcing us to pay. However they never filed the appropriate permits for this and they did the work in May. They filed a 2 months later because without that permit they could not file the lien. They apparently did not want to spend the money unless it was necessary. I would definitely ask for proof of appropriate permits before having them start. I am uploading the photos for proof. I have noticed they have other negative reviews regarding similar situations. Also they charge 3.5% for using a card. I have not experienced that with...

I ended up using Sheldon's after two separate companies tried to sell me repairs that I didn't need and would not have fixed my problem (I used to manage a custom A/C manufacturing company so can easily smell the BS). I think Sheldon's is a good company and I have received good service from the 1 repair and 2 maintenance visits they provided. HOWEVER, Beware the 'up-sell'. I was coerced into paying for a '2 year maintenance agreement' in conjunction with a repair they did 18 months ago (which was also done well). The tech who did the repair insisted that I was required to buy this maintenance agreement (~$350) as part of the cost of the repair. I objected but he insisted (multiple times), it was not optional. This sounded absurd and I was sure I was being lied to by the tech who clearly was motivated to 'up-sell' me (likely he got a portion of what he 'sold'). The repair was for a rental and I was a thousand miles away and not due to be be back in town for several months. I do believe this was a case of an unethical tech and not the company.I failed to follow up on it with Sheldon's management either after the call or when I got home so shame on me. The calls for both appointments of the unwanted 'maintenance' calls reminded and irritated me again that the initial tech had defrauded me, but I felt I had waited too long to pursue it. Based on the other bad experiences I have had with others, I am at least pleased to find a company that can do good work. I do recommend using them but be VERY wary of the up-sell that comes...