New Berlin Heating & Air Conditioning — Local services in New Berlin

I'd definitely stay away from New Berlin Heating & Air Conditioning, please read until the end to understand. Our Carrier furnace was about a little over 10 years and it had given us a lot of problems. A few days ago, it started to blow only cool air and the thermostat showed an error code 13 and 33 with a message that I needed to call a technician, so I called New Berlin Heating & Air Conditioning. A tech came to take a look at our furnace who I had to pay a $90 "trip charge". He said the second heat exchanger went bad and I needed a new furnace. I agreed but I told him that I did not want Carrier furnace due to the bad experience. He told me a thermostat of a different furnace brand would NOT work with our current Carrier brand Air conditioner (lied! they are probably a Carrier authorized shop). He then gave me a quote for the Carrier furnace which was over $5K. He was very pushy but I told him I needed a few minutes to discuss with my spouse so he went outside. A few minutes later, he came in and told me that he smelled gas in front of my house due to the furnace problem (By the way, the heat exhaust pipe is in the back of my house). Despite what he said, I told him that I'd call him back later that day because we needed to think about it and shop around a little bit. He seemed a little upset and pressured me that if I did not sign up on site, they would not install it in 2 days (pressuring us because we were without heat). I said that was OK if they could not install it in 2 days then I asked if the $90 trip charge would go toward the purchase/installation of the new furnace if I called back to sign up. He replied "NO!" (greedy and unethical, most businesses would waive the trip charge if the customer used their service). He left us with NO HEAT! I called a different company (a competitor). A tech came to our house on the same day and he confirmed that the second heat exchanger was bad. He offered to give us 2 quotes, one to replace the heat exchanger (but may not be worth it due to price) and one for a new well-known brand furnace (the brand is very comparable to Carrier brand if not better per my research). I asked about the compatibility of the thermostat with my Carrier air conditioner. He said it was not true, he double checked anyway and confirmed the thermostat of the furnace brand that he offered would be compatible with my Carrier air conditioner. He gave me a quote for under $5K. I told him that I'd call him back because there was another company to come out giving us another quote. No pushy or pressure, he was very honest and professional. BETTER YET, before he left, he told me to get a fan to blow at the furnace, turn down the gas about 50% and showed me to reset the furnace so it could temporarily keep the house warm for a few days, reset it again if it blew cool air. I followed his advice. The error code disappeared and it blew about 50% of hot air. He left us WITH HEAT and NO CHARGE! We ended up with this honest company. We would never consider New Berlin Heating & Air Conditioning again nor recommend this...

Best $130 I spent. Our furnace was making a noise which is not good. They were able to squeeze us in, which I thought was very nice. Mike came out earlier than our appointment, which again, I thought was care and concern. He didn't have any tools with him, so I thought he'd look at the furnace, then get tools. I was wrong. I pointed out where the noise was coming from, Mike agreed that was the problem, said it was a $1,000 part, and because the furnace is old, we should replace it. He looked (and by look I mean he opened the cabinet, looked at it, closed the cabinet). Said we need to replace that one too. $8,000/furnace. He then proceeded to do what I consider a hard sell for 20 minutes on buying new furnaces. Didn't get into what the new ones are, specs, anything. Kept repeating, a cold snap comes and your furnace goes. (To be fair, he did tell us about the incentives). Regardless, he was not too thrilled when we didn't bite. I called Kettle Moraine Heating & Cooling, who does work at our office. They too sent someone, same day. The tech came in, first thing, put on booties (Shouldn't have to ask. Shows mindfulness of other people's home). He goes to the furnace, opens the cabinet. He asks me to crank up the heat so he can hear the bearing run. I oblige. I came back down and watched him work. He pulled out and inspected the secondary heat exchanger, checked the exhaust piping, listened to the furnace. Even though I called about the one furnace, he did the same for the second furnace. After all was said and done - he said "Your furnaces are old. I cannot quantify how long they will last but based on my experience, you do not need to replace them right away. They are in decent shape for their age." When it came to invoicing it, he said, "I just did some diagnostic; I really didn't do much. $250. Mike wanted us to spend $16,000 in 10 minutes. Kettle Moraine - $250. When I called to tell them what Mike did - no apology, just "I'll relay the message" I thought they were doing right by us, by sending Mike out right away. They did. Taught me to always get a second opinion....

Update: 7/29/2021: I had a very open and frank conversation with Mike (owner of the company) today. He clearly recognized my disappointing experience and wanted to work with me to make things right. We discussed the “cause and effect” aspects of the events, and he clearly articulated the engineering and wiring aspects of how the capacitor and thermostat were not really connected. In the spirit of making things right, he committed to the following …

1. Refund / return the check. He acknowledged that it should not have happened.
2. Work with the technician on warranty & repair rules. The AC unit would be under warranty and not having a thermostat would have no bearing on the warranty (assuming there was no abuse).
3. Have another technician come by and install a new thermostat (purchased by me). Willing to make things right and a passion for continuous improvements, speaks volumes about the character of an individual and business leadership.

Thanks, Mike, for standing by your word.

7/28/2021: I had gotten the AC unit replaced by New Berlin Heating and Cooling in Summer of 2020.

1. July 22, 2021: One year service performed (Tech advised to replace filter)
2. July 24 - 26 2021: AC stopped cooling
3. July 27, 2021: Called New Berlin Heating to get the system checked, I was advised to replace filter, which I did.
4. July 28th: Tech came and replaced the capacitor (as part of warranty). I have no clue what he did but the Google Thermostat stopped working. Additionally, he charged me $93 for diagnostic, which was a total waste since he did not fix the issue. I asked if he carried any thermostats and he showed me a $500+ Thermostat. I did not go for it. Additionally, he kind of threatened me that if I did not replace the thermostat and if the capacitor died again, that will NOT be part of warranty. Finally, the guy asked me for $93 and I asked him to send me an invoice and I will pay it via online check, and he refused. I ended up giving him a check.

I have requested for a call from the company owner Mike and hope that we can talk about this and see how this can...