Diamond AC and Heating — Local services in Phoenix

Summary: Pushy and unprofessional sales from tech coupled with questionable pricing makes this a "do not recommend" for me.

Details: I was nagged quite often with phone calls to sign up for a $20 system checkup. After much deliberation I decided my 15 year old system could use the attention. Scheduling was easy but man they do love their phone calls. I would have much rather preferred an email or text instead of repeat calls every few hours but it is hardly why I felt the need for a 1 star review.

The tech arrived on time which is great but was not wearing any face cover nor did he offer to wear one. With the current state of covid19, it should have been a given when entering a customer's home.

We went through the outside unit and I immediately was put on edge from his assessment. While he was polite and clearly explained the concerns he observed he was very pushy about making a sale. On top of that the pricing for parts and services was not only wildly inconsistent but also misleading. I was quoted $1000+ for replacing a few parts, cleaning, and some insulation. I was also told this was only cost of parts and labor was going to be free because he wanted to give me a deal and the cleaning and insulation were freebies.

I hesitated and asked for a formal quote and some time. Suddenly the 1000 became 600 if i committed to it "right now". I inquired about more detail on the parts to be replaced only to discover that the "$150 conductor with free labor" was $20 on Amazon along with the optional hard start capacitors were $40 rather than the ~$200 with free installation that he was pushing. Sure quality varies but nonetheless a 7x markup and claiming that it was 100% attributed to material cost rather than labor is shady as hell. I would have been willing to consider the labor of a licensed tech if i felt he wasn't trying to rip me off.

At that point I decided that I was still interested in finishing the checkup since I paid for it but did not trust anything the tech would say due to this attempted money grab unless I could see the same concern that is raised.

Once he realized i was most likely not going for it he was ready to leave and skip the air handler inspection. I asked him to look at the units in my attic and he very reluctantly agreed to do so.

We found that the pans were dirty and potentially slightly clogged and he suggested a method to clean them while also dropping remarks like "see im teaching you something so you should pay me" and "see im saving you money by showing this to you so you should have me do the quoted work I mentioned."

This pushy sales and attempt to guilt trip me is not okay and only reaffirmed my conviction to not have him do anything on top of the agreed upon inspection. But it actually gets worse!

When he writes up the quote he informs me that "my boss will not let me drive an hour out here without making a sale so YOU will have to talk to him and explain why i am walking away empty handed." How unprofessional and incompetent can you be to put a customer on the spot with your supervisor because you failed to articulate why I was not interested in the $1000-$600-$300 service? I explained that I was interested in doing the work myself when I discovered that the allegedly $600 in parts was actually $120. I get it that labor is not cheap....especially licensed labor but to pretend that labor is "free" and the parts are hundreds more than the actual cost is a shady business practice.

If the tech was straightforward on the cost of materials and labor it would entail than i would have considered it for the reassurance of having a licensed tech perform the work. But due to the way he handled the situation, dishonest pricing, pushy sales, attempted guilt trip, and getting me to speak to his supervisor I declined any additional services without hesitation. I didnt explicitly want to do the work myself but I sure as hell wasn't giving him any commission after that...

Okay 2 days later... after I received a response to this review from Alfred. I then responded to him, asking for action to remedy this matter... Replace gas valve. Still the same course of action we originally decided to pursue. No response from Alfred, whatsoever. Obviously based on that, the original visit was a sales directed service call. Sad. Disappointed. Just poor service in any matter. And they were not even proactive in assisting us, even though we did not buy a system at that very moment, but we wanted to determine that $$$$ after the holidays. Duh.

2 stars... I'll tell you why. The heater stopped... Okay I'll call someone nearby. Got someone and explained my issue, and they said, they can send someone that evening. We were not prepared to drop everything and address this issue that might. I said tomorrow morning is fine. Scheduled visit. Tech called in the morning and said he's coming an hour late, at 11am, and all I will say is whatever. He shows up and I have the attic open with a ladder set up, right in front of us. He seemed distracted and said he'll go get a ladder. I stopped him and said, I have a ladder all set up, right here 🤔. We go up and then the big statement is... This is the original system. I say okay. Then the sales pitch to buy a new system without even looking / testing it. Now he starts to try to take the panels off, with a screwdriver scraping the aluminum tape. I went and got a razor knife. Then it's like he's yanking the panels off aggressively. Odd.

Tested items. This and that. He asked me when it was the last service- last fall. All was okay then. More testing. He made the determination that the gas valve was bad... But I did not have confidence in that statement and his testing. I'm not an expert, but sort of "okay". Again lack of confidence in his testing. We tested one last time. He says... well you may want to get a new system. We may not be able to find this valve. And next year system prices are going up 30 percent and new Freon gas. I was not inclined to pull the trigger for a new $10k plus system at a spur of the moment. He went to the truck and called someone and put him on speaker. This person repeated the sales pitch, etc... Tech provided a guestimate of $200 a month? And I said for what 60 months. Yes about that. And again I said I'm not prepared to make a decision now. The tech said someone would look for a gas valve and then someone/he would call me with information, cost, etc... It's now 7:34 pm and no information. Previously I said let's move forward and pull the old valve out and plan for installation. He stated he did not have time. So a brief test, sales pitch and no time. I got the feeling it was a visit for a new system and when that feel through... Okay we're done here.

I did not feel comfortable with the whole thing. A new valve is about $150-300. And then R&R - less than an hour of labor. Just fix it and then we will see if we want to get a new one in our time frame, etc...

Just not a good feeling about the whole experience. However, they did not charge me. But...

DO NOT USE DIAMOND AIR!! In April 2022 we paid almost $8500.00 for new duct work and insulation. After installing we had them come back 2 times to adjust air flow. By September no results. In March 2023 we had another ac company come to see what the problem was. He informed us to call DIAMOND air back because it wasn't up to code and needed to be redone. So in April 2023 DIAMOND air came out again. They told us how sorry they were and how they would make it right. They spent 8 hours here just to tell us it needed to be completely redone and they would be back in a week, first thing in the morning. A week later and another day off work and no call to confirm. My husband calls at 7am to see when they would be here, just to be told they where on their way. At 10 am they show up. They work till almost 7pm. While at the house "fixing" the problem, my house was snowing insulation that I had just paid them to put in the attic. My house was covered. I was frustrated with the whole situation! I asked the lead to come and see what they where doing to my house and if it was normal!? He just stared, saying no ma'am. I asked him to have the owner call me as I was not a happy customer. Before leaving I explained the air flow was still not adequate. I was told he wasn't sure what the problem was? You have to be kidding me!! This was a Wednesday. I waited to hear from the owner till Monday. I called the office to receive a return call from the owner. I recieved a call back a few hours later from Alfred. I was explaining the above information to him when a man named Cody took over the phone call to tell me it was my fault I got bad work because I was mean to his workers. He wanted me to agree to have them come back again to adjust the dampers. I explained to him we had given they enough chances to do the job right with no satisfaction so far. He went on about their integrity as a company and he wanted to make it right with a partial refund and fixing the problem again! I explained I'd have to talk with my husband because we really didn't want them back. I called him back the next day to let him know we would like a partial refund so we could have it repaired correctly. He was not happy and proceeded to tell me I'd be lucky to get anything from him. When the day before I was told he wouldn't insult me with a $500.00 refund. That's exactly what he did before hanging up on me. $1250.00 and a different company , our house is cool everywhere. So grateful for companies with actual integrity. DO NOT USE DIAMOND AIR!! VERY...