Customer ReviewsforFirst Call Heating & Cooling OR LLC

I am angry with the service received from First Call and will here accuse them of being manipulative and dishonest. I have an over 100 year old house with a good condition over 100 year old furnace that has a newer (roughly 10 yr. old) ******* oil burner unit installed at its base. The burner began to fail to light a few weeks ago and we called First Call to troubleshoot the unit. When they arrived, the service technician told my tenant that they recommend replacing the entire furnace - before even looking at the problem. They also contacted me (the homeowner) to tell me of that recommendation. The service technician spent a good deal of time troubleshooting the furnace but was not able or willing to say why the furnace would not light. This is a simple burner system, pump, blower, ignition system, nozzle. They recommended we replace, at minimum, the entire burner unit ($1300.00) of parts, and would only do it if I were to sign a letter agreeing that it may not resolve the issue all while pressuring for a furnace replacement.I elected to troubleshoot the furnace myself, find that the pump was not functioning, replace the pump for under $200.00, and get the system working again.1. First Call has either incompetent service technicians, or 2. First Call employs a strategy of pressure, obfuscation, and outright dishonesty, in a no-heat situation to sell something to a consumer that they may not need.I believe #2 is the issue, as no service technician can be so incompetent as to not be able to identify in a few short steps that an oil pump on a ******* oil burner is not working.

The technician on site examined the furnace and conducted their diagnostic. Took pictures to indicate its present state and identify components that are recommended for repair. The pump that was in question was among his recommendations. Our repair estimates were for the 10-year-old burner. Our recommended replacement is for a total system that is 100 years old and due for replacement. There is no pressure to replace or repair, but recommendations as options are given. If we deem a piece of equipment a candidate for replacement but the customer chooses to repair it instead, there is a form attached indicating we are not responsible for future failures as we recommend replacement.

We just purchased a manufactured home and we needed to replace the heating/cooling system. I wanted to replace it with a Trane system so we contacted First Call Heating and Cooling, a local Trane Dealer. They sent a comfort consultant to give us a quote. This is a situation where you don't know what you do not know. When I received the quote, I started asking specific questions about the major components in the quote. The consultant refused to answer my critical questions multiple times which I felt was intended to hide the specific details I was asking which severely limited our ability to make an "informed purchase decision".

The sales program the comfort specialist uses has all the pricing in it and does not break out all the parts and labor as you requested.

Regarding First Call Heating and Cooling's reply to my complaint; not only do they refuse to itemize the cost of their components to allow transparency for its customers to verify if their charges are competitive or not, they withhold critical information critical to making in informed purchase decision.. Specifically; the air flow capacity of the residence duct work along with the square footage of the living space will ultimately determine how large (2 ton, 3 ton, 4 ton, 5 ton) a heat pump to install. Our residence has **** sq ft. living space which would indicate a 3 or 4 ton unit, but the air flow capacity of our duct work was evaluated to make any unit larger than 2.5 ton a waste of money. Not only did the quote from First Call Heating & Cooling not provide itemized costs it also did not specify the size of the Heat Pump. After my investigations from other Trane Authorized dealers, judging from the overall cost of the quote we received and the comment from the representative indicating that the foot-print space needed for the new unit, I believe we were being sold a 5 ton unit which would have exceeded double the airflow capacity of our air ducts.Bottom line: We received another quote from a local vendor at less than half (a $12,000+ savings) the First Call Heating & Cooling quote that correctly matches the capacity of our air ducts and still gives us the more advanced variable fan speed and other high efficiency features to keep our monthly costs down.