Uptown Plumbing, Heating & Cooling

Reviews 3

RO

Robert Sanberg

We purchased a deal through Angies List for routine check on furnace and cleaning. Where it went right: They were prompt with arrival and called to confirm appointment and when the tech was not far away. The tech came in, was courteous and began the process of inspecting and cleaning our furnace. During the inspection process he found cracks on the heat exchanger of our Carrier Weathermaker 3200. Please note, Uptown is not a dealer for Carrier, but rather Bryant. I didnt think this was a big deal at the time, but would later find out it is fairly important. The tech called a secondary tech to come verify the cracks, because with the cracks they need to shut off our furnace until it is repaired or replaced due to potential danger. At the inspection the tech never said that it was producing dangerous levels of CO or any other issue, but that because it was cracked it had to be done. I said that was fine. When it started to go all wrong. I asked the tech what the time frame and cost would be to repair. He gave me a repair cost of between 3000 and 7000 dollars depending on what level of service I wanted. For the 7000 it was the platinum service that would include an inspection next year and a 2 year warranty. I then asked what the cost of a replacement furnace would be. He said he would have to get his sales person to give me a full write up. Based on my limited knowledge I guessed around 3000. He kind of laughed at that and said "no typically between 7000 and 13,000" This was substantially higher than things that I had quickly seen on the internet. When he gave me those numbers and said that because it was there busy time it would be hard to get someone out right away, but if I wanted he could probably get someone out to get it done right away. I told him, that I would like a call from the person, but I wanted to get a quote from another vendor. He said the sales person would call me. He did not. That night we used our fireplace to keep the house at a moderate temperature. The next morning I had a sales person from another HVAC company come out that deals in Carrier furnaces. I told him what was wrong and he looked at me shocked. He said that he has never seen the primary heat exchanger cracked on our model without it being caused by the secondary. This was important because Carrier had an issue with the secondary exchangers and if it was cracked and caused the cracking in the primary carrier would fix the furnace at NO cost to me. Uptown didnt look at the secondary unit, as they said that would be more work because it was harder to see and since the primary was cracked it didnt make a difference. I dont fault Uptown for this as they arent Carrier dealers so wouldnt necessarily know this. I guess this is why it is important to have a factory authorized person take a look at your appliances. I then asked the Carrier person about replacement cost. He said replacement cost of the furnace would be about 3000, if we wanted to just repair the heat exchanger that would be 700. He said the exchanger was under warranty for 20years, so the only cost would be the labor. So in short: Uptown repair costs were going to be anywhere from infinitely more expensive than another company(if it is under warranty) to between 5 and 10x the cost. The furnace replacement costs were going to be anywhere from 2.5-4x the cost. Be careful.

CA

Candee Wolf Olson

After experiencing a leaky basement shower, we asked for referrals to a plumber. A friend immediately responded with Uptown Plumbing, Heating and Cooling. I checked online and was impressed with the number of positive reviews. I scheduled a consult with them and was further impressed by the broad list of services they provide. We decided to have Uptown Plumbing replace the surround shower, toilet and sink/vanity, which all needed updating, along with replacing a kitchen faucet and addressing a couple of small plumbing issues in the main bathroom. Mike S. was the primary plumber and he was very helpful to work with. Uptown provided the shower surround unit and we picked out the other items for them to install. We had a couple of issues with the big box store we got the items from, but Mike, his apprentice Eric, and carpenter Dave helped get everything resolved. All projects seem to come with unexpected situations and our project was no different. Turned out that the shower plumbing wasn’t up to code so water kept pooling under the shower and spilling out to the bathroom walls and causing the leaky situation. Mike showed me exactly what the situation was and how they could fix it. Dave’s carpentry skills came in handy because we had to tear off portions of drywall and wood trim that were moldy. The shower surround and vanity were a bit smaller than previous so Dave even put down tile we had on hand to cover the empty floor space. The bulk of the work was done in just 1 day! Dave needed to come back a few times due to the drywall and tile work, but that was expected. When everything was done, we had an updated bathroom that I’m proud to show off! Initially I was going to give Uptown 5 stars; however, when they worked on the kitchen sink they forgot to hook the dishwasher back up so Jason had to come out and fix that. Also, the pipes in the new basement sink had a leak and the sink was draining slow. Phil came out and reconfigured the pipes. Seemed like that worked though I still saw a very small amount of water pooling in the vanity. Bo came out just last night to take a look though no water was present at that time but he did tighten the couplings a bit. What I appreciated most about Uptown is their customer service. Yes, we needed them to come back out and address some issues; however, they always did so in a timely manner and without further charges. Their goal was clearly to take care of the matter to our satisfaction! Everyone who came to the house to do work was polite and professional as were those who answered the phones and scheduled the appointments. We would definitely use plumbing services from Uptown again and we’ve signed up for their heating and cooling services as well!

MA

Mandy Long

After purchasing our 1947 home, we recently chose to be members of the Happy Homeowners club, and I am so glad we did! Uptown has gone out of their way, above and beyond, to work with us to communicate for tune-ups, for evaluations, and for maintenance. Their dispatch crew is always on top of what is going on, they are understanding and courteous. Most recently, we needed to replace our water heater. Naturally, as luck would have it, it was several months past its warranty when the inner tank cracked and began to leak. Jason came out to investigate the situation and discuss options. We talked about a number of different scenarios, various types of water heaters, different venting options, and so forth. Then there was the perfectly transparent pricing quotes - he was able to show me a wide variety of options so that I could make an even more informed decision. After working to install the new water heater, we discussed the existing water softener system in our home. This system had been maintained just about as well as the other appliances in the home we purchased (not at all) and has been on our "to-do" list since we moved in. Jason showed me the miscellaneous options we could work with, and was able to work with me to design a system that would work for our home, and within our budget. Our new water conditioning system is already a new favorite, and I look forward to seeing how this works for our family for years to come! In addition to the water heater and water conditioning unit, Jason was able to work remotely with an HVAC specialist to troubleshoot our in-line humidifier on our furnace (AprilAire). This is still a work-in-progress project but at least now I have some ideas about what may or may not be the problem. After Jason left, while I was tidying up the basement, the pull-cord of the basement light pulled right off in my hand, leaving me with a fixture 8 off the ground in a pretty dark basement that I couldnt reach to fix. I called Uptown, Amanda on the other end of the line (who was amazingly understanding), got in touch with Jason right away and he was able to turn around and come back to lend a hand, helping to get everything in order for me. We have had excellent experiences with Uptown: with Jason today, Dan has visited us as well (another phenomenal service experience), and their in-office staff is always courteous, happy to keep everyone informed, and great at appropriately handling calls and questions with a sense of urgency, and we plan on having many more. …just hopefully not for a little while :o)

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