Pearl Mechanical

I was recommended by family that this company is reputable but they are not. Initially they gave me an estimate which was outrageous (over a grand) so I decided to buy most of the parts they recommended.

They did tell me the parts were not "guaranteed". So I bought the water heater, gas line, expansion tank and the few other parts they said I needed. In the end, they did not confer with me about those new parts I bought and they only used the water heater I bought at Lowe's but not the new parts (their choice) It seemed like they were trying to save me money, which I appreciated, but now my water heater is leaking from the top. The owner Al, came out, tightened it and said it should never leak again.

It did, so I called him again and he said he would come out and fix it. This was 2.5 weeks ago, (water heater is still leaking all this time BTW) NEVER said "Oh by the way, we are charging you labor plus the part." I assumed since they did not use the new parts I bought, that that was on them. I called him and tried to work it out. I told him that when I called him the second time he did not tell me upfront he was charging me labor and that I needed to buy the new part.

He decides to call me two days BEFORE to say, "Oh btw, I am charging you labor and parts." I did not appreciate him not being upfront, assumed since they did not use the new parts I bought, that that was on them. Nooooooo, I was sadly mistaken. This company IMO is all about the $$ and not good customer service. Now I have to call someone else to come out and do the job they SHOULD have done in the first place!

I am so disappointed because they came highly recommended. Don't try to reason with Al the owner either, because he will try to make you fee like it is your fault, he will raise his voice and yell at you, he even had the audacity to say to me, "Oh, I knew you would say that." as if the situation was my fault, when clearly, it is not. He has so much business right now his only concern is making that dough and not great customer service. I do not recommend this company.Also, when trying to problem solve, this owner AL AND his wife Pearl BOTH have terrible people skills.

In conversations they "talk over you" and never really LISTEN to the customer.

Pearl just told me that she could not talk to me and that I would have to wait to talk to their worker "Matthew" because she she apparently didn't have to ppl skills to work out this problem. If this is how they run their company, letting other employees deal with THEIR problems, DO NOT USE THEM SMH (The inspection DID pass, BUT the inspector from the city even told me I was not at fault, they were)

Summary - Furnace vent pipe leaking; installer came out and didn't fix it. Am now forced to call another company and pay for a service call.

Complaint Description

Came out and installed an evaporative cooler and 95% efficiency furnace on 6/5/10. (This type of furnace is vented with PVC pipe). Cooler quit working. Pearl came and fixed that- the pulley connected to the belt that runs the blower had fallen off. Vent pipe for furnace was left open to the elements on the roof with no cap, came back and put on an elbow. On 10/18/10, when I began using the furnace, I had to duct tape a towel around the outside of the vent pipe from the furnace to the roof because of a constant drip of water running down that pipe whenever the furnace is running. Owner of Pearl Mechanical came out on 10/27/10, told me the pipe sweats like that when there is a difference between the indoor and outdoor temperature and it was a good thing I had duct taped that towel around it. He didn't do anything to fix the leak. I tried to fix it myself; gave up and called Coleman, the maker of the furnace, who recommended their local service company to me. I'll have to now pay for a service call on 11/4/10 at $85/hour plus travel and whatever materials might be needed by someone who knows what he's doing. I filed a small claims case against this company for the cost of repairs to revent it correctly, over $800, and will be adding to that complaint regarding the repair work below.

Now it got cold here on 12/29/10 and the furnace won't heat the house. Last winter, my fourteen year old furnace was fine. Pearl Mechanical came out and installed a 95.5% efficiency new furnace. My furnace has run continuously for 5 days without achieving anywhere near the heat set on the thermostat. For example, last night 1/1/11, I had the thermostat set at 67 degrees; the furnace never shut off and it was 57 degrees when I woke up. Due to some heat from the sun, it's up to about 64 degrees after 3 1/2 hours. The thermostat is currently set at 71 degrees. The owner and his son had no idea how to install one of these furnaces or they put one in that was too small for the house. My propane company came out and filled my 500 gallon tank to 83% capacity on 12/27/10. Today is 1/2/10- I looked at the gauge and it's down to 60%. This means I've used on average over 16 gallons of propane per day in the last seven days. I'm REALLY, REALLY, pissed!!! If you live in the Albuquerque area, do NOT use this company. They suck.