Ron in Calgary

I had an old aircon replaced previously by Advanpro but their poor workmanship resulted in my aircon malfunctioning prematurely within 3 years. Unfortunately, they wanted to charge me a ridiculous amount to replace it with a refurbished unit even though I had warranty. I turned to Heatmaster and found Dimitri to be knowledgeable and understanding, and very willing to help me replace the entire faulty aircon system with a completely new one at a fraction of Advanpro's exorbitant cost to repair/replace. Not only did Dimitri explain in detail what was wrong with the previous install, he was on time, always answers my queries, very polite, and did everything to my complete satisfaction. I am thankful to Heatmaster for saving me this hot summer with their quick response to my urgent request to have a new aircon. Next time, I won't make the same mistake by choosing a big company for my HVAC needs because there are too many red tapes and high employee turnovers. Heatmaster may be a smaller company but they definitely know what they are doing and highly professional in every aspect.

Advanpro sold me a new Lennox 13ACX aircon compressor in June 2018, but used my old aircon lines and evaporator coil because they wanted my business and told me it's the most cost-effective way with good pricing, and I trusted them. Big mistake. The new aircon uses 410A refrigerant whereas my old aircon lines and coil ran on R22 refrigerant. After the first summer, the aircon felt less effective thereafter and it finally died last summer 2021. Their tech diagnosed the problem as coil leak and in July 2021, quoted me a new coil and line repair that was quite costly which I was unhappy about, but they said they will contact me to resolve which they never did. At the time, I had a serious health issue requiring hospitalization and the matter dragged on until this summer, all the while I never heard from them. Meanwhile I replaced the leaky coil with another company at half the price of what Advanpro quoted, since their tech said that was the main problem. It worked for a while but then died again. When I recovered well enough from my health failings this summer, I contacted Rhys of Advanpro to resolve my aircon failure, and I told him the leaky coil probably wasn't the main issue since I had a new one and the aircon still died. To get an independent opinion on this, I contacted a certified Lennox service company from the Lennox website to check on my aircon. I was told the premature aircon failure was due to poor and improper installation by Advanpro, who should never have installed a new condenser using 410A refrigerant on old aircon lines/coil on R22 refrigerant because they are incompatible. Residue oil had corrupted the new condenser leading to premature failure. That is the main reason for my aircon failure. A simple Google search on the topic will reveal this same seemingly well-known problem. Yet when I brought this to Advanpro's attention, Rhys went into denial mode and "speculated" (his own words) that the problem was probably in my old system due to leaks and to probably a hole in the new coil that I had later installed; he came up with all these speculations without even coming to look or properly diagnose. On top of that he denied he ever heard of the Lennox authorized company that came to this conclusion, and I told him to visit Lennox's website where I found that authorized Lennox service company. All this while, refusing to acknowledge the installation of a 410A aircon on the old R22 system is a bad idea (beware if their Sales use this same trick on you to give you a cheaper aircon). Although my aircon compressor is supposed to be under warranty, Advanpro refused to honor it because it doesn't cover the entire unit, just certain parts, they said. While refusing to acknowledge their poor install leading to this aircon failure, Rhys instead offered me a refurbished aircon system valued at $5,195 and then calling it an upgrade. He then pretended to give me a $1699 discount because I had paid them $2,000 on the original install. I made a phone call to another authorized Lennox dealer for a quote on the same aircon upgrade model that Rhys offered me and was told it only cost $4,250 fully installed NEW and not refurbished. When I revealed this to Rhys, he claimed that his company is bigger, has higher overheads, and offers better service (which obviously isn't the case in my painful experience now). He then went on to belittle the "1 van operation without a physical shop" where I got the quotation from even though that I got the company name from Lennox's website as an authorized dealer and service centre. I asked Rhys for cheaper options because I don't want an expensive "refurbished" aircon. He then replied that whether it's the same model I own which is supposed to be cheaper or the refurbished one he's offering me, "the price will be the same." Even though they are primarily responsible for the poor workmanship in the first place, yet he still refused to acknowledge the poor and incompatible install (410A on R22 system) and told me to either take his offer or leave it. Take my advice, don't believe Advanpro when they come knocking with a competitive or cheaper quote. Everything goes well until you hit a problem.

I contacted Assiniboine to renovate a section of my 3-tier backyard by removing a small tree, trimming 2 shrubs, removing grass to create a walkway, a large patio and vegetable gardens. The estimator came a week later and I gave him a fixed budget to work with. He came back promptly to suggest a 25' stone walkway, a 15' x 14' patio and 2 vegetable garden areas of 10' x 4' each. He even suggested using the existing paver stones in my yard to use with new bricks for the vegetable garden border to save cost, which I thought was a great idea. Within a week, the project manager Anka contacted me and discussed about my likes and dislikes, etc. He was able to arrange for his crew to start 3 days before the original scheduled date. On Friday, the day of construction, the crew worked tirelessly ripping up the grass by hand (because my backyard is inaccessible to machineries). Within a day, they were able to prep the area to start laying the bricks the following day. These men worked long hours through the weekend, and during that time we made some minor changes to the design and those guys were very accommodating. In the end, some of the changes resulted in less bricks used and a pallet of bricks was returned to their supplier. The only unfortunate thing was that this wasn't communicated properly back to their HQ and when the project was completed, I was charged extra for bricks that were not used. However, the company was able to verify this situation quickly with the project manager and the revised charges were then waived without any issue. By Monday, the work was done to my satisfaction. To be clear, they are not the cheapest landscaper if you shop around. But if you want quality work and a landscaper who sticks to the budget, then Assiniboine is worthy of consideration. Plus, they provide 2 year limited hardscape warranty pertaining to workmanship defects, which I hope I won't have to use!

This is my first time writing a review for a service company because I felt compelled to do so. Recently, when I had overseas guests staying in my basement and the Calgary weather was much cooler than normal, I turned up my furnace and that's when I discovered it wasn't working. I didn't want to use my previous service company because their staff turnover and service had deteriorated in recent years. Thankfully, I found Dimitri and Heatmaster Services. I was hesitant at first because it's a small service company. But the moment I contacted Dimitri, he was very responsive to my problem. I explained to him the symptoms that I observed from my furnace failure, and Dimitri was very quick to narrow down the problem to 2 possibilities over the phone--either the blower or circuit board had busted. Sure enough, when he came to fix my furnace, he was able to remove the old board and show me the burnt circuitry and explained to me the reason my furnace shut down automatically because of overheating. Dimitri didn't stop there. He noticed that my damper wasn't working and it was then that I realized the previous service person from another company must have messed up the wiring inside the furnace. Dimitri not only replaced the old circuit board with a new one, he fixed the wiring to get my damper working again at no extra cost. He then went on to advice me on how to keep the furnace running well and the ideal settings for the water for the furnace humidifiers to save money in the long run. Whenever I had questions, he took his time to explain the answers and options to me. I found Dimitri to be honest, hardworking and knowledgeable in his trade.