Berkeys Air Conditioning, Plumbing & Electrical

Woke up to my kitchen flooding this morning from a broken water heater that is upstairs in a closet above the kitchen. We have a maintenance agreement with Berkey’s so we called them to come out first. It has been super icy here in Frisco but they still made it out within 45 min. Not only did they look at the water heater they (Jorge he was amazing so I wanted to add his name) also called the floor restoration people and the ceiling people (who were also awesome) and had them out no longer than 45 min later. We will be replacing our two 50 gallon water heaters with waterless heaters so we don’t have to ever do this mess again. The whole process was simple and easy.
I feel the need to add that it is 10:30 pm and these guys are still here working on installing the tankless water heater, there it is quite a process switching. I said something about feeling bad about them still being here and Michael T said, «It is all about the customers and getting yawl fixed up. We know ya’ll have kids and need hot water, this is what we are here to do, help you.»
Also I am glad to see that the company responds to their reviews, you also need to look in the not recommended reviews because there are many 5-​star reviews you are not seeing. They have always been amazing to us and I have never even thought to get a second opinion because they have been more then fair.

I’d be certain to get a couple of quotes when dealing with Berkey’s. I was give a quote 50% higher than other comparable companies and told that it was a «flat rate» quote when I asked for a breakdown of costs for the replacement of a hot water heater. When pressed further to provide a breakdown, I was told that he would have to check with his supervisor and would get back to me. Still haven’t heard anything 4 days later.

My husband bought their service agreement, which included free A/​C tune ups. They came out for a A/​C tune up. The A/​C worked, mind you, all they did was put in new filters, which we provided. They wanted us to replace our A/​C for $ 23,000.00. We needed a regulator on the pool heater. They quoted $ 1,700.00. Really? They are overpriced. The average cost of a regulator is $ 160.00 installed.

I am with one of the other reviewers — wish I could give zero stars. We called because our emergency shut off valve was leaking. The technician arrived and replaced the shut off valve. The whole job took 15 minutes. The charge $ 318.00 ($ 69.00 to diagnosis ****already knew this as I know what the shut off valve is) and rest to fix it. I felt robbed literally. I called and talked to 4 other plumbers that all told me $ 120 or less in fee. Good business practice DOES NOT robbed their customers. Will not call again. Wish I had read Unilocal before I let them in my house. BTW when we called yesterday afternoon it was a $ 150.00 after hours fee. I noticed one of the reviews says they $ 89.00 so addition to everything else about this contractor that reeks not honesty they adjust prices to their liking.

Had a dripping shower head on Saturday and called around to different plumbing companies to see if anyone could come out. One company mentioned it would be around $ 280 to repair on weekends and $ 180 if I could wait until Monday. Having given at least some type of price range, I noticed Berkeys serviced my area. Gave them a call and scheduled for someone to come out on Monday. I’m thinking in my mind they would quote around the same weekday price. What a mistake that was. Was given a quote of $ 422. That’s insane. No way would I pay this or the service fee which was not mentioned when I scheduled. Rescheduled with the company that had given me the $ 180 price. I will never call Berkeys again for any type of service.

It appeared my thermostat stopped working. I thought I could tough it out (shouldn’t it be getting cooler) but I’m a wuss. Around 2pm I was HOT and my bird was sad :(I contacted another company and they couldn’t come out until Monday, upon their recommendation I called Berkeys. John Martinez came out and was very nice, had it working in a jiffy and I was only charged the inspection fee. I was happy and my bird was happy! John stuck around to make sure the place was cooling down properly, he also opened other vents so there isn’t possible issues in the future with back flow. I couldn’t be happier and would certainly use them again (hopefully that won’t be necessary)

I woke up one morning and it was 82*F in my house and climbing. I called the number on an old magnet on the fridge and it was a new company at the other end, but they repaired air conditioning and couple come out that day between noon and five, so I said, yes!
Mike Mennenga called me around 1:30 and said he was headed my way. It was 86*F and I was elated. He came, inspected the outdoor unit and quickly identified the issue, as the fan had slipped its mount. He did not have the part, but had someone bring it from Dallas. He saved me money by seating the new fan on the old motor, rather than pushing the new one and by selling me an annual inspection package that gets me discounts on service, including today, so I saved more than the package cost and will get inspection of my heater before it has to work hard for the winter.
By 4pm, the air conditioner was running and the temperature back down to 82*F. By 9:30pm, it was at a sleepable temperature and I praised the name of Mike Mennenga!
A week later, I received a thank you card in the mail for choosing their service. I have one friend who sends thank you cards and have always admired her and wished I could do the same, but never can motivate myself to do so. Here, a service provider and my personal hero in summer in Texas, sent me a card for letting him fix my air conditioner. I praised the name of Mike Mennenga!
I use Berkeys now for my a/​c, plumbing, and electrical. Thanks Mike!

$ 505 for a simple leak. The break down: $ 99 ‘service plan”, $ 405 for one hour of work and one hour of shopping for parts by the tech. The cover was left off both the foundation entrance in the house, and the shut off meter cover in the alley. They did fix the leak quickly, but I will certainly not ever use them again for my home or business.

I wish I could give them no stars
I called them on a Sunday night needing help with a leaky shutoff. The tech came out and broke out a quote in which the numbers got progressively bigger with the largest at the bottom being 326. Ok, a little high but it is a Sunday night. He was here about an hour and replaced two shout off”s. Again, I thought he quoted me a 326 dollar price. He used about 25 (at most) worth of material.
After a bout an hour he was finished and handed me a bill for 516 dollars!!! That’s almost 500 dollars in labor for one hour of work.
I’ll be speaking with some other companies tomorrow to find out what they would have charged. I’ll then be contacting the BBB and the state licensing board to see if I can file a complaint with them.
BEWARE of this crooked company!!! BEWARE !!!

I wish I would have looked up this site before I made the mistake of calling Berkeys.
They took advantage of me and $ 1832.00 of my money. When I called Berkeys I explained the problem some «a/​c specialist» came and look at my a/​c he said I needed a plumber after he took $ 99.00 from me (just to come tell me I need a plumber) he sent a Berkeys plumber. The plumber came told me what I needed to have done, it will cost me $ 1728.00 I explained to the ««berkeys plumber» that I did not have that kind of money and I would have to get a loan. He promised a GUARANTEED that this will take care of the problem, then charged me $ 49.00 for coming. The next day two other «berkeys plumbers» came and spent 2 hrs. in my attic, cut a whole in one of my bathrooms and left, but first they collected $ 1724.00 from me. After they left I went to clean the BIG MESS they left in my home. AND I noticed the problem was still there!!! I called their office I told the lady that answers the phone that I had just given them $ 1832.00 and they had not fixed anything. She sent ANOTHER Berkeys «AC specialist» he went up to look at the work his co-​workers had completed all I saw was a look of disappoinment on his face, he went outside to make a call. He came back and told me that what they fixed was not my problem, that I need a part to my unit and this will only cost me $ 5000.00. I started crying (I can’t help it I cry when I get angry) I told him I just gave you over $ 1800.00 which is money I did not have to fix something that was not broken and now you want $ 5000.00??? he did not say anything… I still have a broken ac, water leaking thru my ceiling, and a $ 1832.00 debt. PLEASE don’t call them… Berkeys is unethical and unprofessionalThey will steal your money! I will leave this one to GOD, he will take care of people like this…
Ms. Gaye S.
ANSWER TO MS. GAYE
Thank you for your offer Gaye, BUT NO! why would I want the same Incompetent thieves to come in to my home and take advantage of me again?
Beykeys should have diagnosed the problem properly from the beginning, not come up with speculations and since the problem was not fixed after $ 1824.00 you came up with another diagnostic. I find it so ironic Gaye that you sent a total of five (5) Men to my home and neither one of them was able to tell me the that there was a problem with the coil, I did not hear anything about a «coil problem» until I called you upset the following day after you had drafted my bank account… That is very unethical and shows your lack of morals. So please take my hard-​earned $ 1824.00 and use it as a stepping-​stone to what people like you deserve!
–Karla

Well I am glad I looked at Unilocal tonight before moving forward with a hot water heater installation tomorrow. I arrived home to water running out of my garage and a hot water heater leak. Decided to pay their $ 150 service charge to come sour and look at it. They deemed my tank not repairable and that I needed a new one. Fortunately they did not have one on the truck… Or I would have forked out over $ 1800 for the repair. You heard correctly. It is a 40 gallon gas tank. They discounted my service fee to $ 89 if I bought their $ 99 maintenance plan. I agreed and they are supposed to call me back tomorrow to schedule the repair. After sending a Facebook shout to my homeowners association (and yes I did use the service provider name) I was told that there is no way it should cost that much. I proceed my heater AO Smith for around $ 500 and that is a top rated heater. That would make around a $ 1000 labor cost!!! Beware buyer! Check reviews! You might end up saving yourself a $ 1000!!!

Saw great reviews online. Decided to try them out. After requesting an appointment online on Sunday, I finally received a call at 10:30am Monday. She said plumber would be available from 12 – 5. I asked if that could be narrowed down. «No» was the answer but they would call 30 minutes prior. Did try to sell me their $ 99 BAM plan. No call by 4:30. Called to check if still on schedule. Yes but they were running late. Finally get call at 6:05 and plumber on the way. Not 5 minutes later, she called back and plumber would not be coming. Would call when another one available. Decided that wasting 6 hours of my time was enough. Cancelled. Will not use them. They were more interested in selling me a plan then actually showing up to fix my problems! STAY AWAY from this company.

I have seen Berkey’s trucks in my neighborhood over the years and thought I would get an estimate from them to help finish up some small plumbing work left on a bath remodel. This was not complicated plumbing; hook up 2 sink drains; mount and hook up a shower panel (stub outs in place). This should take a couple hours for an experienced plumber. When the Berkey’s estimator showed up we went through everything with him in about 10 minutes. Then he went out to his truck for a half hour, then came back and handed me a quote for over $ 3,500 to do the work. Not only was the estimate not even close to being inline with the work effort to be performed, but he wanted his $ 79 call out fee.
I am sorry this is incompetence and just bad business to have someone provide such a grossly inaccurate estimate and still demand to get paid for it. In the end I had another plumber do the work, which took a couple hours, and paid at the hourly rate, cost me 10% of the Berkey’s estimate.
I would not recommend Berkey’s to anyone.

Agree with Lisa L’s review from 2011 — always get a second opinion and quote before moving forward with Berkeys.
Recently encountered an issue with two of my furnaces. The Berkey’s sales technician quickly concluded both needed to be replaced. I received a base price, then a 15% discount price, and then was invited to «name my price» for the sales rep to ask his manager for approval. I felt like I was buying a used car.
In addition, as I attempted to ask questions to my service professional, all I received was a lot of jargon pertaining to what was wrong. The other two HVAC professionals who came to my house spent a lot more time diagnosing my issues and explained what was going wrong in a very straightforward manner.
Ultimately, I was able to fix one of my two furnaces without needing a replacement and get the second one replaced completely at 50% of Berkey’s initial price estimate
If you like to negotiate, Berkeys is your place. If you don’t, suggest looking elsewhere.

If you need something REPAIRED, don’t call Berkey’s. They seemingly have no interest in repairing anything. Their solution is ALWAYS to say «Oh, you need a new system. Yes, we COULD repair it, but our repair will likely only last X weeks/​months, and then you will have wasted the money you spent on a repair.» Which very clearly says to me «We admit, we don’t know HOW to repair stuff, only install stuff.»
Now, if you need something new INSTALLED, sure… call them for an install. But be sure to get three other quotes and I’m sure at least two (if not all three) will beat Berkey’s price.
Instead of building relationships as a trusted long-​term advisor and getting lucrative (profitable) business based on that relationship, Berkey’s only knows and thinks about the immediate transaction and how much they can bilk their customers.
I’m giving one star for their very nice phone receptionist. The rest of the organization doesn’t even deserve that.

I have a service agreement with Berkey. The technician Caleb, was so friendly and professional. He even contacted me after to confirm that everything was running correctly. Thank you so much!

I used Berkeys for a few years with decent results, but a recent incident will never have me using their services again (and I will dissuade ANYONE from using them)…
One of my A/​C units stopped working, so I called Berkeys out. After looking at the units (I have 2), they said that, yes, one was busted, and that the other one looked bad too. So, it would cost $ 6100 to replace the one unit (with a 14 SEER unit), but they recommended replacing both (for $ 12,400).
Knowing that the units were only about 5 years old, I thought that sounded a little fishy, and I got a second opinion. I’m glad I did.
First off, the 2^nd opinion (from Advanced Air Technologies — whom I will use for all of my repairs from now on) said that they could beat Berkeys price for the units AND they would be 16 SEER units. Then they came out and determined that I didn’t need those new units at all — I just needed a few parts (including a capacitor) that would cost around $ 600, installed.
But wait, there’s more…
AAT took a look at the quote from Berkeys, and said that their quote wasn’t even for a whole new system… it was for pieces of one. After looking at that, AAT said they could provide the EXACT same service/​parts for about half of the estimate from Berkeys (which, obviously, was unnecessary). Being an HVAC neophyte, they could have EASILY told me that I needed a new unit, and I would have believed them and paid for it.
I’m never going to use anyone else for my HVAC maintenance & repair. Honesty goes a long way, in my book.

All I will say is always get a second opinion after you get a quote from Berkeys. Like the previous review, I had my annual «complimentary heating/​air inspection» and, for the 2^nd time in 2 years, I was left with a quote to replace all of my units for a price double that of a reputable competitor. Also just had a recent experience where the technician tried to sell and negotiate a job price, which I think is a conflict of interest. Let the technicians do their job and defer negotiations and escalations to their manager. How can I trust a technician if I feel like he tried to make a profit on a service call?

They have done ok in the past, but I felt scammed this past time. Our a/​c unit upstairs seemed totally fine until their service guy came out for a yearly «tuneup». (that, to me, seems like a time where they come out and try to sell u stuff!). Well, the guy tells me that our capacitor (a $ 40 or less small part) on the upstairs unit isn’t running at FULL capacity but it’s still OK… He doesn’t make it sound like it will go out any day now! So he leaves… As I said, EVERYTHING worked FINE up until now. I also leave house for lunch and errands. When I come home a few hours later, the upstairs is about 85 degrees and SOMETHING isn’t right. I check the unit outside and it is making a hissing noise yet the fan isn’t spinning inside. I figure maybe he forgot to plug a tube back in or something.
So– I call them to get back out asap and fix whatever happened, because it worked FINE before he came to our house and touched anything! To their credit, they sent him back within the hour. HOWEVER– GUESS WHAT!!! You probably guessed. The CAPACITOR (that wasnt a major issue before) has «conveniently» broken and now must be replaced at about $ 200!!!
Seems very very fishy to me! I called. They said there is no way he could have purposely broken it, unless he hit it with a hammer. However– how do I know he didn’t take ours out before he left, and replace it with a bad one??? BEWARE of them– just be careful! Your units could be fine until they chime out to «service» them.