Abacus

Amal R.

I had the two AC units checked on March 31st under Abacus's BAM program. The technician showed up on time and was cordial. After checking inside the attic and running diagnostics with the two condensing units, I was told capacitors were bad and need replacing. In addition both units need refill with Freon. I was given estimates which ran into thousands. Also, I was given quotes for replacement of both units with new ones, which I did not ask for.
I wanted to get a second opinion from one of their competitors. This time the technician tested the capacitors and showed me they were still effective and working just fine. Also, he showed me one of the capacitors were wired incorrectly and the hot air was not blowing outward but inward. I was shown this could easily happen during testing of the capacitors and swapping/connecting the wires incorrectly. If this was not caught the motor would have been damaged since the hot wire was not blowing out and the unit was not cooling as designed!
I contacted Abacus and shared this experience. They took all my details and assured me a manager will contact me. It has been a week since I talked to their customer service but did not receive phone call or any explanation from them. I wanted my AC units to be properly tuned up and relied on Abacus. Instead, they caused more problems! I will be more careful before selecting Abacus for any type of work in our home.

Sally C.

We are seniors had a small leak in our toilet for several days. We called Abacus Plumbing so many publications have given them the best reviews. Tom M came to our home 3/28 approx 3:45 asked what the problem was. Looked at the toilet went to his truck and 10 min latter came back with his tools and some parts. We were shocked when he quoted a price $432.95. He said well there is a $50.00 coupon for the service fee print it up for me. My husband was in the navy 15% discount. That would now lower the cost to $319.00. We were charmed by Tom. I guess this is a tool used to make believe they are what their adds say. It literally made us trust him. Like a bunch of senile seniors we were reluctantly taken in (had to stop that leak) It took him anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. We paid him by check $319.95. My husband decided to check their prices with Ace Hardware. I am copying from my bill which was emailed to us so that Tom could regale it to us. Replace Fill Valve Only $111.00 Ace $14.95 Replace (1) Emerg shut off valve & 3/8 SS Supply $209.00 Ace $15.99.
We were e-mailed a Survey, and of course listed his dismay of the prices. 3/29 I received a phone call from Charles Scott at Abacus. My husband was not available. He wanted to know why we were not pleased with the pricing. I told him every thing as is written above. What can I do to please you. I said lower the price. He said he would call later that day. That was 3/29 this is 3/31. The 28th was my 81st birthday, I am so upset it is making me sick to know we fell prey to a sweet talking Tom.

Mina E.

I just had a technican go to our leased out towhome.I explained tenants said leakage under ac pan. As roofer came out and said the same. I said pleasen flush out the line and tell me how much to for a summer cleaning. Silvano tech says I have 3 packages ( they are paid on commissioon btw)
Task 1 coded as Good $295 to ONLY Clean, Clear and flush AC drain line ( OMG LOL)
Task 2 coded as Better $392 to ONLY Clean Evporator Coil
Task 3 coded Best $464 Seal, return and supply air plenums and mastic. LMFAO
Oh the punchline Silvano said for only $244 more I will install a float cut off switch,. I found info online cost for the float switch is less than $5 and takes 10 minutes to install. ARE YOU FREAKING kidding me?? $50 to tell me all is fine -just needs summer cleaning but want to take your $$$$ not a good way to keep a repeat client.

I am going to call this Mike B business manager and get his take on this quote as right now I think is a ludricous amont of money. I will call Church next!

Unhappy

Connie S.

We were unsure our 14 year ""builder-grade"" unit was going to survive another Houston summer and we were right, it was ""shy"" a ton to adequately perform it's task! (Plus this unit isn't even manufactured anymore.)

Les Karge came out promptly, was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We respect the fact that he didn't try to up sale us or call our old unit DOA....he gave us options to decide for ourselves. He answered all our questions about the various units from which to choose. My husband and I did research on all the various different units and manufacturers...we discovered that Lennox is the top performer, plus their 10 year warranty!

Now ALL rooms in our home are comfortable and cool without needing the assistance of the ceiling fan on full blast. Abacus and Lennox are two names that speak for themselves because of their impeccable reputations. The bonus of our system is that it controls not only the cooling of our home but the humidity inside our home as well and can be controlled by our phone. (Hope my hubby doesn't change it on me....LoL) And an added bonus....it's quiet! (That's right....the unit can barely be heard, from the air intake inside the home to the fan on top of the unit outside!!!!!) Hey, that's how I shop...ALL appliances in our home must be QUIET! And our Lennox is very quiet!

If there is a down side...it would be the need to deal with the stench of a new heater needing to be tested.....phew! LoL

The entire team of Abacus were friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and respectful of our home, from the customer service reps to the HVAC Tech (Les) to the crew that did the installation. We were glad to see all the workers in uniform and all the vans had Abacus on them...it's important to know WHO is in our home.

Thank you, Abacus for keeping our COOL in the Houston heat! God bless.

Boyd S.

Had AC unit and duct work replaced.

Great service and the installers stayed late to finish the job. They went out of their way while finishing up to be quiet after the kids went to bed. I really liked how a service tech came out the next day to make sure everything was working perfectly.

Patricia C.

Consumer Beware! Abacus lies & grossly overcharges. My story is way too long to explain, but I totally support other reviews to say that Abacus practices price gougeing - a lot. Over $6200 to upgrade a circuit breaker panel? NOT! Like some other consumers, I failed to shop around, bad idea. After the fact I researched the same work they did for me & talked to 2 other electricians. Highest price I saw/heard was $3000.
Do not ever deal with this dishonest company.
If I could give no stars, I would.

Maria R.

The ONLY reason I'm giving one star to Abacus Plumbing and Air Conditioning is due to the fact that they were good on calling back and confirming appointments, especially in the light that I had both a plumber and an air conditioning tech come out on the same day.

But RED FLAG WARNING to all who read this, that those servicemen did an all out con-job on trying to over $ell what I did not need!

1. I called Abacus initially to have a kitchen faucet installed, as well as to have two other minor plumbing problems taken care of. I was told by the plumber that I needed a whole new water softener system for my house. (We already have one.) He was going to charge me in excess of $500.00 to install my kitchen faucet! BUT, if I signed up that day for the expensive water softener system, he would have installed my faucet for free! So this plumber from Abacus LEFT WITHOUT HAVING DONE ANY WORK WHATSOEVER ON MY PLUMBING ISSUES!!! Need I mention that he tried talking my husband into replacing our hot water heaters at a cost of $2,884.00 EACH????

Zero star rating for Abacus on this one!

2. The Abacus air conditioning tech also arrived that day, to inform me after checking out our troubled upstairs unit, that we would need a whole new system. Upon me asking for options, with one being a less expensive ""patch job,"" I was given 3 quotes: $13,000.00, $15,000.00 and $16,000.00.

Little did he know that we had quotes from two other companies, who both said all we needed to do was to replace the coil up in the attic, at a mere cost of under $3,500.00!

We were impressed with Eric at Ideal Air Services, and will be getting them to replace the coil come the first of the year.

Again, ZERO star rating on this one for Abacus!

Adam G.

Wish I read the Yelp reviews before we called. Saw their truck in the neighborhood and called them to replace a hose on the back of the washing machine. They wanted $389 dollars, are you freaking kidding me, I asked for a breakdown of the bill and what their hourly rate was and they could not provide me an honest answer. They will also try to up sell you on their club by throwing $129 into the invoice plus exorbitant mark ups on other parts and services, warning stay away they should be investigated by the better business bureau for their business practices. We had no problem with the technician.

Sharron S.

Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical boasting of 24 Hour Service is a joke. We had a Hot Water Pipe burst in our ceiling at 7:00 PM last night and called then for immediate help and they told me that it would be $150.00 up front just to schedule the appointment and ONLY had one tech on call and he had just been dispatched to another call.

So, to get the full picture as a panicked person...the hot water pipe burst causing hot water to flood our attic. Also, there were electrical wires getting wet everywhere and we did not know if this was going to cause an electrical fire. Then, the ceiling busted and water started flooding our house. Then, we were concerned as the Water Heater is Gas and if it ran out of hot water would it cause a fire. So, we basically had three emergencies going on at one time.

When someone advertises that they have 24 Hour Service available, you would think that meant that you had more than one tech available. Due to the urgency of our call, we ended up doing something else and going a different direction. However, I will have a bad taste in my mouth the next time that I see the Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical commercial
boating of it's 24 Hour Service. And, I will be sure to NOT recommend them for future calls.

Tim R.

Stay Away! They came out over a month ago (10/2015) A/C wasn't working properly. If I turned the unit on manually it worked fine, but the ""auto control"" wouldn't work. Tech said it was a bad ""Electronic Part"" he pulled and gave me. He went to his truck to get another one. I tested the old part with my multimeter it tested ok. He said, ""you have a very high tech system, the part has to be perfect to work"". He already pulled the part so said ok, replace it, worth a try. THEN I hear him on the phone with his ""tech support"" getting directions on how to replace the part! REALLY! Then he tells me it's the wrong part. He'll have to order correct part, he ""thought"" the parts were interchangeable!? But remember, I have a ""high tech system?"" But before he left he spent 30 minutes trying to talk us into a service contract! So we could get his service call ""free"" But when we gave him the ""free service call coupon"" He then said, ""oh great, I need to go rewrite the ticket, I forgot to put down the 'labor'. I told him he wasn't getting any money till the job was done. He never came back. Long story short, another ac company came out and replace the ""old part"" pressed a reset button on the circuit board, all good. No Charge, even though he had to reconnect two wires Abacus reversed (I saw them being ""corrected"" by the Abacus trainee? Just MY experience. If you're ""feeling lucky"" dial the Abacus number. If you want to make an informed decision, CALL SOMEONE ELSE (EXCEPT ARS). And if you get a ""service contract"" with Abacus it's really 3. One for A/C, one for plumbing, one for electrical! What a JOKE!