Violin Heating & Air Conditioning

I would NOT recommend this company to anyone. I called them for AC service and cleaning because they were recommended by someone I know. I should have checked Unilocal before I even called!
Over the phone, a guy tells me that ‘service and cleaning’ will take about 30min and they will take (some part of the AC) off to clean it. I said ok and scheduled an appointment. Yesterday, a guy called Kevin comes to check the unit. All he did was look (and I mean, ‘look’) at the thermostat, ‘look’ at the return vent, didn’t even have tools or a ladder with him to do anything. After a few minutes, he said he will go up to the rooftop to check the condenser so he left the room. 5 – 6 min later he comes back, smelling like cigarette and tells me that nothing is wrong and gave me a quote for $ 108. He was there for a total of 10−15min… seriously?
So after he left, I called Violin to talk to the owner Mark. He called back later and despite the fact that I was asking him very politely about what his maintenance service involves and how I was expecting the technician to ‘clean’ the system, he was super defensive and sounded irritated that I was even questioning him. He told me that there’s no such thing as ‘cleaning the AC system’ and that I’ll have to call another company to clean the duct. I told him I wish he would have been more specific when I made the appointment (since I had asked about ‘cleaning’), but he basically disregarded my comment and kept on raising his voice. I got so frustrated with his tone and conduct and I hung up the phone. My husband called later to speak to the same guy and he basically came off with the same attitude.
We are NEVER using them again. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER…

This is a company I would not, repeat, not recommend! The installation was sloppy and their only interest seems to be to get customers to sign onto their bi-​annual service for a cursory inspection and substandard quality of care. I was upset that I would have to replace an evaporator coil in less than 6 years on one unit and to be told by the owner, Mark, that it just ran out of warranty, when in fact American Standard warrants it for 10 years. I had two other specialists recommended by American Standard come and inspect my units. Both providers indicated my units are showing problems due to poor initial installation. I was fooled by the fact that this is company represents itself as a family business, but I guess the notion of quality and pride is not passed down from father to son.

I have called Another AC company since VIOLIN does not want to take care the problem, the AC unit working OK, but installation was sloppy and had wrong connection, I am not understand what was it but guy taking picture and fix that
cost me $ 500 to fix and it is perfectly good now
but for AC that just less than a year, and no warranty by installer, totally crazy and AVOID this VIOLIN Heating and Air condtioning company
their sloppy job make the Manufacture do not cover the warranty and it cost me money and inconvenience

AHS Home Warranty sent Violin to repair my air conditioner when it wouldn’t turn on. Steve arrived at the start of the time window (technicians never come at the beginning of the time window!), and he was able to isolate the issue within minutes of arriving. He was friendly, knowledgable and took the time to thoroughly inspect the unit so I wouldn’t have additional issues down the line. He also made sure I knew to regularly clean the filter (which I do, fortunately). I highly recommend Violin, and especially Steve, for all Air Conditioning needs.

I was put in touch with Violin Heating/​AC by AHS Warranty service. They actually had to come out several times because of my very old, slowly dying AC unit. The last time the compressor had finally died so they had to replace a pretty big part of the unit. To my surprise, because the repair was within the warranty period from Violin, they didn’t even charge me the AHS deductible or for the Freon. I was extremely pleased with the courtesy, the prompt service, and the updates they gave me while waiting only a couple days for the compressor to arrive. These guys are a solid service, I highly recommend them.

My experience was 100% satisfactory. Not only did the technician (Kevin) arrive on time as promised, he was actually three minutes early. We had an issue with our central heating. He discovered the issue in less than 5 minutes and 15 minutes later, our heat was working better than ever. Again, a rather perfect experience with Violin Heating & Air.

I was lucky to find Violin through AHS Warranty several years ago, and continue to ask for them for all HVAC needs, especially since I moved to a «new» older house. They don’t try to up-​sell me on unnecessary services like some other HVAC companies — in fact, a few years ago Kevin saved me from a bogus diagnosis and fear tactics from one of those «inspection» business who told me that the heater in my other house was «about to go» and was leaking carbon monoxide (which was absolutely not true, and the heater is still operating JUST fine with no measurable leaks!) Bottom line, they are professional, honest, efficient, and detail oriented. Plus extremely friendly and very helpful.
This morning they finished replacing this home’s 40-​year old furnace, which was a very difficult and complicated job … and not a speck of dust remains. I absolutely recommend them. (I just hope Unilocal doesn’t hide this review like so many of the other positive ones… !!!)

Just received a call from them at 7:24am… What happened to the courteous after 8am phone calls by businesses?
Violin was contacted by the Insurance company that my landlords had for their condo. The problem with the AC was that it wasn’t blowing cold air, the unit wouldn’t turn off even if it was disconnected from the panel, and it would change the temperature settings on its own… Mind you LA was going through an apparent heat wave that week.
The woman I first spoke to was extremely unpleasant… I got the impression that she was condescending, rude, snippy, and unhappy with her job. I explained to her that this was being done through the owners insurance company and that I was to schedule an appointment. She seemed rather irritated by that and insisted on contacting my landlords management company to confirm, perfectly fine with me. We played phone tag for a while with them leaving messages to schedule, me calling back, etc. The appointment was finally made and they were to come out in two days
The technician arrived questioning me about parking and how his van wouldn’t fit into the garage. There is a spot right infront of the garage to the side of the opening that service companies usually park in, I informed he of that being that it is unobstructed by anything and he told me he wouldn’t fit there either because his van was too tall. Ummmmm, there is tons of street parking and that spot is unobstructed by anything above! He made it seem as if he didn’t find a spot right at that moment he would leave so I asked him if it would be a problem and questioned if he was still going to do the repairs, he found a parking spot immediately after. He gets upstairs and starts to look around tells me (over the phone, my cousin was there to let him in) that the problem is low freon about 10lbs and he’s surprised that we didn’t have a massive leak. He replaced it and was reminded of the other issues but he said that it was all caused by the leak and that he reset the manufacturer settings to always keep the system at 78 degrees instead of 82. I exclaimed that that seemed rather hot and shouldn’t it be lower, he said that if I want it at a lower temp I can change it myself. Ummmm, seems kinda hot but your the professional! (When I got home I couldn’t change it myself due to the system not responding to any changes for the temperature that he programmed in) He tried to charge me $ 180 for the repair when my payment was to be $ 75 for the visit and the landlords to pay the rest, as previously explained to the company. He got gruff about it and said he would talk to the woman in the office and get back to us.
Three weeks later the system is changing the temp on its own again and staying on for hours after it is turned off. I contact violin and left a message. The same woman I originally spoke to calls back saying I need to set up a new claim with the insurance company to come out to fix what they didn’t fix. I immediately contacted my landlords management company and told them that I thought it was unfair for them to have to pay the $ 75 fee a second time since it was never repaired. A few days later Violin calls to schedule the appointment. Now I am in full swing moving into a new place and trying to schedule the appointment. I called and left a message on their voicemail to try to help my landlords but didn’t receive a call before my move.
Now we are back to today! I get woken out of my sleep at 7:24am by a representative saying they have been trying to schedule the appointment for a while now. I informed the man that I hadn’t heard from them for over 2 weeks and I moved out almost two weeks ago, I also informed him that I left a message on their voicemail (during normal business hours mind you) and never received a call back. He basically told me that I didn’t leave a message and that they’ve been playing phone tag trying to reach me. He asked me how I left a message and I responded «uhhhhh on your voicemail…» I repeated that I moved out 2 weeks ago and no longer live there. He got frustrated and stated that he would call the landlords management company to schedule. I was getting irritated with his tone and conduct and was about to hang up on him when he started asking me again «so you don’t live there anymore??». I answered no and hung up. They are unprofessional, rude, and apparently a lot of their techs are not proficient enough with the systems that they work with to diagnose and fix simple problems that I’m sure they run into all the time.

I was really skeptical after reading through the reviews, but they did a great job. Steve came out from Violin through AHS. He didn’t try to upsell me, diagnosed the problem (freon) and fixed it. He worked quickly but was thorough, and was very nice. I would definitely use them again.

Like so many others I had the unfortunate experience of using Violin Heating through my home warranty company, AHS. The air conditioning system in my house is only 6 years old. On the first visit in May, Violin added 10 pounds of coolant to my system and telling me that fixed my issue. I asked repeatedly how could the system be 10 pounds short of coolant unless there was a significant leak. Violin at first wouldn’t answer my question, but I persisted fearing that if they had not fixed a leak that I would be right back where I started sooner than later. Finally Violin wrote me and vaguely told me that they did fix a leak so that all would be fine.
A few weeks later the air conditioning was blowing hot air. Violin came back and their technician told me I had a major leak, as almost all the 10 pounds of coolant that had been put in were now gone. That was insightful information, who could have possibly known there was a leak!
At that point violin was pretty close to giving up on the job since the condenser was «so far away from the cooling zone» they thought finding the leak would be a Herculean task, perhaps impossible. They told me that a nail in a wall to hang a picture could be the problem making me feel that fixing the problem might not even be possible. Instead of giving up at that point, They went through a procedure to isolate the system to try to find a leak. This procedure took over a week to finish, and that left my family without air conditioning for another roasting week in July, when the house was routinely over 90 degrees. When the isolation test was complete Violin told me that they could not find a leak. They filled up my system with freon and said I was good to go. 7 days later the system was blowing hot air again.
When I called up AHS to start the process all over again, Violin refused to come out and fix it. AHS informed me that Violin stated that there was no leak to fix. I called Violin and asked them why they would say that to AHS, wasn’t a 90 degree house enough evidence of a problem with the AC? Violin responded that they never told AHS that, only that they «couldn’t find a leak.» Then the owner told me it was his theory that someone was stealing the freon out of my system. Where else could it possibly be going? It does not matter at the end of the day, because Violin was called in to fix the AC and they never did fix it.
I didn’t mind that Violin stopped wanting to fix our problem so much because it was clear to me after two and a half months with no air conditioning that these guys either could not or did not want to repair it. Seemingly, it was not a simple or routine job that in fairness perhaps they excel at fixing. But the entire system of AHS’s dealings with its service providers is inherently corrupt anyway. To spend too much time and/​or money on warranty repairs at my house makes the service provider look bad to AHS and they start to get fewer AHS referrals. The service providers with the lowest total cost per referral get to the top of the referral list. Violin is getting a lot of AHS referrals, so do the math. The whole system is a scam. AHS contractors have AHS as their customer, and all AHS cares about is not having a substantial bill to pay on behalf of its customer. AHS customers who thought they had a warranty be damned! (See my separate review of AHS and their fraudulent business practices on Unilocal). AHS had no problem collecting my premium, why should they be hassled to actually fix something?
At the end of the day I was able to track down the contractor that installed the system for the previous owner. On the telephone I explained to them that I had now been without AC for almost three months. They told me what they thought it was. They immediately came out and confirmed that it was the coil, which they told me was under the original manufacturers warranty. They replaced the coil (which is apparently a known defect on my model and prone to corrosion) and the AC has never worked better. (See me separate review of Santa Clarita Custom Air).
Apparently it is the owner’s custom to respond to these negative reviews on Unilocal.I expect this case to be no different and they will explain what a great company they are and that probably it was my fault that my AC could not be fixed. They spent 75 days «trying to fix» a problem that their competition knew about, understood and fixed first time out. It is amazing how my story is one of literally hundreds on the internet about AHS and their sub standard service providers. The only way to get AHS’s attention is to go to small claims court. Then all of a sudden they want to resolve the situation. That is their business model and it depends on consumers like us giving up out of frustration. To the other reviewers that had similar issues, it’s probably not too late to self-​help. File a small claims court action. It will cost less than $ 100 and AHS will finally call you back and try to make you go away.

Terrible service. AC was leaking. They came in replace a tube that wasn’t clogged. Told me it’s fixed. Charge me $ 125 and now I have to call a real AC Technician to fix the problem.

PLEASE SEE MY FULL REVIEW BELOW, THIS IS A REPLY TO THE INSANELY RIDICULOUS RESPONSE BY NICK AT VIOLIN…
After going through the drama with Violin and its Owner Mark, I find it sad, pathetic and disturbing to see someone named Nick sharing his 2 cents in trying to explain and justify the manner in which they handled my issues.
First and foremost, NOBODY EVER apologized and said we made a mistake. To the contrary, I was told it was denied because I caused the problem! Let me ask you Nick, where was the miscommunication? The guy that came to the house told me the issue and then all of a sudden it became my fault! When he told you of the issue, did you review any photos? Documents? Ask any questions? Obviously NOT and I know this because AHS called me LESS than 1 hour after your guy left my home to tell me the matter was NOT covered! BTW, if you say you did, you still lose because that means you sent out a technician NOT QUALIFIED to diagnosis and assess the problem! WHICH IS IT? Shoot first and ask questions later or incompetent tech? You decide!
Further, the ONLY reason Mark reviewed the matter was because I called and blasted him for the incompetence of his tech and company … I must not have been far off, because I heard from AHS shortly thereafter the matter would be covered! So did he find a problem and admit it to AHS and me… NOT … or did he get caught trying to screw another AHS customer like everyone else seems to think on Unilocal?All these bad reviews can’t all be wrong… right?
As for the «costs» and competitive pricing… AHS representative was shocked to hear Violin charging almost double the cost for refrigerant I was ultimately charged by another tech who picked up the ball dropped by Violin! Let’s not forget Mark telling me they «don’t work for free» and refrigerant is «where we make our money»! As for removal, none of this is required by the contract and just another fee to line the pockets of greedy people like Violin!
Finally, Nick, let me ask you, if you are an honest company and interested in doing good work for your AHS customers, why would you quote costs, have me call you to schedule the NOW covered repairs and then quietly call AHS and refuse to do the work? You and Violin ABANDONED a customer handed to you by AHS (a company you contract with to do this type of work) and forced me to fight with AHS, caused me immeasurable stress and aggravation, and go several days WITHOUT A/​C in 90+ degree weather for me and my young kids… how do you explain that Nick? Mark? Is this customer service? Is this the work of an «honest company»?
Am I seriously the first customer to ask questions or complain when there is a clear problem as you appear to acknowledge?
If you really cared, wouldn’t the best approach be to apologize, make things right, do good work and make me a satisfied customer? I know, i’m crazy, its better to abandon a customer and make his family suffer!
Good job Violin… I would not refer you to my worst enemy!

This place was horrible. They have a really bad customer service. My mom called asking for help and asked for someone to translate for her bc she doesn’t speak English. Debra answered the phone and told her she was stupid and that she’s suppose to speak English because we are in America. Not to mention she said «fuck you» to her and called her a «bitch». Of course I called her back to ask for a supervisor and she continued to act disrespectful towards me. She said she didn’t feel like listening to me and to fuck off. Honestly, someone needs to teach them some respect. I would shove them down her throat but I have better things to do than to take out the trash. I will be following up on this and file a lawsuit against discrimination. I guess, she just messed with the wrong family. She needs to understand this is a business and customer service should be their top priority.

I have used the services of this company for over ten years. They have done maintenance on my AC/​heating units in the last three houses that I have owned. I have always found them to be honest, courteous, professional and extremely knowledgeable about their work. I have just today had them install a split system air conditioning unit in my house. This company has always turned up on time, done exactly what I have requested of them and have always been more than fair with pricing. I would recommend them without hesitation for any heating and air conditioning work. It seems like a lot of the negative Unilocal reviews about them have to do with home warranties and suggest you draw your own conclusions. Very happy with this company.

Ok I have to say I was skeptical from reading the reviews.
I had to use Violin for AHS home warranty call.
Repairman was professional, and fixed my A/​C and Heating problem.
It was an easy repair, a bus fuse had blown on both A/​C and Heating. So no Air, Heat, or Blower.nothing.
He didn’t try to upsell me, and even spent a little extra time to verify there were no other problems.
I paid my $ 75 Co-​pay, and appreciated my techs work.
This time it appears they were on their game. Thanks.

Horrible. Forced to use them through my homeowners insurance. I even told them what was wrong with my AC system. They insisted on replacing the unit, but not the tubing. Now AC is blowing hot air again. No longer with insurance company and Violin wants to charge me $ 72 to diagnose it. STAY AWAY!

Like some of the other reviews, I was forced to use Violin through my home warranty. My heat was out and Violin came out and was able to diagnose the issue. However they did not have the part and would have to order it an come back. I received a call back that afternoon that the part had been ordered and that they should be able to be back later in the week.
Two days later I get a call saying that they could not find the part that had been delivered and they wouldn’t be able to come until the following week. They set up an appointment (I had to arrange to work from home) and 20 minutes after the end range of the time they were supposed to come by, they finally arrived. I called to find out the status of the repairman and they were not picking up calls.
Once they arrived the repair was taken care of. I’m happy that they were able to fix my issue, but the customer service was so poor that I wouldn’t recommend them.

I second Alex O. I just moved into a home and we realized the heating wasn’t working. We filed a claim with our insurance company, AHS, and they sent a rude, impatient, incapable technician. When he pulled the control box off the wall and saw more than one wire he immediately grew impatient and said «I’m walking!», collected his things, and left. He then had the gull to ask me for $ 60 after doing absolutely nothing. Ironically, according to their website, they consider themselves to be premier!
With so many ac/​heating companies out there do yourself a favor and avoid this one!

Used them for annual maintenance. Showed up on time, did job, gave me a report. Will use them again

Whatever you do, DO NOT use this company for anything! Horrible customer service, technicians made problems worse. Very unprofessional. By far, the worse company my insurance company has put me in touch with.