Appleton Campbell

I had them give me an estimate on installing a new heat pump. The technician wrote out an estimate and left it with me to consider. He told me I was getting a great deal.
I called the factory to ask about the availability of parts in case it needed maintenance. The response was surprise. «That’s an obsolete unit,» I was told.
My guess is the A-​C «technician» had a buddy with an unsold unit in his shop that was gathering dust.
Needless to say, end of conversation.

I knew my heating and a/​c unit, was very old and had passed it’s expiration date by about 7 years at least… so I wasn’t surprised in August when my a/​c cut out. I figured that it’s the end of summer and the heat works, so I’ll just save money now and get it looked at in the Spring.
Last week when we got the 4 inches of snow and ice my heating unit finally died. Ugh… It was soooo cold. At 10:00 AM, I called a company located in New Baltimore next to Spitony’s… Lady was rude and stated a high rate to have someone even come look at it. No ETA. I called again at 12:30 PM. She was rude and told me he would be here shortly. I called at 3:00 PM. She said again he’ll be here shortly. So before I hung up, I told her to cancel my request. Ridiculous.
— I called Appleton Campbel at 3:15 PM. The lady on the phone was so nice. She said she’ll have someone at my house in 30 min. There was a knock on my door 30 min later! Two guys put on their shoe covers and walked in to hear about the issues. Nicest guys! They listened and understood the issue. Spoke to me like a friend would. They showed me inside the panels of my indoor unit… Mold, discolored wiring, wires that had tape on them so old the tape crumbled when he tried to unwrap it. It was disgusting and honestly, something that was beyond repair. The outdoor unit as well was just rundown and a peice of junk in this day and time.
— When they suggested to get a full new unit instead of trying to fix it, I already knew that’s what I had to do, so it wasn’t like they were giving me a sales pitch. You could plainly see there was no «fix».
— I Signed papers and understood the financing. Two days later, here come the techs (2) at 8:30 AM as planned, with all brand new equipment. Inside unit, outside unit, re-​ran a new copper piping through my ceiling to the outside. (Old one was too thin for the pressure that was trying to run through it). Even replaced my thermostat.
— They never asked for a thing. They barely spoke as they knew I was working from home… They totally knew what they were doing. They put down floor coverings and even brought their own broom and swept my floors when they were done! Never for one minute were they standing idle. Never once.
— When they were finished at 2:30 PM, they gave me a tutorial. WOW!!! This sucker is huge and really nice looking! The thermostat I can work from my phone while I’m away from the house. I can even upload pictures onto it like a digital frame! LOL– That’s crazy!
With my new system comes of course, a great warranty as well as a Spring and Autumn system check for free this year!
Appleton Campbell does not use contractors and they clean up after themselves very nicely.
They delivered what I needed in a timely and very friendly and professional manner.
I’m so glad I called them and cancelled the other people.
Thanks Appleton Campbell!

I am updating my review due to my recent experience with this company. I wanted to give Appleton Campbell the benefit of the doubt and a second chance when my bathroom vent was not throwing out any air. They sent a tech out quickly and the tech, Bill, was very polite and courteous. That is one positive with this company, the techs are all VERY polite. That is about where things went downhill. The 50 dollar fee dispatch fee im fine with as all companies do this and its not even bad. He then charged me another 89 dollar fee for him to crawl up in the attic for 10 minutes, take a couple of pics, then sit out in his truck for nearly 45 minutes writing up his «to do» list. He said he was giving me a deal and that he would normally charge 300! I about fell over. To fix the issue, they would need to send a couple guys out to basically do work (to the tune of 1183 bucks) that was not necessary, and let me explain why.
I wanted to get a second opinion because I was not sure if that was a decent price or not. To make a long story short, I called up another company and they dispatched a tech who diagnosed the issue, FIXED the issue right then and there, and charged me less than a quarter what AC wanted to charge me. I now have air flow in my bathroom and bedroom.
I really wanted AC to redeem themselves, but after this, I absolutely will not let them into my house anymore.

Do not use Appleton Campbell! They did a plumbing job wrong, caused damage, and tried to duck responsibility for it. Thankfully, I made a stop payment with my bank.
The job was a very basic: install a standard kitchen faucet. Five days later, the faucet started leaking. Apparently the plumber Danny didn’t tighten the connector hose enough. One morning, I saw rapid drips coming from where the faucet hose connects to the house pipes. To stop it, I used my thumb and finger to tighten the screw and the drips stopped. If I can turn a screw with my fingers only and without a tool, then it’s too loose. I estimate that the drip started at night and continued all night until when I unexpectedly splashed through at 6 am. The drip was serious enough that it left a 6 foot x 3 foot puddle of standing water one floor below the kitchen. Fortunately it was an unfinished basement. Unfortunately my kitchen’s hardwood floor warped. Basically, I paid a contractor to damage my floor and bill me $ 512.
One would think that given the above circumstances, they’d be embarrassed and ashamed. No. Instead they tried to duck responsibility. They dispatched a different plumber to examine, and the way he acted, it was clear that Appleton was trying to avoid taking responsibility. When I explained the facts and my observations, the second «Master Plumber» was dismissive of them all. He made excuses and refuted everything I said. Me: I saw it leaking. Appleton Campbell (AC): did you record it? No! I was in crisis mode frantically trying to save my kitchen floor from further damage. Me: I had to tight the screw. AC: the previous plumber is a Master Plumber; they don’t make those kinds of mistakes. ME: The rug by the sink was wet. AC: Show us. Me: look at the hardwood floor warping! AC: Wood doesn’t act that way when wet. ME: There’s a 6′ x 3′ puddle in the basement! AC: It’s not directly underneath the sink. Plus there’s a lot of snow melting. ME: It dripped through the ceiling. AC: Ceiling’s not wet. ME: That’s because 6 hours of drying happened before they showed up. AC: The cabinet underneath the sink is dry. ME: Of course! I cleaned it up. Should I have just left it soaking in a pool of water? Me: The previous plumber didn’t tighten the screws enough. AC: It wouldn’t have started 5 days later. Me: Yes, if it was on just enough to hold until something brushes against it. AC: too much water for just drips. Me: It had dripped 10 hours straight. Excuses and denials instead of apologies.
I made a big enough fuss, that they eventually refund me the money. That’s only because I demanded it and even then Jason the manager demanded I sign a waiver absolving them of liability. An honorable company would offer a refund upfront and do so apologetically. I’m glad I did a stop payment on the check, because I’m not certain I would have gotten my $ 512 back. When I told them that I stopped the check, both the plumber and manager Jason were offended and indignant that I didn’t trust them. They said they have a good reputation with the community. Maybe, but I never used them before so they were a bunch of strangers to me. No wonder why most of the posters rate them a 1 star.
Poor workmanship and damages aside, even if the job went well, I still had my reservations about using them simply because of the price. They charged $ 521 to install a kitchen faucet. That’s right, folks. Five hundred twenty one dollars for a basic, off the shelf faucet from Lowes. It took just slightly over an hour to install. Wow! Doctors and K street law firm associates don’t charge that much. AC must be sensitive to the criticism. In their sales pitch for their annual maintenance contract (yes, they push this just as other posters said), they have a full page dedicated to trying to justify high prices. I mentioned the price on the phone and heard the same spiel that other posters on this site said: Pay for the truck, office overhead, quality, etc. All contractors have trucks and offices so I don’t understand why they have costs that others don’t have. One final comment. The previous owners of the house contacted Appleton to rectify findings in the home sale inspection. They didn’t use AC because of the price. Here’s the funny part. They still tried to push their annual maintenance even though the owners were moving in a month.
Don’t use Appleton Campbell. The low Unilocal rating is not an accident.

Run as fast as you can. My confidence in this company has gone way down hill. My air conditioning unit wasn’t cooling properly. The first tech came out, piddled around in the attic and excitedly announced he fixed it. Got charged a fee and he left. He also had a ball game to go to, so priorities… meanwhile the upstairs is 85 degrees. Called again and explained myself a second time. Tech came out and said our control board was shot. So we replaced it. Still hotter than hell in the house. Went back and forth with Appleton Campbell … they sent out their «highly trained and best master tech» or something like that to fix the problem once and for all. and nope, it never got fixed.
I eventually had 2 different hvac companies come out (we are in the process of selling our home and the buyer wanted 2 different quotes/​opinions) and they found the problem in less than 1 hr of being there. No BS excuses or anything.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t like wasting time or money. The prices are very high for the quality of service you get. I think some of the techs need more training.

We have a HVAC maintenance agreement with Appleton Campbell — no issues there. Called them for a quote to install a basic kitchen faucet and they couldn’t give a price range over the phone. When they showed up they said their standard price is about $ 350. As a contract customer we get 15% discount so the quote was $ 295. Then the crew said they’d give another $ 50 discount. It took one man about an hour to install. I’m okay with paying more for quality service but this was very expensive. To their credit, the team was professional and showed up on time but I’m not sure they’ll have my business again. Reccomend getting other quotes for more reasonable pricing.

We’ve always had nothing but pleasant and efficient experiences with Appleton Cambell. We’ve signed annual contracts with them for several years for routine cleaning and service, and when we had an emergency pop up a few years back they were prompt, courteous and thorough.

Terrible. I’ve had it with this company. The last time I used them on my house, the technician was 3 hours late. The office could not get in touch with him and then when he arrived, he said that he hit traffic in Culpeper. Really? 3 hours worth??? Now, I am waiting at another house and the technician is 3 hours late and they can’t find him. The renter took off work to let me in and the technician is no where to be found. Ridiculous. Also when these guys do show up, they use scare tactics to get you to spend more money on replacements, etc. SHADY!!!

I have had Appleton Campbell come out twice to my house. The first time was for a routine system check. They wanted to charge something like 250.00 to check the AC since I had two systems. I ended up paying for just one system check on the unit I had a concern about. The charge for that was around 150.00 if I remember correctly. Took them about 45 minutes to do the check and I was very happy with the technician though the price seemed a bit high. The second time I called was about a month later when the problem unit stopped working. I was pretty sure the capacitor was out but lowes and home depot do not carry that part. They charged 49.99 for the service call and verified that it was the capacitor that had gone bad. The cost to repair was around 350 dollars. This was to replace a 28.00 capacitor which would take less than 5 minutes to do. (they took the capcitor out to test it. one screw and 5 spade connectors) I asked why and was told that it was the price in the book and that was that. I also got the statement that you are paying for our expertise and the part being available on our truck as well as a warranty on the part. BTW they use a «universal capcitor» what from all I have read is not as good as the OEM part. What a rip off it is just ludicrous. They are taking advantage of the need for AC and the knowledge most homeowners do not have the ability to fix these things themselves. I mean seriously this is like going to Jiffy lube and being told that because they are a trained expert at changing oil and guarantee that the oil you use is good we charge 350.00 for an oil change. If you calculate the hourly rate based on a generous 10 minutes to replace the capacitor they are charging 1794.00 dollars an hour after doubling the cost of the capacitor and subtracting that from the price quoted. While Appleton Campbell gets this horrible review I have heard others are just as bad.
I ordered two capacitors for the failed unit plus a capacitor for the other unit for a total of right around 115 dollars including next day air. Now I have a spare capacitor for each unit and spent a ¹⁄₃^rd of what Appleton Campbell would have charged. Shameful!

We have used this company in the past, and thought the were expensive, but called them again (our mistake). We‘ scheduled a boiler checkup for the winter season last week. Booking was easy and friendly. The technician was scheduled to arrive between 10am and 12 pm. He arrived at 12:55pm, with no call saying he would be late.
He was friendly and smiling and did not offer an apology for being late. He looks around, pokes things and gives me an estimate to change the oil, change the filter, bleed the radiators and whatever to make sure the boiler is good. $ 100.00 job you would think… at least I did. Well, it was $ 49 to show up and then another $ 400.00 to do the work. Yes, I did not mistype… The estimate was a smidgen over $ 450.00! We were stunned. After a little bit of a mood change he begrudgingly offered to check the pressure and something else, that did not include changing filters, oil or radiator bleeding. He was there for not more than 30 minutes. 10 minutes working and the rest negotiating or using the restroom. That bill, including the $ 49 show up fee (horse vets are cheaper!) was $ 313.00! OMG, what a rip off. We paid it, but I can guarantee, that we will never, I mean NEVER, use Appleton Campbell again.
I mean, seriously, am I way off base with this? It seems like a lot of money.

I feel so lucky to have found this company. Mr. Evans, my Salesman and Project Manager was phenomenal! He provided me with a thorough and fair estimate and he made me feel comfortable with our decision to use Appleton Campbell. He also recommended one of the best individuals I have met in a long time to take care of my duct cleaning prior to the install. (A+ duct cleaning)
The installation team exceeded my expectations, they were very concerned about keeping their space clean and took a lot of pride in their work. I wouldn’t have ever thought I would be comfortable leaving strangers in my home to go out for a walk or milk for my baby but I was confident with them. I can not express my happiness enough for making what I thought would be a painful and long process good for my family and I. From the word go, the people who called to schedule, the Engineer, the Technicians, everyone was top notch and invested! It is no wonder they have been in business so long.