Boonstra Heating and Air Conditioning

We called Boonstra when our air conditioner quit on one of the hottest days of the year. To their credit, they were able to send someone that night, around midnight, which we thought was great. However, it was downhill from there. After looking at our AC unit for about 2 minutes but without doing any diagnostics, the service technician concluded that I needed a new capacitor. The price quoted for this service was ridiculously high (see further comments below), and he recommended that we consider replacing the unit. Given that it is 15 years old, I agreed with him and set up a sales appointment the next day. When I asked about the cost of his 10 minute visit, I was told I still had to pay the regular $129 service call fee (he did not actually service anything!). But he did mention that if we bought a new unit from Boonstra, they would take the amount off the price (I should have seen at this point where this was going….)

Before their sales rep arrived the next day, I had another local company come out for a second quote, just to check prices. The first thing he did was look at my AC unit to understand the problem, and then told me he could fix it in 10 minutes, at a fraction of the cost I was quoted by Boonstra (note to everyone needing a new capacitor – they only cost about $40! If you do not believe me, google it before you have a service call).

So by the time the Boonstra sales rep arrived, I was already suspicious of the company. And the sales visit did not help:

1) the entire process felt like a high pressure sales pitch
2) it took 2 hours!
3) I did not get a written estimate of the cost of the new AC unit
4) they would not even tell me what make/model – it was just a list of general specifications I was purchasing
5) the price was way too high!

Just a warning to anyone else out there considering this company. Get a competitive quote before you have them do any work!