Boonstra Heating and Air Conditioning

Well first I would like to say that their technicians are super friendly, and very prompt. They present themselves very professionally. That is where it ends. We have been with Boonstra and their maintenance plan for a year and a half now, and will be calling to cancel after several issues with improper diagnoses and suggestions for repairs that are not required. The first was on a brand new AC unit that we were told required an $819 “search and locate” leak issue, and were told would be likely result in an expensive outcome that would lead to possibly needing a new unit. After hiring another company for a second opinion, it turned out to be a blocked drain line, which was promptly repaired and has worked fine ever since.

When the technicians came out to do regular maintenance they were friendly and took the time to explain what they had done, and said all was A-OK. We had one part on the AC unit that required replacement last summer, and had to fight to get them to honour the warranty which they said they would not do, because they were not the ones who installed the unit.

The final straw has been the trouble we had with our furnace this past week and a half. Our furnace began to blow cold air at random times, that continued until we reset the power. Once it was turned back on it worked fine. It happened on 3 occasions until we decided to have a tech come out and determine the issue for a $69.95 fee. The tech eventually told us we should replace the flame sensor which he said he would not be able to access without removing a vent pipe. No tech had previously said that was an issue, and we had on a regular maintenance record that the flame sensor had been cleaned during the previous service. He also recommended we replace the hot surface ignitor. We felt he was guessing at the problem and didn’t actually know what the problem was. This was evident due to the lack of error codes coming from the furnace itself. He asked us if we wanted to go ahead with those repairs, and we decided to defer them until the next scheduled maintenance so we could do some research ourselves.

When the problem occurred again a couple of times yesterday during cold weather we called them again. They told us they would see if the parts were in stock and would call us back. This was around 11am. We waited until about 8pm and continued to reset the furnace about 9 times before we decided to call them again to find out what was happening. At this point we were told they would not be able to fix our problem for up to possibly a week because the part had to be ordered and highlighted the fact that we “declined” the recommended repairs when the last tech came out. We are not even entirely sure what part was ordered, and felt like we were being brushed off.

We then called another emergency service and paid over 100 dollars to have them come out to help us because we were afraid we were going to be without heat during an overnight low of -30. That tech did pull out the flame sensor and clean it while stating it was in good condition, and checked a few other things, before determining that the issue was not with the furnace, but actually with the gas pressure, which would not allow the furnace to provide a strong enough flame to give the necessary heat. This is why it would blow cool air while the temp dropped in the house. It turned out to be the regulator being frozen on the gas meter and required the gas company to come out and replace at no cost to us. This being the second time we had to consult a different company to properly diagnose the actual issue, I have come to the conclusion that we have either been duped by Boonstra into paying for unnecessary repairs, or their technicians do not have the skills required to properly diagnose and repair our furnace and AC unit.

I wonder if our experience with Boonstra would be different if they had installed our equipment. They present themselves well, but friendly and professional doesn’t amount to a whole lot if it just leads to unnecessary costs and repairs. The focus just seems to be on sales, not service.