Nicholson Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning

I am very disappointed by the lack of service and concern I have experienced from Nicholson thus far. We had them come in on Friday to troubleshoot our Navien hot water system that had gone on the fritz and was erratically gushing out water from the overflow valve as well as displaying an error code. They sent a technician out to look at the system. He determined that a part needed replacement on the system which is 2 years old and still under warranty. He claimed that he would order the part and be back on Monday or latest Tuesday to fix the problem. It is now Wednesday evening and the only response I am able to get from them is that MAYBE the part will arrive tomorrow (Thursday) by 4pm and they will then be able to get someone out, maybe tomorrow or Friday. This is their idea of good customer service despite having been repeatedly told that we had a house full of guests with no heat or hot water to speak off! I was finally informed that the order was placed on Monday (NOT Friday) and would be overnighted. Apparently Nicholson does not care about their customers enough to proactively follow up with the distributor to see why the part ordered on Monday had not arrived on Tuesday or take any steps to expedite the process. It is of no concern to them that we are sitting here waiting for our system to be repaired so people can shower and we can have heat again. They are content to let days just pass waiting on a part that just doesn’t show up! I am now not even sure that I can trust the work they will do. I cannot recommend this company and will certainly not be doing any business with them in the future.

Great professional service! It’s hard to find a company you trust with this type of service. Glad I found one.

So, I did an Angie’s list coupon for $ 99 that provided $ 140 worth of service — stating that including drain cleaning. My issue was clogged kitchen drain. When Nicholson’s plumber arrived he wanted to discuss costs at onset. I told him I had coupon. Should be no cost.
HERE’S THE RUB! The coupon does not cover all costs… only partial.
I was shocked to learn that the full cost would be $ 331.00. I was upset. Plumber told me he could leave but I had to pay $ 55 for him showing up.
I called Nicholson Plumbing and got the owner. Nice guy. He worked with me so I only paid $ 103 plus $ 99 coupon… so just over $ 200, which seemed fair. I told him I think his drain cleaning prices are exorbitant but he said that is going rate for plumbers. If you use drain cleaning folks like Roto Rooter it’s less.
The plumber did a great job. Very professional, clean, efficient and thorough. I think highly of his skills. I just would not recommend Nicholson because I do think their prices are very high. And why shouldI have to pay $ 55 for their plumber to go away if I decided not to us them??? Insane!!! But Nicholson worked with me on getting the cost in line and apologized for the confusion with coupon. Serious ownership of the confusion goes to Angie’s List for not being very clear in the coupon that OTHER CHARGES would be incurred and you’d have to pay $ 55 if you decided not to use this plumber. CAVEAT EMPTOR FOLKS!!!
BTW, I called Angie’s list too to tell them of this issue. They said they’d work with Nicholson to rectify. Let’s see how that goes. LOL

Be very careful. This company is a total rip off. They came to my house twice. Once for a backed up toilet. They told me they couldn’t fix it because the water had caused too much sediment built up and U had to replace it. Mind you my house is only five years old. I believed them and replaced it. Next time they came it was for my AC unit not blowing cold air and they told me My compressor was broken even though I could still hear it working. They said I also had a leak somewhere in the wall and it would all cost about $ 7000 to $ 10,000 to replace and fix. I said I will be getting a second opinion and they looked really scared. Then the guy told me it may just be a leak and he could charge me just $ 1000 to find and fix the leak but that might not work. They are jokers and scammers! There is a saying fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Watch out for these liars they are just out to make the job bigger and sell you something you don’t need. I did get a second opinion and it was just a small leak right next to the condenser and cost me $ 100 to fix.

Here’s an UPDATE to my previous post. DO NOT USE NICHOLSON! They finally did arrive, did the work and left me with all my paperwork and a tag hanging from the HVAC unit claiming there is a GAS LEAK. So all the paperwork I need to hand over to the new owners showing I had the cleaning done, now says there is a gas leak. To any normal human being, a gas leak is BAD! It needs immediate attention. Not to Nicholson. The technician said he couldn’t do anything on this call, we would need to schedule a new appointment. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! After all the crap they put me thru for this appointment? NO WAY!
So I called the company I originally wanted to use, and even though they were booked till mid August at this point, to them a gas leak meant it was serious and they were willing to come over THAT DAY! And do you know what they found? NO GAS LEAK! Their service call fee is only $ 95. That’s a 55 DOLLAR difference to Nicholson’s $ 150.
What a scam Nicholson! What a scam!

Simple review here. Installation confirmed the day before, they no-​showed. No courtesy call, nothing.

We started using Nicholson plumbing back in 2011 when we first moved to Ashland. With each and every use I’ve found them to have great customer service, always on time for appointments and super helpful with any questions or concern’s I’ve had. They’ve helped us with 2 bathroom renovations, a dishwasher installation and I already have them scheduled to help us with a complete new heating system. I wouldn’t use any other professional for heating and plumbing and would highly recommend them.

Brandon and Jeff installed a new A/​C unit at my house on ¹⁰⁄₁ and did a great job! They ensured that the unit was charged and fully functioning before they left after 10 long hours. They also made sure that they cleaned up any mess that was made. I used Nicholson Plumbing in the past. They always did a great job with plumbing issues that we needed fixed and charged a fair price. I would recommend them for plumbing and A/​C work.

Bought a Unilocal deal and Steve seemed annoyed to apply it. Came in to do an estimate on converting electric to gas for stove and dryer. They got the date wrong and I was forced to accommodate their mistake. I wasn’t able to be there so my fiancé did the estimate with them and we were quoted quite a large number for that and to fix a few things, but since I am not a plumber, I figured that was the cost and said do it.
We were forced to discuss options via text message while I was at work as Steve said if he left we lost the $ 55 to give an estimate. You’d think they could give her time to discuss things with me as I was forced to accommodate them, and now she has to decide for us and not discuss with me in person. We gave them a deposit then two weeks went by never hearing from them. For people who were like «no you can’t have 24 hours to discuss» you would expect a bit more responsiveness. I called and had to ask why no one has gotten back to me, and then finally got them in to do the work.
I signed up for some service that was to give me a discount on this installation, but after a few times of mentioning it, It seems to just be a ploy to get steady income from me.
When installation finally started, Tyler came and he was awesome. The guys a real nice, laid back guy and I felt comfortable having him doing my work. I had some issues with Steve and his approach, so Tyler was a breath of fresh air and I thought I would be able to continue using this place. Gas install went in fairly smoothly and Tyler and his apprentice worked quickly, while also taking the time to answer any questions I may have had.
In addition to the piping, Steve also quoted us on new toilets as the ones there were loosely attached, and when asked about just properly securing them he said that if the toilet flange was busted it costs about the same as getting a new flange as it would be to fix the flange. Which makes sense in terms of plumber hours, but then when the flanges have issues they want to charge me to fix the flange on top of the service I had already paid. I feel that I was mislead in that regards and am not very happy with how Steve does his interactions.
Even though one of the flanges failed after install, I’m giving Tyler the benefit of doubt on not noticing the problem ahead of time, as it sounds like a pretty odd situation, but when you ask about certain things that have to be done they say «we have to come in and look at it first before we can quote» yet when the flange failed and I had to pay extra (even though they said it’s one cost to get the work done regardless of how long it ends up taking) he just pulled out a book and quoted me a price. I thought the whole reason they came in the first place was to look at it. That ended up being an additional $ 700 on top of the $ 600 I paid for a new toilet. That’s with the «discount» by the way.
I had to make another appointment for the town inspector to come assess the gas piping. Again they booked the wrong date, and this time I didn’t accommodate their mistake. When Steve (I don’t know why Tyler didn’t come back since he did the work) came in they didn’t install a stopper valve for the new piping so all the old piping had to also be checked. I was told that this would only take 5 – 10 minutes to do. It took over four hours and most of my day.
The inspector wasn’t happy with some flex cable and Steve quoted me $ 350 to just swap out a pipe he had to already detach to even do the inspection. He was already here, he already had it detached, the proper thing would have been to charge for the part, or even comp me it. It would have been a nice way to build up some trust, and also say «sorry I wasted your day on something we said was 10 minutes long» as I was already at a point where I didn’t trust the guy or the company, especially since I had just spent $ 1800 on gas piping and $ 1200 on toilets ($ 1900 if you count the new flange issue). I’m in for nearly $ 4000 and you can’t spare the $ 10 pipe to make the inspector happy, all while making your customer want to continue business with you?
In talks about trying to sell me this pipe, I had mentioned that I was thinking about getting a tankless system and he begin to try and force me into getting it installed. Steve is extremely pushy and I don’t appreciate his salesmanship attitude. He gave me the quote and I said, does this include my program discount and he said «yes», then came back a few minutes later and said he didn’t see that I was a member, but to trust him that was the member price. I think he just said yes to whatever I had said hoping I would just fork up whatever amount he wanted.
That’s when I said enough with these absurdly high prices, and poor customer service, and I’m going to take my business elsewhere.
A few months later they called my annual «tune up» that I get for being one of their members, but I don’t want to have anyone come in, as I feel it’s just an attempt to upsell me again. I wanted to like them…

We had a pinhole leak in our pipe down in the basement. Our plumber had recently retired so we looked on the internet and chose Nicholson plumbing.
While the job was completed, a simple pipe replacement came to over $ 500 and a simple examination (yes, examination) and cleaning of a bathroom faucet was $ 150. The technician wanted to charge an additional $ 500 to replace the stem in the faucet. My wife turned them down.
Our contractor who is finishing our basement noted the exorbitant fees and estimated that his plumber would have charged less than half for the same job.
Thanks for fixing the pipe, but never again. We feel gouged.

UPDATED REVIEW:
The negative review as detailed below was posted before Alexandra at Nicholson HVAC called me back to finally resolve the issue. As a gesture of good faith and to prove that they do in fact take customer satisfaction seriously, she offered to refund some of the cost of the two service calls they made to my home, specifically the charges I had questioned. The endpoint was that we agreed to disagree on what mistakes may or may not have been made with the service. I came out of the conversation feeling at least that Nicholson did their best to remedy a frustrating situation. So I have given a 3 star rating instead of 1.
In terms of positives, Nicholson does offer prompt and generally professional service. They always have live people answering their phones during business hours, which is apparently a rarity in this field. The technician who came for the second service call was very professional.
Below are excerpts from the original review:
After moving into a new home, my master bedroom zone heat began running constantly in spite of 80 degree temperatures, and turning off the heat altogether. We removed the thermostat, but really could not decipher the old system. We called Nicholson and the owner himself, Mike, showed up for the service call on a Fri. He concluded that we had a faulty zone control, and that very likely we had broken our thermostat in trying to manipulate it. He installed a new zone control. And then offered to install a new thermostat for a ridiculous price of $ 300+ dollars (for a non-​wifi, minimally programmable unit), so I opted out of that. He then reinstalled the old thermostat and reassured me though that now the heating was controlled at least, and that we should replace the thermostat. I paid him about $ 250 for the service, including $ 75 for the «diagnostic».
Within an hour of Mike leaving and assuring me he had fixed the problem, the temp shot up to 80 degrees AGAIN. We hadn’t touched the thermostat or the boiler at this point. We figured it was the thermostat now, since the broken zone control had been replaced. So we installed a Nest thermostat, which was easy. But alas, no change. Still 80 degrees in the bedroom. We called to let them know the problem was still there. They came again, but it was a different technician this time, who immediately asked me to sign and authorize their standard $ 75 fee to diagnose. I refused since this was clearly their mistake. I had to talk to the co-​owner, Mike’s wife, to get to the bottom of this. Mike ultimately showed up and authorized the waiving of the $ 75 fee. He admitted that he had missed the original problem, but that he was not responsible since I did not ask him to replace our old thermostat. Short of it was I paid another $ 1300 on top of the $ 250 I paid for the first visit to replace the zone control YET AGAIN, this time to replace both the zone control again as well as a valve that Mike admitted he failed to see was broken during the first visit.
…(removed). I called to complain about these charges…
I get a call from Mike the next day. And despite him admitting previously that he had missed a problem, he wouldn’t admit fault. He refused to come back to check the AC transformer claiming that this was a «new diagnostic» and would therefore incur another $ 75 just to look at the system. He made all sorts of excuses about why none of this was his responsibility, including saying the old thermostat (which he reinstalled) was at fault. Later he changed his story and admitted the thermostat could not have possibly been the issue. But he would not refund the first fee unless the manufacturer of the damaged component refunded HIM for the cost of the component. As you can see he was just circling the issue to avoid losing money. Nicholson and I spoke at length, back and forth, with the gist of it being he would not offer any concession for his mistake.
… (removed)

When our forced hot air furnace motor started to die on a Sunday night, we called Nicholson after reading a few reviews online. We were put in touch with Johnny, who was on call that evening for emergency
repairs. He was helpful and came up with a plan to save us time and money, and told us to call him that night if we had any questions. We did, and he responded right away with help. The next day he arrived right on time with the necessary part and installed it quickly.
Johnny was professional and went above and beyond his job to be available on a weekend night and provide us with information. We highly recommend his work and Nicholson overall.

Edit: I was contacted by the owner who made this right and it was acknowledged that it wasn’t handled correctly previously. Had I been put through to him the day after the plumber came out I would have gave 4 stars (yay I’m a fan according to Unilocal) but I am giving 3 (a-​ok) due to the miscommunication.
As acknowledged my issue would have fallen under their 100% satisfaction guarantee which would have meant my issue would have been fixed within a day and made it a much more reasonable repair.
The original review below with updated notes in parenthesis:
We had the toilet in our finished basement back up on a Sunday morning and partially flood the area. I knew right away it was the main sewer line so in my panic I jumped on Angies List and picked the highest rated plumber in my area and gave them a call. I of course made a few mistakes right away — I called a general plumber and I didn’t call around. It was a Sunday morning and I wanted it fixed quick but I paid the price.
A few of the positive things to get out of the way:
1.) The plumber was prompt, punctual and well mannered. He covered his feet in the house and was not rude in any way. In fact he was so pleasant it gave me some reassurance that I was paying a fair amount. (Naïve on my part)
2.) I fully accepted the $ 85 emergency charge — I knew it would be a bit more due to it being a Sunday. I would have paid that extra amount with any other plumber as well.
3.) They let me know the price ahead of time and I agreed as I was naïve about its competitiveness.
Anyway, the plumber snaked a couple of times and water was flowing. He didn’t use the clean-​out which meant extra charges (but the owner clarified today why he had to do that)
After nearly $ 800 the backup came right back that night. It would be another $ 800 for them to come out again.
I called around and got multiple quotes for $ 225 — $ 270, all with a 90 day guarantee.
I called Nicholson back as I thought they had actually made an honest mistake and got a Customer Rep who talked nicely but basically said it was a fair price and that’s what you pay for the job to get done right. They were quick to say those charging $ 250 are going to hike their price and potentially break something. This gets me the most since that wasn’t the case at all when I called a second plumber who completely fixed it. They have also said repeatedly that the price they charge is because they are more experienced and have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I wasn’t satisified but nothing was going to happen (Again, this has now been resolved)
The second plumber (drain specialist) was able to quickly assess that our main sewer was actually disconnected from the street line and leeching into our yard.
Nicholson was cordial and professional but that came at an exceptionally steep price.
They seem to have a great reputation with more complex plumbing work but for something like a main drain I may have better with a less experienced provider.

My forced-​hot-​air air handler failed during the night, and Mike Nicholson returned my phone call promptly on a Sunday and determined that a part was needed that wouldn’t be available til Monday. On Monday, Johnnie and Charlie came out to the house and had everything working by 8:30am. They were professional, courteous, and efficient, and they got the job done. They discussed what they did and what might be required in the future. Very satisfied.

Fantastic service, professional, affordable, and clean. We enjoyed our experience with Nicholson Plumbing and will continue to refer them to all of our neighbors in Southborough. The plumbers showed up on time, cleaned up after their work, and installed our products exactly as planned. They updated us on the progress every step of the way and made sure we understood each decision we were made.
We won’t consider using anyone else in the area. Keep up the great work!

I found Nicholson to be very expensive. They quoted me $ 2500 for a water heater including labor, which seemed very high. I got one elsewhere, including labor, for $ 1,000.

Recently used these guys because my HVAC unit AC wasn’t working (first hot day of summer). Showed up on time, wore booties, fixed the unit. During the visit we talked about how my unit was having problems in the winter — which was resulting in NSTAR service calls of maybe 3 – 4 times per season (I am on a service plan with them). He was the first guy to tell me WHY the problem was happening, and HOW to fix it. I find it strange that all of the NSTAR guys etc. no one took time to point out how to fix the source of the problem… Very professional, smart. I would use them again, and plan to for the fix on my heating unit!

Our A/​C suddenly went out on a 90 degree Friday night. I called Nicholson Saturday morning, From the woman who answered their emergency hotline and then called back within 30 minutes to Mike P. who showed to repaired our system exactly on time, they were the very model of perfect customer service. Mike stayed with us until he was completely satisfied that the system was fixed. It was a hot day and Mike went more than the extra mile. I highly recommend Nicholson. From start to finish they were outstanding. I’m sure they’re not the cheapest, but I know we got great value for what we paid and best of all, we got our A/​C back.

I called for a repair and they were very friendly and fixed the problem in no time! Since I had no idea what was wrong, I liked that they were personable and explained how it needed to be fixed. I would definitely use them again!

Let’s start with the positive, they did a good job on the actual service and did it quickly. They were very over priced and they tried pushing extra services that were not needed that would have cost even more money.