Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc

I have personally known Wendell for many years. Many of my friends use him for their HVAC needs. I am troubled by some of the negative reviews on here as if people think the cost of the part is the only cost a contractor has in fixing their system. To the person that thinks you can replace a part in five minutes. There are many people and hours of education that a contractor has to invest in to just know and be able to replace those parts.
You have to invest in Fuel, Education, Insurance, Phones, Trucks, Advertising, and many other costs that the average customer really doesn’t think of. It’s too bad that many of you can sit idly by giving a negative review when you really have NO idea what it takes to run a 45k vehicle, with $ 10k in parts on the truck and still pay a technician a competitive wage so that he doesn’t take all the education you have provided him and go to the next guy for a dollar more an hour.
Shame on all of you. Wendell and his team are SUPER!!! And provide a great service to the area. I bet Wendell would make a deal with any of you… He would pay to install your part at a zero cost to you. That is if you will make a Truck Payment for him on the vehicle that drove to your home.

I had my AC and water heater replaced by them in my Gaithersburg townhome, and everything went really well, so give them five stars by default. They took away the old units, put in the new, everything looks clean and professional, and they left no debris (not even a screw). They arrived when they said, and billed what they had said.
The complaints below about overcharging I don’t think are fair, maybe another factor in my five stars to balance it out. I think there’s a sticker shock when you only do this once every 10 or 20 years and you kind of wonder if there’s a conspiracy among all the companies to artificially inflate prices because homeowners don’t know better. All I can say is tell them you’re getting several estimates (like you always should) and each is going to give you the best price they can to get your business. There are lots of HVAC companies in the area and I bet it’s really competitive. If you think an estimate is ridiculous, don’t use them. If you don’t like someone’s fixed price, go with someone who charges materials plus labor and lists it all out. It’s not fair to agree to everything then complain later to what you agreed to.
I don’t think Presidential gouged me, anyway. They charged me $ 1,200 for the new water heater with installation. I found a similar one at Home Depot for $ 650 I could install myself. But I’d also have to pay probably $ 400 to the gas company to unhook the old, then come back later to hook in and inspect the new. To save $ 150 then I’d have to cut pipes, carry the old unit up the stairs and rent a pickup to haul it to the dump, carry the new one down the stairs, research how to install it, weld pipes, do everything else and in the process probably cut my hands in 10 different places, sprain my back and maybe blow up my house. Is $ 150 worth it for them to take care of all that? I thought it was, though maybe others don’t mind doing all that work. In my case though I don’t see how their price was unfair compared to my alternative, and I certainly didn’t feel gouged.

Fantastic personal service. Repairs done promptly with very knowledgable technicians. Highly recommend!

Although I live in NV, I spend 3 months per year in Rockville, MD helping to care for my mother post stroke. I had the opportunity to deal with Presidential Heating and Air last week. They charged my 85 year-​old father $ 412 to replace a $ 65 part on his humidifier that took literally 5 minutes to replace. A whole new system costs only $ 150-​$ 200!!! The bill was not itemized, just had a total. When I asked to have the bill broken down in terms of labor rate and cost of materials, I was told they don’t discuss that with the public. Wow! I’m not even sure that is legal.
A few days after they left, the humidifier stopped working. We called them to come back out to fix it since they tout their warranty and how they stand behind their work. So I made an appointment with them and rearranged my schedule so I could be at the house when they came. They were supposed to come between 10am and 1pm. They never showed. The next day they gave me another window from 12pm-​3pm. Their technician Tommy finally shows up and informs me that this is now a new problem and we would have to pay more if we wanted it fixed, but that I could get the part on line cheap and do it myself in just a few minutes. So I said, just to get this straight, we’ve paid you $ 412 to replace a $ 65 part that took you five minutes, and our humidifier is still not working, and you’re telling me I’m on my own unless I pay you hundreds more? «Yup».
So needless to say, I called Tommy’s supervisor (Chris) at Presidential (where they claim to «treat you like the First Family»), and explained the situation. Chris tried to justify their rates and these additional charges with arguments that made no sense to me. I told him that I would definitely sue Presidential for this money since the money was paid to fix the humidifier and the humidifier was not fixed. I also explained how easy it would be for him to just fix it rather than go through all the hassles of a losing lawsuit. He eventually agreed, but not before accusing me of using scare tactics, and going on and on about how he was doing me a big favor by fixing my unit, and how he doesn’t like to deal with customers like me… I guess by that he means customers who actually expect him to do the job he was well overpaid to do. So Tommy came back and spent five minutes replacing another cheap part at «no additional charge».
I found myself wondering how a company who so brazenly rips off its customers could stay in business. I think the answer is that most people have no idea what is involved with fixing these units and just assume that if the price is that high, it must take a long time and use expensive parts. Presidential counts on not being questioned, because anyone who knows the facts about the cost of parts and how long it actually takes to do this work would obviously see the true magnitude of thievery that is occurring here.
And here’s the best part. The humidifier still does not work properly!!! At the end of our dealings, Chris told me that he would do this one last visit to fix it, but that if I had any other problems, I should call someone else! So now calling them back out again is not even an option, not that I would choose to at this point anyway. Presidential has taken $ 412 of our money, made us wait around for no shows, treated me in a disrespectful manner, and now refuses to fix the unit that we paid them to fix. No problem Chris, just refund my money, and I’ll find an honest company to fix my humidifier properly.
So I am having another company come out to fix this thing and filing a lawsuit against Presidential for the $ 412 plus legal costs. I am truly looking forward to hearing what the judge has to say about these business practices. I’ll post again later with the results of the lawsuit. And as for the other posts here that talk about them being honest and reliable? I’ll leave it to you to decide whether those posts sound legit. What struck me most about my conversation with Chris is that he actually believes that the things he is saying are true. It doesn’t matter if you present him with hard facts that contradict what he claims. In his mind he doesn’t seem to see any of this as wrong. In my mind all you ever have to do is apply the golden rule and put yourself on the receiving end and ask yourself how you’d feel about the situation then. So simple, yet very few folks in business seem to live that way. I guess it is not as profitable to be honest.

I recommend this company 100%. I found them through a recommendation of a friend. They were honest, reasonably priced, and talked me through the whole process. Presidential is knowledgable. The best part is the lovely woman who takes phone calls. She is smart, efficient, and very pleasant.

These guys are honest and reliable. They were very professional when they arrived (on time), very courteous and knowledgeable. They corrected the problem with my heat pump and now it is working like new again. I will definitely use them in the future and highly recommend their service.

The central HVAC system in my condo wasn’t blowing cool air. I called Presidential and they were able to send a technician the next day in a 3-​hour window. They also gave me the price for the service call up-​front. Scott arrived in the middle of the window, a half hour after he called to let me know he was on his way. When he got here, he checked the indoor components and then checked the heat pump unit on the roof.
Not all the heat pump units on top of my building were labeled with the apartment numbers but Scott was able to quickly determine which heat pump was mine. He quickly found what was wrong and had the necessary replacement part in his truck. He then ran a diagnostic on the rest of the unit, found that everything else was in working order and cleaned it out. He was done in just under an hour.
Presidential delivered quality, efficient service. While I’m reasonably sure that the price of the replacement part was generously inflated, the technician was honest in his diagnosis of the problem. I will definitely use Presidential in the future.