CDS Home Services

I gave them an extra star because after a bunch of my time I finally talked to someone important and they gave us 3 years free maintenance. The install guys were good. Dealing with the office folks was terrible. Our generator had a bad switch that needed to be replaced. The sub they sent out was awesome. It was getting them to actually schedule it that was a hassle. We had major issues with the sub they sent for the gas line Delmar Plumbing. They decided on their own to install the gas line on our siding. Yes they screwed/​drilled through the lowest run of siding. When I called to complain as I had discusses with the rep that came out and sold us the generator that the line would be installed below the siding I got the run around and then was told it wasn’t CDS’s problem I needed to deal directly with Delmar. That was another headache.
Dealing with office personnel was a nightmare. I was getting yelled at on the phone and told untrue information. If you look at their service packages the prices are insane. Go to
and you can buy the whole maintenance kit pretty cheap.
They did deduct the cost of 3 years maintenance off my total bill. I was still owed the free year of service that came with the purchase. I had told the office folks that I wanted to be there when they serviced the generator. This is of course after the plumber screw up and both Delmar and CDS claimed they would no longer do work for anyone with out them being home. So I get this email saying that one of their techs was in the area, had time and wanted to do the service. I got that email about 30 minutes later and emailed back. I got a response that said…“The tech is already done with the service and gone.“
I will update soon as our second service is coming up. I have told them that under NO circumstances was one of their techs allowed on my property to service the generator without me being there and that the time would be at my convenience. Guess we will see if they fixed their issues or not.
Update
Well the tech they sent out was great. He walked me through the whole service. Nothing major but it was good to see how they did it. One thing that I find odd is how you drain the oil out of the generator. There is a hose that you take the cap off of and then lay down and the oil comes out. Based on the way CDS builds the boxes around the generator there is no good way to get the hose down low enough for the oil to come out. I had to get a piece of PVC pipe and run the end of the hose into that and then down into my oil catch pan. It is a real slow process. Buying the kits on line is WAY cheaper then having CDS service your generator. If you can change the oil in your car you can service the generator. It took me about 20 – 30 minutes and that is due to how slow the oil flows out.

Via Home Depot, had CDS install a generator a few years ago, and do regular maintenance, and was generally pleased, though did experience a generator failure during a blackout, and the company has no emergency # or emergency service, it seemed, as I had to wait until the following weekday business hours to even reach someone.
A few months ago, I had sewer work and digging done, and the gas company had to do an inspection, and said that the generator was not properly connected — they said it had some sort of «limiter» or something like that that wasn’t needed on the line. They disconnected the generator and said that I needed to get CDS back out to reconnect it properly.
In the past 2 months, I’ve rec’d 2 calls from CDS regarding signing on for a new generator maintenance contract.
I DEFINITELY WANT TO DO THIS!!!
Both times I was called, I was told someone from CDS would get back in touch with me to schedule their «gas guys» to come out here to check it out, and figure out about the reconnect, and then we can get started with the maintenance contract again.
But I never got a followup call either time.
I WANT TO GET RECONNECTED, AND SIGN UP FOR A MAINTENANCE CONTRACT! But if they can’t call me back, I’m going to have to rethink this…
Same Day Update: I finally got a call back — just a few hours after posting this. Maybe posting on Unilocal helped? In any case, I’m scheduled for someone to come next week. So I upped them a star. If they show up, and get it all sorted out, they may even get yet another star!

I am very very pleased with my service today. I used this company though Home Depot a couple months ago to install some switched and a light fixture. Christian and Manny were very professional and did a great job so we had them back today. Today’s job was set to be a challenge as my cielings are about 21 feet high. We had a fan installed and a heavy awkward and very expensive restoration hardware light installed. Manny Christian and Jason came out. The restoration light fixture was not designed very well from an iinstalation standpoint but the guys showed there true patience, competence and had a smart solution for every difficult problem they faced. I feel like there work in installing this light fixture was above and beyond and I heard no complaints from them. They really seem to enjoy there work both times we saw them. We will definitely be using them again!

I used this company because it was recommended by Home Depot as I bought my ceiling fan from Home Depot. When I called to make the appointment, I informed them that the fan was above my bed and that the person would have to stand on my bed to install the fan. They said it wasn’t a problem and they would work around it. When the person came to install the fan, he said he couldn’t install it because the bed was in the way and they don’t move furniture. Since I was home by myself and in work dress clothes, I was certainly not capable of moving the furniture. The installer said he was going to call his supervisor to see what to do, after which I was told that he wouldn’t be able to install the fan because of the bed. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me I could call him myself. At this point I was already an hour late to work, with no ceiling fan installed and just decided to leave. I ended up calling Home Depot since they were the ones who connected me to CDS and they got CDS on the phone. The supervisor (Anthony) was extremely rude and told me I should have known furniture would need to be moved. As I told them the location of the ceiling fan when I made the appointment and there was no mention of moving furniture I am extremely offended by the way the supervisor responded. Home Depot was extremely apologetic and they have filed a formal complaint against the company. I hope my experience encourages Home Depot to no longer recommend CDS to their customers!
UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO COMMENT: There’s one thing I hate more than bad service and that’s LIARS!!! You couldn’t just apologize for your mistake, but you had to blame the customer instead. The technician specifically told me that he would not move furniture because it is a liability (which makes sense). I then responded that I could not move the furniture as I was home by myself at the time and was physically unable to move a bed and dresser by myself. I think Bob’s comment speaks to the character of the company. Denying your wrong in the situation is just not acceptable.

While the beginning of this endeavor was a bit of a mess and customer service was lacking, involving the upper levels of management — Roy, Bill and then Rob Andrews — seems to have obtained the results that were needed to complete the installation. Thanks to all three of you for listening and responding appropriately to my parents concerns.
To the consumer — be careful of the GE Generator model 40 381 and try to stick with the Generacs line. I had previously detailed the issues with distance from house and will drop that for now due to the management resolving the issues and concerns.
3 ½ stars.

Certainly glad I took the advice of a friend vs. one of the reviews below.
CDS saved the day for my family and me. We were left stranded with a dead, basically new, generator after the big outage of Summer 2012.
CDS (especially Denise who books all of the appointments) listening to my travails, sent a guy the following Monday, called the manufacturer from our house, then got all of the parts replaced under warranty. Within two weeks it was up and running.
These people are real generator experts. My only wish is that they had done the original installation and saved us a bunch of money and drama.

This company makes Pepco look good… yes, they are that bad.
Do yourself a favor and stay away! We had a $ 10k generator installed in 2012, when the power went out on ⁶⁄₂₉ our generator failed. I should probably detail the long list of communication attempts, but I’m still quite aggravated by the whole experience, so I will summarize. It seems one of the fans in our generator «exploded» and ruined the motor. CDS has not been proactive in communicating with us nor have the been responsive to messages. Someone finally came out ⁷⁄₁₃ apparently to fix the problem with new parts. They were here for hours and I spoke with them, but they failed to mention they didn’t fix our generator. Seeing the red light we have renewed communication with them. Still waiting for a call back on ⁷⁄₁₉.
Product didn’t work, customer service is slow and unresponsive, no financial compensation offered.
I wish we could go back and pick another company, but as we can’t, I hope I can at least help steer someone else in a better direction.
Update: after I wrote my first review the owner called me back. I told him how frustrated I was with our long wait and poor service. He was then able to get someone out at 8:00 the next morning with a new generator. Up until that time we had horrible slow service, but I changed my rating from one to three stars because he was so responsive. I wouldn’t recommend them to a friend, but maybe our experience was unusual. I would ask around, maybe they have happy customers out there.