Automated Gates & Equipment

PLEASE READ — SERIOUS WARNING ABOUT THIS COMPANY I am writing this review so others don’t experience what I did. I strongly believe this company engages in deceptive and predatory practices, and I want to document my experience in full so there is no ambiguity. My automatic gate began malfunctioning and would no longer close on its own. Before calling anyone, I did what any reasonable homeowner would do: I reviewed the manufacturer’s manual, checked basic troubleshooting steps, and even attempted a minor adjustment on the control board to rule out simple causes. When none of that worked, I contacted this company for professional service. The first issue arose before anyone even arrived. Be aware that this company charges drive time at $175 per hour, and this charge appears to be based on wherever their technician happens to be coming from, not their actual distance from your home. I live approximately 20 minutes from their business location, yet I was billed for a full hour of drive time. If their technician is finishing another job far away, you will be billed for that entire commute. This alone should give anyone pause. After waiting roughly a week for an appointment, the technician finally arrived. I clearly explained the issue, exactly as I had already done with their office staff. The technician spent about 20–30 minutes looking over the gate system. There was no extensive testing, no detailed troubleshooting, and no meaningful explanation of what was being done. I was then told that the safety sensors had failed and needed to be replaced. I was given an estimate of approximately $1,300 just for the sensors, and was told the repair could take 5–7 hours to complete. This immediately felt excessive — both in cost and labor time — for what is typically a very simple system. Because of how uncomfortable this estimate made me, I decided to seek second opinions. I contacted two other gate service companies, both of which independently gave entirely different diagnoses, citing possible gate arm issues and the age of the control board. Neither company identified failed sensors as the issue, and both provided far less reasonable explanations. At this point, it was clear something did not smell right with all these gate companies. Out of curiosity, and honestly out of frustration, I decided to inspect the sensors myself. When I opened the sensor housings, I noticed they had clearly been opened recently — something the technician from this company had done during his visit. I simply adjusted and realigned the sensors, closed the housings, and the gate immediately began working perfectly again. No new parts. No replacements. No 5–7 hours of labor. Just basic sensor alignment. This leaves only two possible explanations: 1. The technician knew this was a simple alignment issue and attempted to upsell me an unnecessary $1,300 repair anyway, or 2. The technician and company lacks the basic competence to diagnose one of the most common and fundamental gate problems. Neither explanation is acceptable for a professional service company. I simply do not know how they even have 4.4 stars on Google. Despite failing to diagnose or fix the issue — and despite proposing a completely unnecessary and overpriced repair — I was still invoiced nearly $400 for the visit. In effect, I was charged hundreds of dollars for someone to drive out, spend 20 minutes, and attempt to sell me work that was never needed. What makes this especially frustrating is that this situation could have gone very differently. Had the technician been honest, taken a few extra minutes to align the sensors properly, and charged fairly for his time, I would have been more than happy to pay and continue doing business with them in the future. Instead, I was left feeling deliberately targeted and attempted to be taken advantage of. This company showed no interest in actually fixing my gate — only in maximizing the amount of money they could extract from the situation. I strongly recommend avoiding this company and seeking service elsewhere.

I live at a complex that has a gate that was installed by another gate company a long time ago, and then AE gates was hired 2 year ago to install new motors on the gate entrance and exits. They did a good job but recently we had some issue with the gate not opening easily because of a tree root pushing up the asphalt against it. See picture. Despite it being our problem, AE gate did send out a technician to look at the gate more than once earlier this year. My husband recently reached out to them when he joined the HOA board and they were helpful with emails and customer support about the need for us to resolve the gate clearance issue with the root. They recommended that we may need to service the wheels and provided some referrals for that. Debra at AE gates was helpful with her emails. And in general, they were supportive of my husband trying to get the gate to work again even for help outside of warranty coverage. In other words, if you have a problem not covered by warranty, they don't just say "good luck" or something. Luckily this past weekend, he, some residents and another board member removed the tree root and patched the asphalt. Now the gate works again! I write this review because even though something was going on with our gate that was outside of warranty coverage for the work they did, they still replied to him with emails explaining different things. This company will support you with customer service, technical support for problems outside of your warranty, and if something happens that is covered by warranty, they will send out a technician!