Stephens Heating & Air Conditioning

Terrible. Largely incompetent and completely untrustworthy. We hired Stephens H&C in August 2022 to install a heating and cooling unit. This was to upgrade our existing system to add cooling (old system was heat only) and to also be more efficient. On multiple occasions prior to starting the project, Al (‘president’ of Stephens H&C) confirmed that the unit would provide heating and cooling. I even confirmed with Al immediately before making the down payment, and he was very clear that the unit would provide cooling. Stephens selected the specific unit and sent a proposal. The materials included described it as a heating and cooling unit and were explicit that the unit would be effective at cooling the house. Stephens would order the unit and do the site prep and then finish the install when the unit showed up. The anticipated timeframe was based on when the unit was delivered and was expected between December 2022 and February 2023. The unit arrived in January 2023. Stephens came to the house the first time to install the unit and failed. The second time Stephens came to the house to install the unit they were able to get the heat working. I asked Al how we would set the thermostat to get cooling in the summer. Al was extremely short with me and indicated that the unit would not provide cooling. He claimed that we wouldn’t be able to even run the unit in the summer and further (incorrectly) claimed that we hadn’t discussed the unit providing cooling. In this conversation Al didn’t show any concern about the unit not providing cooling and there was no meaningful resolution. I even reminded Al of specific details that he had discussed in regards to the cooling but it didn’t seem to matter. Essentially, our prior agreement and contract was for heating and cooling, but now Al was saying that it wouldn’t provide cooling Al was completely incorrect when he that we hadn’t previously discussed cooling. If this was an honest mistake, I would have expected an acknowledgment of the mistake, reassurance that the unit would provide the functionality we’d previously discussed and for Stephens to finish the install promptly. Instead, Al or Stephens H&C has never provided any explanation for Al’s comments about the unit not providing cooling. If anything, Stephens H&C has actually made it clear that they won’t guarantee that the unit provides any effective cooling, and the project ended up stalled for months. I was able to get Stephens to come back to try to install cooling but they did not have the expertise or competence. Essentially, for the next nine months Stephens would come back every couple of weeks or so to try to provide the cooling functionality but fail. Sometimes they would claim they had it fixed when it actually wasn’t. Other times they would make it clear that they didn’t know how to finish the install. It wasn’t until October 2023 (14 months after the project started) that they allegedly have the cooling functional. Since the cooling wasn’t finished until after the summer, I still haven’t seen if the cooling will work or not. Our contract was that the final 50% payment would be made upon completion. Stephens sent me the bill in May of 2023 when the unit still had not been fully installed. According to Stephens my account was 90 days passed due based on this. Around September 2023 Stephens sent a letter that they ‘can not guarantee how well or how much it will cool the home.’ The proposal and contract for install of a heating and cooling unit that we had signed a year earlier did not include this disclaimer For months Stephens could not complete the install. Even when they are able to accomplish the work, the quality is very poor. For example, the only way we can get the cooling to work is to set the thermostat to heating. This is problematic, because if the cooling even works, there will be no way for it to shut off when it reaches the desired temperature. It’s clear that Stephens can’t or won’t do any better, but this does not meet expectations for a reasonable heating and cooling install.