ELEMENT SERVICES

Michael Strader or “Mike” he said to call him the actual owner came out at around 2:45 am when it was unbearably hit last week and with me being a heart patient and having small children in the home he was at my house literally within twenty minutes. And was the nicest, sweetest guy you could ask for. All the commotion of course woke the kids up and he even took time at that hour to show my special needs kid the different parts and why the air conditioner had stopped working. And because I had actual proof of my medical condition he didn’t charge us the after hours emergency price. And his rates could not be beat. I was amazed at how cheap it was, me and the fiancé and kids were so grateful. We actually afford to pay someone as knowledgeable and professional, but also down to earth and friendly to come out at that hour, listen to my special needs child answer his questions and even show him things and what he was doing to fix it. If he doesn’t have children that man deserves a billion, and as far as not charging me the extra fee, he did that out of the kindness of his heart I had waited to call someone for several hours and I think he could see the physical distress I was in and that’s why he was able to wave that he said he does that for someone about once a summer and I just happened to be the lucky recipient of his good deed. You have no idea how much your kindness has effected me and my family and we will definitely be paying it forward. I can’t thank you enough Michael “Mike”. You are running one great company for this community and everyone should use them!!! Just awesome down to earth people making a difference! You are an AMAZING human being Michael. Thanks so much for your kindness, giving me faith in humanity again: ( This man had to get up in the middle of the night go to the shop in Chatham and come to me off Sangamon Avenue clear across town) And not once did he show any signs of irritation especially when my special needs child was asking him a million questions, i told my son sweetheart let the man work it’s the middle of the night he actually said it’s ok he is a great helper, and for that alone makes you a great person, I cry when I tell this story. But I think somehow, someway he should get recognition for all of this. Anyone that has taken the time to read this please use this company. If the owner is such a great person I guarantee the staff would be I doubt he would tolerate any less. Once again thanks Mike and god bless our family to yours. Your family should be proud raising such an outstanding, caring, thoughtful, down to earth, young man trying to make a difference in our communities, kudos to you!!!! Keep being amazing thank you so much Michael (Mike) Rebecca B. and Family!!!!!!

Warning to anyone with geothermal. This company will rip you off. The first time we used Element for a warranty repair and it still cost us over $1,300. A year later our system went out over Labor Day Weekend with tons of family staying with us. I was hesitant to call Element but we were having trouble finding someone to come on the holiday weekend. Mike came out and said he could have someone there Tuesday so with hesitation we went with him again. Big mistake. This time the bill was almost $2,800 for two hours of work. I called to inquire about the $750 flush cart charge and was given a ridiculous story about how he has to have the motor on it rebuilt every 25 uses. OK, so you charge $750 X 25 times = $18,750 and then you pay a few hundred bucks to have the motor rebuilt. What?! I tell him I could have bought my own cart for that and he says, "well, you want to get a decent one. I would spend at least $1,500". Seriously?! You just told me a decent flush cart costs you $1,500 and you are charging me $750 for the use of it. I asked him if he was listening to himself. Then he proceeds to tell me I am not the only customer he has had to explain this to. I bet I'm not. He gives me an excuse that not everyone can afford geo so it’s a specialty tool he has to charge me that much. First, you shouldn't need to flush the geo loops except during construction. A closed loop system doesn't get debris to need flushed once it is properly installed. If the system loses pressure you can easily add water to the system. Secondly, I tell him rental places are charging $75/day for a flush cart or another one I found was $100/3 days. I told him I was fine with the extra mark up over retail on the flow center. I understood the markup on the hoses and fittings which were about 4 times the cost. I get he has to charge me $65 for the $15/hr kid he has running supplies in and out. There is a cost of doing business and he has to make money. The only thing I was disputing was this egregious charge for the flush cart. He said if you don't want to use my services in the future then don't. Wow. That's some great customer service. Mike would rather overcharge me and lose my business than reduce this phony charge. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! Another maintenance and/or repair visit from Element and I could have paid for a whole new system. Hopefully, this will save someone else from being ripped off!

I am blown away by the customer service, quality of work, honesty and professionalism of this company. Our heat went out three weeks ago and these guys were our first call based on a family members recommendation. The owner of the company was here to assess within an hour of our call. Our 25 year old furnace was shot and temps had dropped to 56° in our home. We obviously feared going into the weekend without heat as the outside temps were in the single digits. Mike made a quick call and his team was here to install new furnace very quickly. Everything was up and running by late afternoon. These guys are efficient! Fast forward three weeks and our furnace stopped running overnight. We called on Sunday to find out why this would be happening to a new furnace. They walked us through how to reset and ways to trouble shoot and it worked. Mike, the owner, came by on Monday to check everything over and within minutes identified the issue. The filter we were using was not suitable for our furnace. Again, he educated us on the entire system and how it all operates. He probably should’ve scolded us for bothering them on a weekend and having to make an unplanned house call, but he didn’t. He smiled and said to call if we have any other needs or issues. Please do yourself a favor and call these guys if you are ever in need! They are honest, fair and so efficient! Thank you!!!

We are updating the old thermostats in our 150 year old home to newer 'smart' thermostats. The owner of Element Services came and looked at our system. He told us that a new transformer would be required to make the new thermostats work. He said he could do it, so we made an appointment. In reality, he couldn't do it. He told us he could do the job, but apparently wasn't certain that he could. Instead of spending five minutes to test his theory using one or two feet of wire at the furnace, he chose to do the most difficult, labor intensive portion of the job first, and only then test to see if it would work, which it did not. I was told that I had to pay for the needlessly run wire as well as the time it took to needlessly install it. I questioned the cost, not wanting to pay for wire that should not have been installed in the first place and it was made clear that if I didn't write a check, we would be left without heat - in January. Also worth mentioning is that they didn't show up for the first appointment we made with them. They were busy because of an exceptionally cold couple of days, which is understandable. However, they didn't have the courtesy to call and let me know they weren't coming. So spending five minutes to see if their plan works is too much time for them to waste, but several hours of my time is seemingly unimportant to them. Competence and expertise have value, and are things worth paying for. Based on this truly terrible experience, Element Services provides neither one. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

I highly recommend Element Services for HVAC repair. Our A/C unit stopped working late on a Saturday night after a 10 day heat wave. I called Element first thing Sunday morning and Mike arrived within 30 minutes. He fixed our A/C unit is less than 10 minutes and the price was reasonable. He also explained that I needed to clean the coils on the outdoor unit. He said that he could do it while he was there but he was not comfortable charging the on-call rate because it would be costly to me. Instead he explained what I needed to do and saved me money. This is the second time I have had Element Services out in the last few years and each experience has been positive.