I called Donahue Halverson to come look at my Munchkin boiler--in its death throes--and give me an estimate on options going forward. A very friendly, amiable guy came out and had a look and promised to send me an estimate later in the week. When I didn't hear, I called and got their voicemail. I explained that I was expecting an estimate and that I'd be going out of state for two weeks and hoped the estimate would arrive by the time I got back. it did, and I had questions, so I called back. The woman who answered the phone seemed confounded by my request and said I needed to sign the contract and send it back. I explained again that I had questions that needed to be answered first. She wondered what my questions were, so I explained what they were. In a none too polite manner she said someone would get back to me. No one ever did. read more

The best and the nicest. Love their tech who saves us again. Previously installed a water heater the same day. Now, replaced a kitchen faucet, fixed a leaky sink and fixed a leaky bath faucet. All done the same day and perfectly! Love these people! read more

Can't be happier with service and quality job! Much recommended! Tracey and Wren are wonderful! Truly friendly, fast and professional. A gem! read more

Lowes would not install a washer ordered on line until the water shut-off valve was replaced. Donohue Halverson came that same day and installed a replacement for me. Fast forward to later washing machine complications, and Donohue Halverson took care of things with good humor and consideration for my situation. Every person I dealt with, from the office staff to the plumbers to the owner were all professional and courteous despite the problems, which were all resolved. read more

I had a leak in my basement and a dripping water faucet. I phoned D-H because, in the past, we'd had good luck with them. Things had changed. When Trent, one of their employees, came to my house the first time, he disconnected the water to the upstairs floor. He also removed the shower faucet. He said he'd return the next day to re-connect it. I had to leave Ithaca, but when I returned, weeks later, this is what I found: The shower faucet had NOT been re-connected; it was still lying on the floor. The water to the entire upstairs floor was still off. That meant we could not flush the toilet, which meant that the water left in it was "ripe" and in consequence very smelly--indeed smelly enough to affect both bedrooms on the third floor; it made getting to sleep a challenge. Furthermore, since I have asthma, I had to take some additional medication to be able to breathe comfortably through the smell. In addition, the non-functioning toilet meant that to use a toilet in the middle of the night, we had to go down two floors; in the middle of the night, half asleep, this was not pleasant. The valve in the basement (the valve that Trent turned on to re-connect water to the third floor) was leaking water after Trent left, and I received a water bill for $800+. Trent had said the valve was brittle but still working, and he said he had turned the water off. However, it was still leaking and costing a lot of money for water usage. Clearly, the water had not been turned off. Trent also said that the garbage disposal was broken because there was paper in it. I don't understand how this could have happened, because there was no one in the house and the disposal was new and had just been installed a few weeks ago. He said it made sense, to him, to simply remove the disposal rather than replace it. Mistakenly trusting his presumed expertise, I agreed. So now there is no garbage disposal. During one of Trent's visits, he "fixed" the kitchen faucet that had been dripping slightly. However, when I returned to Ithaca and the faucet was turned on, it made the sort of screeching sound that is often called something that could wake the dead. I am not talking about soft squeaking; I am talking about something more akin to howling. It could actually be heard outside when the door to the house was closed. Eventually, D-H sent out another employee to fix Trent's earlier work. I stress that this was NOT new work; it was work aimed at undoing the unprofessional jobs that Trent had done. Nevertheless, when I received a bill, I was charged for the corrective work. I truly don't know what has been happening. We had, in the past, always dealt with D-H and were able to count on them for excellent work. The work that Trent did was unprofessional to say the least. The invoice had a bill for labor. I cannot understand why I should have been charged for Trent's sub-par unprofessional labor nor for someone else's work to correct the problems that he left. Indeed, instead of providing me with a service, Trent's work cost me money, time, and a quite considerable amount of stress and aggravation. I noticed that their average Yelp review is roughly 3. I understand why. read more

What's with this almost new boiler? It stopped working late last Friday when the temperature outside was in the 20s. Brrr. Sam walked in about half an hour after my after-hours emergency call to trouble shoot and fix it. He's keenly knowledgeable about these enormous beasts and doesn't mind sharing what he's doing to correct the problem. He brought not only renewed warmth to my home, but a sense of ease and dependability that he'd be back to solve anything else that went awry. read more

Timely service, plumber was well presented, knowledgeable, efficient, courteous, personable. Very fair costs. If you're looking to support a truly local business you won't go wrong with these folks. There are reasons why they've been in business for decades. read more

We had Donohue Halverson come out to replace our very old pressure tank. It was cycling within seconds of turning on our water, not to mention our water pressure was constantly changing. Shawn arrived and had our new pressure tank installed and working in a couple of hours. It was hardly an interruption to our day. The tank is working great and our water pressure is steady and strong. Shawn even dragged our huge old tank out of our basement for us and took it so we did not have to dispose of it ourselves. Thank you!! Happy customers!! We would definitely use them again. read more

I paid $4000 as a 50% deposit down for a new boiler install back in March. I assumed they would contact me when they received the boiler, to install it. No one contacted me. After several weeks I contacted the company to inquire as to the status and was told that they had received the boiler but were waiting on installing it because they were doing other jobs. Apparently they felt that because the weather had warmed up I did not need the boiler. After a few more weeks went by, I wrote to the company very concerned. I explained that we had had several weeks in late March and April when the temperature dropped very low at night, requiring me to run space heaters at an enormous cost. No one even had the courtesy to respond to me. This was about 4 weeks ago. They are holding $4000 of my money and have kept me waiting literally for months even though they had the parts in, and did not bother to respond to me when I contacted them. I don't understand a world in which this is acceptable. It's truly inexplicable and shameful. read more

I went downstairs one morning to find water suddenly leaking all over the place from an old pipe. These folks were very busy so they had to schedule me for a week or so away, but they put me on a wait list in case something came up sooner. Miraculously one of their plumbers found a free moment later that day! He was very quick and got the work done in only an hour and a half; the overall bill, which arrived a few days later in the mail, was very reasonable and they took payment over the phone. The repair was done with copper pipe and looks great; we haven't had any problems since it was completed. I appreciated that the plumber was so friendly, that he wore a mask due to Covid-19, and that he pointed out a broken step on our basement stairs that needed my attention. Will definitely call these folks again in the future. read more

update to last week's review. they finally showed up to finish the job started a month ago, and I now have a working kitchen sink, so yay. it probably shouldn't have taken so long but it did, and now my problem is solved. read more

Gouge artists! Their hourly rate is astronomical, and they start the meter from the moment they call you, then (my house is about 10 minutes away) show up 45-50 minutes later. Does the guy stop for breakfast somewhere? A one-hour service takes 2 1/2 hours. Dishonest. read more

This organization is unscrupulous and all of their employees (and an owner) were deeply rude. They were the second of three heating and plumbing companies that I called to get my problem fixed. They didn't fix my problem. Instead, the employee wasted hours of my time doing something that my machine didn't need, rather than doing what I asked, which was giving me an estimate for the replacement of the main board on my machine (which was what the machine said needed done). Shockingly, what he did did not fix my problem, and he proceeded to give me suggestions for other things that were "less expensive than fixing the main." (I subsequently hired someone else to replace the main and it was perfectly reasonable in cost.) Onto the bill. The gentleman who was here was here for less than three hours, fully half an hour of which he said he would "take off" because it was due to him fiddling with his defective pump. I received no advance warning of any sort of "truck charge" or this organization's absurd and unscrupulous policy of charging "portal to portal" which none of the other local plumbers appear to do. Therefore, for about 2.5 hours of work, I was being charged 5.5 hours. When I attempted to dispute this, I was sent a second bill for 3.5 hours, with the truck charge. When I called AGAIN to dispute this, the receptionist called me a liar and said that she had warned me of the charge--totally untrue! Finally, when I reached the owner of the company he was also quite rude, acted like he was doing me a favor by removing inappropriate charges, and said I was "a person who no one can make happy." Reading the complaints on the better business bureau, this seems to be a common problem. If you have a heating or plumbing problem--call someone else. read more

Our 15-year-old hot water heater stopped working overnight and I called Donohue-Halverson on Monday morning and had a new hot water heater installed by Monday afternoon. I've been using DH since 1996, and have gotten nothing but great service since then. They know their products and they are very good about explaining what's wrong and what's needed. Highly recommended! read more

I had Donohue-Halverson in to do an estimate for an air conditioning system in my home. Three weeks later, no estimate was seen and so I called and was told that the man responsible was away on vacation, but would be back the following week. I waited until Thursday of that week and still, no estimate. I called again and the woman who answered the phone was, once again, very rude and of no use. I asked her to call me back with an update, but two business days later, no call. Don't waste your time. If they were so unresponsive with a very high cost job, what would they be like when a smaller job is at stake. read more

We had an air-source heat pump installed in our house. The work was first rate and the customer service was excellent. I would recommend them. read more

We just got a new furnace installed by Donohue-Halverson. It was a great experience from start to end----friendly, efficient, professional, timely.....can't say enough good things. OH! Reasonably priced too! read more

Took my money and did nothing to address the burner ignition problem in my boiler, which they supposedly specialize in, and claimed to have performed annual maintenance on. It got so bad that I couldn't get it started at all on a freezing night and had to get another contractor out on an emergency basis who found that DONOHUE-HALVERSON had left the bolts on the burner hanging loose, the gaskets were all blown, and it was emitting 10x the unsafe level of carbon monoxide. Totally unprofessional. Ended up settling for half my money back while in line at small claims court four month later after they refused to refused to discuss any refund for their shoddy "work" earlier. read more

I managed to drop my cell phone cover down our toilet a few weeks ago and called Donohue Halverson to get it removed. A repairman called me back within an hour. He came out to the house, tried to remove the cover and when he couldn't, found us a lovely new toilet! I would recommend them to anyone. read more

They have a policy that they will call you before your scheduled appointment and if you don't answer, they will skip your appointment. However, they do not remind you of that policy when you make the appt. So, they skipped an appt. at my home after calling my husband's work number, and I ended up missing two hours of work. When I asked for them to send someone over, they could give me no sense of when it would be possible. When I called the owner to complain, he offered a discount on our next bill, but then accused me of being snotty and lecturing him and dropped me as a customer. The next day I learned they did the same to a friend. I would not recommend this business. read more

I have been using Donohue-Halverson for 15 years. They have serviced my Dunkirk natural gas hot water baseboard boiler until it was so old that it finally sprang a leak in the cast iron heat exchanger. I went out to bid for a new boiler to 5 different local companies in the Ithaca area. Donahue-Halverson had the best price by nearly $800. Not only that, but they listened to me carefully when I asked for another cast-iron boiler instead of the new fancy ones that have 15% better efficiency, but MUCH more that can go wrong. Additionally, when they came to the house to help them pull together their estimate, they priced a Weill-McClain 3 zone unit with higher heat output than my Dunkirk because they asked me if I might want to heat my basement some day. The other guys only quoted an in-kind replacement 2 zone boiler, and they were all more expensive. Installation was on-time, courteous, informative and the boiler is working GREAT a year later. I will continue to ask DH to look after my boiler...great team of folks. read more

Rude, unprofessional, and incompetent. Refused to set an appointment, wanted to wait around for a week, then would not work on sump pump because another contractor had "looked" at it!!! read more

The worst customer service ever! A repairman came to the house. He was unable to fix the leaking toilet but took a picture and said he would call when he had the correct part. I never heard from him again. And, I called numerous times asking to speak to him. No call. I then asked to speak to the manager or owner. No call. They sent me a bill almost six months later. read more

I spoke with their front desk, and the woman who answered was very nice and friendly. She seemed great, and set up an appointment for two weeks later on a Thursday morning and confirmed the date and time with me over the phone - she said "We have you set for ___ date between 9am-noon". I assumed we were all set and my husband took the morning off work specifically to be home for it, but just in case (I tend to worry) I called at 7:20AM the morning of the appointment just to confirm they knew how to find our house. They said they didn't see anything on their books for that morning but to call back at 8am when the woman who ran the front desk came in. I called in right at 8am, and spoke with her - she had nothing written on the schedule, and basically said she didn't remember it and there was nothing she could do. She offered to put in a ticket, but said it probably wouldn't even happen that day and had no idea when it would. I politely gave her feedback on how frustrating and disappointing it was to have taken off work, and for her to have dropped the ball completely. She did not offer to help in any way or apologize; she just kept saying "Well, I don't have it on the schedule." She said she would see if someone could come out, but no one ever showed up. I'll find a different plumber; it's hard to take off work for these things, and they were just not reliable or even helpful on the phone. read more