Full disclosure, I wanted to give 4.5 instead of 5, because they are expensive, BUT, so is everyone…read moreelse, AND they did right by me in my instance, so I went with 5 instead of 4.
I was having an issue with my zoned HVAC. My dampers NEVER closed, and no matter what the temperature was in one zone, if the other called for AC/heat, the other zone got it as well. This led to my upstairs being like 6/7 degrees different than the downstairs, and a horribly inefficient HVAC system running non stop.
I'm pretty handy, and did all of MY DIY troubleshooting, and narrowed it down to a board issue, but since I couldn't figure it out, I called in the big guns. I was a little annoyed when I first called McCallisters, because the receptionist seemed absolutely hellbent on getting my payment info before scheduling me, but I'll get to that in a minute. Eventually, they sent out a tech, Kadim, that came to take a look.
Kadim showed up, and despite spending a GOOD amount of time with my system, he couldn't figure out what was wrong. BUT, he came to the same hypothesis that I did, suggesting it was a board issue. He even stated that he wasn't SURE, and therefore didn't want to tell me anything conclusive, which I appreciated. He told me that Joe, the service manager, would reach out to me soon, after they discussed the issue and looked at the pictures Kadim took.
About that payment stuff; I got a call from Joe, who informed me that they were going to send out another tech with a little more zoned HVAC experience, and also verified that they didn't charge me for the diagnostic the first time, since they never actually diagnosed the problem. Again, a good, honest business practice.
SO, today: second tech shows up (Dave), does some diagnostic, and verifies that it IS a board issue, but that the board isn't bad, just had one wire incorrect! He had me test the system, and I finally got to see the zone 1 dampers close! Not only does it fix the issue, and will start saving me money by not having the AC run constantly, but I didn't have to buy a new board and pay the labor to have it all installed.
The full cost was more than I would have liked for a diagnostic, and to move one wire, but it fixed the issue, and actually saved me money in the long run. So I'll chalk it up as just the cost of being a homeowner. Either way, I'm super happy with how the whole situation with McCallisters played out. They were quick, (both visits/phone calls etc, took place over like 4 business days), extremely polite and professional, and thorough.