In May 2015, I called
Bickley's Air Conditioning and Heating (530-527-7188), serving Red Bluff, California, and surrounding small towns. I ordered a new evaporative (swamp) cooler from them, and paid for proper and timely installation. It was quite expensive, but three people had recommended their work.
WARNING: A Story of Bickley's Very Poor Service:
1. After waiting over 3 weeks, they called to tell us it would be installed on 6/11/2015. So we waited at home. They did not arrive on 6/11. The dispatcher said a
mistake had been made in scheduling.
2. Two men arrived around 9am on 6/12. It was expected to be 106F. They worked till around 10:30 and left, saying they had
forgotten to bring the motor for the swamp cooler. They were gone for a few hours.
When they returned, during the very hottest part of the day, 106F, they were working on a searing hot roof - a sure recipe for
mistakes. [That same morning, in contrast, I started working outdoors at 5 am, daybreak,
loading a dumpster. A wiser choice for working than they made.]
3. They got the unit working by 3:30 pm and we were able to turn it on at full speed and off. They said that they
could not figure out the wiring to make the inside hallway wall switch to work so as to control the swamp cooler by fan only, pump only, slow speed, high speed, off, etc. They said they were not qualified to work on the wall switch and would send a technician out on 6/16 to put in a new switch and get it working properly.
4. An hour after they left, I went onto my roof only to discover that
the new swamp cooler was leaking out of the bottom of the unit. It was a slow steady leak, and had gotten under the roofing tiles and was slowly streaming down the plywood roofing and exited along the face boards of the porch roof. The excess water, probably from an improperly adjusted float height, was not going properly down the 3/4" plastic pipe to the roof gutter because of a poor leaky connection by the inexperienced work men.
5. I called Bickley's at around 4pm, but could only leave a message on their answering machine.
Nobody called back.
I went online to their website and filled out the feedback form; however, the message field would not open so I could explain the service problem. Dead-end! I sent them an email message and included this post.
6. I turned off the new swamp cooler unit at 4:15 pm, and shut off the water to the roof. It was now 106F on 6/12/2015. It was still steadly dripping at 6:30 pm.
Their Yellow Pages ad says that they are a "Certified Comfort Expert." Their slipshod service was not comfortable for us.
7. Bickley's did not telephone us on Saturday, 6/13 or Sunday, 6/14; or send out a repair person to fix the leaking swamp cooler.
Leaking on our back porch instead of down the roof gutter on 6/12 at 6:20 pm.
Tools and parts left on our kitchen table on 6/12.
8. On Monday, at 7am, I called Bickley's to report the problems. At
around 8:30 am on Monday, 6/15, two repairmen showed up and, it appears
thus far, fixed the leak problem. Then, they said the technician would
come on Wednesday instead of Tuesday to fix the inside switch. This
would not work for us since we would not be home on Wednesday. They
told us they would fix the switch by Tuesday. At around 11 am, a
supervisor came out and checked the work and we talked about the wall
switch installation needed. Around 4pm a workman from Bickleys came out
and worked for a few hours on the wall switch installation and it seems
to be working.
9. On Tuesday, 6/16, 5:20 am, I went outside to check the swamp
cooler. The workmen late yesterday afternoon had improperly
replaced the west side panel and left it ajar. Water was streaming down
the inner sisal pad and onto our roof, soaking shingles and the plywood
roofing, running down the roof, and over the porch roof and onto the
porch floor. It was also also dripping water from the copper tubing
connection onto the roof.
What a mess!! Poor installation and careless
repositioning of a panel. I turned the swamp cooler unit off at 5:30
am, and turned off the valve under the bathroom sink at feeds up to the
roof swamp cooler. I called Bickleys at 7:30 to complain and get people
out to repair the problem.
In the morning on 6/16 a service repair man came out to our home from Bickley's. He said the problem was that their servicemen had set the float too high. I agree. However, if the west side panel had been installed properly the excess water would have just drained down the drain pipe into the house gutter, and not directly down on our roof.
Two more mistakes: side panel not set properly, float level not set properly. The result was that our roof was soaked and men walked all over the area.
I am worried that the
excess water on the roof will compromise the integrity of the roof in
this area, and leak down on the plasterboard ceiling in the hallway
bathroom. Fortunately, it will be over 102F today and hopefully dry the roof
rapidly.
9.
No apologies. No offer of a
discount on the price for all our hassles as of 6/16. No consideration of our lost time having to reschedule appointments so as to be at home waiting for them to come and return again and again to solve their poor workmanship. We paid far too much
for such poor service. Consequently, I will just leave this post
online.
You would be very unwise to choose Bickley's AC to install or fix your evaporative swamp cooler! I use Gallagher's to repair my refrigeration AC unit - reliable, fast, quality work, expensive but reasonable.
Here is what our back porch looked like on Tuesday, 6/17, 5:30 am:
Our roof looked like this on Tuesday, 6/17, at 5:30 am:
