Core Heating & Cooling

I only write reviews for TRULY GREAT places and this is one of them! My friend referred me to this company and I am so glad they did because I was worried about finding a reputable, honest business. The owner, Brian Sheehy is beyond responsive, helpful, honest and kind. It was probably about 11:00 pm last week during these 3 degree temps and my furnace went out on my second floor. I am recovering from a huge surgery and this was the last thing I needed to happen. Thank God his response was immediate, within minutes. He was sensitive to my needs and had someone there very quickly! He even figured out over the phone what was wrong and he was correct! The person he sent was equally as dependable and trustworthy as he was and that was obvious from the minute he walked in. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind after dealing with both of them. My furnace was fixed quickly with no other issues and I even had him look at my downstairs furnace to be sure that was intact. He only needed a few minutes and said it was fine. Some companies would take the opportunity to gouge you or take advantage of the second furnace, «having issues» but he didn’t. These guys offer everything from installation, repairs, service upgrades and maintenance and ²⁴⁄₇ service! Check out their website.
. I TRULY recommend them and look forward to using them again for regular maintenance!

It has now been months since I began working with Core on an AC problem. The first tech diagnosed that the compressor was bad but and that I also needs a new relay. The second tech came out to install the compressor and said the compressor was good but that the relay had been wired wrong by the first tech and he didn’t know how to fix it. The third tech came out and rewired the relay. TAKE TWO. The tech’s were back this week as the AC was not working again. A fourth tech diagnosed that the leads to the compressor were fried and I needed a new compressor (hum?). The good news is he said we court recapture the R-​22 refrigerant which would save money. The fifth tech came out with the wrong compressor (not sure if this is a CORE or AHS problem, but neither seemed to eager to get it corrected) and also said that they could not recapture but could reclaim the refrigerant (wonder who gets to keep the money from that?). The net net is if you want your heating and AC fixed, in a timely and trusted manner, this is not the company you want to use.

This company was sent to repair my air conditioner by American home shield. I have never had a bad experience with ahs until now. If you get assigned this company ask to have it switched or refuse to have them come out. The way they keep the contract with ahs is to send in small bills or blame maintenance for the failure and ahs denies the work. They came out and said it was the thermostat and replaced a year old thermostat that was working perfectly. They put on the repair order that they cycled the unit. I came home 3 hours after they left and the unit was not cycling. I posted pictures of the work they did. I told them it was the compressor and they replaced a new thermostat. They never tested the compressor as shown in the pictures. They never checked pressures after looking at the valves after they left. The tech they sent was Andrew. I hope you never get him out to your house. I had an independent come out and they said it was the compressor, but ahs said I had go let Core come back. What a nightmare. Andrew didn’t come in my house but he sent in a kid who just got out of hvac school, what a joke. Then ahs said they were sending out Reeder heating and air. They are a good company. After a few minutes they said it was the compressor. Poor Andrew couldn’t figure that out. I guess if you don’t check anything you can’t figure out the problem. Avoid Core if you can

We had moved in 4 months ago, and suddenly on Monday afternoon, our heat stopped working.
I too, was scheduled with Core Heating & Cooling by American Home Shield. After a very strange exchange of setting my appointment (Helen called me back an hour or so later, she doesn’t work in the office, she’s out of town, and does things by email, told me Tuesday 7am-​12pm, and then called me back to tell me Wed 7am-​12pm and call her at 7am to see when I was on the schedule… then called me at 6:45 am on Tuesday asking if I had just called her…) I checked their Unilocal review. I even alerted AHS to the fact that their Unilocal review wasn’t so good.
So, today was the day. I called in at 7 am, and was told I was second call of the day — likely around 9 am. The repair technician would call me enroute. He never did, but, showed up just after 9 am. With the manual in front of me, I was able to point out what was wrong. The technician still did some checking to see if anything else was wrong, and we determined in was the board.
He told me he would order a new one, and come back tomorrow. Tomorrow? I asked if it had to be shipped or picked up locally. He said he would get it at a shop in the city, but, there were no supply houses around, since we’re out in the NW burbs. I asked what shop he would go to, and believe it or not, they have an office just 12 minutes away. They held the part for him, and he left to get it.
He came back and reconfigured our furnace. Within another 30 minutes of re-​configuring the board & wiring the heat was back on.
I paid the service fee, and he was on his way.
I guess my problem was on the simple side, and they performed A-​OK for the conditions.
I’m always one to be worried about a set of negative reviews, but, want to share a good experience when they happen.

I feel so fortunate to have such a great company I can always depend on I have a hair salon in Lakeview and I have used these guys since opening. I always recommend them and everyone has always thanked me I only stand behind great work thats dependable. This company is that I cant recommend them enought.

Yep, another bad American Home Shield experience. Sent this guy who didn’t care what the symptoms were since the intermittent problem wasn’t happening when he was there.
Sanded the ‘s**’ out of my new flame sensor even though I told him it never had a problem lighting. He should have cleaned the burners but I didn’t realize that could have helped my issue until I read more online after he left.
Had no problem collecting the $ 75 fee and issue is still there.
To add further insult, he did not wipe his feet and tracked dirt all through the house.
Guess there’s no choice when you use AHS contractor. Probably better off calling someone reputable instead and paying without the useless insurance. At least it wil be fixed correctly.

Oh my — avoid this company. And avoid American Home Shield. I, too, was directed to Core Heating & Cooling by AHS. I was given a window of 12 – 4, and the technician arrived at nearly 4. I can’t remember the last time I had such an unprofessional contractor responding to my claim. I heard about his health issues, his disinterest in climbing stairs, it seemed like every movement was a struggle, and his assessment wasn’t very clear. No repairs were done. I’m sure he’s probably a nice person, but I did not have a sense of confidence in him, Core or, quite frankly, AHS.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! Like one of the other reviewers, we used this company because they are a part of our home warranty network of providers. We have had to have them come to our house for three separate issues. The first time they came out and fixed the issue with no problems. The second time they came out and said nothing was wrong with the boiler… um, hello??? We have no heat. This is the coldest winter in thirty years and they just left without fixing it or with any intention of fixing it. So we had to call the warranty company back and they sent a different heating company out that spent an entire day here fixing our boiler because. yea, it was broken!
This time around our pilot light kept going out. Some guy came out and again said he couldn’t see anything wrong and just resituated our thermocuppler (sp?) and if that didn’t work we should call the number on the sheet. That very night our boiler went out again. It was FREEZING in our house. So I called the next day and told the girl that the guy didn’t fix it and that they needed to come back out. She said that they couldn’t do that and that I needed to call my home warranty company back and submit a new request. This was on a Thursday. CORE called me once they received the request and said that they couldn’t return until Monday. So 5 pm Monday rolled around and still nobody came. I called them and they said the technician was held up at another job and that they would come the next day. So apparently all I have to do in life is sit around in a freezing cold house waiting on them to not show. What an incredible waste of time on terrible unprofessionalism.
The only good thing I have to say about them is the one technician that we worked with a couple of times was very friendly and helpful. But that’s it.

Called at 7AM in –0 temps when my heat went out. Serviceman was here by 9AM. Fast, friendly, and knowledgable. Great experience!

AVOID THIS COMPANY IF YOU VALUE YOUR WALLET. AHS sent them out. The guy was argumentative and when my husband went inside to call AHS walked off the job without doing anything. He blamed our A/​C not working on being clogged with dogwood. Not kidding. We clean our a/​c yearly like clockwork. When DH mentioned this to them, the idiot said most people have their A/​C cleaned 2 – 4 times a YEAR! DO you know ANYONE who does that??? So because he told AHS lies, they won’t cover any work and we ended up needing and replacing the whole thing with another company. What was actually wrong is 7 years ago when another AHS company replaced our AC they failed to replace the inside coils. So our AC died on one of the hottest days. The guy had no idea because he never checked. THREE other companies came out to diagnose and give us estimates and ALL THREE had the SAME diagnosis. Supposedly he sent in pictures to AHS, but since he never checked the actual part that failed, I wonder whose pics he sent. Terrible company. AND they will not return our calls to try to clear this up with AHS. They did acknowledge that this tech has a history of complaints describing him as being angry, rude, and argumentative. He still works there. They take zero responsibility and never offered to send someone else out or fix the original problem. AND they insist we pay for the «visit» that he walked off the job on!!! Avoid!

Extremely poor service by this organization. A tech from this company was at my home at the end of September around ⁹⁄₂₉ and informed me that I needed a new furnace. The new furnace arrived around ¹⁰⁄₇. The installation was scheduled between 7 AM and 12 PM ¹⁰⁄₁₃. The company called to inform me that the installer would be 1.5 hours late due to car trouble. The installer arrived at 1:45 PM on 10/​13, dropped off the new furnace and removed the old furnace. He left at approximately 3:00 PM. At that time the installer committed to being at my residence on ¹⁰⁄₁₉ at 7 AM to complete the installation. The company called me at 11:30 AM on ¹⁰⁄₁₉ and informed me that the installer would be approximately 30 minutes late. I explained that he was already 4.5 hours late. The CSR, Sarah, explained that they always give a 5 hour window. When I explained to her that I understood their policy but that the installer said he’d be here at that time she apologized. The installer arrived at 1:15 PM and began working. At 7:00 PM the installer informed me that he’d be back on the afternoon of ¹⁰⁄₂₀ at 3 PM to complete the job. To date I have taken off three days of work and missed a personal trip (non-​refundable airfare and hotel) including a job interview over this situation. Tomorrow will be the fourth day of work I will have missed because of this company. I am very disappointed in the level of service, the lack of integrity, and the insensitivity of the company (who never demonstrated one ounce of care when I explained the hardship this situation has caused). I will never use this company again.

This is the company my Home Warranty Service subs through. I’m not sure how much their regular service call is, since we only pay our deductible of $ 60 per service call.
Here’s the deal, the igniter on our 18 year old furnace failed.
1^st call: October 2010
They were very punctual (came at 7:45 am, when we called after 6pm the night before) and they had the part on them to fix the furnace right then and there. The repairman was friendly and got us up and running in a half hour. Great service.
2^nd call: December 2010
The same thing happened, the igniter went out. We called the warranty company, and they sent Core out again. Luckily, because it was within 60 days, there was no charge. They replaced the igniter.
3^rd call: April 2011
The same thing happened. By this point, I’m not sure if it’s the parts they are using, or our furnace malfunctioning, but what I can say is the tech stated that it’s normal for an igniter to go bad after a heavy period of use the same year as replacement (cold winter). To this I call BS, since I’ve lived in many other homes where this didn’t happen every year. Because it was after 60 days since the last replacement, we had to pay the $ 60 again, which I was not happy about. They also said the part is normally $ 90.
Based on our experience, and I can’t say if it was the part or our furnace, I’ll leave it up to you to decide to use them. What I will say is the tech’s were nice, and they were SO punctual, coming first thing in the morning.

Great business to work with. I called yesterday and was able to book an appointment for my water heater and furnace today. They came in the window they promised and the technician that came out was courteous and efficient. They charge $ 95 per hour but they didn’t stall or work slowly to hike up the fee. Both were fixed in 30 minutes. Also, the technician was honest. He showed me what was wrong and fixed it, simple as that. I like them so much that I am going to use them for my spring/​fall checks. Thanks Core, I will recommend you to anyone.
Bob