R from Toronto

I am just going to flat out summarize my review for you. If you are someone like me who judge a company by their results rather than their politeness, do not hire Mica energy and save yourself from countless frustrations and construction delay. Also do not hire them unless you like to hear excuses after excuses of why they cannot complete your contract within the time frame that they promised. This review will probably be a little more rational than one that I would've written a month ago. The work has finally been fully completed and I have now calmed down a bit. It took them nearly 4 months to complete our contract. Now you might be asking, what kind of job did you hire them for that would take 4 months!? Well we hired Mica energy to change our furnace, air conditioner, tankless hot water heater and completely replace our ducts. We basically gutted our whole house so we wanted brand new everything. The tasks listed above should've taken at most a month if they consistently worked on our house. However, throughout the project they always had some other priority that they need to take care of before completing their contract with us. It was either attending the home show, completing their commercial jobs or some other residential project. I got so frustrated with them at the end that I had to let my husband communicate with them only. I couldn't even be in the same room with them. They made us jump through hoops but at the end they just make even more excuses to not do their work within the time frame that they promised. They kept making promises that they could not keep or don't intend to keep. They keep leading you to believe that their work would be done soon, but in reality it will take three times as long as they promised. Here are some examples of my frustrations with them: 1. They refused to complete their contract with us for completing the duct work in the attic and insisted that we get someone else to do the work. We ended up paying more than what we should for the work done, because most contractors would rather do the whole job and not just a portion of the job. 2. They wanted us to test the insulation in the attic for asbestos and said they will start the work as soon as the test results came in so we paid extra for a rush only to have them show up a week later and tell us they cannot do the work. (The results showed that we do not have asbestos in our attic). 3. Similarly in the beginning they told us that we needed HVAC drawings and as soon as we have them they will start. So we push our mechanical engineer to finish the work and only to have them show up at the house 2 weeks later. 4. They provided different air conditioners and tankless water heater than specified in the contract. (They were lower and cheaper models.) So please be smart and do not hire MICA energy for you own sanity! **edit** as per request by MICA energy, I need to add that they at the end they did replace the incorrectly installed a/c and hot water heater with the correct one. However, it took them an extra 2 months before they finally came back to replace them. They also called my husband and accused us of making false statements and threatened to sue us for defamation for writing this review. As a reader you need to understand that none of what I wrote above is false. The definition of defamation from Webster Dictionary is : the act of saying false things in order to make people have a bad opinion of someone or something : the act of defaming someone or something. All in all, they did complete our contract more or less but with a 4 months time frame for something that should have taken a month. Also I guess I need to also clarify to make my review more truthful, that they did not flat out refuse to do the duct work in the attic, they just created more hoops for us to jump over but requesting us to reinforce the ceiling. They had an issue with the structural integrity of the ceiling. However, we got quotes from 4 other HVAC companies and it was never a concern for them. Also my husband and his dad went up to the attic to insulate and had no issues. Even though at the time we agreed to reinforce the ceiling temporarily for them they then told us that they did not have time to do the duct work in the attic until the new year so basically they left us no choice but to hire someone else. They agreed that would be best as well. So they clearly did not want to complete the work. Once again this is a review so this is my opinion and my experience with MICA Energy. You might have a different experience with them after all they are polite just not prompt and loves to make excuses for why they cannot complete their work.

Overall, my experience with Gold Star does not deserve a "Gold Star". They are more 7/10 in my books. There are varies reasons. Positives They were punctual. They were on time for all of our meetings. The price was reasonable. We got a couple of quotes and they weren't the lowest but their quote was also half the price of the most expensive one. The installer crew were polite and fast. It only took them half a day to install all of our windows. Negatives 1. My initial contact with Gold star was by calling their office and making an appointment for a quote to redo all my windows at my house. However, they had to reschedule with me 3 times because of their miscommunication between the office and the person who comes to provide the quote. In my case it was with Ilia. At the time I was a little annoyed but I was understanding and thought nothing more at the time, but it's just one of those things that just add up. 2. After we have signed with Gold Star and were waiting for our windows to be installed which was about 1.5 months after, we needed to know the exact dimension of our bathroom window so that we could frame around the window. (We are renovating the house at the same time.) So I called Ilia, to ask him the dimension of the bathroom window that was ordered for us, but instead of answering he gave me a demeaning tone and asks why my contractors cannot use a measuring tape. He then went on to provide instructions to use a measuring tape, but not so much where to start and end the measurement. 3. Although the installation of my windows was fast, they did not install all the windows as specified. We wanted frosted windows in our bathroom window because it was right beside the shower, but the windows were installed with clear glass. The installers told me it was not a problem and the office knows. He'll just need to come by to switch out the window pane sometime later. This sometime took another 1.5 months. They didn't start looking into fixing my window until 3 weeks after. It was 3 weeks after because it was when I called. They kept promising to come to fix it and it kept being delayed. It took them 3 weeks after my call and many other calls to finally come by my house to switch out the window pane. 4. Before my bathroom window was fixed, they called me to provide a review for them on Homestars and give them a 10. Yes they specially told me to give them a 10, not just to give them a review but specifically a 10. I thought that was kind of rude. Bottom line: They don't have the greatest customer service, but they are reasonably priced and if you are not in a rush for windows and don't mind the rudeness give them a call.

We called Frank the day before to install a bbq gas line to the back yard. Frank gave us a quote over the phone after telling him the length of the pipe. He showed up the next day in the evening and got the job done in a couple of hours. I have never had a trades person willing to do work for us in the evening so that we can supervise them after work without having to take extra time off work to do so. He was efficient, curteous, and delivered as promised. He even gave us a discount after letting him know what we found him from Homestars. I would definitely hire Frank again. If only I had met Frank sooner, I would have hired him to replace our furnace. It hard to come by a good HVCA guy sometimes, for starters we are having a terrible experience with our current HVCA guy replaceing our ductwork and furnace. That's why we looked for another person to do our bbq hookup. I am glad we found Frank.

I found A & Y plumbing on Homestars and passed A & Y's number to my contractor who contacted Alex. Initially We hired Alex to connect only our sewage ejector and sump pump, but we loved the quality and the efficiency of his work so much that we contacted him soon after to reconnect our water supply from the meter. He was very efficient and priced his work fairly. For both jobs we contacted him a day before or even the day of the job and he showed up on time and delivered as promised. Even our designer/general contractor was impressed by his work, in fact she was the one who told us to give these guys an awesome review. I would definitely recommend using A & Y and I'll definitely call them again when I need plumbing work done.