Ashton Service Group

Wanted a heat pump installed and this team was amazing! Everyone showed up on time, from the first visit by Arde to the four-day job led by Abhi with great support from Dominic. Abhi and Dominic took time to protect my house from dirt and dust, they worked quickly, took care to clean up and ensured the entire system (cold climate compressor with four units) was working well. The electricians were also thorough and efficient. After the big job, the team cleaned up the work site and Abhi ensured I fully understood how to operate the system. Abhi was extremely good-natured and generous with his time when I had questions. High praise all 'round!

It was Jan 12th... - 16 in Burnaby... My furnace was sounding loud and didn't want it to die in the middle of our deep freeze weather. I called Ashton.. explained what I needed. It happened a technician was in my area. He was here in 15 mins. Gave my furnace the once over and said everything was fine. Tested the house for carbon monoxide and all was good. He was done in 20 mins and there was no charge for the inspection. He was polite and friendl, I am so over the top happy. I will always use Ashton and recommend to my friends and family.

Keegan diagnosed the cause of our cool radiant heating and improved the heat exchanger. Thanks to Keegan, we now have a warm house for XMAS.

This HVAC companys service was beyond appalling. They initially scheduled an appointment for Monday morning despite my clear urgency due to an impending inspection the following day. Despite my explicit request for same-day service, they disregarded my needs entirely and failed to show up in the morning as promised.

I was left in a lurch, having to call them in the morning to inquire about their absence. Shockingly, their response was nonchalant and indifferent, showing no concern for missing the appointment. Their solution? A casual reschedule for the afternoon, completely disregarding the fact that I had taken time off work for their morning visit. Their lack of apology or acknowledgment of their mistake was truly frustrating.

Upon rescheduling for the afternoon, I sacrificed the latter half of my workday to wait for their technicians. However, they failed to provide any updates or arrive at the promised time. It took me reaching out to them once more, only to be informed that they wouldnt be coming at all that day.

This flagrant lack of responsibility and disregard for their commitments not only disrupted my plans but ultimately sabotaged my impending inspection. Despite their colossal error and the significant inconvenience caused, the company failed to show any remorse or even offer a simple apology.

My experience with this company has been nothing short of a nightmare. Their unprofessional behavior, blatant disregard for customer needs, and utter lack of accountability make them utterly unreliable. I strongly advise against placing any trust in such an incompetent and careless HVAC service provider.

A wonderful experience with this co. Dan was very professional and on time.He is very knowledgeable and will give good advise regarding the issue at hand.Will use his services again when needed.

We had a 3-ton Mitsubishi heat pump system installed in January (2023) and I would not recommend Ashton. The outside unit was not secured and the work was done without permits. I gave Ashton the benefit of the doubt and over two months to remedy this, yet they still have not scheduled all of the required permit inspections.

Ashton did not level the ground before installing the unit and as a result the unit was not secure, leaning and quite tippy. This posed a hazard to children that could easily knock over the 260 lb unit onto themselves or others. It took nearly two months to get them to come back to fix the issue and we had to get a manager involved so they would respond.

Ashton charged us fees for permits and told us that all permits had been applied for, however we learned that this was not true. After our sales person told me permit all the inspections were scheduled I called the City and they had no record of Ashton applying for anything.

I have had to call the City numerous times myself to understand which permits are required and educate Ashton on the requirements. Despite all of this Ashton still has not scheduled the electrical inspection even though the unit was installed over 11 weeks ago. The City told me permits should have been pulled before the work was started and we should not be running the appliance without permits.

Each week Aston provides a different excuse as to why they have not scheduled the inspection yet (staff doesn't know the process, staff has COVID, staff has a family emergency, etc.). At this point I don't have much faith that Ashton is capable of completing this job.

If you do end up hiring Ashton, I would not recommend agreeing to pay them in full until after permits are obtained and the work has been completed to your satisfaction.

Johnny and Tyler did our yearly tune up and cleaning. They were very courteous, professional and answered our questions well.

The project to replace our ducted gas furnace with a heat pump seemed to be one bungle after another.

The major issues were:
Poor communications with the customer
Poor internal communications at Ashton
Poor attention to detail (checking that what they were doing was correct).
Poor project management

On the postitive side, their installers were friendly and competent. Ashton was also very good at quickly presenting an invoice.

We ordered the heat pump with the salesperson/project manager setting the expectation of a 5 week delivery. It was more like 7 months to initial install and nine months to final completion. They required a rather large 50% deposit.

The project manager left on stress leave shortly after we ordered and no one else was put on our job and we were not informed. When trying to get information on when we would get delivery from the manufacturer one person said the would contact the manufacturer and get back to us but didn't, another simply refused to contact anyone. Eventually we got another project manager, but even then it was a 20% chance that they would return a phone call or email and we had no idea when our unit would be installed.

We got an install date after about 7 months. They suggested a date, but we were away then so we agreed on a different date. They showed up on their suggested date anyway. Someone was staying at our house and they let them in to do the install. We were not in a place we could be contacted. When we got home we found that instead of routing the refrigerant through a short route to the inside blower unit as previously agreed they wrapped it halfway around the outside of the house to where the old furnace vent was located. Unsightly and probably not the greatest for refrigerant efficiency. They also installed a 1" filter instead of the agreed 4". They offered an electrostatic 1" filter to make up for the mistake. We needed a callback as they had not completed the covering of the refrigerant line. The project manager likely never talked to the installers about the job.

Then we had the post retrofit energy audit required for rebates. The heat pump wasn't the same as on the quote and didn't qualify for any rebates. They didn't argue when we asked for a replacement, which was appreciated. We made an appointment for getting a replacement heat pump for after we returned from being away. They were no show for the appointment. When we called they said they had no record of the appointment, so we made another. No show again. This time they said they didn't have the equipment yet. Finally it got installed about nine months after ordering.

When initially presented with final invoice at the time of the first install we noted that that there was information missing on the invoice that was required for the rebates. Why they would not do that from the outset is baffling. Surely they know the requirements. They added the info, but the AHRI number was incorrect. After several attempts they finally got the right AHRI number. When the unit was installed, it was a different model and they forgot to update the model number and AHRI number. They corrected again but then also changed the indoor unit model number to an incorrect one. At least 8 final invoices to finally get one with the correct information.

Our house is old and not terribly well insulated, although we have done what we can without opening up the walls to put in insulation. In the cold weather the heat pump struggles to keep up, so it is probably a little undersized for our situation.

Update a couple of months after the review was first posted:

After seeing the review Ashton contacted us, apologized and asked if there was anything they could do to make us change how we felt about them. That was appreciated and since the heat pump had trouble keeping up in the cold weather I asked if there was anything they could do. They said they would send someone to take a look. They did, and he recommended an electric heat strip be installed in the inside unit. He said he would let our project manager know and that they would get back to us. That was over a month ago. A couple of emails failed to get any response. So, sadly, no change in our opinion of them.

We live in Richmond and Keegan did our boiler servicing this year. His skill and customer service were outstanding. Looking forward to having him back next year.

Patrick and Sherri McAndless

A wonderful quick response from Ashton this morning when we called in to report our furnace didn't start up. Jerome found the problem, replaced the part and by noon we were up and running again. Excellent friendly and helpful service.