HC
Heather Carter
Oct 14, 2025
We did not have a pleasant experience. We had our house built and Barber installed our upstairs and downstairs units for the built. They installed in 2023. We have lived in this house for less than 3 years. They have been out to service the units at least 9 times for problems.
The last time was upsetting. I was in tears because I thought our house was going to burn down. First I want to say the last technician we had was fantastic, very knowledgeable, and friendly. The call center is the same. Friendly and they seem to really care about your concerns. But this last issue scared us and they wanted to charge us for quality checking the work they did.
This first issue was a flashing light, but unit would not work. The drain was clogged and the tech cleared it and we updated our float switches for both units.
We decided that we needed to be on a maintenance plan because they had to keep coming out for issues and we wanted to extend the life of our units. The tech went ahead and serviced the upstairs unit so the maintenance plan will be at the same time for both units. I'm glad he did, because he found that the contactor for the heat strips was sparking and had burned the contactor. It was melted and he said it could be because the screw was loose and arcing it. He advised to replace it, so we agreed. All in all $1200.
So within a few days after that fix, the fire alarm goes off. The one that is less than a foot from the the attic space where the contactor on the unit was replaced. We called because we were sure that it was related. They said they would charge us to come out and look to quality control and make sure the contactor isn't catching fire again. If it was their fault they would not charge us, but if it wasn't their problem they would. We said maybe it was just a coincidence, maybe dusted stirred up, and so we told them not to come out. We replaced all the batteries in our fire and carbon monoxide alarms, hoping that was the issue.
All seemed fine until that evening it started going off again, so we called them, and it's after hours so of course it's going to be more expensive. The call center said that they will forward this over to dispatch and they will call us. A while later I called the call center again because we haven't heard anything, and I explained that turning the AC unit on (dropping it 2 degrees to trigger it to start for cooling) the fire alarm went off. Clearly this was the unit right? They still said it would be a charge and that they do not do good faith service, and service industries do not do that.
We just paid $1200 less than a week ago for the last issues. All we asked was them to have a senior member come by and look at it because clearly there was something going on with the unit they installed. I understand they have to pay their techs for time, all my family works various service jobs, I get it. But I have never had a service industry say we will charge you to check up on the work we repaired a few days ago that is still causing issues.
We are not talking months after the repair...we are talking days, but they still wanted to charge us.
How many of their techs went to that attic unit in the two years we have lived in this home to see that the contactor was melted and screws were loose? They installed the units, so why are we paying for them to constantly put band-aids on the units that are clearly faulty and were not quality controlled when installed.
In my experience and opinion, I would not recommend them this time. The last home we had with their units were fine, these units they installed in our current home has us very concerned. I wish they would replace these units and take pride in their quality control.