James River Air Conditioning Co.

I have been a customer for over 20 years and found that the service people were all courteous and professional. Their prices were high but I was willing to pay a premium because I knew they will stand behind their work. Unfortunately, their prices have become OUTRAGEOUS. They now charge over $ 300 per hour for routine work. I have tried to discuss the price of a job with a supervisor on three occasions but they never call back.
I have been a loyal customer but when my yearly service agreement expires I will be looking for a new company.

Seth Hayes from James River Air Conditioning is just amazing– you should request him specifically for your work. We had a pretty complicated job for a water heater replacement, involving a bunch of extra piping, joints, and a pump because it is also our house heating system. Seth knew it was going to be a very involved job, but even though it stretched into a Friday night, he didn’t rush the job. Instead, he did it all the right way, with great workmanship and thoughtfulness about how to arrange the system. Because he did it right, there were no leaks or drips when he brought the system back online, so there was no need for re-​work. he even answered my daughter’s questions about how the system works and did a great cleanup. A++

They charge a $ 98 dispatch fee to come out and give an estimate. The work I need is very simple, no diagnostics needed, no measurements needed, so I feel that fee is high. Especially since all I need to do is point to this and that… junction box is missing a cover here… garbage disposal is improperly wired there, etc… I have heard that they are a bit on the expensive side and right from the get-​go, I can see that is true.

You can waste your time looking, but you will not be able to find a better company than James River to do your Heat/​AC work. They have taken care of my heat pumps in two different homes for the last 30 years and I have never had the first need to complain. Their work is very professional and the technicians who have done my work are very knowledgeable and take their work very seriously. They are always on time for routine services and are very quick to respond to any emergency. Go with them and you will not be sorry.

Judy Schibner is a residential service technician par excellence. She has performed superlative preventative maintenance on my decrepit furnace and air conditioner for two years, keeping them alive. She’s professional, congenial, SMART, trustworthy, and respectful of the homeowner’s property. I’m glad that Ms. Schibner is the one who shows up annually or bi-​annually to check and keep my forty-​year-​old+ systems going.

$ 98 to tell me «yes, that leak you called about is a leak after all», and an estimate over $ 1000 for at most an hour of labor, if they did all of the unnecessary work they listed on the estimate.
The technician was here within an hour of calling. That was the only positive of the experience. Fortunately, I was not at home or I would have lost it at what happened later. The expansion tank on my furnace had literally keeled over and started leaking at the joint for the vertical bend. This was caused after being bent 4 years prior by a repair tech for another company leaning on it while doing work. All I wanted was for them to drain the furnace and re-​sweat the copper bend for the expansion tank back upright. My wife was home and called me AFTER the tech had left without doing any work. First he said that he was only there to investigate the issue, and recommend service. Then we would need to schedule an follow-​up appointment for the actual work. This «recommendation», for what took all of 30 seconds, costs $ 98. For the actual work to be done, they would charge well over $ 1000. Just to drain/​refill/​purge the furnace was going to be $ 769. This takes about 30 seconds of actual work and 15 minutes waiting for it to drain and in reverse to fill, with about 10 min. of purging the radiators. To drain the furnace, you need to turn off the thermostat, cut off the water to the furnace, attach a hose to the drain, and open the drain. Four steps all for the low price of $ 769. The repair to the pipe, which once the water is drained from the furnace, takes about 30 seconds, and involves cleaning the fittings, adding flux, and sweating the pipe. That wasn’t listed because he said, despite the fact that this was caused by being bent and has been perfectly fine for the previous 20 years, you really should swap all this copper out for black steel. That was going to cost $ 333. Then, the kicker is he recommended also adding a shut off valve to the supply feed. To cut and sweat a shut off valve is $ 234, and he wrote «for each». Now, keep in mind that our furnace already has a supply shut off valve, how many was he going to charge me for? The furnace only has ONE supply feed.
I am sorry to say, but I was duped out of $ 98 to feed their extensive advertising budget. For the repairs, I think I will just take 30 min. out of weekend to fix it myself.

JRAC installed our HVAC system and has maintained it perfectly ever since. The times when we’ve needed service, they’ve come on the same day to take care of us. Pamela Thomas is our regular service consultant for fall and spring system checks and she is phenomenal — so knowledgeable, thorough and courteous. She has even taught us a few new things to prevent any problems and get the most from our system.

Called at 9:30 am and had a new hot water heater by 3:30 that afternoon. Everyone could not have been any nicer or more efficient. We live in Powhatan so significant travel time was involved. Your review helps others learn about great local businesses.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

We have worked with James River over the last several years to solve some central HVAC challenges in our older (1947) northside home that they did not create. The system they installed for us has been the best by far and their customer service is unparalleled. When I need a technician on short notice I can always get one to come to the house in a timely manner and they are always respectful of the three cats and two dogs that can complicate any kind of technical visit. They leave the area cleaner than they found it and work with us to understand what is going on with our unit and what we can do to enhance its effectiveness

We have been loyal James River Customers for the last 10 years. They are not the least expensive in town but do top rate work. Mark Corey was very helpful and patient to answer all of our questions when he came to do our PM this past weekend. I will be keeping his card and requesting that he be our go to service guy from now on.

James River Air is a great local company. We’ve been customers for the six years we have lived in the area. They are prompt, courteous and reliable. We compare prices and they are always within the «acceptable» range (we’ve had to replace two heat pumps).

I would not recommend them! Used them for 18 years, but after having all of our heating and AC replaced in under 10 years after having service contracts with maintenance twice a year. Now our 4 year old gas furnace is not functioning and found that they installed it with a 2″ flue which is not allowed per the manufacturer. Will forfeit money paid for Spring service before I would use them again!

My furnace started acting up so I decided to start calling around to get quotes. I called 4 places including James River Air. I called them on a Saturday and spoke with someone I was told was a supervisor. I won’t mention his name. He said a new furnace would be around 3k. I asked him when he or some could come out and give me a exact quote but really didn’t seem to want to commit to a actual quote and seemed in a rush to get me off of the phone. I was finally able to get him to commit to calling me back on the following Tuesday to discuss someone coming out for a quote. Well I never heard back. The quote I received from the company I went with was much less than the tentative quote I was given by James River. With all the commercials I see on local TV I assumed they would be eager to help but I found that not to be true. The 3 other companies all seemed like they wanted my business. The one I settled on did a awesome job and I am very pleased with their service. I really can’t comment on James River Air’s quality because they did not give themselves a chance to prove anything to me. I know you probably shouldn’t judge a company off of one interaction but when that one experience isn’t good second chances are tough to give.

Our central A/​C stopped working, and so we called a number of companies for a repair quote. James River was very responsive, but charged us $ 170 to come to the house and tell us that the A/​C did in fact need to be repaired (which we already knew). On top of that, their quote was, by far, the most expensive (and that was comparing the same service, new unit, etc.); 20% more than the next most expensive quote. Despite their reputation for doing quality work, their up-​front costs and inflated prices sent us elsewhere.

We’ve been using James River Air for about two years, and have always found their technicians to be helpful, honest, and friendly. Our AC units are very old and inefficient, and the technicians have been upfront about their limitations, but have not pushed us to get them replaced despite the fact that it would certainly be profitable for them. Their annual service plan is reasonably priced and covers both AC and heating service. Our realtor recommended James River to us years ago and we have recommended them to friends since then.

I’ve always been pleased with James Rivers’ customer service and the quality of their work. They come when they say they’re going to be there and do excellent work. Their staff and technicians are friendly and accommodating. They are my one-​stop place for electrical and HVAC work.

The service here is impeccable! I came by looking for a specific piece if ductwork. Since they didn’t have what I needed pre-​made, they made it there right on the spot. I walked out 10min later with the part. They also support the arts!

James River HVAC installed two new exterior heat pumps on my house in the Museum District. There was a unit on the roof that they expertly removed and even repaired some holes left from the old unit. They also replaced the second unit which was in the courtyard with a new heat pump.
I also asked them to provide me with an analysis on how to keep our newly renovated media room cool being as how it was already in the basement and a lot of HVAC wouldn’t be required. We settled on enlarging an existing vent and they ran two new vents to make sure the humidity was kept in check and that it would properly heat the space come wintertime.
Lastly, they installed new programmable thermostats. All work was done neatly, quickly and the crew was very professional and respectful of our home and lifestyle. I would recommend them to anyone looking for HVAC work.