Balcaen & Sons Ltd

We've had good service over the years, with technicians Ken and Bart coming to mind (and sorry I couldn't recall any others deserved of mention). So this morning we had a boiler service booked for between 8/10, but I had to be up at 6am to turn the thermostat down so it would cool off. This was booked last month, and duly noted on the calendar.
At 10am I was obliged to phone (no show, no call) only to learn there was no record of this appointment, and the earliest anyone could come out was next Tuesday (assuming I could trust that now). No, not good enough. Take more time off at their convenience? And this was strike 3, there having been 2 other examples of lamentable service in the recent past. I miss when business would strive to redress this sort of "lapse", and although there are still some that still adhere to that principle, it would appear Balcaens is not one of them.
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Jon reached out to me, and is showing that Balcaens is still one of those businesses, and that they still value their customers. Thanks.
I do have "some" experience with people, and certainly you can't please everyone all the time, but you can try to improve on what's happened. And he has, hence the adjustment to the initial review (to where I remember/know their service can be).

I was able to get an emergency service call right away! The issue was diagnosed quickly and was fixed in no time. Great service! Thank you!

Balcaen and Sons came through for me again. I’m a proud homeowner and when I hire a company, I look for perfection from start to finish and your motto “If you want it done right call red and white” rings true. Thanks to Kris for a detailed estimate and communicating by email to revise the work order and getting all the permits required. Big shout out to Cody and Tyler for taking on this huge 2 day job, to upgrade various projects in my home. Everything ran like clockwork and I was kept up-to-date and It was a bonus, you now have your own electrician, instead of sourcing it out to another company, well done.

They are timely and effective. Work fast. Price I believe is at par with standard pricing. Recommend them

New furnace install. Poor installation and venting. Having lots of problems! Unresponsive when called to fix infractions that hydro wrote up till ITS phoned them

Mike Webber took all the stress and worry we had with no furnace during the winter. One phone call and he came over to my elderly Dads house and set everything up, set up an installation time As per the set installation time their professional installers came exactly at the time set and quickly and professionally installed the new furnace and recused my Dad From no heat. Bravo. I also thought Mike Webber went beyond his job and sat down with me to talk about life and the elderly. His compassion and his professionalism I have never encountered before. Thank you Mike Thank you Balcaen & Sons

Courtesy and professional. Bryan was exception. Explained everything and job was done right. Unfortunate that a valve broke but no fault of the technician.

We had our water heater replaced. Paul did a great job, professional and clean. We have dealt with Balcaen and sons for many years. Thanks Renald and Diane

We were thrilled with Balcaen from start to finish. We booked them to service our ancient boiler, which hadn't been looked at in at least a decade. They discovered a cracked heat exchanger leaking exhaust into the house, and shut it down immediately to ensure our safety.
They provided pricing on several options to replace our current set up, which was no longer safe and had to be shut down. They even brought us space heaters to keep our house warm.
They began installing our new system the very next day. The crew was on time, and respectful of us and our home. They laid drop cloths throughout the house to keep our floors clean.
Ken, Bart, and team worked two long days to get us up and running with a new (and safe) combi boiler.

Thank you!

Took the afternoon off for a 2-4 appointment for a new furnace quote. Nobody called, nobody showed. Just the worst

They are professional, and excellent to their customers in the exceptional service they provide to their employees and to their customers. There is a reason they have been in business so many years.

They care about people, and treat all their customers with respect and provide cost effective solutions to repairs.

Highly recommend. Would never call any other Contractor.

From first contact I was treated in a friendly, professional way. I was given a warning call that my technician would show up in 30 minutes (Paul arrived in 20). Paul discussed my options with prices and I made my choice being well informed. Paul installed the new hot water tank, cleaned up all the mess, discussed my warranty options and told me how to shut off the water intake should I ever need to. I’ve actually used this company many times and I’m always happy with the service!

September 2022
Service guy was competent.
Pricing was unfair:
170% markup on flame sensor. Can get it for $34 new, was charged $58. Didn’t need it as it wasn’t the problem. Charged $89 for flame sensor pickup.
Quoted $800! For a new control board. I bought one on eBay, with shipping, was $120 cad delivered to my door.
What really took the cake was a 5% shop supplies surcharge that was charged to the total cost! Which included the call-out, pickup, flames sensor and labour. Didn’t know sandpaper was so expensive. They should call it a profit on profit charge.

Had a problem in the past, felt I was charged for nothing. Tom made it right and made me feel valued. I do recommend their installation services, but not so much for actual maintenance. But I do believe my one bad experience won't be a repeat occurrence with other clients.

The worker named Roger came to my home to install a new water faucet in my bathroom. He took the sink apart & said he couldn’t work on the sink because it was rusted. He then put the sink back together as it was & charged me $139.95, for doing NOTHING! Oh, he left me a leaky sink, too! We were upset & asked for a refund. They sent me a cheque, with someone else’s name on it, so could not cash the cheque! I DO NOT recommend Balcaen & Sons, they are the worst! Taking advantage of us!

Great service. Gentleman was very professional & so informative to what my next move should be to upgrade the water tank. Will always recommend

Service professional 'Larry H' arrived and represented the company very professionally & friendly. We have had an intermittently clogged main drain (to the street), on and off for the last 4 years. At least once a year other firms have had a go at it, cleaned out the drain for up to 25' of pipe, until it flows again. They found silty material as the clog. Larry took the time to diagnose the problem, asked lots of questions, pointed out a better 'clean out' location, and worked dilligently to 60' and ground out roots that had been the culprit all along, but the other companies just did not go far enough to solve the problem. We have fantastic draining now, thanks to Larry, and he cleaned up nicely. It could not have been handled more professionally. He got to the 'root of the problem' ha ha, pun intended!

The worker was very efficient, tidy, friendly, and did a great job of my new kitchen tap installation! I will definitely call Balcaen & Sons again for my next plumbing problem! Very good experience! Thanks!

Our water tank died on us, on Xmas. Balcaen's on-call service tech, Colton, had us back up and running on Boxing Day. Was a very pleasurable person to talk to, even with having to work over the holidays. Explained everything he was doing, although he was a little upset that it took a little longer than it really should have. There were some changes he had to make with the gas lines, so it added some extra time. Very pleased with the service and product.

They were put in a hard spot after a third-party sold a defective steam room unit in which their warranty kicked in from the date it was assembled not the date of purchase. Which is stupid, especially in the COVID era. After I got that settled with the company from BC they hired Balcen to repair my unit. Balcen incorrectly thought I was going to pay for the repairs and I had to be overly firm with them that this is warranty work. They finally got that all hashed out and my unit is fixed and working. I tip my hat to the receptionist I dealt with.
Bottom line is when buying a major device such as a steam room make sure you're rock solid on the warranty. Shocking, I know, that companies don't want to stand by their product, but Balcen was able to step in and help out when that company could barely be bothered to email me back about their defective equipment. Come in with the facts and you're golden. Thanks Balcen

I found most everyone to be polite and helpful that I dealt with at Balcaen and Sons. But I hope that they’re better with general plumbing than they are with steam generators.

From the time this job was picked up to when it was done, it was about a half a year. It was a case of almost everything going wrong that could go wrong.

Things like, somebody swore they ordered the parts that were required but there were no parts on order. Then they ordered parts but didn’t realize that another part should’ve been ordered with that bunch of parts. Then it was installed at my house and it didn’t work, so I bought a control panel at their recommendation and that wasn’t the issue. After this the final part was ordered and installed. Then we found a cracked water outlet upon final installation.

At this point I sent the unit back to the manufacturer which if I would’ve done that from the beginning, then all of the above would’ve been avoided- the time, the added cost, and the general hassle of all of it. I spent way too much money for the quality of service and the time it took, on top of the money and time it took for the manufacturer to deal with it. I got a discount on my second invoice that I received from Balcaen, but it just wasn’t enough in my opinion for all that went wrong.

I imagine this is not the case every time they see a steam generator, as they are the certified local service centre for Thermasol. But I will not be taking that chance again

Great people to work with. Came out quickly to quote and completed the new install in a day. Very knowledgeable and very professional. Will definitely be using their services again.

Very happy! We had a drain technician, Larry, come over for a drain cleaning and he was awesome! Very fast, and did a great job! He took the time to explain everything and even gave us tips on how to solve other problems going on in the house! Great customer service, 10/10 would recommend!

They performed services in June of 2020, received payment immediately. Today, we got a 1500 dollar charge and they claimed the bill was unpaid. Completely unacceptable.

Price gougers, be careful! Was double charged (looking at reviews now seems like a recurring theme).

They expect you to have a thorough knowledge of how they operate their business ("plumbers" versus "drain specialists" in particular). Receptionist did not take correct notes, or ask proper questions so my problem was misidentified and I had to pay for two service calls.

During the second service call I was informed that my drain had frozen and there was nothing they could do to help. Had the plumber they sent the day before known what he was doing, he would've been able to catch that and save me the second service call.

This problem could've been easily avoided by asking correct questions, taking full notes, or even identifying the frozen pipe in the first service call.

If you make sure you ask about the difference between a plumber and drain specialist, as well as get the receptionist to read you what they've written down as your issue, you should have a great experience. Since they were pleasant people to deal with and work with. I just can't rate a company high for making me pay for mistakes that they could've easily avoided.

We had Josh as our serviceman what a great guy. Very friendly guy thank for doing such a great job.

Joey and Ben were the installation team that came to my place on the coldest day of the year. They were informative, kind, on time and thorough. It really was a pleasure doing business with these gents. Great job!

I work at a daycare on Winnipeg. We had a plumbing emergency. I called this company and had 1st class service. They were able to make it to our daycare within 2 hours, the service rep was on and out with all the issues fixed to perfection. He even found issues that could be a problem going forward and gave us a solution. 1st class company and service

I contacted Balcaen and Son to conduct maintenance service on my furnace they had installed years ago. I had neglected to do maintenance on a regular basis and I wanted to correct that. Christian was the repairman that did the service and he reassured me that all was well, but that there was a loud noise and vibration coming from the motor (that had been replaced by someone else a couple years ago). I was aware of that and decided I would leave it as is. However a couple of days later I decided to have it repaired because now I knew it was not supposed to be that loud. I made the appointment, Christian gave me my options and costs. When he arrived he mentioned he thought he had come up with another solution that might work. I was so pleased that he had taken the initiative to come up with a solution that solved the noise problem with minimal work and especially with cost savings to me! I want Balcaen to know that Christian should be recognized for providing excellent customer service and for representing the company so well. I will no doubt highly recommend this company and feel comfortable doing so. Five stars for sure! Thank you very much. Susan

We have used their services a few times now and all their representatives have been helpful, knowledgeable and thorough. We will not hesitate to contact them again for any of our plumbing needs.

The last 2 times I needed service on the furnace, the calls were handled quickly and the service technicians were excellent. Not cheap but not unreasonable either.

Needed a boiler cleaning and they had a technician come in half an hour. They worked fast and efficiently with quality. My boiler looked like new after the cleaning. They diagnosed the reason for my fast soot build up and were able to make the necessary repairs for a good price. I will be using them for my regular boiler servicing. Thank you!

I had a furnace and water tank installed about 6 years ago, so I have an account.
I called Oct 23, saying I haven't had heat in a week and Hydro wasn't able to help me.
I haven't worked since the end of March, my CERB expired Sept 26 and I am waiting for my EI, so I have no income at the moment, but would they help me get heat. It's freezing in the house and I have cats.
Not one person said they would help me out. They wanted money first.
Hope you are all sleeping well knowing how cold your heart is.

I was very satisfied with everyone I interacted with at Balcaen. From the office staff to the Plumbers Darryl and Colton. Job well done!

I called Balcaen regarding a problem with my hot-water boiler expansion tank. We discussed the possible reasons for the problem over the phone and made an appointment for a service person to attend. He arrived on time and was fully equipped to deal with the problem. He was courteous and complete in his work. I was very pleased the repair work, with no reason for a call-back.

HWT was replaced yesterday (Dec 15) by a great technician named Paul. He was courteous, friendly, professional and tidy. He answered all my questions and made a suggestion for a future repair which I will have completed by Balcean & Sons. Thanks Paul!

It's been 15 years since my original HWT was installed by Balcean (yes, Oct 2005. I have the receipt) and the quality of work and customer service is still the same. TOP NOTCH!

Had an appointment today. They told me they would show up between 1pm and 3pm. Called them at 305pm. They couldn't find my appointment said they were having issues with their system. I was in the system, but my appointment wasn't. I've never had any other business with them so why am I in the system? They didn't offer to send anyone out today or even tomorrow how is 2 days from now around the same time.

Pretty terrible service

Boiler inspection and repair. Knowledgeable and professional service. Excellent experience. On time. Highly recommended.

Needed a hot water tank put in as mind started leaking on Sunday afternoon. It was done by 12: 45 pm Monday. The installer was excellent and upon inspection by hydro it passed with flying colors. The inspector was impressed. Gas hot water tanks have risen by leaps and bounds over the last 10 to 15 years but that is not the fault of Balcaen & Sons. I was happy with the end result.

I called in a panic as my furnace was running but not putting out any heat. I called a few other places and decided on Balcaen. We were really impressed with Laura on the phone and our tech, Chris S. They were professional, friendly and timely. Chris was covid aware (we all wore masks) and extremely polite and professional. They arrived within the time framed stated and were in and out in no time. I would highly recommend Balcaen to anyone. You rock Balcaen, thank you!

Balcaen & Sons may do very good work but I will never know. After I had accepted the estimate, the receptionist was so rude on the phone arranging the details I decided to cancel.

I used the plumbing service from them and this is the worse service. The technician I had is no experience and no responsibility. He come to fixed my shower faucet bc there is no cold water, but all he did is taking the faucet apart took some picture and let it leaking badly and leave, charged me 130$ for giving me more trouble. I called them 3 days in a row to ask when they can finish the job but none of them can answer and said they will call back when they figure it out and it never happen. 5 days later they said they can't fix it, after all those suffering waiting. DON'T USE THIS COMPANY.

We contracted this company to do a specific job for us and they failed miserably, they showed up an hour and a half late for a scheduled appointment, they came unprepared, and to top it all they couldn't do the job we had asked them to do.and then to add injury to insult they charged us for the work that was not done. I would not recommend this business to anyone regardless of how they present themselves.

I've used this company a number of times for a number of issues. That alone is rare praise. I get the feeling that they care, they listen, and they provide "fair" value. Having repeat customers and establishing a good reputation/brand seem to be part of their service. In the world of contracting, that is a rare value.

I have used this company for many years.
I find they are very good and extremely professional

They just helped me out with a broken furnace on a very cold night. The technician was nice, knowledgeable and present to deal with. Thanks!