Cosmopolitan Mechanical Services Inc

I had to replace a water heating boiler. This review is based on the actual purchase, installation and 1 year after the installation.

PURCHASE
I contacted Cosmopolitan as well as a few other companies. Cosmopolitan won out because the sales person presented as very personable and when I negotiated I managed to get better warranty on parts than other companies were willing to offer.

INSTALLATION
The installation went semi-well, the installation crew personality-wise were great. The cons though were these:

(1) I was disappointed that on an almost $6000 dollar sale, they didn't install a new thermostat when the one I had was almost 30 years old. I would think a $20 to $35 dollar thermostat, that they get in bulk discount, would be part of the deal. It wasn't nor was it offered as an option when I was willing to pay.

(2) I was also very surprised that with the installation of a natural gas item in a home, that the installation techs didn't come with a carbon monoxide or noxious fume reading meter of some sort to test that the device had been installed correctly and that there were no emissions coming from the device being defective. I had to go get my CO detector and test it myself. They seemed almost surprised I asked and, they had to come back the next day with a detector based on my request.

ONE YEAR LATER
One year and a few months after the installation, the boiler wasn't working properly- it happens. I called their office. Although the phone line clarity and the names of the several representatives I spoke to seemed North American, there was a significant delay in response when talking to several Customer Service Representatives. I learned that they are located in Pakistan. When you have a difficult subject to speak about such as heat not working in the dead of winter when you have 4 female tenants complaining about it, there can be challenges communicating with a 10 second phone line delay and colloquialisms.

A typical yearly service and maintenance costs $150 to $190, but a diagnostic also cost about the same. I had the boiler for 1 year, so I indicated I believed they should send someone to do a 1 year service and maintenance and fix whatever problems they found under the "Service and Maintenance" umbrella, after-all my purchase was only a year old. They told me no. That the tech would do a diagnostic first ($150=$190), then once the problem was solved, they would do the service and maintenance which doubles the cost. I asked them to define service and maintenance indicating that when other companies provide this service, if they see something that needs fixing they tell you, and you can agree or not agree to the fix which may be preventative or repair something about to fail. They made up arguments and had an inability to define what "service" meant in contrast to "diagnostic". I'm going to point out I'm an engineer at this point. The amount of time I wasted speaking to them and the length of time passing as sunset started to be a possibility made me say sure, I'll take the double billing to get this over with and have my tenants get heat.

In the end, their tech who'd been scheduled the day before didn't show up. They gave me 3 weird explanations about why a tech couldn't show up (truck broke down, conflicting schedule, lost phone so couldn't reach them but managed to text from the lost phone: which one is it??) and I started laughing at the ridiculousness of what they were saying but I'm in a bind. I threaten to contact the owner directly.

A subcontracted tech external to the company then showed up, nice guy, and agreed I shouldn't have to pay both a "diagnostic" and separate "service and maintenance" fee. His religion "prevented him morally from overcharging me". Honorable guy from the same geographical region as the Call Center.

My boiler seemed to not work 1 year after I purchased it because soot from burning and dirt from renovations built up on the pilot light ignition preventing a spark. Fixed in 5 mins with "my" sandpaper. I gotta say even though I was charged for full service and maintenance, no tests were conducted on emission flue, no tests on error codes working properly, no test on gas flow rate...just 5 mins of sanding the pilot light ignition calipers to allow a spark for $213 with tax.

3.5/5 for sales,
2.5/5 for installation,
0/5 for Internal Service and call center.
4/5 for External contractor

Beware the Initial Good Deal!