Recommends

Bill and Carol

Joined 2 years ago

Best Natural Gas Company. My wife and I own a two story craftsman home with a basement in north Seattle, and our gas furnace was perhaps fifty years old. We routinely maintained it with an occasional service call and it was virtually trouble free; however, we knew gas furnaces now are much more efficient so we made a decision to purchase a new one, which we did from Ballard Natural Gas.

Before choosing Ballard Natural Gas and a Trane furnace we performed our due diligence by researching the quality of furnaces by various manufacturers, including Trane, and then contacted Ballard Natural Gas and another company for an in-house inspection and proposal. Matt Cannon from Ballard Gas and a consultant from another well known company inspected our home, and each followed up with proposals. Because the proposals were similar enough, with three different furnace options, our choice boiled down to deciding which consultant and therefore which company we felt more comfortable doing business with. It was no contest. We chose Ballard Natural Gas.

Although Matt could easily have recommended the higher end furnace option, which the other consultant did, because of the layout of our older home and because of our personal needs the furnace Matt recommended suited both our needs and our home perfectly. The higher end option was something we absolutely didn’t need.

We never felt any pressure from Matt to choose Ballard Natural Gas over another company. On the contrary, Matt concurred in our decision to get a proposal from another company. Matt answered every question we had and explained in great detail how the furnace functioned, why the furnace he recommended was our best option, and how the process of its installation would take place.

After making our decision we had some additional questions which were answered by the office staff, and in particular by Liz who scheduled our initial meeting with Matt and scheduled our duct cleaning and furnace installation. Liz was extremely friendly and helpful on the phone, very knowledgeable about her company and the products they sell, and was absolutely conscientious in following up with phone calls to keep us informed.

Because the furnace ducts hadn’t been cleaned for many years, in conjunction with the new furnace installation we opted to have the ducts cleaned. Levi from Ballard Natural Gas performed that job. He was a great guy. We were concerned about the cleaning making dust, but Levi assured us that wouldn’t be a problem, and it wasn’t. Levi meticulously cleaned every supply and air return duct, and the job took approximately three hours. After Levi left we turned the furnace on and not a trace of dust came out of the heating registers.

Our furnace installation was done by Roy, another great guy from Ballard Natural Gas who, like Levi, was definitely experienced and well qualified. Before starting the job Roy covered the floor area around the furnace with cloths and made sure the work area was spotlessly clean before leaving. His work took about six hours, which included removing the old furnace and installing the new one, and then checking the new one for proper operation. It definitely was not a small job.

Both Levi and Roy arrived exactly at their scheduled times (as did Matt,) and after their initial inspection began work immediately. Except to pause and answer a few questions during the course of their work, neither Levi nor Roy stopped working until they were finished.

We consider ourselves lucky to have had Levi and Roy perform our work, but then again knowing Matt and speaking with Liz we have no reason to think Ballard Natural Gas employees aren’t all top notch. Because of our experience we highly recommend Ballard Natural Gas Service.

Recommends

Waterton

Joined 2 years ago

These Folks Understand!. I was uneducated but not stupid. Ballard Natural Gas took the time to explain every answer so my decisions were informed decisions, not simply selections from a salesperson's options. Meaningful customer service requires customer respect and Ballard Natural Gas well understands this concept. (Too bad Wall Street doesn't!)

Ballard Natural Gas was recommended to us and we are happy to recommend them on without caveat. They changed us from oil to gas on time and on budget, with no surprises and left us with a cleaner basement than before. Oh -- we noticed immediately the better quality heat and air. Money well spent.

Recommends

mstepich

Joined 5 years ago

Gas Furnace Conversion and Water Heater Replacement. I found this company and their employees to be excellent. Great communication skills, very thorough in their explanations of the process, and their work was timely, clean, and as they advertised. This was a very nice experience and I would recommend them to anyone.

In addn to the new gas furnace, I had hoped to install a tankless water heater system. But PSE messed up. My old electric water heater failed and they were in my house within 4 hours and installed a new electric water heater the same day. No muss or fuss. Very impressive.

Recommends

SkG

Joined 2 years ago

Great family-run business. We had a very good experience with Ballard Natural Gas Service. We had two furnaces in our home, both of which were almost 20 years old. One of our furnaces shut down (the one in our claustrophobic crawl space) and we were referred to BNGS. Randy, the service technician, seemed genuinely sad to have to inform us that it was a goner. We made an appointment with Taylor to discuss the details regarding the purchase of a new furnace. After our discussion and looking through the literature and being offered a generous financing option, we decided to replace both furnaces. Scott installed both furnaces expertly and quickly. Now we nice even gas heat - better than we have had for years. The efficiency of our furnaces went from 80% efficient to 97% efficient. We can actually tell that the air quality in the house is better (less dust) because of the type of filters we had installed with the furnaces.

We are very pleased with the quality of our new furnaces and we are very, very impressed with quality of the folks we worked with a BNGS - Randy, Taylor, Scott, Levi and Kathleen. We highly recommend them.

Recommends

Norma Currin

Joined 2 years ago

EXCELLENT SERVICE ... THE BEST!!!. Ballard Natural Gas Service came to the rescue in a very timely manner. Within 24 hours the problem with my gas fireplace was resolved and up and running again. Unfortunately Ballard Natural Gas Service did not install the fireplace because if they had it would have been installed correctly. The serviceman was courteous, professional and very careful to cover all areas where he was working. I was in a dilemma as to who to call however a recommendation was just the answer I needed. I am writing this to pass on a great recommendation for a top notch company. Thanks Ballard Natural Gas Service.

Recommends

manual focus

Joined 2 years ago

Excellent Service. I had BNG recently replace my old gas hot water heater and high efficiency furnace with a new tankless gas heater and electric heat pump. Both installations were trouble free, with excellent workmanship. I really appreciated the way BNG worked with me on customizing the installation of the heat pump. All in all a very positive experience and both units work well. Highly recommended.

Doesn't Recommend

Mdcyntst

Joined 2 years ago

Poor Service. Dismal service. Came out, spent five minutes before trying up sell me to a new furnace. Then quoted me $500 for a $75 controller board (plus the original $100 service visit). found 50+ online retailers selling the part for an avg. cost of $75. Install time would be about 1 hr. So they are either ripping you on labor cost or getting hundred's of dollars on markup. Stay away.

Doesn't Recommend

abt789

Joined 2 years ago

beware. IF YOU VALUE SERVICE AND DON'T WANT TO FEEL THAT YOU'RE GETTING NICKLED AND DIMED, I RECOMMEND YOU TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE. BNG IS GETTING ONE STAR ONLY BECAUSE I CAN'T GIVE THEM ZERO.

I've never written an online review before but was compelled to do so after getting a call from their service manager telling me that they are no longer interested in me as a customer.

Before thinking about calling BNG, I encourage any reader to consider the following:

-It's ironic that they compare their service to that of Nordstrom on their website. My wife works at Nordstrom and it's a laughable assertion. NO ONE at Nordstrom would ever allow an issue to escalate to this level, let alone tell a customer that their business isn't valued.

-on BNG's website, they urge their customers to check out various sites to understand their service against that of their peers. interestingly, their negative scores are in the area of service and price transparency(or lack thereof).

-lastly, and the shame in my view, is that their ownership(specifically you Kathleen) doesn't feel they have any part in trying to solve a customer's issue. My initial experience with them two years ago was terrible for the same reasons. As a Ballard resident, I wanted to keep my business in my community and hoped that my initial experience was an aberration. In making my second appointment, and in fairness to everyone, I reminded them of my original experience. Unfortunately, they didn't pass this piece of information onto the service tech. When he tried to pull the same thing, I shared all of this with him and was understandably upset. in some ways, it was like a lamb to a slaughter.

Too bad for them. After two tries to do the right thing, I'm forced to take my business elsewhere.

Recommends

SeaBox6

Joined 4 years ago

Great service but for a price.. Last year I had used Burien Natural Gas to service a gas furnace in one of my rental units. They replaced the thermocoupler for the pilot light and charged $50 for the part.

This year, another unit had the same problem but Burien NG was booked until 3 days later and recommended I call Ballard Natural Gas. They came within a couple hours and everything was friendly, professional, and done right.

The charge for the service call was comparable but I was charged $150 for the same part Burien NG provided at one third the cost. What a markup!

So yes, Ballard Natural Gas is there when you need them and do it right, but you will pay for it.

Call Burien Natural Gas first.