Oak Island Heating & Air Conditioning, San Marcos CA

Terry was a fantastic representative of Oak Island. He was thorough, explained the process and answered my questions. We had our Lennox installed 10 years ago and it is a great system.

The tech approved promptly as scheduled and quickly diagnosed the somewhat unusual issue I was having. In and out in less than one hour.

Great company and experience! They installed a new system and just serviced it today. Terry was a fantastic service person - on time (early!), courteous, professional, and nice to talk to.

Arty Rivera is an outstanding, very professional service person. We have done business (installation of three Lenox systems and regular Maintenance) for over 20 years. Arty represents the very best of what we have come to admire and rely upon at Oak Island.

My purchase: $14,000 for a new furnace and new air conditioner + upgraded thermostat and ducting.

Chances are, if you're looking at Oak Island, you may have been directed to them via their partnership with Costco. Costco is generally a good bet; however, my experience did not meet expectations and Oak Island's responsiveness to the situation was underwhelming, to say the least. As a result, I cannot recommend Oak Island due my experience detailed below:

First, I was directed to Oak Island by an in-store Costco representative with the understanding I could get a 10% rebate on a Lennox installation, which comes in the form of a Costco shop card. Upon arrival to my home, the OI sales representative was friendly, seemed knowledgeable, and was incredibly responsive during the sales phase of my experience. He also suggested that I consider a different system than the one offered by Costco for a variety of reasons not the least of which was that the alternative product was less expensive than the Costco deal, even after the rebate. I had some reservations about not purchasing the Costco deal because of the off brand and inherent customer protections that come with buying via Costco, but chose the proposed alternative regardless. And to Oak Island's credit (literally), they offered favorable financing and the deal was done practically on a handshake. At this point, I thought I was in good hands.

Since that point, the experience has been just plain poor. It started when I was asked to squeeze an installation into a busy and predicted-to-be rainy day. I was assured the weather wouldn't be a problem and that it would be done on time. Both promises proved to be wrong and I ended up needing to leave my home unattended with the OI installers still working. Before leaving, I gave each of the three installers a $50 tip and hoped for the best.

EXACTLY SIX WEEKS AND FOUR MORE INSTALLATION APPOINTMENTS LATER, THE JOB WAS FINALLY COMPLETED. Granted, I had (unfiltered) heat after the first day but I needed to adjust my schedule four more time to accommodate installers and leave my home unattended one more time because they couldn't stay on schedule.

When I brought my dissatisfaction to Oak Island's attention, I was offered three years of free servicing. While I'm sure that offer has a value to OI, I didn't want service from a company that had not demonstrated an ability to deliver it. So, I asked for a discounted price and that was the last time I heard from Oak Island.

As a result, I'm leaving a pubic warning to others about my Oak Island experience. Perhaps my experience was an outlier, but I recommend thinking twice about using Oak Island, especially if you fall for the bait and switch on the Costco deal because you'll lose the protection I could have used.

Pros: While sometimes inefficient, the installers at Oak Island were all professional and trustworthy enough to leave in my home when they couldn't stay on schedule. I would also like recognize the friendly scheduling staff who expressed sympathy for my situation, but were ultimately unsuccessful in conveying my dissatisfaction or request for a discount to the ownership group.

Cons: In my opinion, Oak Island has become complacent with its Costco contract. As long as Costco keeps sending customers its way, OI is free to leverage the Costco connection into a different product, and then OI doesn’t need to worry about when it gets it wrong. Once they’ve been paid by the financing company, the family-owned-local-company-doing-it-right-for-decades shtick evaporates immediately, sullying both the Costco and Lennox brands along the way.

Ultimately, I hope Costco and Lennox find a more reliable partner in the future. And I hope you will consider my bad experience when choosing an HVAC company.

Nico was very professional
Answered all of our questions
Performed his job very inefficiently

Arty was prompt & informative.
I appreciate that he was considerate of my health needs, &wore a mask without hesitation. ThkU Oak Island

I worked with Ryan to purchase new AC system for my home. He is good for communication and offered better deal than ther venders.

Tell you guys a joke, another company came to quote me new AC, and found my old one is from year 2003, then he pull out his calculator (i was wondering what's he gonna do), he typed "2023-2003 =20" then he told me "your AC is 20yrs old, definitely need a new one". Then ask my home wifi to log in their quote system, and a bottle water right after arriving, then use my bathroom before leaving. I lost my trust to that company immediately. Don't read wrong, im saying other company is bad, not Oak Island.

Gonna repost if any thing change for my new AC, but so far the installation and communication with Oak Island is great.

Arty explained unhurriedly options we have, explained what future remedies could be if our system wears out. He also explained the air intake mechanism well and suggested which filters to buy. I feel that we not only got our furnace maintenance done with proper care, but also learned about the system. I will call Oak Island Heating and Air Conditioning when more need arises.

We found Oak Island through the Costco HVAC service, and our experience was top notch from beginning to end. From the initial acknowledgement within an hour of our inquiry, to the personal touches during the initial onsite eval and quoting, to the speed and ease of the paperwork execution, to the timely execution of the install and thorough testing, Oak Island showcased their focus on customer service and quality. We will be calling on them again for any future product or maintenance needs. Thanks to Jacob, Steven, and the whole team!

Terry was amazing.he called to say he was on
His way, even came early. Assessed the thermostat problem, checked he furnace to see what had to be replaced, explained it to us
including cost and installed quickly. He represented Oak Island both professionally and friendly. He was the best!

They techs came out to replace my old system. They showed on time and completed the install within 4 hrs. They showed me how to use the new system and were very professional. I would definitely recommend Oak Island

A very professional technician arrived and explained everything. He did a great job servicing our heating and A/C units.

From the start Ryan did a great job on explaining the service quote and his install team followed through the same way. I would recommend Oak Island for Heating and Air Conditioning.