Carlton 5 Mechanical Services

In Oct 2025, Carlton 5 vastly overcharged me on a simple valve replacement and Rinnai service call to my Hamilton home. I sent them lots of photos of the leaky valve and the Rinnai serial number so that they had full appreciation of providing an accurate estimate of their work. Hudson, who quoted my work, told me that this would be a full day’s work, plus parts, travel time (1 hr each direction) and she estimated it would cost $1,621.55 total. Carlton 5 sent me a PDF of an estimate (stating clearly that it’s an estimate) with this amount. I have experience with Rinnai combi boilers and also replacing a simple valve and this quote seemed high. I am an engineer building a cottage with the same Rinnai combi boiler and I know firsthand what’s involved. I asked Hudson to double check with her technicians and she called me back later that day telling me that this was indeed the required technician’s time. Further, she said that I would need to pay in advance, since Carlton 5 needed to order specialty parts. Since I wanted a certified Rinnai technician to do my annual Rinnai service work, and my non-Rinnai valve was leaking more and more, I was under time pressure to get the work done. So I hired Carlton 5 paying the full $1621.55 on my Visa card that I gave over the phone. I did not sign a contract or agreement. The tech (Mark) came out on Friday Oct 24th and did a fine job. He arrived at 8:30am, did the Watts valve replacement in 30 minutes and then the Rinnai service work. He brought Rinnai service parts but realized that the 2nd of 2 service kits was essentially a duplicate of the first and was not needed. We agreed that he’d take it back and a credit would be given to me. Mark was done his work within 2.5 hours and was back in his truck by 11am. He said that he couldn’t imagine what else could be done on an annual service job that could possibly take a full day that was quoted to me. I contacted Hudson telling her that it wasn’t a full day of service as she insisted. I asked her to make an adjustment to the cost and also credit me for the duplicate parts ordered but not needed. I waited several days and finally got an email from their Office Manager (Colin) with an offer to credit me about $350, but offering no breakdown on how they arrived at that number. They had previously told me that their hourly rate was $115/hr. Using 2.5 hours (rounded up to 3 hrs) plus 2 hours travel time would therefore amount to around $575+HST for labour and travel. The small parts kit that was used (a simple igniter rod, some gaskets, etc.) is about $250. So, I was expecting a refund of about $700-ish dollars. Surprisingly, Colin told me that Carlton 5 could not process Visa credits, which seemed strange as this is commonplace. It would need to be a cheque. I did not want to accept the refund offered as I thought it would be an admission of settlement. I was expecting hundreds of dollars more than offered. I asked Colin to prepare a detailed invoice of the work, the hourly rates and the specific parts used and their cost. He said that he’d look into it. Instead, within minutes, I got a call from the Carlton 5 owner, who didn’t give me his name, and he started raising his voice and telling me that I engaged in a fixed price contract, and that people like me are the reason they need to charge in advance. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise and he hung up on me. I most certainly did NOT enter into a fixed price service agreement. I have a copy of their invoice that clearly states it is an estimate. I didn’t sign any agreement or contract. I gave my credit card number over the phone so that they could order parts. After that call, I was not even offered the original $350-ish credit that Colin had initially indicated I would receive. Since then, Carlton 5 has made no effort to address my complaint. I am now taking my issue to the Better Business Bureau and to small claims court as I feel that Carlton 5 has grossly misrepresented the time required to do the work and falsely claimed that I entered into a lot price contract. Buyer beware.

So I’ve used other companies in the past. I got a pool and NO ONE could figure out the heater and what was going on. I didn’t use Carlton 5 for the gas line- provided for me, but I have used them in the past. So I called and asked if they could help. 100 percent and came over within two hours! Turns out it was an electrical issue and Mark fixed it!! Thank you so much! Great work and thank you again!

Mark and Mark were on site on time, completed work in a professional and safe manner. Their work area was cleaned up at the end of the day. Great work!

Customer beware! Carlton 5 will overcharge, be dishonest about services rendered, provide poor quality of workmanship and ultimately you will have to hire more qualified technicians.

Sometimes I go downstairs and admire the job they did. Can’t wait till I can do my water heater with them, absolutely perfect start to finish. Great idea they had to move the furnace to the crawl space.now we have a deep freezer where the furnace was, much cleaner.