Thursday, July 23, 2009

The air conditioning company

I've been away for a while, because my downstairs air conditioner stopped working about 2 weeks ago and my computer is downstairs! Anyway, I wanted to write about my experience in getting it fixed, so that everyone will be warned of the possible perils out there.
My air conditioner stopped working while we were at the movies, so we came home and the house was inexplicably hot. I quickly figured out that my air conditioner was still running, but not blowing out cold air. I called an air conditioning repair place called, Connells heating and cooling. Technician one came out and told me that my problem was blown fuses, so he fixed the fuses, charged me $90 and left. 20 minutes after he left, my air conditioner stopped working AGAIN, so I called back, but connells was no longer open for the day. So I called back the next morning.
This is where my story takes a more sinister turn. Technician two came out and told me that I needed to get a whole new air compressor and that the new fuses were already blown He told me that my compressor had leaked freon, run out of it and burned up. He said that my compressor was still under warranty and that he would do me a huge favor and install the new one for $1400. I arranged for him to do it the next day. Then I called my dad and when I told him that the air conditioning company was charging me $1400 just for labor, he told me I was being overcharged and to call other air conditioning repair companies to compare what they would charge. So I did and THREE different companies told me they would charge about $650 to install a warranted air compressor. $650 instead of $1400! I quickly called Connells and cancelled my appointment and then I called one of the other places and arranged to have technician three come out the next day.
Technician three arrived and checked out my compressor. He told me that my unit was FULL of freon and that what was in fact wrong is that it had probably been struck by lightening. He told me he could replace it for....$570. Man am I glad I called around and didn't just go with that first company!

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