advice needed AC issue

[katygirl]

Our central air has suddenly stopped working, of course it is nasty hot in my area right now. We called a service company and they came out yesterday to look at it. The guy proclaimed, "the unit is filthy and really just needs a good cleaning, it'll cost you about $200.00." I said we would wait until next spring and he left. I had a change of heart and called back and said we would do it, I figured either do it now or in the spring, might as well do it now.

The "issue" became more than a cleaning, transformers had blown, blah, blah, blah (and he ended up spending about 6 hours total, always saying, almost done) Yes, we could have told him to leave, but we didn't. The bill came to $1,000. The actual worker seemed like a decent guy, he suggested I call the owner and explain that I thought the job would be much less, and is there anything he could do maybe lower the bill (the worker said, at times the boss does do this) Anyway, the boss was a total ***-hat. Just a jerk, and said pay the bill, which is what I expected he'd say, and I'll live with it.

A total of 30 minutes after this all played out our AC doesn't work again.

What do we do? We haven't paid a dime yet, because they are going to bill us, but now do I have to sink more money into this project? I'd love to walk away right now, and hire a new company...any advice? I just have such a bad taste in my mouth in regards to the current company...

[Meganator]

I think it could ultimately cost even more to get an additional company involved than to stay with the current one. They were hired to make it work, and they didn't. So they need to come back out and make it work. They could argue that there is some additional part that seemed to be ok, but wasn't after all, so now you have to pay something additional or something like that. But I would definitely not pay them for anymore labor. I would also see how much of the $1,000 was parts and how much was labor...did they replace so many parts that they should've offered the option of a new unit? I may be remembering wrong, but I thought the last time we bought a whole new A/C it was $2,000-something.

If you have a different company come out, you have to pay them for the call, which might involve fixing something that the other company didn't do right or shouldn't charge you for. And you still wouldn't have much leverage on reducing your bill with the original company at that point.

Good luck. I hate dealing with stuff like this. After doing all the dealing-with-contractors during out remodel, I now turn over anything like this to DH. He owes me. :)

[syzygy]

Other than getting a second opinion, I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know where in MA you are, but if you are in the Metrowest area, you can PM me and I'll give you the name and # of the guys I use and highly recommend.

At the very least, I wouldn't pay the bill till I found out from someone else what they think the problem is; then call the original company back and let them know that the repair didn't work and that you are holding off payment until the job is done to your satisfaction.

Sorry you have to deal with this, but at least the rest of the week and weekend is supposed to be cooler... :o

[ChristyMarie]

I would call the company, offer them a chance to fix it for the already billed amount. Should they refuse I think you have every right to have another company come out and perform the needed repairs, without paying the original company anything - they did not perform the service promised so they should not expect payment at this point. But, in the interest of fairness give them a chance to fix it.

We had this problem with a dryer. It actually stopped working about 2 weeks after they were out. They came out and fixed it at no additional charge. Give them a chance to do the right thing.