Horrifying Stories Of Emergency Heating And AC Repair Gone Terribly Wrong
If you have never had to call for emergency heating and AC repair before, you might think that any company will work. A lot of people do, but there are a handful of people who have had their HVAC repair turn into a disaster bigger than the one they called about originally. In fact, some people have had their entire lives flipped upside down because they chose the wrong company to assist them with emergency heating and AC repair.
The following are a few stories of people who learned the hard way that it pays to screen your HVAC repair company before hiring them. It only takes a few extra minutes to research an emergency heating and AC repair company, but those few minutes can save you a lot of money down the road.
No Cool Air, But Plenty of Service Charges
Charlie purchased a new home, and one month after he took possession, the AC stopped working. The AC unit was blowing warm air instead of cool air, so he knew he had to call for emergency heating and AC repair. He called his warranty company, who told him he could go with the company they had on file or get someone to repair it independently and then contact them for reimbursement.
He thought it would be easier to go with the warranty company’s choice versus attempting to deal with it on his own and then deal with reimbursement, so he told them to send out whoever they had available. They gave Charlie the name of a company and said that they would be reaching out to him very quickly. They would send a service request, and then he would be connected.
Charlie learned that in this type of situation, he should have documented everything that happened, but once again, this was his first time dealing with any type of HVAC repair, and he didn’t really expect things to take a turn for the worse.
It took two days for the HVAC company to call and schedule with Charlie, which is the first sign that he should have chosen his own company. This was certainly not what he expected from an emergency heating and AC repair company. However, his hands were tied since he worked with the warranty company. They only actually called to schedule after he called the warranty company and requested a new company (which they denied since he already was linked to one) because he couldn’t get anyone to answer any of his phone calls.
They then told him it would be six days until they could get out to him, which was extremely frustrating to Charlie. He thought about calling to complain again, but at least now he had an idea of when they were coming so that he could plan on it. For the next few days, Charlie and his family were extremely uncomfortable, but they figured they could make it through just a few days since there was a finish sign in sight.
The day finally rolled around, and Charlie waited from 9 am to noon (their allotted window) for a technician to show up. It wasn’t until 1:30 pm that someone came to the home, which was the first sign that this repair visit would not go the way that Charlie expected. The fact that they were late meant that Charlie was back at work and his wife was home, so he wasn’t sure what they did the first time that they came to his home.
He had given up when it hit 1 pm, and since he only took the morning off he couldn’t sit around in hopes that they would maybe show up. They didn’t say much to his wife, only to say they had fixed the AC and that it should be working soon. However, by the time Charlie got home, the unit was still blowing out hot air. Charlie was furious, so he called the home warranty company, who told him that the HVAC company had completed $400 dollars of repairs. Charlie told them that he wasn’t sure what they did, but they hadn’t done anything about it.
The company said that they would send them back out, but at this point, if they wanted the warranty company to pay for it they had to stick to the same company. Charlie wasn’t happy about this because the company had terrible service and no real sense of urgency, but he didn’t want to end up paying for all of the repairs, so against his better judgment, he agreed.
This time the company said they could come out in two days which was slightly better, but they only stayed for about 15 minutes. They claimed that the problem was actually the thermostat, and the unit was fine, so they replaced the thermostat and then left. They quickly left without even checking that this fixed the problem. Charlie quickly found out that it didn’t when he waited for about four hours and the temperature inside of his home stayed at a steady 90 degrees even though the AC was on full blast.
Charlie was beyond frustrated, and this time, he called the company directly back and told them that nothing had been repaired, and he expected a lot more from an emergency heating and AC repair company. He wanted his AC fixed now, or he would be forced to lodge a complaint. The company came out the next day. Charlie saw them on his Ring and walked out to meet them when he watched them reverse back out of his driveway to leave.
He was unsure what had happened until a second later when the home warranty company called and said that the company reported that Charlie had tampered with the AC system according to the unit. Lucky for Charlie he had a Ring and caught their quick dash on and off his property on tape, so he could prove the team had never stepped foot in his mouth. Apparently, all they needed to do was check in with the GPS device to show they had been there, but Charlie was able to prove they may have sat in his driveway but did not do any work.
However, at this point, Charlie still did not have a working AC, and his home warranty company was wary of the situation, stating that they would need to launch an investigation before they could offer any more action or repairs. Charlie was now going on almost his third week without AC, and he was frustrated and angry.
He was tired of messing around, so he did some research and talked to friends, and went with an emergency heating and AC repair that was recommended. They came out the same day and quickly ascertained that the compressor was broken. The company stated that they would have to order the parts, but it was repairable and was not the result of any tampering. It was simply the result of wear and tear.
Charlie was forced to file an appeal and a claim with the warranty company, and after six months, was finally able to get reimbursed for the repair, but it was a very long process, and he regretted ever allowing a random home service to enter his home. He had certainly learned his lesson about letting anyone come into his home that he had not screened first. It was clear that the first company was just stringing him along, attempting to get as much money as they could out of his warranty company they could.
A Leak a Day Ruins Everything
Grace was walking by her utility room one day when she spotted something that looked like water on the floor. She stopped for a second, puzzled because nothing should be leaking in that room outside of potentially the water heater, but her water heater had just been replaced this year. She opened the door to investigate further and was shocked to see water leaking from the AC and onto the floor.
Grace went into the room to investigate further and realized that the floors were damaged, so she immediately called an emergency heating and AC repair company to come out and take care of the issue. In the meantime, Grace turned off the AC because she wasn’t sure if that would worsen the problem. They stated they couldn’t come until the morning, but Grace figured it was the busy season, and she could live for one night without AC.
The next day the HVAC company came out and spent an hour working on the AC. While she didn’t hear much happening in the utility closet, they told her it was fixed, so she paid the bill and sent them on their way. To be honest, Grace thought they were chatting more than they were doing anything based on the fact she heard no power tools or even any banging, but she didn’t know much about AC repair, so she figured she could be wrong. She was trying not to hover, but any type of home repair made her nervous, and she just wanted to know what was going on within her home.
Since she thought the AC was fixed, she flipped it back on and returned to work. She came home, and the house was nice and cool, so she didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t until later, when she went to get dog food out of the pantry near the utility closet, that she noticed there seemed to be liquid again. She went to bed and checked it in the morning and was shocked to find that the floor damage looked even worse, and it was almost to her carpet. Ruining the hardwood floor was one thing, but the carpet was a completely different situation.
Plus, she had dogs and thought that refrigerant was supposed to be extremely dangerous for pets. Expererated, she called back the emergency heating and AC repair company and told them that the AC was still leaking. This time they were there for five minutes, and she couldn’t hear what they were saying. She was hovering this time, but they were purposely speaking slowly and walked out of the house to make a phone call to someone before coming back to talk to her. They told her that the AC was fixed, which she questioned because, from what she could tell, the AC was still leaking while they were there.
They reassured her that it was fixed and the leak would stop very soon. Grace questioned the floor damage stating that she wanted to believe them and turn it on, but the damage was spreading. She also asked who was going to pay for the damage since they told her it was fixed the day before, and that is why she turned the unit back on – leading to more damage. They stated it was not their fault and that they couldn’t predict that a second part was going to break. At this point, Grace was thoroughly frustrated and asked to speak to their boss, but the boss was conveniently not available to take any calls at the moment.
The crew left after telling Grace twice that the problem was now fixed, but a few hours later and the leak was clearly still leaking. At this point, she was livid but not shocked to find that no one would take her phone calls. She had turned off the AC again and was dealing with the heat. However, it was too hot for her older dogs, so she ended up packing up her dogs and going to stay with a friend for the night.
Grace still couldn’t get a hold of the company in the morning and figured that she probably wouldn’t hear from them any time soon (if she could even trust them to actually fix their mistake), so she called a second emergency heating and AC repair company. The second company came out promptly and immediately offered a solution for the refrigerant leak. It took them two hours of work, and this time around, she heard a lot of work and a minimal amount of conversation, which made her feel a lot better.
While Grace knew that it was possible to make repairs while talking, it was nice to actually hear signs that this time was really working. This time when they left, she could feel cool air coming out of her vents and see that the leak had stopped. However, now she was forced to deal with the floor damage that was left behind from the leak, and she was furious. Grace paid thousands to have her wooden floor repaired and ended up filing a claim with her home insurance which made her home insurance increase as well. She is currently filing a civil claim against the first company, but the timeline for the case is lengthy.
Her number one regret is not taking more time to research the company before she called to request emergency heating and AC repair. After she started to have problems, she looked the company up on the internet and found tons of reviews from people who mentioned the same thing that she experienced – a crew that seemed to get in and out of a home as quickly as possible without fixing a thing. Many people stated that they didn’t hear anything happen, which was exactly her concern.
Once Grace started to read the reviews she knew that she should have never hired them, which was what Charlie thought after his terrible experience. Grace and Charlie could have saved themselves a lot of hassle and money by researching their respective heating and AC repair companies before inviting them into their homes.
Unfortunately, these experiences happen to many people who don’t research companies. It is understandable to feel panicked in an emergency, and a loss of AC in the middle of the Texas summer can seem like a big emergency, but it still only takes a few minutes to read reviews. Checking credentials and licensing is also important because if Grace had chosen a company that was licensed, bonded, and insured, she probably would have had more luck getting the company to pay for the damages they caused in her home.
If you need emergency heating and AC repair but are unsure of who to call, contact One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas. We will help you fix the problem the first time so you can return to enjoying the cool air in your home.
See our previous blog on this topic here.
Check out our reviews here.