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Shocking Stories Of Air Conditioning Repair Gone Wrong

Shocking Stories Of Air Conditioning Repair Gone Wrong

Most people contact an HVAC company when they need help with their AC systems. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with your AC system, and in Texas, the weather does not give you a grace period. Therefore, you have to be prompt about seeking out air conditioning repair if you have any reason to suspect that something is wrong with your AC. However, just because you call for help doesn’t mean that you will get it as these people learned. Not every air conditioning company is the same, and not every person who claims to be a technician is properly trained.

This is why it is very important to make sure you screen any HVAC company before you hire them to come out to your home for air conditioning repair. You need to make sure that the technicians are capable of handling any problems you may be experiencing without creating more. Your AC system is highly intricate, and it doesn’t take much to throw it out of balance. With that in mind, take a minute to read these incredibly shocking stories of AC repair so you can learn from the lessons of people who came before you.

It is very eye-opening to read the mistakes that others have made and a great way to avoid making these same mistakes yourself. When you know what to look for during repair you can watch out for your unit and your home a little better. The internet has made it simple to do research and read reviews before hiring anyone, so use that to your advantage if you need to find air conditioning repair. Above all, remember not to panic because if you are concerned unsavory people will prey on that. Always keep your head straight when you think about your AC system and it will be much better to protect your investment.

Given the cost of a home AC system, you need to treat it like an investment and be careful about repair and service visits. When you think about your appliance as an investment, it is easier to be rational about repair options. As a general rule of thumb, when in doubt always go with your gut instinct and choose another company. If any technician tells you something that doesn’t sound right, you should get a second opinion or decline service because it is easier to overcorrect than it is to reverse the path after the damage has occurred.

From a Leak to No AC

Adam suspected that he had a leak near his AC and after a quick Google search saw that it was considered an emergency due to the toxicity of refrigerant and that he should call an HVAC company. His unit was only a couple of years old, so it was still under warranty, so he called the warranty group, and they sent out a company to take a look. Adam’s first thought was that he should look at the company and make sure that he trusted them, but then he figured he was overreacting because they were coming from the warranty group. They must be a trusted company.

He didn’t realize that the home warranty group had a bidding structure and almost no one was picked purely on their merits alone. In fact, usually whoever was available would end up getting the job which was not the best sign of an expert air conditioning repair company in Texas, in fact, it was the opposite because any HVAC company that was worth their money was booked solid during the summer months. Adam didn’t really think the entire process through though, and he agreed that someone could come out the next day to take a look. For the time being, his AC was still running, so he was fine with waiting a day.

The next day there was a slight drizzle, but nothing major so Adam didn’t see any problem with the HVAC technician coming out to take a look. It wasn’t as if you could control the weather, and he didn’t want to wait until the unit stopped working. By the time the technician got to his home, it was spitting and just a tiny bit moist. The technician arrived at his home and immediately told him that he couldn’t test if there was a leak because of the rain. Adam was a bit dumbfounded.

First of all, the weather had stayed fairly consistent all day, so why would the technician have even bothered to come out to his home to look at the leak if he couldn’t do anything? The second problem was the fact that it really wasn’t raining. Just a few specks of rain here and there. Third, testing for a Freon leak had nothing to do with the rain, and if the leak was indeed Freon it would turn the chemical paper regardless. This seemed like a very lazy excuse, so Adam continued to push the tech to do his job.

They argued a bit until Adam mentioned that he would like to talk to the technician’s boss, at which point he agreed that he was going to be able to test for Freon. So he goes to the outdoor unit, takes the cage out, and then does a couple of tests which he says are designed to help them figure out why the AC unit is losing its Freon. It only took him about 15 minutes total to tell Adam that he thinks they will have to replace the entire unit. Adam is even more infuriated now. He didn’t even see the technician use a single tool, and already he has decided the entire unit is bad.

Plus, the unit was only a couple of years old. It seemed highly unlikely that it had died so quickly that now the entire unit needed to be replaced. Adam felt strongly that just the evaporator would need to be replaced and he told him so, but the technician continued to advise him otherwise. He also let Adam know that the warranty would not cover everything and he would still have to pay his part for Freon, disposal, and the work permit. Adam was pretty angry at this point and knew he was going to get a second opinion before he did anything. While his insurance company would have to pay for the bulk of the unit, he didn’t need a new unit, and he knew this guy was trying to fleece his insurance company for as much as he could get.

Adam didn’t like it one bit and didn’t trust the way this guy handles his business. He trusted him even less when he got an email that said he owed $1,050 for the visit today, plus the charges for the Freon and the disposal. He also put on the invoice that he would recommend the unit is not used until the new unit is put in. At this point, Adam is even more frustrated because there is no way with the heat as hot as it is in the middle of summer that the AC can be disconnected. In fact, the email was a good reminder to him that now that the tech was gone he needed to go turn it back on. The only problem was that when he went to turn on his unit, he found the technician had disconnected the entire unit before leaving.

Now he was even more incredulous. This lazy technician who resisted during his job in the first place by looking for a leak, had taken the time to disconnect a unit that he could not be bothered to fix. He knew that it was to make the situation more desperate so Adam would hastily choose to have the unit replaced so he could get cold air back on. This made the situation even more upsetting and certainly angering.

Adam had no idea how to connect the unit again, and until he read that email didn’t even realize that the technician had disconnected it. He thought it was simply off because he turned it off for the air conditioning repair. Now he had no idea what to do. This was his second day without AC, and apparently, he was no closer to finding answers than he had been before. In fact, now he was stranded with no other choices.

With nothing else to do, Adam attempted to call back the company, but they did not answer their phone. He tried two more times and finally got someone but was told that there was a long wait and placed on hold. Adam tried staying on hold, but after an hour it was clear that no one was going to answer the phone. He tried to leave a voicemail, but no one would return his phone call. He was forced to sleep in the hot, humid Texas air overnight but in the morning called his home warranty company to report what had happened.

The warranty company told him not to pay any invoice and that they would send someone else out to talk about the repair. They did not like that the company had attempted to replace the unit instead of completing a simple repair, but at the moment, they didn’t have an available contractor to come out to the home. This meant that Adam had to deal with a home with no AC until someone became available again. He never did hear back from the original company, who seemed to disappear from the case altogether.

Finally, three days later the warranty company called and got someone else assigned to the air conditioner repair case. Adam did his due diligence this time and was happy to find that this air conditioning repair company had mostly positive reviews on Facebook and was very well-rated. He wished that he had done his research beforehand and called this company in the first place. Had he done that, he might have saved himself a lot of trouble and, at the very least, would not have been sitting in the heat for so long. While Adam thought he had done everything right by purchasing an extended warranty, it turned out that he still had to be careful about who touched his AC system.

Shady Workmanship & Expensive Repairs

It was the middle of July in Texas, and nearly every AC on the street was running on full blast, except for Jackson’s, because he had woken up to a very hot house. He didn’t know what to do about the situation, but he knew it wasn’t favorable. With that in mind, he called the usual HVAC company he used for servicing to see if they could diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, the summer is the busiest time of year for air conditioning repair, and they stated that it would be at least a week before they could get to him. Jackson went ahead and set up the appointment just in case, but he knew there was no way he was going to wait a month to get his AC back on and chugging.

With a full house, there was no way he could manage a home without AC for a week. He had his wife and four children, one of which had asthma. Living in the hot heat was simply not an option, and opening the windows was not going to do anyone any good. It was arguably hotter out there than it was in his baking home. At this point, it was hard to tell.

While Jackson would have preferred to use the same air conditioning repair company he had used for years, it wasn’t going to work this time so he got on Google and started calling any nearby companies he could find. It felt like he was just going down a long list hearing the same thing every time, they were sorry but it was the busiest season and they just didn’t have anyone available. At this point, Jackson was not looking at reviews or even company names, just calling numbers hoping that someone would have an open slot. It didn’t occur to him that any company that had an open spot might be less than trustworthy.

Finally, he got a hold of a company that stated they could come out and take a look and he felt a wave of relief wash over him. He knew if he kept calling, he would get a hold of someone. However, they stated that they were a bit of a distance from him so they would require a deposit and travel reimbursement. Jackson paused a bit at this news, he had never heard of a company asking for this before. This wasn’t his first time booking someone for air conditioning repair, but this request sounded a little odd. However, when he looked down the list of how many people he had already called, he felt like it was his only shot, and he had to take it. He agreed and went ahead and set up an appointment for the next day.

Jackson and his family discussed whether they should get a hotel or not for the night, but Jackson was pretty sure that the air conditioning repair company was going to be able to fix the problem tomorrow so he said they could all struggle through together one more night. If the temperatures got too bad he would go buy a window unit, and they could put it in the family den or something. It wasn’t a comfortable night, but the family made it until the morning, and for once, none of the children asked to stay home. They wanted to get to school where they could relax in the cool air.

Everyone left the house happily except Jackson, who had to stay home and talk to the air conditioning repair company when they arrived. They were supposed to come at 10 am, so he was hopeful they would be in and out before the day reached its hottest temps. He waited until 11 am, and then he called the company to see what was going on. He had hoped that they would be done with the visit by now. It took him three tries before someone picked up the phone, and when they did they said it would take a minute to get an update on the technicians and they would call him back.

About half an hour later, the company called him back and said that the technicians got stuck at the first job of the day and it would take a few hours before they could get to him. Jackson told them that he had only taken a half day off work since they were supposed to be there, and he also had paid them for their travel time already so they should have accounted for this when they took his charge. The receptionist said she would note this fact, but there was nothing she could do about the situation. While Jackson understood that her arms were tied, he was quite irritated about the entire thing.

He didn’t realize he was going to be more irritated in a few hours when the air conditioning repair technicians had still not shown up. He wasn’t sure what they were doing, but it was clear at this point that they weren’t in a hurry to get to his house. He called a few more times and, this time, left a message since he couldn’t get a hold of even the receptionist. Finally, around 4 pm, the receptionist called Jackson back and stated that, unfortunately, the team was not going to get out to his house until the next morning. Jackson was not happy and even more unhappy that he had paid extra fees that he couldn’t get back, even if he wanted to opt to go with a different air conditioning repair company.

At this point though, he had no choice but to say okay and call work to tell them that he would need another day off to deal with the AC system. He also decided to run out to the store and pick up a window unit that they could put in the family den. It was almost unbearable last night, and he wanted to be prepared if this took some time. At least this way, they could all find a spot on the couch or the floor and be comfortable for the night. His family and especially his wife were not happy when they came home to find the house was still very hot, but the arrival of a window unit at least gave them a cool place to sit and complain.

The next day the circus started all over again, with the kids and Jackson’s wife all leaving while Jackson stayed behind to wait on the AC company. He was very relieved when they arrived at 9 am ready to look at the unit. He had secretly realized that it might be a repeat of yesterday which would have been terrible. Jackson explained that the AC was not turning on at this point, and he had no idea what happened since he had been sleeping when it turned off and there was no prior sign of trouble.

The technicians told him they would inspect both the indoor and outdoor units and then let him know. They said it may take a bit, so he was welcome to go in the house and do whatever he needed to while they worked. They just needed clear access to the downstairs unit and then would call him when they had diagnosed what the issue was. Jackson needed to check on a few things for work and didn’t know much about the inside of his AC unit, so he thought this sounded like a good plan and headed into the den to make a few phone calls.

About twenty minutes later, the technician called him and asked him to come out and take a look at what they had found. It turned out that the evaporator coil was broken and had a leak in it. It was this leak that had probably resulted in the loss of Freon, which kicked the system off. Therefore, in order to get the AC working again he had to recharge his system following the replacement of the three-ton evaporator coil. The repair would be lengthy, but it was possible, and the team thought that they had a replacement part already at their shop.

This was great news to Jackson, who just wanted it done as soon as possible. He was glad that he wouldn’t have to wait any longer for a replacement part to be ordered and then come in. He asked the technicians when they thought they could have the job done, and they told him that if they had the part, it might be able to be completed today. They would have to make a few phone calls and then get started. It was an extremely large and heavy piece, so they needed more manpower in addition to the part.

Jackson could understand this, but he was excited by the prospect of finishing the job today. This project had already dragged on long enough, and he didn’t want to deal with it one more day. Plus, after a night in the den, he was ready to get back into his own bed. It felt like every part of his body was sore, and he did not relish spending one more night in there. He told them to let him know what needed to happen once they knew.

They wrote him an estimate for $1,200 to repair the unit and then told him they would be in touch. Unfortunately, no one called back for the rest of the day. Jackson was losing hope little by little and sleeping in the den for the rest of the week was starting to look like a real possibility. He was getting aggravated by how no one ever seemed to know what was happening and how much waiting around he did with this company. It was as if they didn’t understand that people had to work and couldn’t just wait at home for them to be available. Right before closing, they called and told him that they did in fact have the part he needed and they could come out tomorrow and repair the unit. The air conditioning repair should take about four hours, and then he would be good to go.

While Jackson was not happy about the project being one more day, he liked the idea of a four-hour air conditioning repair that would end all of his issues. The kids were excited as well as everyone was fighting in the den at this point, and it was clear that it was time for everyone to get their personal space back.

The next day the air conditioning repair company came out and, after clearing the driveway, were able to install a new evaporator coil, and the AC unit immediately came back to life. Jackson was extremely happy the situation was over, and he was ready to move on with life. He paid his bill, and then everyone’s life went back to normal. In fact, things got busy again so quickly that he never took the window unit out of the den, which turned out to be a good thing because about three weeks later, the AC system stopped working again.

After the scheduling issues and the poor customer service of the last air conditioning repair agency, Jackson decided to go back to his usual company. They told him it would be about three days before they could get there this time, but he said that wasn’t a problem. After all, last time, he was told that the service would be right away, paid for it to be right away, and then still had to wait. So this time he was just going to wait three days and get air conditioning repair from someone he trusted. Given he was already dealing with repair again, he had serious questions about how trustworthy that another company was.

The second HVAC company was good on their word, and they came out to Jackson’s house three days later as they promised. While he was waiting he compared reviews between the company he usually used and the other company and found a vast difference. His usual company was revered around time, which was probably why they were so busy. The other company had a slew of bad reviews, most of which had to do with poor customer service, unreliability, and air conditioning repair fixes that didn’t last. Jackson wished he had read these reviews before he had them out because it seemed like he was dealing with all of those problems now too.

It didn’t take his usual HVAC company too long to figure out the problem. It looked like there was an issue with the breaker in his panel box. Jackson was surprised; he didn’t think that there was anything wrong with the panel box and questioned why this would happen. They said that when they looked a little closer, there were obvious problems with the coil, and most likely, the replacement is what led to the panel problems because of surges and improper installation.

Jackson was annoyed; while the new coil had got his system running again, its improper installation had led to it shutting off again. He wasn’t too happy about this situation, but he didn’t realize that he was about to get even more angry about what happened. The HVAC company told him that the first company had cut corners with his new evaporator coil, and while he paid the price for a new coil, it looked like it was some type of shoddy refurbished coil.

The reason why the first company had said they had a coil in stock was that they actually used some of the old parts from the broken coil to build a new part. The new coil was not, in fact, new, but an older coil that had some replaced parts in it. That meant that his broken coil was still, in effect, broken, even though he had paid the full price of the component. He wasn’t sure whether or not they lied to him so that they could finish the job quicker or because they were trying to make money off of him. Either way, it was dishonest, and he was extremely angry that this had happened. His usual company stated that they could replace it, but he would have to pay a second time for a new coil, so they would encourage him to talk to the first air conditioning repair first to see if they would correct the situation.

Jackson didn’t even know if he could get anyone to answer the phone, let alone get anyone to agree to fix their error now that it had been uncovered, but he didn’t want to pay for a second coil, so he said that he would. At first, he left a message with the first air conditioning repair company, but when no one returned his call he went back to calling. Throughout his work day, he called them on and off, hoping that someone would answer the phone. He even tried calling from his work number in case they were purposefully ignoring his phone calls.

Finally, someone answered his phone call today after he had found out about the coils and said that they had gotten his message and his case was under review. Jackson was quite angry, stating that it was still August and very hot in his home. They made the error, and there was nothing to review, they needed to come fix the situation now, or he would report them to the BBB and the Attorney General. He wasn’t sure what he could really do, but he knew this type of business practice was unethical. The receptionist stated she would talk to the manager right away, and after several threats were made the manager called Jackson back.

The manager said that they would replace the coil with a brand new coil this time and apologized for the misunderstanding. Jackson told him what he thought, which was that this was clearly not a misunderstanding, but the company had simply gotten caught. The coil was a very heavy piece, and three technicians had shown up at his home to install it. That meant at least three technicians who worked for the company were aware that they were about to scam him, and while he didn’t know how many the company employed in general, this was too many people on one call to call it a misunderstanding.

He added that the bill clearly stated that the piece was new, so there was no mistake that they knew they were supposed to use a new piece instead of using pieces and parts of another coil and pieces of parts of his broken coil to create this mess. Jackson told the manager that this had caused his panel box to short out, and he wanted to be reimbursed for that as well. The manager was not so quick to offer him reimbursement, but he stated that they would first replace the coil and then go from there. He claimed that there was no way to link the two problems together for sure, but he did admit that replacing an old coil with another old coil was not a fair business practice.

Jackson had to bite his tongue because he had a lot more to say than thank you, but right now, his focus was on getting the coil replaced so he could get his family back out of the den and into their beds. This had been a long summer, and he was just about over it. He didn’t want to deal with any more air conditioning repair emergencies and didn’t want to deal with this company any longer than he had to. He just wanted to get this mistake fixed so that he could move on with life.

To their credit, the company showed up the next day with the right part, and after a few hours, the AC was on again and working. Jackson was irritated because if they had done this in the first place, he wouldn’t be sitting where he was. He couldn’t stop thinking about the positive reviews he saw for his original company and the negative reviews he saw for this one. The information was right there in front of him, but because he was short-sighted and only thinking about immediate service, he ignored it.

Now he has learned a valuable lesson when it comes to air conditioning repair, it does not matter which company can get out to your home first. It matters what company can come out to your home and do the repairs correctly. He would never again make the mistake of choosing a company based on phone calls. He would research anyone he let in his home to avoid ending up with this type of hassle again. Adam, from the earlier story, was in the same place as Jackson and also learned a valuable lesson about screening any HVAC technicians or companies.

If you are looking for air conditioning repair but skeptical about who you can trust, take a minute to look at One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas. With years of local experience behind us, we guarantee all of our work and can help you get back into your cool home quickly.

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