Two weeks ago my piece of southern gold lost its shine and went kaput.  You see, living in the South during the summer, nothing is more valuable that air conditioning.  For proof, try living without if for a few days in 100+ heat and you will do just about anything to get the AC running again.  Knowing who to trust can be a leap of faith when dealing with AC professionals.  I am sure there are plenty of trustworthy individuals out there in the AC business, but they can be hard to find.  It all began the day before Father's Day.

The Problem Emerges- Tech 1:  I started the Saturday before Father's Day with eager anticipation of hanging out with my wife and two girls for an enjoyable weekend.  That all started going down hill about 3pm.  The 102 temperatures outside was quite unbearable and my house temp kept rising as well.  Realizing that something was wrong with the AC, I scrambled to find someone on the holiday weekend.  After many phone calls I located someone that a colleague referred to me.  They came out and assessed the situation.  He said that he recommended a product called super seal to fix the problem of any possible leak.  Not knowing squat about AC repair I agreed to let him do it.  He installed it and charged me nearly $500 for the super seal, service call, and added freon.  I was not upset about the price because I was impressed he came out on Father's Day to fix it, and I thought, "Hey, at least it is fixed."   I thought wrong!

Tech 2:  A week and a half later I started noticing my AC not cooling again during the heat of the day.  By Thursday of this past week the temperature was rising to 83 degrees in my house.  I knew this was not right so I called the tech but because it was the 4th of July weekend he was running a skeleton crew and was all booked up.  I understood his situation and decided to call someone else.  I used someone another colleague suggested.  He came to my house promptly.  I was told that the freon leaked out but he could not find the leak (he used an electronic freon sniffer).  He said he never recommends the super seal the other guy put in, but that the leak may have sealed itself with the super seal after the freon escaped.  He said that honestly he did not know.  He filled it with freon and gave me his cell number to let him know if it started not working again.  Charge - $125 for service call and freon.

Tech 3:  Well, sure enough two days later on Sunday (July 5th) the AC stopped cooling and pipes on the unit began to freeze.  I called tech number 2 but could not get in touch with him.  We retreated to a friends house who was out of town for the night.  Monday morning came around and after not being able to contact tech 1 or tech 2, I called a 3rd company who use to do schedule maintenance on my AC (I began to distrust their level of service so I had stopped using them).  They showed up early Monday morning.  The did the inspection (which included the freon sniffer) and identified the problem  (they also frowned at the super seal idea).  They said they found the freon leak and it was in the coils.  They told me the coil would be under manufacturer's warranty but that the labor would cost me $1100.  What??  Is that American dollars?  They then told me that would have to order the part and it may be the end of the week or early next week before it was fixed.  I'm now feeling sick to my stomach.  Then they gave me a bill of $165 which I got reduced to $90 quick fast and in a hurry by calling their office and complaining.

Let's see.... I am now out over $700 and my AC is still not fixed.

Click here for Part II...."the rest of the story..."