This is a Public Service Message for anyone consid...

This is a Public Service Message for anyone considering having Heating or AC work done.
A few days ago, my husband and I noticed that the air conditioner wasn t cooling. We purchased our AC unit from A#1 Air a few years back, so he said to give them a call.
When the came to give me the report, he said he noticed on their records that we d had several service calls in the past couple of years, and we might want to think about getting a new AC system. I thought to myself, ummm I don t think we ve had many repairs in the past couple of years and besides, this system isn t that old. I told him no thank you, we d just repair the existing system.
He said the evaporator coil was busted, and we d lost most of our coolant, which had caused the compressor to lock up outside. He said the total for the recommended work would be $3,128. The technician said he d need payment to schedule the work, so I wrote a check, and we scheduled the repairs for the same day.
Later I was talking with a realtor friend of mine, and he suggested I get a second opinion, so we called Jacob at Everest Heating & Cooling a local, independent HVAC service company. Jacob said that if it was what A#1 Air said he thought he could do the job for $2500, but he d like to come out and evaluate the situation first. Jacob evaluated our system and came back with the following analysis:
Our system is an Amana not the Lennox system that A#1 Air wrote up on service sheet.
Our system is under warranty through 2021, including the evaporator coil A#1 Air did not tell me this.
Not busted evaporator coil as A#1 Air said no replacement needed.
We only needed 7 pounds of refrigerant. Did not need to replace all of it as A#1 Air indicated on their service sheet.
The total for the repairs from Everest was $283.50, a whopping $2,844.50 less than A#1 Air. Because Jacob was very nice and helpful and saved us so much money, my husband ended up purchasing a one year service agreement as well, bringing our grand total with Everest to $421.50 still $2,706.50 less than A#1 Air.
I feel like A#1 Air was trying to take advantage of us. They tried to sell me a new system when ours is still under warranty. When that didn t work, they tried to charge us for parts and service that weren t broken, and even if they were broken, the parts at least would be covered by warranty.
What s more, Jacob knew what A#1 Air had quoted us. He could have easily agreed with their assessment and charged us the $2500 he d initially quoted, but he didn t. He was honest and ethical and told us the system just needed refrigerant and took care of the repair on the spot. And he didn t charge us any extra for coming out after hours.
Everest Air and Heating has definitely earned all of our AC and heating business in the future. And you can bet I will be telling everyone what a great job he did and recommending them to everyone I know. Thanks, Everest and Jacob for being ethical and honest and having your customer s best interests at heart.