I try so hard to believe people are good and honest.
And really, most of the time I am right. Most people are good and honest people.
But tonight, as I sit here in my 85 degree house at just after midnight, I'm struggling.
The beginning of this summer my central air conditioning officially died. I've had problems with it the past couple summers but have been able to pray it along. Not this year. And because the unit is 24 years old, replacement parts aren't even available.
A new unit cost me $5,000.00.
I don't have $5,000. I don't even have a credit card I can put $5,000 on. So I called the bank, and well, I might have forgotten to tell them I no longer have a job. Either way, they loaned me the $5,000 I needed for a new unit.
And the house was cooler for about a day.
I've called out the AC guy five times since he has installed it. Each time he comes out I get a different reason why the brand new $5,000 unit isn't working.
The latest reason I am being told is I have a 3-ton unit and the size of my house requires a 5-ton unit. Well, there's a couple problems with that theory:
- I've always had a 3-ton unit.
- Last year I had a barely working 3-ton unit that kept my house cooler than my current brand new energy efficient 3-ton unit.
- If my house requires a 5-ton unit, why did this guy sell me a 3-ton unit? He is the same repairman I was using last summer to band aid my unit together. He was already familiar with the size of my house, my duct work, etc. He never ever one time said hey you need a bigger AC unit to properly cool your house.
- This brand new 3-ton unit is supposed to be energy efficient and save me money on my electric bill (hence setting off some of the $5,000 cost). My electric bill came today. Want to guess? My bill is $70 higher this month than it was at the exact same time last year with an old, non-energy efficient unit.
But, the most important part, it's after midnight and my house is still 85 degrees inside. We already have ceiling fans and I've put box fans in every room so we can try and sleep.
When I called today, he told me he will come out tomorrow and "try and figure something out."
Yeah, what we are going to figure out is which you can do faster - give me back my $5,000 or give me a working air conditioning unit.
My friends keep telling me to go on Facebook and warn people against using this guy. I really don't want to do that. Everyone needs to make a living and I don't want to ruin someones business.
But, this needs made right. And it needs made right, right away.
Because the hotter I get, the crankier and louder I'm going to get.
I have gone through the exact same thing....I have insurance that pays for repairs on my house. I pay a deductible and they pay the rest...that means they get to choose which service comes out and "fixes" the problem. For 2 years they have sent the same company and for 2 years my a/c keeps going out. Finally last week I lost my cool (see what I did there, haha) and yelled my way up the corporate ladder until they let me call out my own repairman, a personal friend, and paid him to fix it. One bad relay switch later and I've had a very cool house and am super happy. Sometime we just have to stop being so nice to get what we need.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE --- after multiple phone calls where I definitely stopped being nice, I have a different, brand new and bigger central air conditioning unit. I also have a new warranty and a bill of sale that says $0 for installation, $0 for labor. Although I will never use or recommend this company again, I am happy that he did finally make it right.
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