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That one week in July when my AC died taught me a $900 lesson
My compressor went out during that heat wave and I called the first guy on Google who charged me $900 for a 'diagnostic fee' before telling me I needed a whole new unit. Turns out it was just a bad capacitor, which my neighbor fixed for $15 has anyone else had emergency HVAC guys try to upsell them like that?
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mark4919d ago
Read somewhere that HVAC companies actually train their techs to spot "wallet revealing" signs like nice cars or new builds and push the expensive repairs accordingly. My cousin who worked for a big chain told me they had a whole class on how to detect a bad capacitor but still quote a compressor replacement first. That $15 fix you got is criminal given what they wanted to charge. Did your neighbor show you what the bad part looked like, I heard they're pretty obvious once you know what to check?
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michaelw2619d ago
Buddy of mine had a nearly identical thing happen at his place last summer. He told me the tech pointed at the compressor and tried to sell him a whole new unit for like $4,000 before his dad came over and swapped a $12 relay in ten minutes. My friend says he makes a point now to look at the capacitor himself before calling anyone, says it's just a big silver can on the side and you can tell if it's bulging.
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