Who Needs The BBB ? I've Got a Blog.

The Heat Pump: It's Complicated, Which Lets The Repairman Rob You.

Gee, i don't know how I got the reputation as a flamethrower. I just try to look out for you guys, but sometimes I go too far. I've had friends not always trust me, for fear of whatever we discussed being on this blog. Maybe they're a bit justified, and I think i have learned a lesson. Maybe this post will show that...

Some of you are already aware of what I'll be talking about here, while this will be new to some of you. The events I'll be talking about here have gone on over the past three weeks , so this is not a kneejerk reaction - I've waited until everything played itself out. Over the past three months, I've noticed the electric bill slowly getting worse and worse on my house on Millridge. I finally noticed that the thermostat reading about eight degrees higher than the actual air temp. Clearly, something is wrong when a $65 a month electric bill hits $175 a month.

I called the HVAC guy that I spent $1300 with last July for a new compressor, and he was more than happy to check it out. He calls me later, telling me that the condenser is bad, and that he'll need to replace the compressor with it - even though it's still under warranty, and it's going to be $1800. Red Flag. Then he calls me again, and tells me the upstairs unit is leaking as well, so I'd be better off just replacing the entire system, and he'll cut me a deal and do it for $3000. After all, the heat pump is all of 12 years old. Gee, thanks bud. He just admitted to me that he didn't even inspect the entire system before trying to sell me a heat pump.

Now, when i bought that compressor last year, I was up against the wall. I was 175 miles away, it was 95 degrees, and I had a pissed off tenant. I ws in no such rush this time. I asked the guy to fax me an estimate of what I 'needed'. It never came. By the way, I never got a copy of the repair bill from last July either. This jerkoff apparently didn't know what I do for a living either. Though no exactly the same, heat pumps and automobile AC/Heat systems are very similar - condensers and compressors are separate components, and they rarely fail together. It was obvious that this guy's business was slow, and he was trying to make a week's income off my ass. Nice try....

Here is the biggest issue. A week earlier, i had just paid off every person that I borrowed money from in late 2007 when I was unemployed. I was looking forward to a period of saving money, and enjoying life again like I used to. Then this... I swore that I had a giant black cloud over my head. But, like I said, it wasn't an emergency. The nice part of having friends who are mechanics is that they know other handy guys. One of my techs had a buddy who just got laid off from his HVAC gig, so he checked it out twice, and found that the heat wasn't working well due to the freon being gone from a leaking Schrader Valve (just like a car). He replcaed the valve, recharged the freon, and whammo !! Hot air blows once again, and the air temp is the same as the setting again. Thanks to Chase Hardee for his honesty and skill in fixing the system. Total cost ? $200 - I was so relieved, I gave him $250.....

And our other guy? Like I said, I learned to not down other people here. Let's just say that his business' name is the same as out State Nickname. All I know is if I tried to pull the same shit on my customers, i'd be fired and have a lot of explaining to do. The advice I have for you is this: if you don't understand the repairs, and it sounds like BS, get a second opinion.

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