Complaint Review: A-1 American

I contacted this company last month because my a/c quit working.  I was told on the phone that the service call charge would be $79.  They said that the technician would diagnose the problem  and then inform me of the charges to fix the problem.  They also said that if I declined to have that work done, then I would be responsible for paying the $79.  The technician came out on a Saturday and started to check the unit and outside unit to figure out what was causing the a/c to not run. He worked for about half an hour and then said that the problem was "fixed."  The a/c then came on. He did not tell me what was needed to fix the problem or what the additional charges would be.

He then showed me what caused the unit to not run.  There is a drain line, a condensate, and the water leak detection device caused the unit to lock out because the line was clogged up.  If I had flushed the line regularly, a simple procedure which involves using a brush to clean the line, the problem would not have occurred. When he showed me what he did, I immediately presumed that the cost would be $79 since he didn't have to do any elaborate repairs. Instead, I was floored when I was billed $215.  When I complained about such a high charge for such a simple repair, he said that the standard cost was $270; I guess I got their standard advertised discount. I had not signed anything on the invoice before he said the a/c was fixed, and then he pointed to three different places on the paperwork and asked me to sign those spots. 

Those signatures were for "authorization to proceed with diagnosis:" "authorization to proceed with work;" and "acceptance of work performed."  I essential signed that I agreed to have them do the work and was satisfied with the results.  By the way, he wrote "0" for the diagnosis charge. This should have been $79. I was very irritated with being charged such a high price for such a simple repair, but at that point, didn't think it was worth complaining about. However, about two days later, I then discovered that the a/c unit was blowing warm air and it made the house only warmer.  The temps then were high enough that the house was around 80 degrees without the a/c working.

I called the tech back the following Wednesday and asked him to come and see what the problem was. I also noted that I expected him to fix the problem with no additional charge because I had paid to have the a/c working and it wasn't working correctly.  He assured me that he would come to my house after 7 p.m. that evening, but he never showed up and never called. I called the company again the next day and asked the technician to call me, and I was assured he would get the message but he never called.  I then wrote a letter to the company complaining of their service and summarized what I wrote here. I asked them to call me when they got the letter, which I mailed on a Friday, the 25th. I had not heard anything from them by the following Wednesday and called the company, still no response.

I finally called the next Friday and talked with Greg and faxed him a copy of my letter along with my email address. He replied that they would get back to me.  I hadn't heard anything a week and a half later and emailed him again; he replied that I had "signed approval for the all pricing before we left the job. By signing, you also were agreeing that work was performed to your satisfaction.  No adjustment is in order, sorry you feel otherwise."  In my letter I stated that they owed me $136 for services I didn't agree to,  That is what I think this company owes me