Complaint Review: American Technical Service LLC - Chantilly Virginia

This company is a bunch of crooks trying to pad their billing to my HSA!

As a teenager, and well into my 20’s I worked in engineering to pay for college.  I worked a great deal on AC/ cooling units at a large biotech company, as well as repair farm equipment.  I was certified, and when the issue with my AC started, I looked at it first.  Then consulted 3 other professionals before the lawyers involved in the issue told me to use my HSA for the repairs; so that I could show independent professionals agreed with me.  I am not an idiot, as the technicians of company seem to think, and I already spoke with multiple individuals to gain opinions, long before calling my HSA.

At 4:14 PM I received a call saying my roommate did not open the door.  I was still a few minutes away, and let them into my home when I arrived.

At 4:34 I called my husband thinking maybe the technician would listen to a man.  So keep in mind, all of this happened in LESS THAN 20 MINUTES!!!!  Let’s forget that he asked for payment 5 times before entering the home, and just focus on how they are crooks.

When the technician asked what I called for I said, “When we bought the house, the former owner said they would replace the AC because it is from 1960, and did not work for over 10 years.  He then forced Freon into the unit, which was beyond repair, and we are suing the former owner, but need to replace the unit.  We have had 3 other people out and they agree it needs to be preplaced and is not fixable”

The technician who spoke, said “So you called me because it is old”  The other guy wandered around looking in my closet  at that point, but later was in my living room looking at my shelves. 

I responded to the chauvinist technician, “No, I called you because it is broken and needs to be replaced.”

The guy went outside and then came back in to ask me where the circuit breaker was, because the outdoor unit was off.  This was done by the technician who came by Sunday (6 days earlier) because the pressure on the exterior unit was near 7000. 

I needed to do something near the unit, and passed it and the measurement was around 3500 when I saw it.  A second later, the chauvinistic technician came and told me the unit  “Only needs Freon” 

But this is not true, #1 the unit did not run long enough to tell a true reading, and #2 did he not just hear me when I told him it had been forced with Freon 3 times in the last 2 months!?!?!?!?!?   

I explained to the man, there was no way I was going to pay him to break the unit  more, and do EXACTLY what was done previously,  just to have to call again in a few weeks.

He then started arguing with me that if I disagreed with him, to just pay him and “tell the insurance you disagree with my opinion.”

Again, 3 people have said the unit needs repair, it has not worked in over 10 years, and he is telling me to force MORE Freon into the already overloaded coil!  Which he has not let run long enough to check the pressure on?

At one point he also told me “The pressure is only 2000”.  Um, NO, it was over 3000 the time I looked at it!

I did not want to have to lose my s**t on this ignorant man so I got my phone, and called my husband to speak to the chauvinist tech, who decided he could not listen to a woman.

My husband explained that we have had 3 opinions already, and his is the only one thinking forcing more Freon into a broken condenser will fix anything.  Other people did it just to see if it would help temporarily, but no one, other than this company, though it was a low Freon problem.

The technician than started screaming at my husband and threw a fit, and left.  He then came back and asked me for the deductible money, and I again told him I was not going to pay someone to try and scam me. 

Honestly, if the service tech said only the outdoor portion of the AC system needed repairing, I would have agreed.  The interior portion works fine, despite being 50 years old.  It is the exterior portion that needs replacing.  However, this company was more concerned with padding their billing to the HSA.

I am 100% convinced they intended to have me call them every week or two to have the unit forced with Freon, or to at least say they added Freon, over and over again to get more money than just replacing the unit.  Freon is CRAZY expensive, especially in the summer.  He could probably charge about $800 or more each time he came out vs just the $1500 - $3500 to replace the outside unit!

Additionally, there is OBVIOUSLY a Freon leak, and forcing more Freon is not only illegal, but bad for the environment!  Never once did they say “Oh we will check and repair any leaks”  I was just told they were going to force more Freon, into an obviously broken system. 

Crooks plain and simple.  I think they might do good work for private clients who pay them directly, because those people seem to like them.  However, for the HSA, they are just seeing dollar sings and hearing cha-ching as they try to screw people they think don’t know any better over.   

If you don’t have a basic understanding of this kind of stuff, don’t let them come and lie to you.