I think I've been screwed and need advice
 

My AC went out this past week. Called up a local company that a lot people spoke highly of. They told me I most likely had a leak, pumped up the system with freon, and charged me $500. A few days later it's not working again. They came back out, told me I had a leak (a huge leak), and told me I needed a new system. This was Friday.

Today (Sunday) a friend of a friend came out, found the leak, repaired it, and filled it up with freon and it is working great.

Did the first company rip me off? Seems to me they failed to fix my problem, just charged me for freon, and then tried to sell me a new AC system.

Can I get my money back?

Stupid people tend to get ripped off easily.

$500 to recharge a system is excessive especially since they didnt fix the leak. If it were me i'd cancel any type of payment i made and let em sue me.

Yeah they ripped you off hoping you'd buy a new system after it kept going out from them just filling it with freon and not fixing the leak.

I know it's only $500 but out of principle I'd call the owner of the company tomorrow and tell him what the rep did ( the rep could just want a commission and the owner doesn't know he's fucking people over ) and demand your money back, if they refuse charge it back fuck them they wasted your time and money :2 cents:

:1orglaugh The concealment.

In my opinion you were absolutely ripped off Marine. I would talk with whoever the head of the company is in a polite but firm matter. Explain to him what happened as he may not be aware of what his employees have done and may volunteer all or a portion of your money back. If he doesn't or gets shitty take him to small claims court. I haven't lived in Calif for a couple of decades but as I recall back in the day it only cost like 20 or 25 dollars to file. You do not need an attorney and in fact back in the day an attorney was not allowed in smalls claim court, may still be that way or not. but you probably can google that info.

For the small amount of time and money it will cost you I would go after the $500.00 if I were you Marine.

why would you be upset OP. u love reading lies from the liberal media. you never got upset when the media lied to you about hilarys guaranteed win.

you dont like to get lied to by your AC guy too?

hypocrite.

:1orglaugh

I would have thought the company that came out didn´t do the job right. They may have missed the problem unintentionally, however, to get the money back would still be correct as you have now fixed the problem.

Job done :2 cents:

this :thumbsup

I played a very similar game a few years back. The repair company came out and told me I had a leak. They charged the system, found and fixed the leak. They did tell me that there likely is more than one leak so this may not have fixed it. Sure enough, a few months later it is dead again. This time they wanted to sell me a whole new unit. Luckily, my brother installs these things, but he mostly works on commercial buildings. I talked to him, he had a friend come out and the friend told me I did have multiple leaks, but it should be easy to fix. He replaced a few hoses, charged the system again, and I haven't had a problem since.

In your case, I would ask first: Did he say he had fixed the leak? If so, you got ripped off. If not, why didn't he fix the leak? If it were me, I would follow the advice others have given and call the company, talk to someone with some authority and ask them why they came out, charged you $500 and didn't fix shit.

If you end up having to get a whole new unit, get several bids. You will likely find prices that vary greatly.

I used to think you were just a troll, now I realize I was wrong. You're just an asshole.

A freon fill up is like 10$ in my country and if they rip you off it's like 20$...500$? LOL...500$?...LOL...you can get like a new split system for 500$...

Call the BBB

Okay, so I am not far off here.... It's a small company and the owner is going to call me on Monday to talk about prices for a new system, so I'll let him have it then.

500 is excessive, I have paid $200 for similar. But we don't know the size of your system. The poster above saying he can get a new split system for $500 probably isn't aware of US central cooling systems, he's thinking about a one room split AC. Be aware it's difficult (impossible?) to detect a leak in a system with no freon, so adding some is a first step but should be followed up with actual repair.

nonsense. rochard is constantly spamming political lies, picking on my sides ideas, engaging in fraud & selective outrage here.

i'm done being nice back to people that spam false shit about trump here. done. then he complains about lies. what a joke.

claims he has me on ignore, yet he posts in many of my threads. he's a liar. hypocrite.

its funny to me that a liar makes a thread bitching about lying. thats fresh.

:2 cents:

You haven't blocked him & Relic yet? :1orglaugh

They post hate in tandem so either they both live in the same trailer or it's same guy with fake nics :2 cents:

you havent blocked me yet dumb lib. im still waiting.

:1orglaugh

If he was a licensed heating and cooling contractor contact himand ask for a refund and if he doesn't comply; call the state next and find out in what form they accept consumer written complaints against his license -- you can make claim of incompetence and fraud.

Push him to the wall with a sharp stick -- the state licensing board.

:2 cents:

now you need more solar panels to compensate for the freon you put in the atmosphere. In Europe freon is forbidden for years, cause of destroying the ozon layer.

ouch, that blows. either a ripoff or just complete incompetence, i'd try to get my money back - at least parts of it - from the dumbfucks who charged $500.

i cunt a4d an AC system 2go wrong... :(

amusingly because there is a European Union - otherwise that still might not be implemented in all EU countries. Like many other things. :2 cents:

Freon-12 was banned in 1989 when the Montreal Protocol went into effect.
It has been ratified by 197 countries, including all U.N. members, and the European Union.

I don't see we need a Euro for that and a political Union. The other 160 countries didn't nee a EU for that.

Hard to trust companies nowadays, I hope things resolve for you and you get a refund.

Agreed.. $500 is ridiculous

With all the proper paperwork ( if you have evidence and a friend ready to back you in court ) you'd first try to contact the company directly to reverse the payment or get a credit with them. I can't tell if $500 is a lot for your system - you may be living on a huge ranch.

yup:2 cents::thumbsup

I paid 200$ for my AC and it still works fine after several years.

They could have done a pressure measure before putting new freon in ... The leak must have been sizable as in a day it was all gone.
Then they can load the system with a colored gas that will help to find the leak .

They present themselves as professionals, should act like some .

Get your money back ... any way you can.

Yeah same type of game in Modesto last summer for us. Fan blade was uneven so it started making horrible screeching noises and then no cool air. Local guys came out, said needed custom new blade so they made it, charged 900.00 then two days after same issue, no air and it's 105 out. They come back say we don't know what is wrong now? It must be different and we'll come out to quote new systems in a day, quote is 4900.00. So we get guy that does it down the street, he says it's just teh fan blade guys? He goes into Modesto downtown grabs a new one puts it in for 50 bucks and it's never been an issue since.

they ripped you off. Chargeback the charge on your cc if you paid that way and let them fight for it

Many of these guys will try to sell you on a new system if they can. My central air broke recently, the thing is over 20 years old. Any technician would just recommend to replace it, or come up with an extensive list of repairs. I did a little poking around, found it was the run capacitor that failed and was keeping the condenser fan motor from starting. I popped in a replacement part for $18 and the thing is running as good as ever. I will keep it going until the compressor fails, then upgrade.

Exactly the same I feel when they try to sell me VR when I'm barely started masturbating watching FREE porn GIFs :1orglaugh

you both are really complete idiots...

https://i.gyazo.com/966d9c6ec184aa46...d5171a7cb7.png

you both troll here constantly & most, if not all really don´t like you & your ways :2 cents:

You both are a couple of real DonaldTrumps :1orglaugh

so you´re going to wait until he says it´s this much, you´ll say, my mate fixed it for so much & say now I want compensation because you guys didn´t fix it before, and if you don´t cover the refund, then you´ll give a big write up in the local paper & all of the places they advertise...

this your plan? How did it go? Has he been yet?

I'd rip into them, if you can't do that find someone who will. I always research who I'm talking to before doing business, the internet has mostly solved the problem of outright crooks.

If you don't like dealing with car trouble my recommendation would be to get a boring reliable car from a Japanese brand. A Honda Civic or Toyota Camry. Have a licensed dealer in or around your town and you'll never have much problem. I call them and they say not to do certain things until it's completely shot, they don't look for things to add to the bill.

The reason for this is they are already known for reliability but the dealers are set on prices and you won't get anything sneaky done. They might avoid responsibility for small things but far from the 3rd party shops.

My Honda motorcycle in California had problems and the guys at the Honda dealer replaced the clutch for a fraction of any of the 3rd parties were willing to do it for. They were faster and better put together.

A lot of the 3rd party shops are just unethical flunkies

So some follow up here.... They called this morning to discuss installing a new system. I told them we got it fixed on Sunday and that I was "Furious" with them. I explained that they came in and charged $500 and didn't repair anything, and another company came in, fixed it, and charged me a lot less.

They are going to look into offering some kind of a refund.

:1orglaugh

Not cool to perpetuate hate & negativity here Woulter nothing funny about that :321GFY

My question is why would you think pumping a system with leaks would fix your problem? You should have caught it right then and there.