Daffy's

I have now been without AC for 9 days with 3 different service techs. First [redacted] came out at our request because the AC took a very long time to get cold. He came out took 5 hours and left us without our air conditioning on a Wednesday and said he would be back. He came back the next day took another 4-5 hours and couldn't fix it. He says he will bring a tech lead name Damian. The next day he comes back without Damian and took another 3-4 hours and said he will call the lead tech and gave up. [redacted] was nice but ruined our air conditioner. Then Jose shows up on a Saturday and spends about 3 hours diagnosing. He finds out that Johnny over pressurized the system to 279 pounds and that Johnny out heating thermostat on my system and not a air conditioning thermostat. He claims that what he did will resolve the issue and just give the AC 4-6 hours to recharge by leaving it running. I waited and cold air never came. Then they send out [redacted] that didn't show up to our house on Monday until 8:00pm. He diagnosed everything and said the problem was our expansion valve. He was able to get the air running cold for about 6 hours so yet again were were without AC for a total of 5-6 days. Also my AC is in pieces and not put back together properly. He said he needs to order the part and would come back out in the next day or so. He called me back and said he won't be out because the part doesn't come in until Wednesday. He calls me Wednesday morning says he will be there after 3:00pm and nobody shows up nobody calls. I call the next morning and he says he had a flat that night and that he would be there between 12-1:00. Again nobody shows up and nobody calls. I have left 3-4 voicemails with there company and nobody returned the phone call. My family has now been without AC in Texas heat when for 9 days and going to have to get a hotel tonight. I would never recommend this company to anyone. Our system worked from the get go and probably just needed a slight maintenance on the expansion valve.

A-US Air was dispatched by American Home Shield (AHS) to troubleshoot and repair my AC with a seized compressor. The technicians were knowledgeable and quickly confirmed the problem.

My issue with the company is their predatory billing practices. They gave me an invoice up-front for the services and supplies that would not be covered by the AHS warranty. One of these items was for Tamper Proof/Locking Servicing Caps for the refrigerant. They wanted to charge me $145 for these caps because the ones I had were "out of code." A quick search on the internet and I was able to find them from many vendors for $25. In bulk, they were even cheaper. A-US Air marked the caps up 480% from retail. I told the techs I would buy my own caps and they were nice enough to not argue with me.

Their second predatory billing practice is how much they charge per pound of R22 refrigerant. I understand R22 is getting phased out, the supply/demand involved with pricing and the price will only continue to go up. However, I was able to price R22 from several vendors online in the $18-25 per pound price range. A-US Air charges $60 per pound...a XXX-XXX% markup from retail. AHS covers the first $10 per pound of refrigerant, and I'm ok with that. However, the extra $50 per pound comes out of my pocket, which added up to $700 since my unit uses 14 pounds of R22.

Once the parts issued, the technicians replaced the compressor and got everything working just fine. They even came back out to replace a faulty servicing port that would not close properly during the first service call. I can't fault the work the company did. I just can't recommend them because they try and cram in "extras" on the billing.