Contacted the company and spoke to a customer service rep. Sounded nice on the phone and informative. Told them I thought the system was running low on freon as it was running quite often. And asked how much it would cost to "get it checked" and how much the freon would cost per lb to get replaced. (That way we could both have a strong understanding of what work was expected and what I'd be expected to pay.) She told me that they would do a regular maintenance for approximately $50 and that the freon was $90/lb.. I thought to myself, ok, that's a fair deal. They come do a full service maintenance on your system, which you probably need anyway, and while doing that they check for any problems such as fluid levels. You get everything cleaned, and then if it needs freon or coolant they charge you per pound for it. At least that was my impression... Now this is what happened... The tech got to the house the next day slightly early which wasn't too much of a problem, though I was away from the house and wasn't expecting until later. No problems at this point. I arrive at my house and the tech is parked in the middle of the driveway, no biggie, I just park on the side of the road. Went ahead and unlocked the doors for him to let him do his maintenance. First, he went to feel the air from a ceiling vent and said it's not cooling (note: they will only do maintenance on a system that IS cooling). I immediately tell him, no it's just set to fan mode where fan is ON but the AC unit is off. He then takes a brief look in the AC closet. We talk for a minute. He seemed confused as to whether this was for an estimate ("service call" $75) or a maintenance ($50). I told him that I suspected that the freon levels were low and he told me that freon would be $120/lb. I then told him that the lady I talked to yesterday told me $90/lb to which he gave me a funny look. At some point later, he decided to respect the earlier price I was given, but didn't seem too happy about it. He then proceeded to look at the outside condensing unit, an older heat pump. It wasn't long later, perhaps 5 minutes, that he came back inside to tell me that it was 3lbs low on freon, and would be $270 ($90x3lbs) to replace). I started to think about it and was asking some question and then right around that time he got a phone call and went outside to take that. I stayed inside for a minute and thought about it. I then decided, even though I don't like the price (I was expecting in the $150-$200 range) I would pay it, I was hoping that I could strike a deal though, where he didn't do the extra $50 maintenance, that he hadn't started on yet, that I had agreed to the previous day with the customer service rep, but that he would just top off the freon, thus saving me at least that. Much to my chagrin, I came to learn that not only would he still be charging me $50+$270, I would be receiving no maintenance, because this now fell into the category of a "service call", which just so you know, means it's $75+ any repair that's needed, and that DOES NOT include any maintenance. I tried to reason with him, "well if you're going to charge me the $50 in addition then at least respect what the lady had originally sold me on the phone", and that was to do the maintenance in addition to replacing the freon. He begrudgingly agreed though tried to argue with me the value of it. He said that's "just checking the amp draw and flushing the condensate line", I said, "what about changing the filters, cleaning the coils? Everything I've ever heard or seen about HVAC maintenance includes those things.." to which he stopped me saying that was not a maintenance and coils were extra. (Note: Inside AC Unit coil cleaning is not included per their maintenance. Though outside coil cleaning is. I found this out later. You can call and ask what exactly is included for their maintenance and they'll inform you.) At this point I began to feel anxious. I was initially prepared to take the hit to replace the freon, but now I felt like my arm was getting twisted into paying more money and I was actually starting to become afraid that they were not going to leave there without charging something, for just showing up. Thankfully at the last minute he said he could just put everything back and leave and I wouldn't have to pay anything, to which I agreed. I then quietly waited for them to leave, hoping that they wouldn't damage anything out of spite. Maybe I haven't dealt with enough HVAC companies, so this might just be the typical. But I did not have a good experience and felt very mislead. I felt like they were trying to charge me more while trying to give less. How hard is it to actually clean a simple AC system on a small house like this? I've even done it myself a few times. I can't understand why this company has so many good reviews, maybe I was just the unlucky one, however I cannot recommend, and I am actually nervous now to call the next company, for fear of a similar experience. read more