I contacted Thomas because his consultation rate was competitive and he was available immediately. He agreed to diagnose my problem for $69. When he arrived late at night on short notice, we felt like Thomas was a life saver. He was charming and somehow talked me into believing that we should pay $245 more to get a more full diagnosis. For $69 he said that all he could do was tell me that there was a leak in the system but for $245 he told me that he would tell me where the leak is. I am embarrassed now that I fell for this but I did it. He also told me that I could put refrigerant in and cool down for a bit and I did that. He was charging over $65 per pound for refrigerant and made me believe that I was getting a discount when he did it for $55 per pound. I googled the exact refrigerant and you can but it online for $7.20 per pound. When the refrigerant leaked out a week later, I called Thomas back to get him the $245 leak search (he "discounted" it to $195). He made it seem like it was difficult to do but only took 20 minutes. This is when I got suspicious of Thomas. He also quoted me $1310 to replace the leak in the coil and the coil was under warranty... so this quote was all labor and 7 pounds of refrigerant ($50). So when you do the math it was a 3-4 hour job so Thomas' hourly rate was $200-$300 per hour. At this point my intuition told me that this was not a competitive quote and when I looked in online forums, everyone told me that the quote was outrageous. So I called around to get a second opinion and I got Pardee to come and they gave a second opinion for free and even came on short notice. They gave a full diagnosis the first time and fixed my issue for $955. The guy from Pardee said that the issue was obviously the coil and he didn't understand why Acute had such an expensive diagnosis to a very obvious issue. I don't know if Pardee is the best thing out there but with my babies crying all day because of the heat, I wasn't exactly in a position to fully shop around. If you're willing to shop around, I was very surprised how many HVAC companies have a free second opinion. All I know is that while everyone I dealt with at Acute was friendly and came on short notice, their prices are outrageous. They did end up refunding me the $195 for the leak search when I confronted them on their sleazy business model of taking advantage of people who are desperate to fix their AC.... But I wish Thomas could have stayed an extra 20 minutes to do the leak search the first time because if I had known how bad the leak was, I wouldn't have wasted money on the overpriced refrigerant. Also if I knew on the first visit that the labor rate was $200-$300 per hour I would have ran for the hills. Thomas said they charge by the job, not the hour but it's not hard to figure out the math. So my recommendation is to avoid using this company if you're paying out of pocket. If you do use them, I recommend getting a second opinion (but don't show them the quote from Acute until after they give you a quote because their quote will likely be way under). If you have a home warranty paying for it, I can say that everyone that works there is very friendly and they are available at a moment's notice so in that case they may be a good choice. read more