I wish I could give them negative stars, and will be following this up with a BBB call.
I requested a service call to troubleshoot my inoperative central AC system. Brandon from American Plumbing showed up with a pleasent smile and reassured me he would take care of the problem. I told him the AC wasn't coming on and described a few shelf help things I did to try and fix it.
He got right to work after confirming that the AC pump wasn't coming on, and started by measuring the resistance of the compressor motor windings. He showed me how the Starter winding was 3.4ohms compared to the run windings 1.8 ohms, and said that was a bad reading as the 2 should be within 0.1 or 0.2 ohms of each other. The lower ohms of the run winding was reducing the current thus preventing the motor from starting. Well, I've been an Electronics Technician for over 40 years and lower resitance causes more current not less, also both ohm readings were reasonable unless you look up the specific motor specifications in the manual (he did not).
The next 20ish minutes were spent telling me how much better off I'd be replacing the entire Central Heating/Air system than fixing the broken compressor motor. Oh the normal price is $10K but I can get you a deal... yada yada yada, only $8800 installed tomorrow if you act now...
I asked Brandon about checking something else and he went on to try and force the compressor on by manually actuating the relay/contactor but that didn't work. And then I reminded him that he never put the connector back on the compressor motor after the initial resistance readings. So he tried it again with the motor connected and it started right up. Then he starts telling me how there must be a leak in the system because the coolant lines (which he actually called "Freon") were frosting up and his guages were reading below 100psi.
Now he starts claiming that there's a pressure leak or some foreign object damage to the compressor and I'll still need that full HVAC system replacement for the low low cost of $8800. I ask if it's correct to not replace the refrigerant lines if suspects a leak, as what if the leak is in the old lines. He then tells me that they'll fully test the line during the new system installation, but that if I want the lines replaced it'll raise the price to over $9200.
He provides me a full quote for the new system and I say that I'll get back to him in a day or 2, with my decision.
The next thing I do is call another company for a 2nd opinion. Kool Breeze sends out their technicians and in less than an hour they diagnos that the heat pump's relay is bad and replace it, they claim that the PSI readings are fine, next they install/program the new Thermostat I had already purchased, and charged me $135.00 out the door with a fully working HVAC...
You tell me??? $9200.00 or $135.00 how many stars would you give American Plumbing??? read more