From "Kinda upset" to "Will refer out to anyone" customer right here. Ok, so here's the story. My…read morewife and I have a home warranty service for the house and casita, and I have an office in the casita part where we have a mini split (Samsung) installed that has been GREAT since day 1.
After several years though, it developed a leak and would stop working and the original company wouldn't service it and really left a bad taste in my mouth. Fast forward to now and my wife and I got this Home Warranty program (NOT for this issue mind you, but our house was 5 years old now and that's about the time things start breaking...) and it wasn't cheap. We made sure to include everything too, from the pool to the casita and everything, and we had used the warranty program for some other smaller problems already this year when we got into summer and the AC needed freon again. What it really needed was this leak fixed though.
Enter "All Star Refrigeration" and this is who the Warranty People sent out to take a look. Ninab was the tech's name and man.... I've got my own business now for 20+ years and I know all too well about installers, and the people you have working for you, and how important they are, but let me tell you, this guys the real deal. He came over and listened patiently to me as I tried to explain what all was wrong and checked the levels and agreed that it was out of Freon and needed a refill. I tried to explain that it had a leak too, oh and by this time, it was so bad that the whole unit began leaking water too, of which I had a cooler underneath it to catch all the dripping water, and of course I'd turn it off when it began doing that, but still, this issue was becoming much larger than just low on Freon. He told me that there's a process with the warranty company and that we had to report the leak after the initial visit and would need to schedule it at a later date. Makes sense I figured, and sort of the same thing doctors do when referring out a specialist.
Still here? You've read all this so far? I'm proud of you, lol. Well, the freon injection really helped with the cooling off part but unfortunately what it seemed to do was make the leaking MUCH worse. This is my office btw, that houses my computer, files, etc. etc. and I NEED to work from this, so I called All Star Refrigeration again and spoke to Joe. I tried to express my problem, and he said that he'd try and get someone out there that day (Friday) or worst-case Monday. Ugh.. I knew what this meant and I've been in his shoes before. This meant Monday and I had to deal with a weekend of this crap... ugh.
Monday rolled around and no call from Joe and so I figured I'd call around noon to make sure I wasn't forgotten. He answered (of which he ALWAYS did btw, which is an amazing trait - he knew it was me and could have easily sent me to VM), and I asked when someone was coming over. He explained that someone was there that morning and rang the doorbell and no one answered so they left. Well, you can imagine how upset this got me. It's 2026... I asked Joe if someone called or texted me or anything and he said they did and left a VM, of which my VM I did get was of someone walking on rocks or gravel for about 15 seconds. It was at 10am though, and I was in my office and couldn't hear the doorbell from there... maybe he's telling the truth, lol. Still, I need this thing fixed and I'm tired of being strung along or having issues with AC companies (remind me in my next life to run an HVAC business, I will KILL it ).
I got a little heated, upset even, and Joe tried to calm me down and I just hung up hoping they'd send someone out again. Well, I was surprised when Ninab (this guys THE BEST) showed up again and went straight to work. He saw the cooler full of water and went up into the attic on a 110 degree day and saw that the line was clogged as well and began cleaning out all the drain-outs. He did all he could to fix it and reported the leak to the Home Warranty company so that if (or when?) in ~3+ months I'm out of Freon again he'll come back and fix that leak I have every bit of faith that they will. They were fast, competent, and left me feeling every bit happy about my experience with them and in an office that is 70-degrees and not 100!! That alone deserves my praise.
I'd definitely call them to have your AC's looked and fixed and the experience was overall very good. Thanks Joe and Ninab! I hope I don't need your services again, but it's nice to know your a phone call away from saving my hot butt.
Stay Cool out there!
Now I just need to call a drywall company....