A/C service, what is a fair charge?

[Hugh R]

I sold my house a week ago and am renting back for two weeks. The A/C quit on Saturday and its been upwards of 90 degrees inside the house. My "landlord", the buyer of the house, called an A/C repair guy on Saturday, he futzed around for 1/2 hour and changed the capacitor and it still didn't work. I asked if he had power to the compressor, checked the voltage and bingo, a bad breaker, old style breaker and my electrician is sourcing one out.

A/C guy presented me with a $329 bill which I reluctantly paid, figuring I'd back charge the new owner of the house. Talked to the new owner later and it turns out he gave the A/C guy a visa card number for $120 to "Show up" on a Saturday service call.

I'm not an A/C guy, nor an electrician, but the first thing I would have done is see if the unit actually had power, he did that last on my suggestion.

So around $450 total for a service call that he didn't fix anything. I've called the A/C company twice this morning and left voice mails.

I'm thinking I should put a stop payment in with my credit union.

I just wanted the A/C to work since we're packing to move in a week and it was so freaking hot and humid, I couldn't stand to be in the house.

We've been living in the RV with good A/C for two nights.

Thoughts?

[stomachmonkey]

Is the bill itemized?

If yes I'd,

a) stop payment
b) call AC company and inform them you are issuing a new check
c) issue new check deducting any costs associated with installing new capacitor and any cost related to coming out

Probably not a lot of money and some people will suggest just suck it up and move on which is not bad advice but I suspect like me you don't like being screwed.

Put another way, it's not about the Benjamins.

[Hugh R]

I have no idea whether it needed a new capacitor or not, since he never got it working. IMHO, he was just changing parts to see if it would work.

Again, I'm not an A/C guy nor an electrician, BUT I do know enough to check if something electrical isn't working to first see if I have power. In this case he did it last, again at my suggestion.


just called the A/C company again for the 3rd time this morning and had to leave a V/M.

Yeah, you are right, on a $700,000 house sale, with a huge profit, its not about the bucks, a few hundred isn't going to kill me. I could be a dick and try and stick it to the new buyer, but he's been upfront and a very fair guy since we entered this transaction.

[Scott Douglas]

Hugh you need to change your mind set now. You're a tenant, not an owner. First thing when he handed you a bill is you should have referred him to the landlord for payment.
I'd leave a remark on Yelp if they have a review/recommend thing for that company. They should at least know how to do a proper diagnosis.
Now the question is, why did the breaker fail?

Stop your payment and I'm sure you'll be hearing from the a/c guys in a hurry.

[Baz]

If you still have the old capacitor.....it can be checked to see if it was good. The tech should have that test meter with him to do that...measure mili-something or others....

Plenty of YT videos showing how to do this.

But...checking power to unit should have been #1 on troubleshoot list.....you ALWAYS start there....ALWAYS.....

[speeder]

Stop payment. They will then return your calls.

I'd imagine they're a little busy right now, though.

[Hugh R]

Yep, no longer the owner, the breakers are a 40 y/o design and known to be a piece of crap. Zinsce or something. He never got it running, and I have no idea is the capacitor was bad or not, he checked the freon level and said it was spot on.

Replacements are like $200 versus newer design for $20.

Thank you Denis, Scott and Baz you are confirming that I'm not a dick.

[rusnak]

The old guy is like a blind homeless man who got caught shoplifting.

You feel like a dick for busting him, but on the other hand, he's not entitled to the money.

I don't know why I thought of that analogy. Probably because I put myself on Hobo Patrol at night due to thefts on our property.

[Bob Kontak]

Stop payment.

Pay the service company the $200 for the capacitor if that is a fair amount. It's goodwill wrt the new owner to refresh the capacitor.

Pay the $120 to the new owner. Goodwill.

Fight the $130 balance remaining given their oversight.

[javadog]

It sounds like to me that the guy doesn't know what he's doing. I'd like to know how he determined that the Freon charge was perfect yet he never got the thing to run. Around here, a service call is about $75, plus the labor to repair whatever they find.

Frankly, I'd be hard-pressed to pay him any more than the $120 he's getting from the landlord.

[billybek]

Replaced parts and it doesn't run?
Remove those parts and re install the old stuff.
he diagnosed the power problem after you had suggested it?
Pay the minimum callout charge and call it good.

[masraum]

Sounds like you got a ****ty, clueless repairman which I tihnk is at least 75% of them, if not 85 or 90.

[Brian 162]

When I did a heating/AC call it was $125 to show up. That included 30 min, diagnostic. After that the labour rate was $125 per hour. That rate was 7 days a week.

In your case you should have paid the callout charge and maybe 30 min. labour.
I don't think they sent their most experienced guy.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by Brian 162

When I did a heating/AC call it was $125 to show up. That included 30 min, diagnostic. After that the labour rate was $125 per hour. That rate was 7 days a week.

In your case you should have paid the callout charge and maybe 30 min. labour.
I don't think they sent their most experienced guy.

They have a/c in Canada?

[Brian 162]

Yep.
The ice man delivers blocks of ice. He gets them from the igloos. We put the blocks of ice in the furnace plenum and just run the fan.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Brian 162

Yep.
The ice man delivers blocks of ice. He gets them from the igloos. We put the blocks of ice in the furnace plenum and just run the fan.

[SpyderMike]

Capacitors are about $10-20. I just troubleshot and replaced my Mom's on a Sunday. Called around asking for a Service guy in the area on an emergency call, made a deal, met him nearby, and bought the capacitor off the back of his truck for $75. I did this because I was leaving town the next morning and no stores were open on a SUnday that would have capacitors (commercial electric supply). Thought I was getting gouged. He said the boss told him to charge me that. When it is hot out, the A/C folks seem to make a killing at raising prices. I wasn't going to have my 85 year old Mom sitting in a 90 degree house. Anyway, his truck was filled with capacitors and he said it was the number one thing he was replacing on the emergency calls. They were charging close to $200 for his service call.

I have troubleshot and replaced 3 caps in the last few years...they tend to expand and get distorted and/or have brown looking oily goo out of their seams when they go (based on my small sample).

[jhynesrockmtn]

We went to start our AC last summer and it was not working. Our guy charged us $85 I think, came out, troubleshoot, ended up putting a new capacitor in, done. Oh, and on the weekend.

[GH85Carrera]

Several years ago I wanted a start up capacitor and went to the local shop that the pros go to. They would not even sell me a start up capacitor because I did not have a license. Of course it was easy to get at other sources and ultimately I bought two of them from a source in Texas. I could understand not selling me refrigerant, but a simple capacitor?

[Baz]

I mentioned this here before......I installed a small window unit in my living room that I can run if my central system happens to go down. Thus buying me more time to do troubleshooting or arrange for a service tech to come out, in the event I'm unable to figure out the problem.

That's first and foremost......have a Plan B.

I also have another larger window unit I keep in it's original packaging that I can set up in another window in less than 1/2 hour if needed. Would depend on time of year the AC went down. But point is...give yourself options.

Both these window units run on 110v and just plug into a nearby outlet. Easy peasey.

As for capacitors......there are tons of videos on You Tube which explain how to test them yourself. It helps if you have a test meter that measures capacitance in micofareds.

One time I took my capacitor with me as I went to work and when I saw an AC service vehicle at a property, I waited until one of the techs came out and asked him to test my capacitor with his tester in exchange for a few bucks. He was happy to do so - it only takes a minute.

You can buy these capacitors online. EBay is one place I have used but there are others. I also bought from the local HVAC business who installed my system. They normally have them in stock but no way you should have to pay more than $20. You can buy for less online.

The important point is the first paragraph about positioning yourself so you are not in a time crunch and can explore various options which hopefully will result in savings as well as a more efficient resolution.