Are You Kidding…I’m not going to pay that!

Last week we got a telephone call from a young lady saying that they had a special for a “Springtime” air conditioning checkup and for $ 39.95 they would come out and inspect our equipment and add 1 free unit of Freon if it is needed. We said, “Why not”. Yesterday a man from the company came out and inspected our unit and then proceeded to give us the bad news. “Lady you need a new outdoor condenser/compressor,” what ever it is. He said you have a burned out solenoid that is leaking Freon and this and that and whatever else he thought he could convince me of. I said, well how much is this going to cost? After a few minutes on the phone he came back with, $ 3,775.00 with a factory warranty or $ 4,675.00 with a life time warranty. I nicely paid him my $ 39.95 and told him we would think about it. Yea Right! I immediately got on the phone to my son-in-law who knew a few people in the business and today a man came out to give me a second opinion. Guess what? There is nothing wrong with our equipment. There is a tank that is starting to rust and will someday need replacing, but all in all, nothing that needs fixing. He gave us some advice on what might be going out in the future, but he was up front and honest with us. We are eternally grateful that we didn’t have to fork over $ 3,775. for some unneeded compressor.

BTW, that amount of money is way more than it should cost to replace that particular piece of equiptment.

There are companies out there that will come on to you with a cheap price and try to bate and switch you to something you really don’t need. Be smart. Check around. Ask your friends who they use for these services. Study your options and always get a second opinion. You can also check with the credit bureau to see if there have been any complaints lodged against a certain company. If a voice in your head tells you that something isn’t right, listen to that voice.