A-1 American AC Service Tech tries to steal money from homeowners Chesapeake, Virginia

During the 100+ degree heat wave this summer, the AC unit at my house stopped cooling.  I contacted A-1 American to come and fix the unit.  They sent a technician to my house on Monday morning, July 26th.  The service tech informed me that my capacitor needed replacing.  This cost was $279.00, which also included the $79.00 service call charge.  I approved that cost, and he fixed the capacitor - this took all of 10 minutes.  He then informed me that my unit was low on freon, and it needed 1-3 pounds of freon to be brought up to snuff.  This cost was $250.00.  I declined to pay that amount, and I was warned by the technician that being low on freon is what caused my AC problems in the first place, and not adding the freon would result in other parts or possibly the entire unit breaking.  Having worked with AC companies in my line of business, I realized that A-1 American's price for freon was high, so I again declined his service. 

I contacted a different company to come out and add freon to my AC unit.  This company arrived on Wednesday July 28th. Their technician hooked all his equipment up to my unit, only to discover that my AC unit was not only NOT low on freon, it had perhaps TOO MUCH freon.  I had to pay this other company a service call charge of $85.00 to tell me there was nothing wrong with my unit.

A-1 American's technician was either going to charge me to do nothing, or charge me to actually add freon to my unit, thus over-charging the system, which would then cause it to not work AGAIN, and perhaps they would garner yet another service call from me to 'fix' it.

I have contacted A-1 American several times a week since then (over 2 months ago), trying to obtain a refund.  I am not asking to them to return the entire amount, only the $85.00 I had to pay the other company.  I have spoken with the receptionist many many times, and have been told over and over again that I have to talk to 'Tabby'.  Tabby never returned my calls, even though I have given my work and personal cell numbers.  1 month ago, I was informed that my refund had gone through the bookkeeping department, and my check was going into the mail that Friday.  I never got the check - even though they had verified my address several times.  When I followed up, I was then told I had to fax over all the tickets/work orders to prove myself.  One month later, this was news to me.  Finally, this week (2 months after the original call), I was told my check would be processed and I could come pick it up at their office this Friday Oct. 1^st.  Only on the morning of October 1^st, Tabby finally returned my calls.  She informed me that there was no way A-1 American was taking responsibility for this, I had no proof that the other companies instruments werent off calibration, it was my choice to have another company come out.  When I tried to explain that their technician is the only reason any of this happened, I was rudely rebuffed and told so sad, too bad, youre not getting any of your money back.

I feel duped and taken advantage of, and I feel that their technician (most likely a sub-contractor) was basically stealing money.  I feel I was more than fair in only asking for the $85.00 I lost due to HIS reccomendation.  I feel certain that this is happening to many other customers of theirs service techs charging for services not needed, or not rendered.  And, when caught in the act of stealing money, they wont own up to it.

I dont know what recourse I have, other than filing as many complaints as I can and trying to get the word out to the public that this local, family owned, 100% satisfaction garuanteed company is a sham.