AREAS Air Conditioning ripoff Palm Harbor Florida

On 10/06/04 I contacted AREAS air conditioning for emergency service on my air conditioner. They arrived at around 10:30pm. I was charged 63.75 for five pounds of Freon and 40.00 for the service call (after hours) for a total of 103.75. The coils for the air conditioner were also cleaned at this time. The technician, Jason, also told me that there was no extra charge for after-hours service. I was pleased with the prior service and called again on 08/21/20005 for service to my air conditioner again.

This time the bill was for 475.00 for the same amount of Freon. I paid for the services with check #3434, even though I found the price to be extremely steep. He did not tell me until after he did the work how much it would cost, and what exactly he would be doing. He did work that I did NOT request and charged me for it. He was here for the same amount of time as the previous technician about 10 months ago. He did not even fix the problem which he diagnosed as a "leak". He said he didn't have enough time to fix that and that I would have to pay a separate service fee on another day. So, in essence, this was just a 475 DOLLAR temporary fix.

I called the owner to complain to him. He was extremely rude and after a few minutes hung up on me. He offered 100 dollars off the service which I still found insufficient. I offered what I thought was a fair price of around 225 dollars, which is still extremely high for the amount of work done. Keeping in mind that he did not discuss any work to be done with me. He also told me he was unable to measure the total amount of Freon he added so how am I supposed to know that he added any at all. The temperature of the house has still not lowered.

I have informed AmSouth Bank to stop payment on the check I wrote to this company until this matter is resolved. I had no other recourse but to stop payment after the owner hung up on me on various occasions. Any help into this matter would be appreciated.

Timothy
Seminole, Florida
U.S.A.