On the weekend of June 10, our air conditioner was not working. The compressor fan was not spinning. I called Aire One, who'd originally installed it in 2003. They were able to get a service person out fairly quickly (Monday the 12th). Cyrus came to the house and was friendly and polite. Within 5 minutes (that's generous) he had "diagnosed" the problem as a seized compressor and disappeared into his truck to find out how much a new one would cost.
He came back with a quote that was close to $2000, but said that I'd be better of with a whole new AC unit. He added that the furnace was old, too, and there were good rebates available, so I should maybe buy a package. He offered to set up a meeting with a sales person for later that day.
I accepted. The salesperson never showed. Later _he_ called with an apology that the message had been lost and he could meet at our convenience.
Fortunately, my wife was suspicious. She saw Greg's review from jut a view days before (https://homestars.com/companies/194358-aire-one-heating-cooling/reviews/562635) and thought our situation sounded familiar.
We called another company to send a technician out for a second opinion. On the way to the AC unit, he guessed "sounds like a blown capacitor". He opened the unit, and showed me the capacitor. It looked like a pop can with one end bulging out.
He happened to have a replacement. He popped it in, ran a few bonus tests, and was off. My cost? $248.
Now, after having seen a blown capacitor, I am confident that I could diagnose this problem myself. There is no reason why Cyrus, an HVAC professional, would not be able to. I'm not sure whether he just forgot to look (again, this seems to be a common problem, so how?) or whether he chose not to look.
After my AC was repaired by the other company, I called Aire One to complain. In their defence (and the only reason they get 2 stars out of this) is that Brady listened to my complaint and said that he'd issue a refund for the cost of the service call. The cheque was in my mailbox about a week later.
