Let me start be stating that I came further and further appalled at the apparent state of Air Conditioning Installation and Repair in this state at this period in time. It is like everyone associated with this industry is the innkeeper from Les Miserables. Almost every review was either an obvious pro-provider fabrication or tale of disaster. People were upsold or lied to or overcharged. I mean in the thousands of dollars. Warranties, duct work, bs "issues", etc. Through some miracle of perseverance or serendipity, I think I may have found the last honest repair man in Central Florida. I am almost reticent to give him to you because I may never be able to retain his services (or the industry may take a hit out on him) from here on out. Oh, well. His name is Paul Sabacinski of Premier Air - Air Conditioning & Heating. Make sure you don't deal with a few other companies that use that (or similar) name. He is not a franchisee. The phone number is 407-327-7714. 1079 Winding Waters Circle in Winter Springs, FL. Payment by check or Visa/MC/Discover. License # - CAC058648. I checked with myfloridalicense.com and and he was up to date. No complaints at Yelp (only three at all) or Better Business Bureau (no BBB reviews either way) or Google or Expertise (I think). Website is www.premierairfl.com. In business for 24 years. From Worcester MA.
Issue: The last hour of the last hot day in the Fall the cold air seemed to not be so cold. I kicked the can. During the winter, there were some odd things with the heater. It wouldn't (automatically) shut off when the temp was reached and the emergency heat setting would come on and off. But, it worked (sort of). I kicked the can. This Spring the air didn't seem very cool again and it wouldn't (automatically) shut off when the temp was reached. Last year I had a issue where the blower wouldn't turn off when the outside unit did. This was solved with a new chip. That was with the people who installed the unit. They wouldn't come out for free to diagnose what I felt was their repair failure (oops), so, I decided to get a second pair of eyes on the unit. Plus I feel the overcharged me for the repair anyway. I dithered until now.
Research: I started looking through the mailers I save and looking at the bigger companies on line months ago. I started with Google and then Yelp and then Expertise and a few other ratings sites. I believe all but Yelp are full of it. They have to be in bed with these companies or susceptible to manipulation by them. Here are the companies and their phone numbers and ratings. I also checked the four in this Five Star Rated booklet that comes in the mail. The new Angi's List (Home Advisor) was too involved to suffer through. I didn't even call any of these companies though. I was too disgusted with the stories I read about them. Thank God I read a post on Yelp about another company that mentioned Paul. I would still be auditioning. I'm only listing the info in the hope that the search engines associate this post with them and save some people the headache. Most of these came up as the tops in the field in my area. What a joke. Some do more than AC, so, the ratings includes those jobs as well.
Frank Gay: 843-258-6781 or 407-900-0497. Google 4.7. Yelp 1.1. BBB 4. $89 Diagnostic
American Air: 407-499-6808. Google 4.9
Service One: 407-519-2408. Google 4.8
Pro Tech: 407-573-7291. Google 4.9. 2.8 on Yelp (40 Reviews)
Facemeyer: 407-633-5263. Google 4.9. $98 Diagnostic
Mid Florida: 386-753-3667. Google 4.8
Del Air: 407-674-9563. Google 4.5. Yelp 1.8 (219 Reviews). $99 Diagnostic
Downtown Air: 689-223-7982. Google 4.8. Yelp (Poor Reviews). $129 Diagnostic
Matthew Robert: Google 4.3. Yelp (Poor Reviews)
ARS: 407-270-1387. Yelp 1.4 (147 Reviews)
Strada Cooling: 865-424-7277. I forget which site 3.1 (56 Votes). $89 Diagnostic
*From the Five Star Rated Book
Service Experts: 407-338-4661
Cool Today: 407-574-2275
United States: 407-495-1496
Result: I got an appointment the next day. I did have to call back after my message hadn't been returned by 4pm. He showed up within the time window promised. It turned out to be an easy fix. A malfunctioning capacitor that was only sending power to the fan. That caused the wall unit issues as well. He checked out the freon levels and pressure and amps et al of the system. We checked that heat and air were functioning as they should. That it shut off when the desired temp was reached. It cost $148.65. No extra labor charge over the $89.95 diagnostic charge. 5% for credit card over check. Total cost $250.53. Had to let him write down my cc number for billing once he got back to his office. He gave me a detailed invoice. I had read online that people with capacitor issues found them on Amazon for $40. If he made some money off that, so be it. Most people just tack on labor if you get them to reduce the parts cost anyway. I paid the last guys $425 to replace a free (under warranty) microchip! Paul was pleasant and had all the parts and tools in his truck. He once even taught AC Maintenance at a college. It didn't seem from this interaction that his lack of an online footprint was because of a "rebrand". You always have to worry about that. I advocated that he would have been listed as a new operator if he had a shady past and was starting over under a different name.
Post Script: I learned that emergency heating is done by a strip inside the furnace alone. Normal heating uses that and something in the outside unit. The strip uses way more electricity. I probably wasted the cost of this repair in increased heating charges this winter. Capacitors often go down in our intense heat. The outside unit needs to be making a low hum when it is working properly. Bushes around the unit aren't necessarily bad. They provide shade to the unit. Freon recharges are "supposed" to cost $200-$400. The Greenies have forced another freon type to be outlawed. You may not be able to recharge after this year. You will have to buy a new unit. I still think maintenance specials are bs and an opening for them to create an issue that they then charge you to fix. They seem to involve coil cleaning, level checking and drain cleaning. They charge around $89 (on special) for this. My unit is ten years old and I have never had this done and there were none of these issues present at this inspection. I had a longtime suspicion confirmed. You can get odors (poisons) sucked into your living space from gaps in the furnace in your garage. You can plug them, but, it is a pain. Air out your garage before you start the system and/or do not keep things that give off gasses in there. Please write up honest reviews when you use they people. It is hard to get the true pulse. People who have really been screwed over and fake praise seem to be the two types of reviews. Tell us if their are good people out there. Even if you have to do it within a negative review. And please get a second opinion if you get an outrageous demand.
Now do any of you know a good tree guy (up to date business license, insurance, etc)? That seems like an even bigger cesspool.
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