One hour heat and air; scam artist cowboys
My tenant called me from a new rental property of mine, saying the heating wasn't turning on. I have had problems in the past with AC guys, and so decided to try a big company for once. I checked out One Hour Heating and Air on the BBB, and saw they had a good rating. They also had good reviews, so I chose them based on this. They insisted that I scan and email them a form with my credit card details before they started work. Due to problems with their email system, this process took 10 days.
Their guy went out, charging $109 for service call and diagnostic (ouch) I thought I'd suck it up, if they could get the job done professionally.
The guy said my control board needed replacing, and quoted me $792, $99 to go get the board.
I said I'd get the board for him, save myself the $99, but he said no, it wouldn't make a difference, since I'd still have to pay him for waiting around. I asked where the board was, and he didn't know. "How do you know how much to charge if you don't know where you have to drive?" I asked him
I asked him for the model and serial number of the furnace, so I could shop around and make sure he wasn't trying to make a chump out of me. He was extremely reluctant to do this, and was very eager to run my credit card there and then to just get the $109 and go. I wasn't having any of it.
I called a local guy, who told me the part was under warranty anyway, so would be free. The job would cost a max of around $300.
I informed One Hour Heat and Air of this, and said I was extremely unimpressed with them. After looking into it, they dropped their quote to $200, and admonished me that I should have informed them the unit was under warranty. I told them that I had simply called another AC guy, who had done his job and TOLD ME about it.
I went with the other guy, who went out the the property immediately, and ended up charging me a total off $75, the cost of a service call.
The problem had simply been that the plug was in the socket the wrong way, reversing the polarity. I just saved almost $830 by NOT using One Hour Heat and Air.
Had more people written bad reviews about this company, I wouldn't have chose them initially, so I'm doing this for all you guys. Apparently they are well know for price gouging and trying to rip off women, and old people.
Just because I'm a woman, doesn't mean I'm a chump. Do not use One Hour Heat and Air.
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