Our old AC unit was working, but struggling under these extreme heats, so I called Chill HVAC to give it a once over and see if it needed any servicing, as a preventative measure. I made it clear from he beginning that I was not looking to replace the unit, as it was working just fine.
The technician was young, and friendly. First, he said I needed more freon, which he said he added. Then, he offered to replace the old freon with new for $700, which I declined. He told me I needed to replace my unit for $7,000, which I said I couldn’t afford. He tested the air inside and it was blasting through, then he made a phone call to whom I assume was his boss (it was in Russian, so I didn’t understand it) and he went outside to work more on the unit.
When I went to join him a few minutes later, suddenly, the fan wasn’t working. He said he didn’t touch it but it was weird because it had just been working fine. Then, after he fiddled with it a little more, the compressor went out. What the Hell?! In a few minutes, we went from a perfectly good, working AC, to a completely broken one.
My husband talked to him, saying it was a very odd coincidence that as soon as he showed up, the AC decided to quit. The technician laughed, as if we were joking. Then, after another long call in Russian, he said he needed to see our attic, and he spent a long time in the attic, I have no idea why, again talking on the phone.
When he came down from the attic, my husband talked to him again and, after some back and forth the technician seemed nervous, and he left the house in a hurry, without payment, and said we needed a ‘much bigger company to replace the unit ‘and that there was nothing further he could do. It was 108* outside, and he left us standing there with no AC. He didn’t even replace the screws he took out of the cover. He just left.
Later that evening, we found another technician from another company to come out and take a look. In about 2 minutes he located the wire to the fan. It was disconnected, whether on purpose or not is unknown, but it was right there, very easy to see. The new technician came the next day and reconnected the wire, which took him about 10 minutes. He also said there was no reason for the other guy to add freon, replace freon, or be in the attic! Above all, he said that this guy from Chill had NO idea what he was doing. He also quoted us $4000 to replace the entire unit (which is $3,000 less than Chill), and he can do it easily by himself, no large company needed. When we told him the whole story he just shook his head and laughed.
Bottom line, these guys at Chill are either not trustworthy or totally incompetent, or both. Either way, I would never hire them again.
