We have all received those special offers in the mailbox.
Buy one get one Pizza may be good (probably not according to your doctor) – but you have to be careful when it comes to the service trades, That special deal could end up costing you a lot of money.
Some air conditioning companies will offer a very cheap price for maintenance just to get their foot in the door. They claim they will check out your AC system and make sure it’s running perfectly, but usually they find problems, parts that need to be replaced, or even suggest the whole system needs to be replaced. That special deal could turn into hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.
To highlight our point – the following is an actual YELP review of a Florida HVAC Company we found online:
OH MY! This company does a buy one get one free A/C service deal. So, they called me and reminded me that I had a "free" service I could get for my units. I said OK, come take a look!
A nice guy named Danny shows up ... well spoken, professional and gets right to business. Well, it wasn't long before I find out what his real business is ... he opens up one of my units and says there is burning on the points. He asks if we get a lot of power surges in the area ... are you kidding! This is FL all sorts of lightning and lights flickering. OK, so he has this product that for only $1300 or $1500 will give me $25,000 of protection for my appliances. It is a whole house Surge Protector ... I say thanks but I already have one of those with $50,000 of Insurance and I only paid like $200 for it. So, that didn't work.
His next discovery is one of my capacitors is "weak" and he can replace it ... but since I am not a member I would have to pay full price instead of the 20% discount price I would pay if only I would sign up for their services for around $400 a year. Ok, I say "I'll think about it" ... so back to the weak capacitor .... that will cost me $271.00 and he can replace it now. I think about that a moment, and take a pass on replacing it. So, later I go online and find I can buy these things on the internet for $20 - $40. Really!
It just goes to show that you have to be double careful when something is "free".
Robert H.
Although we wouldn’t recommend that you buy your own capacitor and try to install it yourself – we do highly recommend shopping around, getting a couple different quotes and finding a reputable contractor. If you would like to learn more about how to find the right contractor, read through the Finding a Reputable Contract section of this website.