So just a quick rant.
Backstory. HVAC (heat pump) in my condo was pushing 18 years old when I bought but still working well for heating and cooling but was breaking down a couple times per year to the tune of $200-$300 per breakdown. After 3rd breakdown I started pricing new systems and ultimately ended up with Costco vendor (ya know the folks that get you by the brochure wall) installing a new system to the tune of just under $5k, this was ~2.5 years ago. During beginning stages of covid the vendor seemed like they were shoring up some cash and were offering some crazy buy 5 years get 10 years preventative maintenance (2x annual) deal for a little under $800 but had the side benefit of boosting the the warranty to have labor included for any warrantable breakdown.
Couple years goes by with green bill of health every PM visit, until the last one. Tech tells me refrigerant is 3 lbs low which would indicate there is a leak, pay $500 for a recharge (apparently "Puron" is getting quite expensive - not quite R12 range) and all is well except for this potential leak which they want me to pay another couple hundo to leak test, I skip it and hope for the best.
First cold snap and chills due to covid infection last week I needed some heat. Heard the outdoor compressor kick on (basic Lennox are VERY noisy starting) and thought all was well, nope just cold air after a few minutes and outdoor compressor had stopped. Tried a few more times and same result. Scheduled a service appointment and expect system to be low again. Explained to tech that system was low last PM visit and was recharged with ~3lbs of refrigerant so might need leak test if it's low again, no problem let me see what is going on. Next thing I know he is venting my $500 recharge to atmosphere, I go out and and he tells me system was very much overcharged but it was not hitting high pressure limit on A/C but was in heating mode.
I sure enough have a call request in for a service manager to call me back, I gave them a 24 hour timeline to call me back before I dispute the $500 refrigerant cost through my credit card company. I am absolutely through the roof that I paid $500 for the opportunity to have to have a no heat callback and the competent technician to just blow my $500 into the wind.
/Rant but I definitely feel better.
Backstory. HVAC (heat pump) in my condo was pushing 18 years old when I bought but still working well for heating and cooling but was breaking down a couple times per year to the tune of $200-$300 per breakdown. After 3rd breakdown I started pricing new systems and ultimately ended up with Costco vendor (ya know the folks that get you by the brochure wall) installing a new system to the tune of just under $5k, this was ~2.5 years ago. During beginning stages of covid the vendor seemed like they were shoring up some cash and were offering some crazy buy 5 years get 10 years preventative maintenance (2x annual) deal for a little under $800 but had the side benefit of boosting the the warranty to have labor included for any warrantable breakdown.
Couple years goes by with green bill of health every PM visit, until the last one. Tech tells me refrigerant is 3 lbs low which would indicate there is a leak, pay $500 for a recharge (apparently "Puron" is getting quite expensive - not quite R12 range) and all is well except for this potential leak which they want me to pay another couple hundo to leak test, I skip it and hope for the best.
First cold snap and chills due to covid infection last week I needed some heat. Heard the outdoor compressor kick on (basic Lennox are VERY noisy starting) and thought all was well, nope just cold air after a few minutes and outdoor compressor had stopped. Tried a few more times and same result. Scheduled a service appointment and expect system to be low again. Explained to tech that system was low last PM visit and was recharged with ~3lbs of refrigerant so might need leak test if it's low again, no problem let me see what is going on. Next thing I know he is venting my $500 recharge to atmosphere, I go out and and he tells me system was very much overcharged but it was not hitting high pressure limit on A/C but was in heating mode.
I sure enough have a call request in for a service manager to call me back, I gave them a 24 hour timeline to call me back before I dispute the $500 refrigerant cost through my credit card company. I am absolutely through the roof that I paid $500 for the opportunity to have to have a no heat callback and the competent technician to just blow my $500 into the wind.
/Rant but I definitely feel better.