Saturday afternoon, the hooch in town started heating up. It turned out the AC was fritzing out. I called the service contract holder, 1Hour Heating and AC. The 3rd worlder on the other end of the line said they could have someone out Tuesday. I said that was unacceptable. After all, they are "1Hour". Long story short, Allehendro or whatever her name was got flustered and starting reading off her script. KYHillChick got on and tried to calm her down. Nothing worked. The $itch hung up on KYHillChick.
We tried calling back. $itch #1 had not put in the reservation for Tuesday. $itch #2 tried to tell us we were expecting too much. Look, I pay $40/month/site for two addresses to get 24X7 1 hour response. Tuesday doesn't cut it. I told her I was making calls around town and that she should start making calls too. If I found someone who could come out sooner than Tuesday PM, the service contracts were null and void.
The first # I called was the closest HVAC contractor to the hooch. They picked up on the 3rd ring. The lady said someone would call me within 30 minutes. Within 90 minutes, the unit was fixed and the tech was holding me upside down and shaking me for the time-and-a-half fees. It still wasn't all that bad. I paid $340. 1Hour would have charged me $200 on top of the service contract.
I called 1Hour today and told them to cancel the contracts. The best they could do was offer a $25 gift certificate for the trouble. This breaks a 40-year relationship. My Dad went with them while I was still in college. I didn't have a service contract with anyone and when I got my house back from Satan in '96, I tried for a month to get service on the A/C system she boogered. Over the years, the monthly contract prices doubled, and the service has gone downhill. We called them before Thanksgiving 2 years ago, because the heat had gone out. A week after Thanksgiving they finally got the problem fixed after 3 visits, and 3 different techs.
PTHTHTHTHTHTH! to Willis/1Hour HVAC
Kudos to Reading Heating & Air for the fast response and excellent service.
BTW: It was a fried condenser in the outdoor unit.
