Preventing Heating and AC Repair Scams in Fort Worth, TX
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If you hire the right professional team to take care of your heating and AC repair you’re going to be enjoying your Fort Worth, TX home for a long time. But if you hire the wrong people you could be getting scammed out of your hard-earned money and that’s definitely not something you should be taking lightly. We’ll talk about some of the most common scams that unscrupulous heating and AC repair companies will use to get more money out of unsuspecting people.
‘Replacements’ They Don’t Make
If your heating and AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX tells you that they removed something and replaced it with a new one then tell them you want to have the old one back. You want to make sure that they’re actually replacing something and not just telling you they replaced it and then leaving the old one where it was. While this seems like an obvious scam that you would be able to tell, most people never ask for the parts when they get a replacement and therefore they never even realize that nothing was done.
Large Down Payment
If you have to have a large job taken care of then whoever you hire for heating and AC repair may ask you to put some money down. But if they’re asking you to pay for the entire project before they’ve even started that’s not a good sign. You want to look for someone else because you’re probably not going to get the work done right or you may not even get the work done at all. If you pay someone all the money upfront they may take it and disappear and that’s going to be a hassle for you trying to get your money back.
Pressure to Make a Decision
If you are looking to get any kind of work done and especially expensive heating and AC repair work done you want to get several estimates and a reputable company should understand and respect that. If the company you’re talking to tries to pressure you into making a quick decision then that’s definitely not a good sign. You want to talk to people who realize that you’re making a big investment and that you want to know you’re getting the best work done, instead of hiring just anyone.
Skip the Freon
Your AC runs on freon, so that means you need it to be there in order to keep the AC running, but what you should know is that the AC doesn’t lose freon. So, if there’s no leak in your unit the freon that’s in there when you buy it will be in there when you get rid of it. If the person you bring in for heating and AC repair says that your unit is low on freon they should also be testing for leaks and they should be able to find one. If there is no leak or they don’t even check that’s a sign that they’re not really telling the truth.
Leaving as Soon as the Job is ‘Done’
You want to have your heating and AC repair person stick around for a few minutes so you can run your AC or your heat and see what’s happening. You want to make sure that it’s now working properly and that they’ve actually taken care of the problem. If there still seems to be a problem you want them to get right back to it. A good company will have you run these units before they want to leave. A bad one may try to bolt quickly so they can be gone with the money before you realize they didn’t fix anything.
Write Everything Down
You want to have a written record of everything that they promised to do and just how much it’s going to cost. You should also have information about when they’re going to start the work, finish the work, what items they’re going to be giving you and what happens if they don’t finish on time. This leaves room for you to add more tasks if you feel that there’s reason to add on something else that they found, but it also makes sure that you don’t get charged for something you never agreed to.
Up-selling You to Replacement
You may not actually need to replace your AC or furnace, but if you work with the wrong company they may attempt to upsell you into this idea. You want to make sure that the heating and AC repair person you hire is going to do what they can to save you money and that means repairing your unit if at all possible. Replacement should be a last resort if there’s nothing they can do to get the unit working again.
Blustering Off Reviews/Certifications
You want to make sure the heating and AC repair company you hire is reputable and has good reviews. Yes, every company can get a few bad reviews and you may be willing to overlook those if there are enough good ones to balance out, but if the company tries to bluster away those bad reviews or tries to bluster away the fact that they aren’t licensed or insured you definitely want to head in the opposite direction. Chances are there’s something going wrong there and you don’t want them near your home.
If you need heating and AC repair you want to make sure that you’re getting it from a team that you can trust. Your Fort Worth, TX home is important to you and you want to be able to stay in it and be comfortable. If you’re not hiring the right team, you could end up with bigger problems than you had to start, and that’s definitely not something you want to be stuck with. So, do your research and check around. There are plenty of great places you can find help in Fort Worth, TX.