Eric S.
10/11/2020 12:00:00 SA
United Air Temp was the first company that American Home Shield goes to for contract service in Marietta, GA. Our upstairs A/C unit was exhibited problems throughout the summer so I finally called in August to repair diminished capacity. The first tech (Ed) said that our temperatures were within standard and there was no need for service; on top of that, he broke the outside unit freon fill valve but said he would fix it. 24-hours later, with no freon in the system, and it was Saturday, we learned that he didn't fix it, draining the system of freon. I called AHS and asked for a second opinion contractor to be assigned. The local manager reached out to me on Monday, asked for me to cancel the second opinion, and that he wanted to check the work that his tech broke.
A broken fill valve, and no amount of mechanical air movement would cool any space, so it was obvious his team would need to fix something. They ordered a TXV valve along with a promise to recharge the freon in the system. The second tech (Jorge') completed the work without incident, but the system could only achieve a 14-deg-F separation between supply and return, still presenting a high supply line temperature indicative of a problem with the outdoor compressor unit. A new compressor was ordered, even though Marco (the Marietta supervisor) stated that a matching coil would be replaced in order to meet the specific AHRI rating for the system.
Since we had greatly diminished cooling capacity, and the system would run continuously when on, Marco recommended a complete upstairs system replacement (including a new heater, even though our current one was only two years old); that estimate was $8,500 for a 3.5 ton system, and he hadn't even finish the AHS work that originated the service call. Once the new compressor arrived, the last tech (Alex) completed the work in a professional manner but would not show me the supply and return temperatures. After another weekend of noticeable weak cooling, I bought my own temperature probe and verified only a 12.8-deg-F temperature differential. (The industry standard is 16 to 20-deg-F differential.)
I called AHS yet again, demanding a second opinion and negative reviews against UAT; they assigned Express Heating and Cooling. When their tech (Chris) arrived, he stated the obvious of the outside unit needing a chemical clean of the compressor coils before any attempt to calibrate and pressurize the system. After further discussion, we both realized that United Air Temp completed unnecessary work consistent with high labor costs and ineffective corrective steps--all indicators of fleecing AHS for compensation but avoiding doing actual work to rectify the customer (me) concern about an under-performing system.
I am copying this complaint to any location I can find in the hopes of saving paying customers from the angst, time loss, and corruption exhibited by a an unscrupulous HVAC contractor. Their hold music of recipient of the national ethics award should be removed as further evidence of deceptive practices, and the local supervisor (Marco) should be fired for ineptitude.
I welcome anyone to reach out should they have concerns about this company or desire further details. I will not allow them to step foot on my property again.
