A woods technician came to my house to determine what was causing the relative humidity to be about 80%. When the technican arrived, he looked at the unit and the thermostate and then went outside to look at the unit. He then pulled a pressure guage out of his Woods truck and proceed to release freon from my unit. I saw him do this and my video cameras captured it as well. When he came into my house, he presented me with a bill of $339.00. When I made the appointment I was assured that no work would be done until I approved the estimate. He never presented me with an estimate just the bill. When I told him about releasing the freon, he denied it and got very aggitated stating, I don't like it when somone calls me a liar. He then stated,
then don't pay it. He was very aggitated to to be safe, I paid the bill and filed a complaint with Woods immediately and called USAA to dispute the bill. The company also told me that they offer a 15% Veteran discount which they did not include on the bill. I reviewed the videos of the technican which captured the arrival time at 1:11 PM and the departure time at 2:15 PM. At 1:34 PM, the technicivan removes freon from my unit. The supervisor I spoke to at Woods told me that his technican arrived on time and that the time stamp on his truck was recorded. The timestamp on my video is correct and I was on a conference call at the time so I know what time he arrived.
To be clear, I did not authorize the technician to conduct any work without my consent. I was assured, when I made the appointment, that no work would be done until I approved the work and estimated cost. That is an important step in the process. You cannot expect for customers to simply pay whatever you charge without first agreeing to the charge. The only charge I agreed to was the site visit. The technician never provided me with an estimate. He simply released freon from my unit and then input freon from a pink container using a/c pressure gages. Then he presented me with the bill. He could see my surprise on my face when he told me the cost and that he had already done the work without first presenting an estimate to me. I told him, that I would pay it but that I was going to complain. He stated, that he didn't like being called a liar and that I didn't owe anything. I told him again that I would pay but would file a complaint. He was very agitated and to be safe, I paid the bill with an intent to dispute the bill. He finished his invoice and I paid.
In summation, don't tell customers that they will be made aware of the issues and provided an estimate of cost before the work is done if you are not going to follow your own policy. Secondly, do not charge customers for freon that your own technician releases. I paid and signed because that was the right thing to do; however, as I told the technician, I was going to file a complaint. I've started the process to dispute the charge with USAA and have provided them with my video evidence and the process the technician should have followed.