Freddy's Heating & Air Conditioning

It worked out fantastic. It was super smoove, clean and they put tarps down. When they left it looked as if nobody was here. He explained everything very well.

I spent $520 in parts and labor ($210 for labor alone) to have my AC unit repaired and it's still not working properly. Freddy came twice within one week, both times unprepared without the necessary parts. When I first made the appointment with Freddy, a week in advance, I told him the issue was probably an old thermostat that needed replaced. After examining my system he decided it probably was the thermostat (as I had suspected), but he arrived with no thermostats to choose from - even though I had told him a week earlier that was probably the issue. The problem is with my upstairs unit and the weather has been in the 90s, but he said he couldn't come back with a new thermostat until after the weekend (even though it was still only about 11:30AM). In 20 years of homeownership, I've never hired a repairman that didn't either arrive with parts in their truck or -- without being asked -- immediately went out and acquired the parts necessary to complete the job the same day. I explained to Freddy that I didn't want to go the whole weekend without AC and that's why I had called a repairman in the first place, so would he please go out and get the thermostat now and install it the same day. He did, which was appreciated, but again, I don't feel that was going beyond the call of duty. I have never had to ask a repairman to do that. They've always said simply, "I'll need to go out and get a few parts, I'll be back in about a half hour." In addition to installing a new thermostat (for which he charged $70), Freddy replaced my air filters upstairs and downstairs and -- supposedly -- performed standard maintenance on both of my AC units. I say "supposedly" because he only spent about a total of 10 minutes on the maintenance, so I doubt it was very thorough. He never did explain what the maintenance involved, aside from cleaning the coils. He charged $70 EACH unit, and I paid to have maintenance done on both units for $70 total last year, so Freddy charged twice as much as my last maintenance service cost, but he acted like he was giving me a great deal. After he installed the new thermostat, I started having problems again after only four days. I suspected the problem was either with the thermostat again or with Freddy's installation, such as loose wires. I called him and explained the problem: My AC fan was trying to come on but failing to -- firing up and shutting down again every few seconds, which was taking up a lot of energy and making a lot of noise, which I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep through. The new thermostat was an Apple Nest, and it wouldn't switch off or reboot. Freddy told me he wouldn't be able to come out again until the following evening -- 36 hours later. This time, I went out before he arrived and bought a new thermostat myself just in case it was the new thermostat that was the problem. In the meantime, my boyfriend came and disconnected the outer part of the thermostat, leaving the inner part attached and the wiring in place, which was enough to stop the fan from going on and off. Now, before I finish my story, I want to say that my biggest complaint about Freddy is his condescending manner of speaking to his clients (probably just the women). He began every other sentence with "Let me explain something to you...." or "Let me tell you something..." and he lectured me a lot about what I should and shouldn't be doing, such as regular maintenance on the AC units. He flat-out made an assumption and said, "You aren't doing maintenance on your AC units out back. It should be done every year." But the truth is, I paid someone else to do maintenance on both units less than a year ago. He also went on and on about the importance of changing the air filters regularly. Admittedly, it had been awhile since I'd changed the filters inside, but I already know it's important -- no lecture needed -- and dirty air filters was definitely NOT the reason my AC wasn't turning on, so the insulting lecture was useless and insulting. I paid Freddy to fix my AC system, not scold me about air filters. When Freddy came the second time to fix the still not working AC, he lectured me about how the thermostat should never be disconnected without climbing up into the attic and turning off the power source from up there first, or "it will blow the whole power" or something (he doesn't have a very strong command of the English language) and he treated disconnecting the thermostat like a very offense that was dangerous and could end up causing very expensive damage. I told him I didn't appreciate the lecture and explained that it was an emergency situation, we were dressed up and on our way to my daughter's high school graduation, so neither my boyfriend or I wanted to climb into the attic. Would he please just get on with the business of fixing my AC unit and spare me the lecture. But Freddy wouldn't quit scolding me. He kept going, "I'm just saying..." Freddy made it sound like my boyfriend disconnecting the thermostat blew my entire AC system and I was going to need to replace the whole system. I began to lose patience. It didn't feel like he was being honest. I started to suspect that he was setting me up to scam me out of a bunch of money for unnecessary repairs when the issue was probably something really simple and inexpensive. Many things he had said the previous visit was already leading to that. I told him if it turned out to be something really expensive, I'd hire somebody else to do the work, just to make it clear that I suspected he was going to either lie to me about what needed to be done or he was going to intentionally sabotage the system to force me into an expensive repair I didn't need, and I wasn't going to award him with the repair work if that happened. It wasn't until I started talking about hiring someone else that he FINALLY admitted that the worst thing that could've happened after my boyfriend disconnected the thermostat was that it blew a fuse in the attic unit, and those fuses only cost about $1.00. But then he said, in his condescending tone, ".... but, let me just tell you right now, I don't have any of those fuses on me, so if I climb up in the attic (for which he was probably planning on charging me another $70) and that ends up being the problem, I won't be able to do anything about it tonight because I don't have any of those fuses with me. I'll have to come back another day with the fuse to replace it" (which would probably cost another $70). At that point, I'd lost all remaining patience. I would just hire somebody else. Not having thermostats with him was one thing, but not having $1.00 fuses with him .... unbelievable. Freddy mentioned he just recently went to trade school to learn HVAC repair, and so I'm assuming he hasn't been in business very long. Now that he knows how to do the repairs, he needs to wok on his customer service skills. A few suggestions for Freddy: 1) Don't be condescending. Stop lecturing and scolding. Get out of the habit of beginning sentences with "Let me explain something to you." 2) If the client says it's not working, it's not working. Telling the client, "From what I see, it's working" or "It was working when I left." If it was working when you left, but it stops working after just a few days, you didn't fix the problem. Own that and stop making excuses. 3) Keep your truck stocked with basic parts like fuses and make it standard service to go out and retrieve parts you don't have stocked the same day so the work can be completed for your client the same day they scheduled service. Offer that before the client has to ask you to do it. 4) Don't act like waiving the $60 diagnostic fee if you end up charging for repair is doing the client any favors. That is standard industry practice. Every repairman waives the fee to come out if they are hired to do the repairs.

Really good. He is very workable, patient and did a great job. Had it done within a day and a half. He knew what he was doing. Very nice guy overall. He works with you and isn't pushy. Our estimate was right around what we thought it would be.

It went extremely well. He always finished the job when he said he would. He always started early in the morning. He was extremely neat in his work. He covered everything with plastic and left the house as it was when he came. He always charged what he said he would, no surprises. He left the place clean, no debris. I would recommend him highly.

It went good. I had 3 other comparisons and his rate was the best fr what needed to be done.