ARNOLD'S ONE HOUR AIR COND

They responded quickly, with a technician arriving within an hour or so of my call. After discussing the issue I was experiencing with my AC unit and inspecting the system, he reviewed my options and what each would cost. They had a simple but very unusual way of pricing things out - each service that might be a line item on a typical invoice was in one of three pricing categories, and you would simply add up the cost for each item. Not only was the total cost of those services that were typical of the sort of problem I was having (inspecting, cleaning, charging with refrigerant) were extremely high compared to any other company I've used in the past, but it made his sales pitch for additional work that he was adamant that I absolutely needed all the more suspicious. In particular, a $5 relay that "needed to be replaced" because the contacts were "dirty", which was easily accessible and mounted on the exterior of the outside unit would result in an extraordinary fee (I forget if it was $40 or $50). I actually felt bad for the guy because as I questioned him more about it he became visibly uncomfortable about the absurd story he was feeding me and I could only imagine how badly he must depend on commission to be willing to scam someone like that. Needing the thing fixed, I let him do the work that needed to be done and unhappily paid the exorbitant price. The next season, the tech who came out (from a different company, of course) got a kick out of it when I told him the story of the infamous relay - the relay was fine, of course, but he went ahead and completed the 3 second task of wiping the dirt off of the contact with a rag just for good measure. I just dug out the invoice along with that of another company for the exact same work one year later: $553 vs. $273. Note that while they did respond very quickly to my call, this was neither a priority service nor was it after hours - just a standard service call at double the cost of other companies.

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