Kelton Service Heating & Cooling

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Short version: They were hired to maintain the AC unit twice a year which they did for 11 years. During the last maintenance they screwed up, and caused the gas to leak and later on denied their responsibility. At the end, they were paid to screw up a working unit which I have to pay again to get it fixed definitely not by Kelton Service. If they manage toscrew up a working system, I cannot imagine what they would do to a broken one. Long version: We recently bought our house on March 2013. Come June time with the hot weather, we noticed the AC was not cooling on hot days. Initially we called a service technician from AJ Perry, because they had mailed us a slip that implied they provide maintenance to keep the AC under warranty (which was not the case, and it is another story anyway). The technician from AJ Perry, showed up, found out that the freon was low. He also mentioned that the service valve cap was missing (He said he was going to put one before he left but he didnt). He offerend to do a leak test for the freon for $544, and $338 to top off the freon. He also suggested we were better of replacing our unit which is 12 years old and someone from his company would be happy to come and make sales pitch to us. We decided to contact the previous owners before going further. While looking for previous owners information, I found out that they used to have the AC and furnace checked out twice a year by Kelton Service. I contacted Kelton Serive about it. They were surprised that there was a problem because it turned out that they had just checked the AC in three months ago (in March just before we bought the house). So they offered to come out to see what is going on two days after I contacted them (I dont blame them for the delay it was a very hot week). They told me that if they found out that it was somehow their mistake like if they forgot to seal a valve after checking it they would assume the full responsibility. On the other hand it was a mechanical failure due to aging, they cannot recover it. The technician who performed the maintenance on March came out and found out again that freon was low, and that the service cap was missing. He checked for leaks with an electronic detector but couldnt find one. At this point, the best explanation the technician could offer was that the gas leaked from the service valve with the missing cap. Well, that sounds awful like what the owner of the company gave as an example of how it could turn out to be their fault. Since he was the last person to do the maintenance the most reasonable conclusion would be that he forgot to put the cap back on, and that it was their responsibility that the AC leaked the freon. The technician denied any responsibility. He said that I was trying to blame them so they did not want anything to do with this system anymore, that they did not want to touch it anymore in case I would blame them for anything further. Long story short, they screwed up a working system that they were paid to "maintain", and when they were confronted with their mistake, they ran away from their responsibility. His explanation was this: First of all, that there is no way at all that he could have forgotten to put the cap on. To support his point, he said his boss was with him on that they, so he couldnt have made a mistake like that. Second, the cap had disappeared somehow, maybe the service guy from AJ Pery removed it and let off the freon. Third, he was suspicious of me because we did not notice any problem from March till June. Yes he was implying there was something wrong with my story because I did not notice any problem with the AC until summer. It is ridiculous to claim that the cap was removed by the other service guy from AJ Perry. because the problem was there before that guy came to our house. Given the two options, that someone we dont know removed the cap out of spite to us, or Kelton Service simply screwed up and forgot to put the cap on after the service, I invite Occam with the razor. After being scared into buying a new unit from AJ Perry, and finding out Kelton Service is totally unreliable, I plan to have the unit filled by a third company. Fingers crossed. Update: AC worked just fine through out the summer. No leaks no problems. This clearly means that Kelton screwed up a perfectly running system by forgetting to put the cap on the AC valve that they were hired to maintain.

We spent about $255 for the service contract. He repaired it and everything was fine. It was a very good experience and he was very thorough and prompt. We consider it a fair price to pay for coming out twice a year and doing maintenance on our unit. He was very clean, did not make a mess and was very upfront and honest about what was wrong.