Schneider A/C & Heating

My regular AC guys have no clue how to deal with Wine Guardian unit. So they say just replace it. These units are expensive. So I am thinking go to the guys who SHOULD know how to diagnose a service on these units. I realize they are not every day AC calls. So I contact Russel Warner at Wine Guardian, nice guy, who calls me back a couple of times and recommends that I go with Austin Refrigeration (AKA Schneider AC & Heat). I call and the receptionist is VERY attentive and gets me a service call SAME DAY within an hour of my call. Thank you! I told her we were going out of town/country and had a leak. She informed me the guy is in the neighborhood and will be there shortly. $80 service call and $85/hr. I said OK, great! Guy was here within the hour. Tim shows up at 3:30 and I tell him the history (has been looked at and ?leaking? and can he fix the leak?). I ALSO SAY, I KNOW THIS IS A CRAP SHOOT SO I DON?T WANT TO SPEND A BUNCH OF MONEY ON SOMETHING THAT WE NEED TO REPLACE. He said he needs to look at it. Ten minutes in. . . . he says you have a leak. OK, no surprise. Options, I can come back and start to work on it. Well, just work on it now but I don?t want to spend a bunch of money if it can?t be fixed so see what you can find. 1 hour later: Tim says he is still working on it. 2 hours later: YOU HAVE A LEAK! Seriously, he just said that? He says he can?t fix it. I?m thinking I am out a service call, 2 hours and refrigerant until we decide what we can do. It takes Tim another 30 minutes to put it back together but he charges me for 3 hours anyway. $476.30 and I have a full charge in a leaking unit. Yes, I am VERY DISAPPOINTED that I just wasted $500 on a band aid. I wrote this exact email to both Wine Guardian and Schneider A/C. The owner called back and said, What do you want me to do? I told him I was leaving the country (I was on the way to the airport) and he cashed my check that day. I didn't feel like I should be negotiating anything. The worker took far too long to figure out it was not fixable and then overcharged me for time spent. If it would have been fixed for that price there would be no complaint.

It turned out great. They are very prompt. They keep the appointment time. They show up on time. They are very honest and they are just good people.

After 9:00 pm noticed temperature rising inside. Called Schneider A/C & Heating at 9:30 pm and the owner, Fred Schneider, answered and scheduled a service call for 9:30 am the following morning. At 9:10 am the following morning, he called to say he was on the way, and showed up 15 minutes later. He checked the outside unit and found only a single burned-out wire to the run capacitor. He charged $5.00 for the wire and a $75.00 service fee. I questioned whether the run capacitor needed replacing, and he stated that he thought it was still in good condition, but said if it did go out in the next 30 days, he would replace it for the cost of the part with no additional service fee. We was very honest, prompt and professional.