Air Texas Mechanical

Air Texas had to help design the coils for a one of a kind unit that supplies fresh air to hallway for 20 floors. There were a couple of fair add ons to fix ductwork that joined the unit to the hallways but the project came in on budget and on time. 2016 Main Condominiums, Gary Bernard/GM

Tech was supposed to be at my place between 8:00 and 12:00. He arrived after 2:00. He charged me for 2 hours ($80/hr) which I thought was excessive. From the time his office called to tell me he was on his way until he arrived was about a half hour. Since he starts charging from the time he leaves the previous customer, I owed him a half hour before he got here plus an additional $50 trip charge, which sounds like double dipping. So I owed him $90 by the time he got to my door. During his inspection he went to his truck to get tablets for the drip pan, even though I told him I had tablets. Then when he had finished the job, he said he had to go the truck to call his office/prepare the bill and that it would take quite a while. And it did. Maybe all of this is standard practice in the business. But if it is, it's smacks of extortion.

Scary thing happened Sunday night: the HVAC blower fan controller nearly caught fire. We had the fire department out and everything. The next day, I called AirTex to tell them they had a potentially huge, messy job on their hands. Their tech, Alex, was out in an hour and spent the rest of the morning tracking down the problem: a blown capacitor in the controller circuitry, along with some melted wires (which he found and the fire department, wonderful as they were, didn't). Alex could easily have sold me an entirely new HVAC system--ours dates from the Eisenhower administration--but instead he repaired the problem for about a twentieth the cost. He said not a word about the dirt in the system (or in the rest of the house) and could not have been more professional, more competent, more reassuring, or more badly needed. AirTex is putting together a quote for a complete replacement, and I don't believe I'd consider getting it from anyone else. They've been our HVAC pros for over 15 years now, and we're on our second residence with them. Alex got to play Superman at my house today, but he's only the latest in a long, long line of thoroughly professional, very comforting AirTex folks we've had maintaining our climate control.