My air conditioner quit cooling in June. I suspected a refrigerant leak and called the original installer, but could not locate him immediately. I went to the Yellow Pages and called Hank's Service. A technician, Mike, happened to be near and came to my house immediately. I showed him the leak, which he confirmed, and then he found another leak, burned Shraeder valves, at the condensing unit. He first said that the repair would cost $300-$400 , then after a few minutes revised his price to $800. He explained that this was a ""big old 4 ton unit"" (it's actually 2 years old) and that it would take 2 techs about half a day. I scheduled service for the following day.
Shortly after Mike left, I received a return call from the original installer. He said he could send someone out the following day, so I called Hanks office and canceled the appointment. I told them to send me a bill for the service call that Mike performed.
The next day the original installer's tech showed up, pulled the freon back into the condenser, re-brazed the leak at the evaporator, replaced the Shraeder valves, pumped down the line between the units, and recharged the unit with R-22-all done in 56 minutes. If techs are billed at $150/hr and freon sells for $20/lb, the bill would have been about 1 hour($150) plus 10# of freon ($200) or $350. It's hard for me to justify how this would have cost $800 for Hank's to do it. I believe that Hank's tech saw an opportunity to overcharge a customer stuck without air conditioning, and tried to take advantage of it.
To add insult to injury, Hank's never sent me a bill. Five months later I get a letter from a collections agency, seeking to recover $45 for a unpaid service charge. I spoke to Linda in Hank's accounts receivable and she said that the tech had left me a bill(not true), that she had sent me bill(not true) and that she had tried to call me (not true). I requested a legitimate invoice from her, which she sent, and I paid the bill. The amount was not is dispute, in fact, I thought it was very reasonable, but getting turned over to a collections agency has left a bitter taste in my mouth.
In short, my perception of Hank's Service is that they are dishonest, and I would never do business with them or recommend them to anyone else.
Pros: Quick response
Cons: Dishonesty
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