Just to share a bad experience with all of you. A couple months back my aircon started acting up and I wanted to get someone to take a look at it ASAP. I tried a few recommendations but all were too busy to come by.
Searching on Google I came across “COOLCLEAN AIR-CONDITIONING”, called them and they were immediately available (that should have been the 1st warning sign, as reliable ones seem to be in hot demand).
When the “technicians” arrived (more than an hour later than the scheduled time), they took a look at my air-condition unit and immediately said I needed a ‘chemical cleaning’. 1st quote that they gave was $200 (for that single unit). Previously searching on the net I saw other quotes going around $150 - $180. The quote was slightly more expensive but not terribly so. I agreed.
The technicians, simply sprayed some solution on the unit (while it was still mounted to the wall), attached a vacuum to the unit to suck up the solution that was sprayed into the unit. They cleaned the casing and filters, he said the job was done!!!
I turned on the unit, it was still not blowing strongly and then the technicians claimed that a further cleaning of the compressor linked to the set as well as topping up of gas was required. At a further quote of $100 (so we’re up to $300 at this point).
At the time I was thinking that it was excessive but they were in the middle of the job and I wanted to get it over and done with.
The ‘special’ cleaning that they needed to do was basically to spray the compressor clean with water. At the same time they claimed to top up the gas.
After all that was done, they declared the job done.
I tested my bedroom unit against the split unit in my dining area and the dining area was blowing so much more strongly. When I pointed this out to the technicians, they declared that ‘more work’ was needed as they needed to take the bedroom unit off from the wall to clean it further. This was at a further cost of $100!
Taking the total to a whopping $400!!!!!
Now on hindsight, shouldn’t they have taken the unit off straight away as I already paid for the full chemical wash?
The unit finally blew strongly (or at least much more strongly than before they removed the unit for a proper cleaning).
They left after collecting $400 and when I asked them what should I do If I faced further issues, to which they answered, "Don't worry… the cleaning can last for 2 years! But any issues just call our company. It’s a big company and will definitely settle it for you".
I guess after collecting their loot, they’d promise just about anything.
Unfortunately, less than 2 weeks after the cleaning, the air condition unit started to lose strength significantly. When I was finally (was travelling and didn’t want the technicians coming to my place without me around) able to contact the company to arrange for someone to come and take another look at the unit. The company’s admin initially ignored my messages and only after repeated messages, they said that they could send some technicians over but had to charge again for the visit!
After questioning her about the fact that I already forked out $400 for an ‘extensive’ cleaning, she agreed to contact her boss (this was early June) who was travelling till the month end and I just had to be patient. I questioned her on why we needed to wait for her boss when they a ‘big company’ had many technicians. Her response was that I had to be patient and to just wait. Keep in mind that the aircondition unit wasn’t blowing cold and they were telling us to just wait… wait till their boss was available
On 1st July, as expected they did not contact me and I contacted them again to arrange for a visit from this ‘boss’.
Finally on 9th July, this ‘boss’ came to my place… he came alone, dressed like he was going out for a date (no tools, nothing). He turned on my aircon unit, took one look at it (he didn’t even open the cover) and declared that the ‘motor’ was faulty.
When I asked what made him think so, his response was that he was an experienced technician and could tell. So when I asked him why his technicians did not have that same diagnosis and just went for the kill, he didn’t have anything to say. Further questioning him about the cost I was charged for the ‘servicing’, he admitted that he wasn’t the boss and that he couldn’t make any decisions (so much for waiting for a month for the ‘boss’).
He told me that he’d get his boss to call me to settle my issue before leaving. I followed up by messaging the COOLCLEAN admin but to this day, I’ve not got any response.
Since then, I’ve spoken to two other aircon servicing companies and both say that I’ve been grossly overcharged for this ‘servicing’. According to the technicians I spoke to, a chemical wash would immediately require that the unit be removed from the wall so that the entire unit can be cleaned and not just the front (which was what this COOLCLEAN AIR-CONDITIONING did).
To finish off, I just want to strongly recommend to everyone to avoid COOLCLEAN AIR-CONDITIONING (BRN 53321501C)!!!!!!
Stick with tried and tested recommendations instead!!
Not these companies that charge and arm and a leg and simply run off without responsibility over jobs done (especially poorly done ones as in my case above).