June 25th, 2008 by Jemaleddin Cole
My air conditioner stopped working yesterday. Part of the problem was that I hadn’t replaced the filter in a couple months (oops - I always forget that), but it was also low on whatever refrigerant they’re using nowadays. This morning I called our HVAC specialists, and they said they’d send somebody out this afternoon. The woman on the phone said that it was $110 for the visit, which only covers the first 30 minutes, $50/lb. for the refrigerant, and I’d probably need 3lbs. Ouch. Goodbye iphone 3G.
The reason it was running low is that I need to replace the blower on the inside of the house which has a very slow leak. Evidently systems that operate under pressure always develop leaks over time and it takes long enough to find and fix them (at over $100/hour) that they usually get fixed by being replaced. Since it’s $2,000 for a new blower, I’m happy to keep paying to top off the tank until the leak gets bad enough.
The way we picked this company to put in our heat pump in the first place is that the founder used to play cards with Kellie’s grandfather, and the heat pump that should have cost us $3,000 to put in was under $1,500. And that $2,000 for the blower? That’s friend prices. Nice deal, but who knows how much her family lost at the poker table over the years to get that discount?
Regardless, the repair guy came out, and I guess he must be the same person who has been coming to our house all along, because he remembered Kellie. And didn’t charge us a thing. It seems that he thought she was a pretty awesome customer, and now that I think about it, he didn’t charge us for the last visit either.
I’m going to miss having somebody around that has that effect on people.