Called Maitz on a hot Saturday morning to service Central Air unit. Saturday is a normal work day for them and they only
charge $99 for a service call. Competitors were charging $150. Maitz said they could come right over but competitor
wasn't free till 4pm (should have known this wasn't right). Technician told me I needed just over 2 pounds of R-22
refrigerant for my older system. He said I would need to pay $572 for the freon in addition to the service charge.
My other option was to replace with a new system that would cost $5,000 - $10,000. He cited the fact that the cost
of freon had sky rocketed. I had guests staying with us so I thought I had no choice but I didn't seem right to me.
I ran into a competitor in my neighborhood a couple days later and they said it would have cost me $150 for 3 pounds of freon along
with a $150 charge for Saturday service. So what ended up costing $671 should have been $300. I promptly followed
up with the service manager to ask why they charge almost 4 times what their competitors do for freon. After citing
higher operating costs, confirming that I agreed to pay it (under false information in my opinion) he indicated that
the tech made a mistake and charged me the "over 2 pounds rate" when he shouldn't have and agreed to refund $215.
I indicated that I was still unhappy paying almost $360 for what should have cost $150 but it was better than nothing.
I did further research and freon costs companies about $13 per pound so this ended up being a 923% mark up after the refund.
Be careful getting service from a company with low off hour service charges, they may make up for it with much higher
repair costs once they are at your door..
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