Austin AC service - avoid Hanks like the plague

We have a house with 2 AC units, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. The upstairs unit barely keeps up with the demands in the summer, and for the THIRD time in the last 4 years the compressor fan has gone out, each time it is about $600 to fix.

Well, we hear a rattle on the fan, and finally Hank gets around this time to telling us that maybe the motors are going out because the blades are unbalanced? WTF? It took him till the 3rd replacement fan motor to figure this out.

In addition they have replaced the Phlunum ( A box which distributes the air flow correctly) and the coils to the upstairs unit last year for about $3000. It did nothing last summer - still just as hot. And we found a leak in the phlenum on Saturday that had to be fixed too...UGH......

Also, one of his techs came out Saturday because the motor had stopped again and replaced the capacitors for about $350 and then told me the motor had been wired wrongly and needed to be rewired to get it to blow up and out instead of down like it was currently doing, he did that free of charge....but less than 24 hours later that motor was completely dead.

So, I decide to do a little research...I find the replacement motor for about $290, and can get a generic one for less than that, and I can do the fan blades myself as well...all for under $400....it would take me about an hour of labor.....

Hank would do the same work for $800.

But, I figured that it doesn't fix the issue of not cooling the upstairs adequately, so I decided to see what the new coils would handle.

Right now it is a 2 ton unit, and it can handle 2.5 tons or maybe 3.0 tons...which would significantly increase airflow.

So, I asked ole Hank for a bid on the outside compressor units.......

For the 2.5 ton unit = $2600 or delux unit for $2811
For the 3.0 ton unit = $2914 or delux unit for $3340

That sounded high to me, as I had found the units on the web for a lot less so I got some competitive bids.

Tomorrow I have AB&B heating and air conditioning coming out to do the work.

For the 2.5 ton unit = $1225 (They laughed at the deluxe unit crap)
For the 3.0 ton unit = $1400

Same 5 year parts and 1 year labor guarantee.

Needless to say....Hanks has lost our business and that of anyone we know...FOR-EVER !!

DD