Most HVAC companies and technicians have your best interest at heart. But, how do you know if you’re dealing with a legitimate company, or a scammer?
1. No online presence
These days, almost all HVAC companies have a website, a Facebook page, a Yelp page — and most importantly a Google listing with reviews. If you found out about your prospective HVAC company in a different way, do a quick search to try and find these items, and make sure they are who they say they are!
2. No paper presence
Just as important as an online presence is the presence of physical resources you can look at from an HVAC company. They should be able to provide you with their official brochure/flyer on their products and services. Even more importantly, the brochure will have fine print discussing what exactly is guaranteed, the product warranty, and other terms and conditions. Without this fine print, when you are signing on the dotted line for service, what exactly are you signing up for?
3. Asking for payment upfront
No HVAC company should be asking for payment before providing you with service. Otherwise, it could just be a scam artist posing as an HVAC technician, and planning on running off with the money instead of fixing your problem! This is another reason you need to be careful about asking for and carefully looking over a written service agreement. If the person in question truly is a scam artist, they probably won’t have anything like that to offer at all!
4. Acting pushy
Some HVAC scammers won’t take no for an answer, and will insist on making a sale or repair. This is a bad sign, because putting on pressure or acting pushy is not how a good HVAC company teaches its technicians to act! In fact, the best technicians will encourage you to shop around and get multiple quotes from different companies, because they know their company is the best around. In fact, getting multiple price estimates from different companies is often a good idea, to make sure you’re not being overcharged, or being charged for an unnecessary service.
5. “Recharging” scam
Shady businesses know all about the “recharging” scam, where they can “recharge” your system with more refrigerant and bill you for it. However, if you were short on refrigerant to begin with, that would indicate a serious leak problem, not something that can be fixed with extra refrigerant. The word “recharge” is a red flag — they’re hoping they can trick you with this once, then call you back or have you call them back for more “recharging” instead of actually fixing the real problem!
You need a company that will truly fix problems, be reliable and honest, and has great technicians working for them. That’s why Dial One Sonshine in the Santa Ana area is the perfect company for you. But, don’t take our word for it … Check out our customer testimonials and listen to what they have to say. Then, you can contact us online or call us any time: (714) 613-1016!