Funny how the air conditioner unit that wasn't broken two weeks ago that my husband scheduled a repair appointment for...stopped working last night. Not funny, ha ha. Funny, conspiracy theory.
That last repair man charged $79. That's for the house call from Dr. Air Dud. After his visit, Hick bought some cleaner-in-a-can and sprayed our coil or ducts or both. It was like going to the doctor when you gouge a skin canyon into your forearm on nails in the garage wall that hold fishing poles, and the doctor tells you to go to Walmart and buy some triple antibiotic ointment and treat yourself. But without the tetanus shot.
This new repair man walked up to the porch, said he thought it was the capacitor before I even spoke my speech that Hick had prepared for me, and elaborated, after my eloquent oratory, "Like I said, it's the capacitor." He went around back and fiddled for a while, then came in and told me he'd used an entire can of wasp spray because a horde attacked him. Funny how they never attack anybody in the pool three feet away.
The diagnosis was...guess what. A bad capacitor. Did you know that every call he made this morning was for a bad capacitor? For all I know, he made it up after watching Back to the Future. The bill was $79 for the house call, $136 for the capacitor, and $50 for labor. Which brings several questions to mind:
1-How much of that labor charge paid you to spray wasps under my deck?
2-Where's my old capacitor?
3-Am I going to have something else go bad two weeks after your visit?
I'm always suspicious. If Hick was here, I might go along without question. Upon hearing the tale, Hick said, "I probably could have picked up a capacitor for $20 and put it in myself. But I would have needed to turn off the unit and take the old one to the supply store to make sure I bought the right one, and then you would have been without air conditioning for a day." Hick does business with this company at his job. After one service call concerning the heating portion of this heat pump, he called the boss to complain, and the bill was reduced considerably. I don't think that's necessary this time.
But the conspiracy theorist in me says that there's a roving band of repairmen switching out parts so repeat house calls are needed at short intervals. I have a suspicious nature.
At least I can fume about it in my cool, cool house, happy that Hick has connections to wangle a heating and cooling house call the morning after the AC breaks. The porch thermometer read an even 100 at 5:00 p.m.
4 comments:
And I don't know about you, but at our house, the AC has to run nonstop, because menopause has ensured that I bring my own little portable furnace with me at all times...
It's a dadblasted blast furnace out there. Stay cool. I hope your capacitor runs at full capacity.
Were I Conspiracy Theorist (as in Brad Meltzer's Decoded) I would just say, well, if the guy showed me the old capacitor (or condenser as they were previously known--conspiracy to throw us off??? Hmmm...) he would have just had an old one in his pocket that they could show to any suspicious enough to inquire.
At least you are cool once again and somewhat pest free--and a bunch of wasps bit it too! ;-D
Sioux,
Not at home. But I feel that way at school. All that hot air, I suppose.
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Linda,
My capacitor currently knows no bounds. It is capaciting capriciously night and day.
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labbie,
I never thought of that. But according to Hick, the boss of the capacitor-installer says he is taking off the $50 labor charge, and maybe more. And Hick said he can't believe I wrote the check and gave it to the capacitor-installer, even though that's what the dude told me to do. Soo...let them all have a wrestle royale and sort it out, then mail me a bill next time. Men!
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