Hello my name is Richard, I am from Alabama and I am hoping somebody can inform me of wrong doing? It may take a few to explain and if you take the time to read this i will surely appreciate it:

Several months ago our Air Conditioner stopped blowing cold. Upon inspection i noticed the outside unit had a copper line coming into the house that was solid ice. So i made a phone call to a local heating and air business (Gordon Heating and Air) i had used in the past and had a good experience with. Come to find out later on the company had been sold out to someone else and continued doing business under a now different name. ( I originally called Gordons because everyone else told me they didnt have parts to fix a Trane unit and only a dealer for Trane could work on them or something to that affect.) Heres where the problem starts.... While on the phone with who i thought was Gordons..the tech told me that it sounded like my freon was low and it probably just needed a pound or two and the problem would be fixed...he said there would be a service call of $65 and $45 for each pound of freon...i said that was tolerable if it would fix the problem. We arranged a time for the next day and i had my mother house sit while i was at work if they needed in the house. Later on that day my mother calls me and says there done and that the bill was alot more than discussed...the total was $290? I asked her why and she said she didnt know because they didnt tell her anything...but the ticket left said...and i quote "Unit not cooling. Checked system was low on freon. Has leak on evap coil. Added 5lbs of R22 freon. Leak in system can not warranty freon". With this being said, I had not been informed in ANY way of the new price or problem until my wife called and asked them. They claim that they can not tell if the unit is leaking or not until they "try it". Therefore it took in 5lbs of freon and then they saw it was leaking? ultimately leading to them adding "cannot warranty freon" on the service ticket. They also told my wife that we needed to replace the entire unit, since ours used R22 freon you cant replace the evap coil. She asked them how long it would last and there reply was an unknown amount time but that it was working when they left. My wife then calls me back at work aprox. 3 hours later and says the AC is not working again. I advised her to check the unit outside as i did. She inspected and found it had frozen up again. She calls them back and tells them its still not working and they say sure will come back and look at it again for another $65 service call.... my wife gets furious with them and they mix unknown words. They then call me at work and say Mr Thornton we cant talk to your wife...lol and he wants to discuss with me about replacing the entire unit and if i did replace it he would knock off the cost of the current charges? We ended u mixing words back and forth later on as i questioned there actions and work ethic. I told the guy if i wanted to piss away $300 i could have done it without calling them. I told them i didnt understand WHY I DID NOT GET A PHONE CALL or at least TELL THE PERSON IN THE HOUSE and say...hey your about 5lbs low and your bill is going to double what we discussed if we do this...oh and by the way we are not going to warranty it because its leaking. It sounds to me they purposely did this just to try and squeeze out some extra $$$. After i lengthy phone call the guy says let me call my boss and see what he says...he returned a call and said they would knock $100 off the bill....which leads me to believe they were in the wrong and trying to hush me up. I have asked a few other local businesses about how they would go about it (before me explaining my situation and what they did) and they all said..if it was that low i would do a leak test and if it was leaking we could try to put some leak sealant in for around $80-100.

I want to know if i am in my right to confront them further of there wrongful doing and impractical business ethics and possibly take legal action or are they in there right and Im stuck with a $300 charge that fixed absolutely nothing?

- Why would they put freon in a leaking system?
- Is that against code 608? Do they risk a fine?
- Can you not tell its leaking before you add freon or is it true that you have to add freon in to a system that "low" to see if its leaking?

I have since not paid them anything yet until i KNOW who is right or wrong. Its not about the charges or how much...i am not trying to skimp out on the bill either. But they have now started charging filing late fees..

*Also on this months statement (this is only the 2nd one) it seems the "description of work" has changed to this..and i quote "Unit is not cooling. Tech Ke** Han*** checked system and found that it was low on refrigerant. Unit has a leak on the evaporator coil. Coil need to be replaced. Added 5lbs of freon and unit is cooling temporarily. Can Not warranty freon".

SOMEONE PLEASE ADVISE ME AS TO WHAT TO DO. I THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE.