American Air Conditioning & Heating Co.

Toward the end of this summer, our A/C unit stopped blowing cold air. I called our home warranty company, American Home Shield ("AHS"). They assigned American Air Conditioning and Heating ("American").

The first technician said the compressor was out. Eventually AHS agreed to cover the total cost of the compressor, but our home warranty plan only covered a portion of the coolant.

I spoke over the phone with a lady from American, and asked how much coolant our unit might take. She said "up to 10 pounds." She said we were responsible for $80 per unit. I asked - if we only needed one or two pounds, for example, then we'd only have to pay $80-$160. She confirmed that was correct. "But depending on the need, the max we'd pay is UP TO $800." She said, "yes, UP TO."

My wife also spoke to a man from American. He also said that we could be responsible for "UP TO" $800 - but it all depended on how much coolant we actually needed.

About a week later, a second technician came out to fix the unit. I was at work, but my wife was at home. When I got home that evening, my wife was swiping her credit card as I walked through the door. She said it was fixed.

The tech was sitting there next to my wife as she digitally signed. I asked her how much we had to pay. She said the bill came to $816.00 with tax. So I looked at the tech and asked, "It took the whole ten pounds?"

First, he said that they "don't have the equipment to test to see if the old coolant is contaminated." Then he said that AHS (our warranty company) didn't "allow" them to keep any of the old coolant anyway. So I said, "so you HAVE to put in the whole ten pounds?" He said yes.

It was a done deal. I didn't have time to process what happened. But later I started thinking back about what the two office employees told me and my wife.

I called AHS. I asked if they had a policy in place in which they "would not allow" American to keep any old coolant. She said they had no such policy.

I tried to give the tech the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was trained improperly. But why would someone misinform him about a non-existent AHS policy? Then I thought, again, maybe he's a new guy and doesn't know what kind of equipment American has. But that didn't make sense either. Even a guy right out of HVAC school should know what kind of equipment does what, and easily determine whether the company you work for has it or not.

So I called American. It was after-hours by then, so I left a message and simply said I'd like to speak to the owner about a concern I had.

I didn't get a callback. A week went by, and I called again, this time during business hours. I asked to speak to the owner. A man there would not let me speak with the him/her. He assured me that he had the authority to discuss the issue and relay any messages to the owner for me.

I told him what took place. I told him that the tech said they didn't have the proper equipment to test old coolant. He said that they DO have proper equipment to test it. I told him what AHS said - that they don't have any policy which bars American from keeping any old coolant. He confirmed that is correct - AHS does NOT prohibit American in that manner. But then he tried to defend the technician. He basically explained that their techs have the ability to make a judgement call as to the best course of action while at the job site.

Of course, I still kept coming back to the fact that the two plain statments the tech made to me were absolutely untrue. I told the man on the phone that in the very least, they should look into why a tech would make such claims. I asked him to pass along my concerns to the owner, which he said he would and give me a call.

Of course, American never called me back. I truly believe I was lied to. I believe I was charged for a full ten pounds of coolant when I probably didn't need that much. Maybe the man told the owner, maybe he didn't. Maybe the owner knows, but doesn't care. After all, they got their money.

My husband and I have an AHS warranty and that's how we found American Air. Never having a warranty before we had no idea what to expect, but American and AHS worked together very well on our broken indoor AC unit. Every step of the way, American Air was reliable, professional and helpful. Once the final decision was made to replace the unit American Air was out the next day to install it and much to our surprise they came out first thing in the morning when they originally scheduled us for later in the day. We will continue to use them for servicing our HVAC needs in San Antonio.

Gabriel came out to check out unit through AHS warranty service call. He was checking the pressure of refrigerant. He said the ref cap was broken and he put a screw through it to take it off. But it didn't work.
He tried putting the refrigerant in another line that the lock did come off but he said he needed access to the other line. Stated that the suction line needed to be replaced now. He said it was a 3 hour job and he was having a bad day and was not going to do it, Said if they want to send someone else they could but he wasn't going to do it. He then said if I have a friend who can do it to call them. I PAID for the home warranty to have this checked. I called the office so many times and they don't answer. I called AHS and they told me that the technician hadn't submitted diagnostics. The technician Gabriel didnt even have his workbook. He said he left it somewhere else and was writing down diagnostics and addresses on a blank sheet of paper. Lack of communication and the unprofessionalism showed today speaks for itself.
This company cannot be trusted to do the work. The tech literally said he wasn't going to do this, but with a lot of curse words.

Do NOT do business with these folks. Here's a synopsis of the service I received:
-After a number of days back and forth, have a technician schedule to arrive between 4-7 PM
-Technician (Bobby) calls at 8:30 PM.
-Running late (obviously) and would call back in 30-45 mins.
-I call back at 9:57 PM. No answer.
-Recieve call back at 10:05 PM. I let him know that 10:05 PM is unacceptable and to schedule me for the first thing in the morning.
-I call at 8 a.m to the scheduling manager (Guillermo) to ensure I'm on the list and that I'm extremely unhappy with the service.
-It's explained to me that I should feel lucky that they got me on the schedule today as I refused service the night prior. I asked if he believed it was acceptable to have a technician come out at 10:05 PM? He said no, but that I needed to understand there are two sides to the argument. (Fair enough....logically there are two sides regardless of how illogical one side is.)
-Technician scheduled to come between 12:00-3 PM. Technician (Daryl) calls me at 12:40 to let me know he is about an hour out ETA. 2:30 I call back. No answer. Call back to office. They assure me he will be here.
-2:57 Technician calls me back and lets me know he's an hour out. Arrives 3:40.
-Still no AC. (This is not due to American AC, but nuisances with American Home Shield...another 1-star company I cannot recommend to anyone.)
-(NOTE: Daryl was very professional...minus the tardiness)
-Use these guys if you must, but certainly don't plan on them meeting their time frames nor offering any kind of compensation for you as the customer. Be thankful that they even came out. 10 PM, 11 PM...it's no big deal. They will get to you and you better well appreciate them coming out.

The reason this company has a 3.8 rating is because they put together ratings in groups, so for calculations purposes it only counts as one when in reality there is 13 very disappointed customers. I found it from the beginning very difficult to believe that this company had a 3.8 rating. I don't know what is worse the customer service or the fact that they work tirelessly with AHS to rob the customer blind. Please do not enroll with either. There's nothing that me and my child have not been put through by this group of goons. I'll definitely will be visiting the better business bureau, hopefully they are not in their pockets already. When I asked to talk to a supervisor at either place I was lied to and informed that there weren't any, then they hung up. The thousand of dollars that I have paid over 10 years of being a faithful customer to AHS didn't even buy me consideration or respect. Please, if you value your self-esteem and the welfare of your family don't get involved with either of these tyrants. They are verbally abusive and manipulative and all the negative reviews left on these page are very truthful, since I've come to experience a little of each. What hurts me the most is the suffering of my daughter, which has meant nothing to either of these band of thieves. I curse each and everyone of their employees and I hope nothing but the worst happens to each and everyone of them. If possible I will make it my life's mission to spread these words to anyone who will hear. I hope all of whom have been harmed and damaged do the same. I'm sorry you had to go through such horrible experiences.

8-28-2017
With Red/Oscar, techs
Here is an update my friends.its been exactly two weeks to the day!!!! My daughter and I got a reprieve thanks to hurricane Harvey. My child suffers from eczema and her skin was literally peeling off under the 104 degree weather. I finally got my pressure test which is going to determine how many other ways AHS and American Air and Heating are going to screw me over next. I tried to get some information out of Red but when it came to explaining how the different changes in pressure would affect the different ways the situation would be dealt with I got the "brush off". Maybe he decided being a woman didn't qualify me with enough intelligence to understand all the money I would have to pay depending on what they could come up for a good scam at the moment of the pressure readings. By the way, Red was operating and performing the test while Oscar gave him much needed moral support. Why two techs were required for this duty will puzzle me for many day to come. Oh, and they had the nads to complain about how hot it was out there for them while they were working under that TX sun, the balls on those two!!!!! Well this is all for now I send prayers to all the poor folks out there that suffer damage due to Harvey and I hope they are not insured under AHS, but more than anything I pray they don't have to use this company!!!!

I have been without AC for 10 days already. The landlord paid for the coolant recharge, but no one has called me to schedule the service. Their "new seasonal hours" are 8 AM to 4 PM and closed weekends? Really? It's 100 degrees outside and you reduce your service hours?

I have been without A/C for over a week and these people don't seem to care one bit that it has been over 90 degrees in my house. They don't answer calls right away and put you on LONG holds, they have an annoying beep, beep, beep, instead of music playing during those LONG holds. Then they send incompetent technicians out to the job site. There seems to be a lack of communication between what needs to be done and what they are doing. If I wasn't locked into them because of my home warranty, I would NEVER do business with this company. Now they are telling me it could be WEEKS!!!!

John arrived within designated time slot. Very professional and utilized face mask in compliance with covid19 requirements. Just finished cancer treatment and was so pleased to see his concern for customer safety. He did a outstanding job in servicing, taking apart, and cleaning the blower on the mini split in our home. It’s now blowing air with full force as in the beginning.

Terrible. Think about it folks... most of us dont make $75 for less than an hour's worth of work! But he's complaining about it in the review above. (Poor form) Today is the 3rd time they come out. If they dont want warranty work (read steady income) then they need to go at it alone and stop offering a service they cant dont want to provide . Jeff is rude, talked through me, yelled at me and then says (to reassure me) "Youre not the only customer we have to come backbout 3 and 4 times to." Oh wow! The guys a joke. Their service is a bad joke. They wont even ensure that if they have to come a FOURTH time they will do so expeditiously!

Horrible service. They came to tune up my AC and caused the unit to flood into my attic the next day. When I tried to get them to help with the damage they refused and denied fault. Come on....seriously? It had no issues with water drainage until the tech came and "fixed" it. We are pursuing legal action.