V & M HEATING & COOLING

My A/C unit stopped blowing cool air, and I found this company's ad in the newspaper. I'm a busy guy and don't have a lot of time to deal with these issues, but a broken AC is an emergency. They sent someone out the same day and inspected my A/C. The guy instantly identified the problem which was a blown capacitor. He said it was a common issue and had a replacement part on hand. He switched it out and then discovered I was low on freon. He replaced that too. Everything was great until I got the bill. They charged me $269 for the capacitor. At the time I knew almost nothing about ACs and the cost to repair them. I just paid the bill and rushed off to work. Later I came to realize how badly they ripped me off. Turns out the retail price (not wholesale) for a capacitor ranges between $10 and $40. A quick Internet search will validate that. I understand the need to make money, but $269 is an outrageous markup on a capacitor. They also charged me $65 for the Service Call. This company preys on the ignorance of their customers. Sure I could have done some research and told them to take a hike for that price. However, as a customer I don't want to deal with a company that requires me to validate their prices are reasonable. As a customer I just want to deal with a fair company that charges reasonable prices for the parts. Apparently that is too much to ask, so I've learned my lesson and will be more careful in the future. Overall, this is not an honest or fair company and I highly recommend avoiding them.