Air Conditioning Essential Services Inc

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I was referred to this company by Brett Hill Construction when during our regular 6 month maintenance the technician noticed our
a/c was not getting as cold as it should be and suggested there is probably a leak in the refrigerant. The technicians company is not licensed to do a/c repairs and he referred me to Advanced Air aka Air Conditioning Essential Services.
When I called Advanced Air, they were polite and scheduled an appointment to repair our a/c. I told them when making the appointment what Brett Hill tech said about our a/c. Manny from Advanced Air arrived on time and spent one hour analyzing our a/c and ultimately said we just need to refill the freon, which he did. It cost a little over $100 and the A/C worked great for about one and a half months when it stopped cooling again!
So, I called another A/C repair company on the phone just to get some information. I spoke with Dennis at Aloha State Refrigeration & Air and he actually was very professional and gave me a quick "education" in A/C repair. He told me it is not so easy to find a leak and explained how they shut down the system, pressurize it and test with nitrogen to try to find the leak. He gave me a quote for leak finding which actually ended up being 1/2 the price of Advanced Air's quote. Unfortunately, I decided to stick with Advanced Air since they had started working on our system and the fix didn't work I felt they should come out and fix our unit pronto! So I called them back to schedule a 2nd repair visit.
This time, scheduling was a hassle, I left several messages and did not get return phone call. I called again and finally spoke with the scheduler who said she would email me a quote for leak detection and repair. In the meantime she would hold Friday for our repair date (the next day). I received the email and the quote was almost double what Aloha State Refrigeration quoted! I was shocked but signed the estimate and faxed it right back since we had no A/C and of course this happened to be a week & weekend when we had no trade winds and it was extremely hot, muggy & foggy.
Advanced Air called back and said now they couldn't come on Friday as promised because of a scheduling mistake but could come out on Monday. I was p*****! Now we have to suffer without a/c for 3 more days! On Monday, Manny, the same technician that came for our first repair came out but he was late and also brought some girl that looked about 12 yrs old with him. He did not introduce her but when I asked who she was, he said she was his assistant. Yeah, right, she looks like your daughter that you brought to work with you. Maybe she was older but just looked young, I don't know but she didn't assist much. Anyway, while Manny was here,I talked with my brother-in-law (who installs and repairs a/c units on the mainland)  and my brother-in-law instructed me what questions to ask and also suggested I watch Manny check our unit for a leak. He said, a/c companies are notorious for scamming customers when it comes to how much freon they put in a system and "leak finding".  
Unfortunately, the Advanced Air Manny could not answer any of the questions my brother-in-law told me to ask and said he would have to ask his boss and get back to me. Manny was very polite but doesn't seem to "know" anything or isn't allowed to tell customers anything. Long story short, Manny could not locate the leak and told me he would have to leave the pressurizing  and come back to check it. I asked when are you coming back to check our unit? He couldn't say, and told me to call the office. What??' Another night without a/c? The next day he comes back (after I spoke sternly with his office about my displeasure) and he says that there IS NO LEAK. What? After all of this, there is no leak?  So I asked him, why do you think our a/c went out two times if there is NO LEAK? He couldn't say and again would have to ask his boss and get back to me (which he never did btw).
So, upon talking with my brother-in-law, we suspect that after the first time Advanced Air fixed our A/C by adding more freon, Manny probably did not tighten the connections and therefore the freon leaked out again. I called the company to find out what our bill would be since NO LEAK was found and there was no LEAK repair work done. All the tech did was add more freon again. So I felt we should pay the same price we paid for having freon added plus a few hundred dollars extra for the leak research. They gave us somewhat of a discount but still charged over $100 more than what was quoted by Aloha State Refrigeration.
In retrospect, I wish I had gone with Aloha State Refrigeration as they seemed to be more up front, honest, knowledgeable and professional. So far our a/c is still working which supports my theory that we got ripped off by paying for repair work that was not needed and probably was caused by the inefficient repair (ie. not tightening connections) after adding freon on the first visit.
I will not be using this company again if our a/c stops working in the future and highly recommend customers try Aloha State Refrigeration for a/c repairs.

Arrived on time. Worked hard for 2 date. Finished earlier, than was expected. Outstanding work and professionalism.

Company was responsive when I called, set up an appointment for a couple days after I called and showed up on time (I picked from the yellow pages based on the biggest ad and companies that serviced my brand of AC). AC had not been used much in 5 years and we are using it more now so I wanted it checked.  Technician seemed ok (not great but not bad).  He stuck his head in the attic and blew down the drain line with CO2 (took about a minute).  He replaced the intake filter (1 minute) and spent some time on the outside unit (I never saw him open it or measure anything, but his AC gauges were sitting there).  When he was done and I asked about the refrigerant level and if he needed to add any he said "No, it was good enough" (what does that mean?  topped off?  mid-range? low but just in spec and he didn't want to add any?  I didn't get a warm, fuzzy feeling from him).  Total visit time was about 20-30 minutes, and most of that was getting set up to work and writing the invoice.  This company also requires being paid for drive time to and from your site, and I think they mentioned a $75 minimum. 
I'm not saying they did a BAD job; I'm just saying I wasn't impressed, and the next time I need central AC work I'll spin the wheel and pick another company from the yellow pages.