Several Houston, Texas air conditioning contractors were caught in a "sting" operation by NBC's Dateline, a television news feature program. The show aired on Friday, June 29th and showed several service technicians providing service and giving repair estimates to a homeowner whose a/c unit was in "perfect" working order. The various technicians were caught on camera suggesting "unecessary repairs" and also added Freon until it actually "shot out" of the unit - a sign of overfill.

When confronted with the hidden tape recordings,most contractors took the blame and said they would review their procedures with technicians.

Publication date: 07/02/2001