The Latest TV Sting Really Stings

The Today Show on NBC decided the summer heat wave was a great excuse to pull out the old trusty expose of shoddy and dishonest a/c repairmen. The good news is that they asked ACCA and AHRI to participate in the hidden-camera sting and be their industry experts. Kudos is in order for ACCA and Bobby Ring. Six a/c companies were called to a house in New Jersey for service. Another piece of good news was that all six quickly found the minor wiring problem. That’s the end of the good news. All six also found phantom problems and were prepared to charge the homeowner anywhere from $400 to $900 for repairs.

The sting aired on July 10 and it was hard to watch. If you have the stomach for it you can go to www.today.com and search for “Rossen Reports ac.” There weren’t any butt crack video shots but the repairmen were not dressed appropriately. They didn’t try to replace a compressor or an entire unit, but honesty was lacking. What’s the motivation? Are they being pressured by the owners to generate a certain amount of service dollars per day? Are they being paid a percentage of the service bills?

In a real life situation, if the technician had quickly fixed the wiring problem, placed stickers on the outdoor and indoor units, presented a minimum service bill and offered an annual checkup the end result would have been a potential long term service customer. And, if the customer was pleased with the initial service call, that same contractor would get the call when the system needed replacement.