My HVAC guy quit mid-repair and left me with a half-torn unit in Decatur

Last month my AC started making this awful grinding noise, so I called the same company I've used since 2019. The tech came out, pulled half the condenser apart, then said he had a family emergency and never came back. I called the office six times over two weeks and they kept saying he'd call me, but nothing. Finally got a second company out and they found the first guy had left a part unplugged that could've caused a fire. Anyone else dealt with a contractor ghosting them like this? How do you vet a company before you let them touch your unit?

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the_john1mo ago

Start by calling your local licensing board and checking if they've got complaints on file. That's step one, but also ask around on Nextdoor or your neighborhood Facebook group, because people there will tell you the truth about who's reliable. I had a plumber do something similar to me a few years back, left a pipe half-connected and vanished, so now I always ask for three references from any contractor and actually call two of them. And get this, ask the company who they send on warranty calls, because a lot of these places sub out the work and the sub has no reason to care about your house. You also want to make sure they're bonded and insured, but that part's easy to fake, so the real test is whether they show up when they say they will, twice in a row. That unplugged part thing is scary, and honestly you might want to report that first company to the state board, because that's not just a no-show, that's dangerous work.