In Ahmedabad everybody needs their AC looked at in the same six weeks, which is exactly when it is hardest to tell a careful technician from somebody who is very busy. The good news is that almost all of the risk sits in three or four questions you can ask on the phone, before anybody comes to the house.
These are three different jobs, priced three different ways, and a lot of confusion about cost comes from treating them as one.
- Servicing is cleaning. Filters, coils, drain line. It is routine, it is the cheapest of the three, and it is what most units need before summer.
- A gas refill is a consumable. If your unit is blowing air that is not cold and the coils are clean, this is usually the next suspect.
- A repair is a part. Compressor, PCB, fan motor, capacitor. This is the expensive one and it is the one where the diagnosis matters most.
A unit that needs gas twice in a year does not have a gas problem. It has a leak, and refilling it again is paying for the same fault a second time. Ask for the leak to be found.
Most shops charge a fee to come and look. That is reasonable, because somebody travelled and spent time. What varies, and what you should ask, is whether that fee comes off the bill if you go ahead with the work. Many shops adjust it and do not mention it unless asked; some do not adjust it at all. Both are fine as long as you know which you are dealing with before they arrive.
Gas is either charged by how much goes in, or as one price for a refill regardless. Neither is a trick, but they produce very different bills on a unit that only needed a top-up. Ask which it is, and if it is by weight, ask what the rate is before the cylinder comes out of the van.
Compatible parts are legitimate and often the sensible choice on an older unit. What is not fine is being charged for an original and given a compatible one. Ask which you are getting, ask what the guarantee on it is, and ask for that guarantee in writing. A line on the bill is enough. A shop that will not put a guarantee on paper is telling you what the guarantee is worth.
An annual maintenance contract can be good value if you have several units, and poor value if you have one that is nearly new. The number that decides it is not the price, it is what is excluded.
- How many visits are included, and are they scheduled or on call
- Is gas included, or is it charged separately when needed
- Are parts included, and if so which, because most contracts exclude the compressor
- What happens if the unit fails outside a scheduled visit
A technician who asks you questions before quoting is worth more than one who quotes immediately. “How old is the unit”, “is it cooling at all”, “when was it last serviced” are the questions of somebody trying to work out what is wrong. A price offered before any of that is a price for a job nobody has diagnosed.