HVAC Company Charges for Service Call 60 days After

[LaceyJBishop]

What is the name of your state?
Georgia

On Friday, August 24th, my AC stopped working. I called two HVAC companies. The first came by to view the damage and stopped at my house for about ten minutes and assessed the damage and told me the unit was blown and gave me a quote for a new unit. The second came the next day and said the same thing and gave me a quote for about $500 less. I called the first company and told him I was going with another company. He said ok but he was going to charge me a $59 service fee. I said ok. The bill came 60 days later.

Am I legally obligated to pay this? If I don’t, can they put a lien on my house? They don’t have my social info or authorization to get it.

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state?
Georgia

On Friday, August 24th, my AC stopped working. I called two HVAC companies. The first came by to view the damage and stopped at my house for about ten minutes and assessed the damage and told me the unit was blown and gave me a quote for a new unit. The second came the next day and said the same thing and gave me a quote for about $500 less. I called the first company and told him I was going with another company. He said ok but he was going to charge me a $59 service fee. I said ok. The bill came 60 days later.

Am I legally obligated to pay this? If I don’t, can they put a lien on my house? They don’t have my social info or authorization to get it.

Yes.

 

[pac72]

do you work for free ? did they take time to drive to your home. diagnose your trouble ? they likely would include the service call fee in with your quote had you gone with them. but you went with another contractor who offered a better price.. so why do you want them to work for free ?
had you have called them asking for a replacement price it would be likely free.. but service calls aren't.

if you don't pay them you may be paying them more when they take you to court for the unpaid service call fee, then you get filing fees etc added on when you likely loose,

pay them out of the $500 you saved going with another contractor

 

[justalayman]

Did they inform you ahead of time there would be a fee if you don’t purchase services from them? If not, they don’t get to retroactively impose a fee.

The problem is you did agree to pay a $59 fee even though it appears to be applied retroactively. If you want to argue against it, you might win but if the company wants to push the issue, the damage to you and your credit history will far outweigh the $59 bill.

 

[LdiJ]

For the sake of anyone else reading this thread I would also like to point out that you were under no obligation at all to call them and tell them that you were going with someone else. Had you not done so, its unlikely that you would have ever been billed the $59.99 service charge.