Well my A/C went out yesterday, agh, and I just had the freon recharged 2 months ago! I've never trusted shops and with so many in AZ it's hard to find one that you can trust. My husband and son does most of the mechanical work on our cars, I would only venture out for something they cannot do, A/C being one of them. But definitely something was wrong.
I decided to look for a place based off of yelp reviews this time and found this place which the most recent ones were from 9mo ago but sounded good. I figure I can write an updated review.
I called and spoke to a rep here and he asked if the previous mechanic put dye in when he recharged the freon and as far as I know that was not done which wasn't helpful but he said they can do a visual check and put some dye in (free of charge) and figure it out from there. He scheduled me for a Sunday appointment at 8:30am which surprised me because most auto shops are not open Sunday's so that was nice.
I got here at 8:30am and they took my car in by 8:46am. I'm a little nervous of course because I thought I had fix this already and now I'm paying again.
About 8:56am they came and asked me what I was looking for with my A/C because as far as they can tell it's blowing cold. I explained yes it's a guessing game because it goes in/out. He said ok will see what they can do.
His suggestion? They will recharge, put dye in, oil and balance whatever was needed for the A/C to work and then they can track it from there. Also if it goes out again I won't be charged to get it recharged with freon. Just for the part that I may need to replace so that's a good thing. They weren't sure what the 1st mechanic did and told me there were many things he should of done instead of just recharging the freon. Apparently when they did the recharge and put the dye in they saw the leak immediately and told the repair cost.
Price: WOW I think I'm getting screwed again. Just for a hose the cost was stupid and add the labor was like are you kidding me?! I said I need to look around so he said they would still have to charge for the recharge which was what I paid for the first time. OMG I can't believe what I would have to pay. It's pretty much double what I expected. I'm a little bummed at this point and I've paid to have my car recharged twice now and solved nothing, but to pay double what I thought the repairs would be was not what I was prepared for. I'm just going to have to shop around.
FYI found the exact part I needed for 1/2 the price at Autozone. So I'm probably going to find a shop to do the labor and recharge for a more reasonable price.