Chalk another one up to Life Experience..

Since moving to the country and having to basically start over again. I've ran into all sorts of unexpected situations and shady people. When you get older you feel like you've been through enough to make a good assessment of the people you deal with. At least that's my way of thinking. I've bought and sold a home before in my life. Hell, I've even bought property and put a manufactured home on it after getting the land cleared before. So this time when we decided to buy land and put a home on it, I thought I knew a lot about the process from previous transactions. Oh but was I wrong! The last time I had any experience with contractors and handymen was twenty years ago. The way people do business has changed a lot in twenty years. This time around I'm learning all kinds of things. Especially how people can scam you quick if your not paying attention. 

Case in point, we have a refurbished manufactured home that came without a air conditioning unit. At the time when we purchased our home I didn't think much about it. I thought we would just get a unit later, no big deal. I had no way of knowing that there is a whole lot of things that go into purchasing a refurbished air conditioning unit and inspections! This is a subject that we knew nothing about. So we decided to save money by purchasing a used unit looking on social media sites (like Facebook and Craig's list). So I begin my search! It actually didn't take long to find one on Facebook.

There was a contractor selling a unit he had refurbished. The contractor had his own air conditioning and heating business so we thought we were doing business with a reputable guy. After contacting him we decided to meet with him to look at the unit. But before we did we asked a few important questions. We asked if the unit would work with our manufactured home? We gave him the square footage of our home. We also asked if purchased could he install the unit? The guy insured us that he had the right one for us! He said it would fit perfectly and that he could install and charge us for any parts or labor associated with the install. Wow... This didn't sound bad! Maybe we can get this done relatively easy? We were glad that we had run into someone who could not only sell us a unit but also install it! Perfect! Right?

Wait a minute not so fast... So this is where the story takes a horrible turn. We meet with the guy at his shop. We look at the unit. It looks just like any other outside air conditioning unit. It looked to be in good condition and the price he quoted wasn't too bad for what we were getting (a few hundred bucks). He said he would be able to come and install it the next day in the evening. That was perfect! Hubby would be home from work and he could be here to talk to the guy and help him if needed with anything around the house. So we paid him, he gave me a receipt, and we loaded the unit into my husband's truck. It felt good at the moment thinking that we had this taken care of. I live in Texas and here, air conditioning is more important than a heater! These hot Texas summers can cook you to a crisp! The temperature and humidity can reach well into the 100's. It is now the middle of Summer! We have been living (as best we can), without air conditioning. It has not been easy! We have one small window unit in our bedroom! The rest of the house is hot even at night!

Anyway, we get the unit home and forget about it until the next day. Unfortunately for us, the next day came and went. The guy never did show up. But he did call and said he'd be there first thing the next morning... Morning came and went. Then around 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon, here he comes to finally get started! Then when he does show up he has bad news! The unit he sold us is too small for this house! The only way it would work is if he changed out my air conditioning fittings. Not only that because the unit was too small for the house, the unit wouldn't be able to keep the house cool in the heat of the day?! What!!! This couldn't be happening! So, I asked: "What's next?" He says, "You can pay me some more money and I will apply it to a new unit. I don't have a refurbished one in the size you need and I don't give refunds"? Wait a minute this isn't part of the deal. The guy is supposed to know what he is doing? He has sold me something I can't do anything with? What about the money I've spent? What am I supposed to do with a air conditioning unit I cannot use? How could he sell us something that won't work? So I asked for our money back! He would not give us our money back! The only offer he made was to take the unit back, apply the money we gave him to a new air conditioning unit, or we keep the unit and do whatever we want to with it?

Life lesson... Now, I'm stuck with a air conditioning unit I cannot use. I'm out of several hundred dollars. And, out of all that, I still don't have central air conditioning! There's not much I can do but learn from this experience and try next time to get a more reputable person. It's really hard to find honest contractors these days. Next time I will try to dig a little bit more deeper before I turn over my hard earned cash!