Mel's Heating & Air Conditioning

This company saved my family's life literally. I can't say how appreciative I am or very thankful I am for Elizabeth and the whole crew at Mel's for literally saving my family's life from a horrific explosion. It's a long story on this whole scenario but I will hit the points so nobody falls asleep.

June 2021, finally was able to buy a house for my family. Complete HVAC system was a Rheem, 2 years old and under a 10 year warranty.
July 2021 move into our new house, it is hot as hell outside during that heatwave we had. A/C is cold and life is good.
2 weeks after moving in the A/C is blowing hot, look outside and the unit is frozen over. Call the "reputable" company who installed it as it was under warranty. Now the owner of the company who installed this system was a good friend of our relatives. I had never met him, but it just so happened it's a small world. Owner we will call "Larry". Now Larry comes out that evening and tells me the unit is low on freon, I asked Larry if it has a leak because freon doesn't just evaporate. Larry says it's normal for systems to "bleed off" freon???? Larry comes back several times and everytime it's something different, the last time he pulls up on my lawn, falls out of his truck drunk and proceeds to tell me I need to give him $10K to re-pipe the unit. Then I should just buy a NEW unit from him because it would be cheaper than repairing the OLD unit he just put in. Let's say that was the last of Larry.
I called another reputable company for a second opinion. We will call this company "Curly" they show up and say the system is flat and has a leak. They charge with nitrogen and check for leaks, in the attic for the evaporator, outside on the unit, as god makes miracles this reputable company, large company said there are no leaks!! Lord it's a miracle!! They charge it with freon, $1000 for freon and $500 to say there is no leak from "Diagnostic tests they did". Well yes it ran for 5 days and guess what, hot air, unit frozen over. Call Curly back and they are out 2 weeks now because of the heatwave. I advise I just paid you $1500 and now this is a comeback. In my line of business, reworks or comebacks are priority but not for Curly. So I call another reputable company, Let's call them "Moe". They come out and say the system is flat empty, (No kidding) They charge with nitrogen and say it has a leak!!! WOW!!! The leak is at the high side fitting to the unit outside. So Moe replaces the O-ring in the fitting, charges the unit and leaves. Another $1500 bill. Unit runs for 2 days and oh yes, heat again, frozen again. At this point i'm disgusted and you probably wonder why I keep shelling out money. My Little guy has very bad asthma and since this has started we have been keeping the windows open for air and my wife bought portable A/C units because all 3 of my kids are upstairs in crying because it is 100+ in the upstairs rooms. So we were all sleeping in the living room with our 2 portable A/C units. But the windows being open with the dust from harvest was really causing a problem for my little guy who was using his breathing machine everyday at this point. So that is why I kept paying and calling different people hoping I would get someone who could actually fix this unit so my son could breathe and we could keep cool. I won't mention the 2 other companies, "Beavis" and "Butthead" who ordered parts to fix what they said was the leak and never returned. I never paid them FYI. I call Rheem direct to find a local dealer for the warranty. I called reputable places in Turlock and was told no, The last place I called some snooty girl said if I didn't buy it from them to go pound sand. I will remember that. ( It Has now been 8 weeks without A/C) I called Mel's, I told Elizabeth my story and situation. Elizabeth who didn't know me at all jumped to action, Had a crew out there the next day. After 30 minutes the technician called and said it was the evaporator cracked, plain as day, oil all over the coils. He also said nobody checked it because the sealant was on the screws still. They ordered the parts, handled the warranty and I was on my way. The day they went up to the attic to repair the unit, the guys smelled gas, in checking the lines to the furnace up there they touched the main line and it was sheared off in the fitting. Wide open gas leak, we thought we smelled it once in a while but it was hot and the windows were open. The guys cleared my house, my family left and they shut the gas off. As they checked they found more gas leaks from LARRY'S install. The guys cut the lines and replaced the gas lines properly. The crew boss called me and told me if we would have turned the heater on, BOOM the whole upstairs. The leaks was that bad. As I write this, I remember feeling so blessed. This company who didn't know me or my family saved our lives. The technicians, Elizabeth, everybody there went above and beyond the call of duty. I have never met Mel, but I thank him also