Instead of paying the full price and having a professional do the work, I cheaped out and hired the friend of a friend. Guess how that worked out for me? My bottom line just dropped, because instead of saving me money, it wound up costing me way more than the contractor originally asked for. The guy’s name was Pat, and I knew him from around the way, but he was in close with my pal Mike. Mike told me that Pat was studying to become an HVAC tech, and would probably take a look at my system for me, because he knew it was acting up. I can say with all confidence that it could not have gone worse, and Pat actually did extensive additional damage to my old HVAC system. To make it worse, after he broke it he just slipped away without saying a word, so I didn’t even know he had made the A/C situation worse until an hour later. I had to go ahead and call in an HVAC tech, but I had to look for one that offered a free cost estimate first. When the HVAC tech got there he gave me a dirty look, and asked me if I had done all this damage myself. I explained that no, my friend had done that, and the HVAC tech told me I should sue the guy! The tech explained what the underlying problem for the air conditioning was, and then explained all the extra damage that Pat had done. When I see Pat, remind me to punch him.