On the first day of Chinese New Year, God of Fortune blessed to me: At exactly 1 hour past midnight, water gushed down from my air-con as though it was raining in my bedroom.
If only the water was like fortune the way we Chinese believed it to be.
For the next 2 nights, I had to endure the Singapore heat, or to set up an array of plastic boxes (leftover from my moving house, thankfully I didn’t throw them away!) to catch the dripping water (and having to rearrange it every time I had to use the bathroom, because the air-con was right above the bedroom door).
Our existing air-con servicing contract was over and most agents were closed, not just for the 2 days of Chinese New Year public holiday, but for more than a week or so.
So, imagine my relief when I managed to find someone who could come down on Friday afternoon!
I couldn’t believe my eyes such that on Friday morning, I messaged Kevin from Aircon Astiquer to make sure it was not a system error.
After some exchanges and a few hours later, my bedroom was left with a clean and unchoked air-con.
Why was Aircon Astiquer so good that I put in effort to write a blog post?
Online Booking
One year ago, when my aircon last leaked water, I made appointments with several servicing companies over the internet, via their online booking systems on their websites.
Why several? Because all of their online booking systems were for show and they either didn’t respond, or called/messaged me to arrange for alternate timings, as the booking system was not up to date.
They were the typical examples of Singapore companies who adopted technology just to show people they’re “advanced”, but didn’t bother to follow through with that investment.
Aircon Astiquer’s booking system was not only working, it also accurate: at the point of booking, I was shown a list of time slots that were available. And as I mentioned earlier, it was also accurate since that appointment was kept.
Availability
The time slot I managed to get was on the 4th day of Chinese New Year, when almost every aircon servicing was closed for the public holiday (which by right only lasted till Day 2).
Furthermore, by the time I found Aircon Astiquer, the booking time was less than a day away – most agents would not be able to fulfill requests on such a short notice!
Punctuality
Singapore’s doorstep services are notorious – if you arranged for furniture to be delivered at 10am, they would only appear at 3pm. There was once I had someone from Singtel to come fix my faulty mioTV installation and I took a whole day of leave for the appointment and the guy never showed up and there was no apologies or notification given by Singtel.
That was how bad Singapore’s doorstep services are!
Therefore, I was glad that Kevin showed up at 4.30pm, which was well within the 4-6pm time slot booked.
Detailed
I couldn’t leave work due to an important meeting, so only my mum was at home to meet him. However, what impressed me was that Kevin took videos of the compressor and air-con units to show me which were the areas that needed chemical wash, instead of just trying to convince my mum to make a decision on the spot.
He even went to inform our neighbours staying floors beneath us to keep their laundry as he was about to start washing the compressor!
After cleaning, he took a video again to show the outcome, making it clear that he was confident of his work outcome.
Reliability
As mentioned, only my mum was at home. People usually are worried about leaving their elders along at home managing vendors. Well, I took the risk and Kevin did not raid our house 😛
Free Cleaning
I only needed to do chemical wash for 1 air-con unit and a compressor, and he serviced the remaining units for free.
Cashless Payment
Kevin provided not just cashless payment options – via Paynow or internet banking – but also issues digital invoices!
From booking to payment, Kevin truly embraced technology to bring convenience and reliability for his customers.
Conclusion
Based on my experience with the other air-con servicing agents (especially one that was ranked high on Google search and supposedly was “very good”, but messaged me to tell me that they could not keep to the appointment I made online because they were on leave till 12 Feb… I was like… then why did you allow people to make appointments on the days you are not working??!!), I find Kevin from Aircon Astiquer to exceed expectations.
I liked the way how he made use of technology to bring convenience to his customers, especially for busy workers like me. I highly recommend him if you encounter last minute “emergencies” like me!
The videos were taken from the videos that Kevin sent to me.