Saving the Day When Others Lose Their Cool

When it gets as hot as it has been this week, people get hot under the collar.

Just ask Susan Clarke, a dispatcher for Robert Air in Valencia, who juggles telephone calls from people whose cooling units are on the blink.

“People in California think they’re dying if they don’t have air conditioning, even when it’s only 80 degrees,” said Clarke, an ex-New Yorker who often tells boiling customers they will have to wait a week or longer for service.

“If they get upset, I try to assure them they’re always right, no matter what,” she said. But “if they don’t like having to wait, I tell them there are always other companies they can go to.”

The problem is the phones are ringing off the hook everywhere. “Are we going crazy? Yes, we are,” said Beverly Morgan, office manager at Pasadena-based Benedict & Benedict Heating and Air. An idle air-conditioning technician during this week’s triple-digit heat is apparently as rare as a snowmobile salesman in Acapulco.

Keith Bruecker, whom Clarke sends out in response to distress calls, has been working from dawn’s early light to well past sundown and has to keep his cool even when those around him are losing theirs. Although many breakdowns are caused by a lack of regular maintenance, the overheated homeowners are usually in no mood to claim responsibility.

“They’re hot. They’re frustrated. They’ve given our dispatcher an earful,” Bruecker said of the customers, who sometimes tell dispatchers they’ll serve him cold drinks to get their names bumped higher on his appointment list. “They ask her: ‘Why can’t he come over right now? He’s in the area, isn’t he?’ They don’t think anybody else is important. They think only their air conditioner has gone out.”

Herb Gough, owner of Gough Bros. Heating in Pasadena, is more succinct in describing customers’ moods. “They’re madder than hell,” he said.

Although systems are built to last at least 20 years, Bruecker said, they often succumb after only five if not properly maintained.

“When the systems get dirty, it affects airflow,” Bruecker said. “They have to work harder--often too hard--to put out cold air.”

The spate of earthquakes this year has also wreaked havoc with air-conditioning units, Morgan said. “A lot of Freon has leaked due to all the earthshaking.”

Despite cranky customers and long days, many repair firm employees noted that the heat wave has been a godsend because the economy had taken a toll on their businesses earlier in the summer. Some people seemed to have decided to forgo air-conditioning repairs this year--at least until the temperature reached the boiling point, said Jeannene Delamater, office manager of Gilmore Air Conditioning & Heating in La Crescenta.

And as for last summer--there was not one to speak of.

Even those who want speedy service are asking to pay slowly, Delamater said. At her company, she has noticed that people are asking to make installment payments rather than writing a check for the total, as is customary.

Some service companies give higher priority to repair jobs at commercial or office buildings than at residences. “We try to take care of doctors’ offices or restaurants first because a faulty system affects large numbers of people,” said Gary Richardson, who owns a Valencia repair firm.

Many concede that taking heat from customers goes with the territory. “People are mad at themselves for waiting until the last minute, so they need to take it out on somebody else, I guess,” said Shelley Friedenberg, a dispatcher for Air Champion Inc. of Newhall.

Denise Gallardo of Mar-Co Air Conditioning in Canyon Country agrees.

“They can be the biggest grumps on the phone,” she said. “But then, after we get there and do the work, they’ve suddenly forgotten how long they had to wait. We’re now their savior.”