Toyota Repair: air conditioning on 96 camry, jan ward, climate control

Question
Ted,
I have a 96 camry, (4 cylinder). I noticed a month ago on a warm day as I went to change my temperature setting to cold and turn on the air that the temperature dial was very hard to turn to cold, a hard clicking. It would blow hot air. I have taken it to 3 different places. first place said it was compressor shorting out and I needed to replace it (which I cannot afford). Took it for 2nd opinion, and they told me it was the blend door actuator because of the knob being so hard to turn. the 3rd place believes it is the expansion valve clogged up. Please keep in mind Ted, I am a woman who is mechanically challenged so i can only go by what I am being told. one mechanic put freon in it and it was blowing very cold air while in idle, but when i started driving it down the road it went back to blowing hot air. The compressor gets cold, it has plenty of freon, no leaks and no one can understand why it quits blowing cold air once it is in drive. This car has 325k miles on it and I do not wanna invest alot of money into it. The car is in good shape other than the air. I hope from what I have told you maybe you can help. thanks so much in advance. I need some professional advice because I have no one to help me.

Sincerely,
Jan Ward

Answer
Hello,
does it have auto/climate control or manual controls, you can tell the difference by looking on the control panel, if it's climate control it will have an "auto" setting. let me know and I'll get back to you. The only answer that makes sense so far is the one that mentions the actuator problem.