Classic Fireplace and BBQ Store

Our rec room has a gas fireplace installed ten years previously by the previous owners. The thermostatic remote had stopped working so we called in Classic Fireplace for a general cleaning and inspection and to diagnose the remote. All went well with the cleaning and inspection, but not surprisingly the technician declared the pairing between the remote and the fireplace had died and recommended getting a new one installed. The price would have been $229 plus a service call, putting it at $400 or so. Since that seemed like a lot, and because we don't use the fireplace frequently, I've been procrastinating on a replacement. This fall however, while researching replacements, I happened to find a Youtube video that indicated that occasionally pairings were lost and that there was a simple way (via a secret recessed button) to reset the pairing on my kind of remote. It only took me some new batteries and a few minutes to get my remote working again.

Now, I don't think the technician was deliberately trying to upsell me on a new remote, and if the price hadn't been so high I would gladly have bought a replacement. But on the other hand, this pairing reset seems to be a pretty simple thing (although not obvious to a layman who hadn't read the manual), and I would have been saved a lot of trouble if he had just gone ahead and done the reset.