Reliance The Furnace Company Edmonton

I called this company since they had such good reviews on HomeStars.

I have mixed feelings about this company and I know it differs from many reviews on this site, so here are the facts:

-Competitively-priced, quoted quickly and professionally
-Installation scheduled fairly quickly - next week I believe
-Installation not done as per my requests for routing of piping (see explanation below)
-installation seemed to be of good quality
-furnace stopped working a week or two later due to a wire shorting to the thermostat (they came out fairly quickly and were responsive and effective)
-had to make followup requests to ensure my air miles were credited as promised (still not on my account but I believe it is in progress after speaking with the office - she was friendly and helpful)
-have made many requests for them to at least drop off the CO detectors promised as part of the quote (Dave promised on several occasions that it would happen by certain dates which have passed but it is now a month and a half after install and no sensors) He had originally said these were included at no extra charge to ensure my tenants were safe and meeting code. The way I see it, if you promise something you need to deliver.

Now for a little detail on my special requests for the installation piping. Since I have a home that was built in 1969, it had an old furnace that vented through a roof chimney. I wanted to use this existing chimney as I don't really like having more piping and holes cut in the side of the house. I was advised by Dave that this was not an option and to meet code you need to vent out the side wall. OK, that is fine as long as it is done cleanly and professionally. I knew that they would want to vent out the side of the house since it is the most direct route. However, the side of the house has a sidewalk which is right up against the house. With kids and tenants potentially knocking into piping, it would need to be fairly low profile. Dave said it would stick out several inches, so I suggested the back of the house instead. He said no problem. I had agreement verbally and then followed up with an email beforehand to be sure. They installed it out the side anyway. See the first picture for how it was done to see how much it stuck out.

I contacted Dave and he apologized for the "miscommunication" and that they would be out in a couple of weeks to re-route. No problem. Mistakes happen. Too bad I will have extra holes in the side of the house but not too upset about it as long as they seal it back up as best as possible. See the 2nd picture for how this was done. Not great -- Dave said they would actually put a vent as it would look nicer and they would close off the pipe nicely. Hmmm - do you think it looks ok? I am on the fence on this.

The re-routing of the pipe was done so as not to hang too low and I think it turned out ok. Until it gets to where it exits the side of the house. First, I have attached the pictures showing how they have blocked the window from any chance of ever being opened again, and the second picture shows that they would have needed to just route it a couple of feet to the right to have a clear spot. If there is a good reason I would have appreciated a call to go over any issues they had during the install. Although I could not be on-site at the time, I did leave them my phone number and I was sure to be by the phone just in case. No calls.
The last picture shows a pipe that sticks out the back of the house at least 1 foot long. We'll see how well that stands up to kids and mowing the lawn etc. I would have thought they would do the same S-pipe setup as they did at the side of the house. I asked Dave and he said this is just the way it's supposed to be. Hmm? Never seen this on the side of any house before, but I am no expert in venting codes. What do you think?

I invite Reliance the Furnace Company to discuss my concerns. Not sure what can be done at this point. I really don't want anymore holes in my walls. And I am a pretty busy guy -- I don't have the time or energy to be hounding contractors for CO detectors or air miles, or re-doing things. If things are not installed exactly as I would want, due to codes or whatever, I am ok with that as long as it is communicated upfront. As you may recall, I was sure to stay by the phone in case they had any issues.

For future jobs, I may consider having them quote. As I said, they were friendly and had a decent price. I gave them many opportunities to correct mistakes, but I don't feel as though "the voice of the customer" & communication is given proper attention.