In the end I liked having "the furnace company" do the repair. the final result was great, the road there was not as good. I guess this is a cautionary tale for any business.
My furnace stopped working and I could not figure out what was wrong with it so I called "The furnace company" after reading some good reviews here and elsewhere.
It started good with the technician arriving at the scheduled time. That is where it started to go down hill. You know how sometimes you take your car/computer/etc in for repair and the tech acts like he knows everything and you know nothing? That is the vibe I got from the technician. He quickly identified what he thought the issue was but the part was quite pricey. I asked him if it was under warranty. He said that it wasn't , when I asked him to check with Lennox as I had phoned them the day before and they told me it probably was covered he reluctantly said he would.
But he didn't do anything. I offered him a phone so he could call. He said that it was okay he could do it in the truck.
Then we went out to truck to get the new part and I thought to check.
He came back in with the part and I asked him if it was covered. He said that it wasn't and it was $450 for the part.
Obviously I was not prepared to just pay $450 without at least checking to see if the price was correct.
I asked him to hold off for a minute so I could go check. He said sure but my choices were to replace it or have no heat.
I quickly did some research and determined that I could find the part on line for less but the local price was very close to his quote.
I was just about to tell him to go ahead, after verifying that it was required, when he came up the stairs and asked me what he was going to do.
I asked him if could do a simple pressure check to see if that was the problem and he said "No". I asked him what he meant "no", it was a simple test that could be done in less than a minute and it would reassure me that it was the correct part.
He said no again and that he knew what he was talking about, if I didn't want him to replace the part he was going to go and just leave me a bill for his visit.
I told him that that didn't seem right and I was going to call the office.
At that point I picked up the phone and called the office.
The phone was very quickly answered and when I explained the situation the receptionist promptly transferred me to a service manager.
The service manager was also shocked at what was happening and promised to make it right.
While I was talking to her the tech came up from the basement carrying everything and just left the house without a word.
The service manager offered to verify the warranty on my furnace. We were both surprised to see that the part was covered after the tech had supposedly checked on it and found out that it wasn't.
She sent out another technician and he was there within an hour and a half.
He quickly went to work and replaced the part. He was also very helpful and took care of some other small issues while explaining things quite nicely.
If I hadn't thought to call the office I would have been stuck with a big bill and a still broken furnace.
In the end it looks like it was just one apple but it goes to show how one bad apple can ruin the bunch.
Thank you "The furnace company" for making it right.
Hopefully the first tech has had some more customer service training and will better know how to handle future situations.