Reliance Home Comfort

I was told by Reliance Home Comfort to write a review here after my furnace installation was complete… Here goes.

We purchased a semi-detached house in Toronto almost 7 years ago which came which a furnace and thermostat. Being a nerd and loving the Nest thermostat I immediately installed the Nest and it worked perfectly for over 6 years. However, myself, my wife and 2 young kids woke up to a very cold house on the 13th January 2018. Inspecting the existing furnace I soon realized that it was the motor that needed replacing and at the cost I was quoted it was a risk repairing as I could not guarantee something else would not break down.

Considering my options and being an existing Reliance Home Comfort customer renting a water heater that came with the house, I went to the Reliance Home Comfort Website. The Reliance Home comfort page loads and I am inundated with the message – “stay on budget, with a new furnace for less than $40 a month *”. Having young kids I call immediately to book an appointment the same day and receive confirmation that a Reliance Home Comfort advisor will visit at 7pm on the 13th Jan. The website also states that if Reliance cannot install a furnace within 24 hours (excluding Sunday), that you will receive $500 as compensation. Back to Saturday 7pm on the 13th Jan… we wait (in the cold), we wait and we wait, but no one shows up and no one calls. The next available appointment to see a Reliance Home Comfort advisor is Monday 15th Jan 2 days away so we have a very cold weekend in the house constantly running the gas fire place 24 hours a day and huddled in the one warm room. After taking time off on Monday 15th Jan, a chap with the name Brandon P. does promptly arrive to discuss our options. It appears that the $40 month is not for renting and is only for financing over 12 years and would not be suitable for our property due to output power v size of the house (not big at all). After looking at the options we agree on a $80 a month rental furnace over 7 years and I am also told by Brandon that I will be eligible for a $250 rebate for improving the efficiency of my home, I may also be eligible to apply for a $1600 rebate depending on further efficiency improvements. So that’s it, the installation is booked for the next day 16th Jan – to which I would have to take more time off work (2 days).

Please note. If the person had turned up for the Saturday appointment as confirmed, the installation could have happened on the Monday so technically I should be entitled to the $500 as the 24 hour installation guarantee was missed due to the missed appointment on the Saturday.

Moving on. I took said time off work and he installation crew arrived on the Tuesday 16th Jan (a bit later than was informed), and they completed the installation and we now had a warm house again – all be it for an additional $80 a month but at least now we were covered for any further downtime.

However once more on Friday the 19th Jan we awoke to a freezing cold house. It would appear that the team who installed the thermostat did something to stop the power to the Nest Thermostat and it had been running on its own internal batteries since the installation and now the batteries had run out. Which means no more Nest thermosat, which means no more heat.

So I call Reliance and they agree to send out a technician to make amends that day from 4 -8pm so once again I have to take a couple of hours off work (3rd day) to accommodate Home Reliance comfort (We’re not comfortable until you are…). It gets to 8pm and my kids are now staring out the window waiting for someone to make the house warmer – again no one shows but we do get a call at 7:59pm. “The technician is running about 2 hours late, would you still like him to fix it…?”, not entirely sure how I am meant to say no as everyone is tired of being cold, I of course say YES. The technician arrives eventually and after looking at the previous installation removes a jumper from what looks like a connector on the motherboard and now the Nest has power and we are good to go.

So yesterday 7th Feb 2018, we returned from work at about 5:30 to a very cold house and once again the Nest thermostat had no power – once again this Nest was installed without any problems for about 6 ½ years before Reliance Home Comfort installed the new furnace. I call Reliance again and almost laugh when the customer service representative (Deborah), has to check if the furnace is in warranty – it’s not even a month old and it’s been down twice. So although once again my furnace is down and the house and kids are freezing, the next available repair is not for the same day, but for the next day (today – 8th Feb 2018). So now I have to take more time off work (4th Day), for Home Reliance comfort (We’re not comfortable until you are…) to try and correct their installation as once again we had to endure a freezing cold night and morning with young kids, including having to use additional coats, hats and gloves as they had not dried out from the previous day due to not having heat in house. Today’s appointment is once again from 4-8pm so once again I am sure my kids will be watching out the window waiting once again for someone to make sure they do not go to bed cold…

Also, almost 4 weeks after the initial appointment with Brandon, I have heard nothing as promised regarding the rebates, there are improvements I can do to improve the warmth and efficiency of the home but if we are going to apply for the rebate I need to hold off until the initial test is complete to compare the before and after data.

While writing this I have also been on the Home Reliance comfort (We’re not comfortable until you are…) website and listed under At Reliance™ Home Comfort, we’re not comfortable until you are™. That’s why we offer some of the best guarantees in the business on our heating and cooling products and services.*, I have noticed 2 guarentee’s which I believe are applicable to our situation.

1) $500 NO FRUSTRATION GUARANTEE
If your furnace or air conditioner fails to heat or cool your home during the first year, we will fix it for FREE including all parts and labour AND write you a cheque for your frustration and aggravation.

2) COMFORT GUARANTEE
We guarantee the system(s) we install in your home will heat or cool your home as we stated. If the temperature range on the thermostat is not achieved as we promised, we will replace the system at no charge.

While the system should not need replacing – just installing correctly, I certainly would like to apply for the $500 no frustration guarantee and on the promise to install a new furnace within 24 hours $500 ($1000).

I will update this review depending on the response to this post and if the furnace is installed correctly between 4 and 8pm today.

Regards
Steve

Update: on the 4th visit the technician states that the problem is the Nest and the "C" wire is missing and therefore not compatible with the new furnace - not their problem and i will have to hire an electrician at my own expense to modify the wiring - even though it was working fine prior to the new furnace. After a few phone calls the technician arranges for another technician to install a "remote" "C" wire. So I arrange for more time off work the next day (5th time), and the 5th technician arrives and installs the "remote" "C" wire and we are back up and running.

So far so good and we have heat but i must say I unfortunately now have lost confidence in the system and would not be surprised if the system went down again. Also curious to see if this effects the AC in the summer. One thing I will say is that everyone was very nice, tidy and seemed genuine. Fingers crossed the system stays up...