Our furnace fan was making noises last winter so we called BC Furnace to have a look and to perform a regular service of our furnace. They sent a service man out to look and in a manner of 20 minutes diagnosed a crack in our heat exchange. Since a cracked heat exchanger means that carbon monoxide (CO) gas would be leaking into the house he said that he had no choice but to "red-tag" our furnace and disconnect it and report it to the gas authority. The disconnection fee was over and above the service charge, but I was forced to pay. To make matters worse we were informed that due to age of our furnace that they could not repair it and we would have to buy a new one. I was troubled that CO gas was leaking into the house and that the two CO detectors that I have in the house had never registered any problem. However, not being a certified gas fitter I was in no position to disagree with his original assessment. Since it was winter being without a furnace was extremely uncomfortable so a replacement was urgently needed. The next day, a sales person from BC Furnace came to provide a quote of $4000-6000 for a new furnace. We were unaware of the costs of a furnace, and a bill of $4000-$6000 was a shock. Even though we were quite uncomfortable with no heat we needed to do some comparison shopping. A co-worker recommended getting a quote from a furnace company that he had happily dealt with in the past. When the second saleman came he was surprised that our furnance had been turned-off. When we explained what had transpired he thought it odd that our furnace would have a cracked heat exchanger even being 25 years old. He asked if the BC Furnace serviceman conducted a CO gas test. I was not positive if he had, but it was never mentioned and I never saw a monitor. He asked if he could have a look for himself and we saw no harm since he was a certified gas fitter and we had been eating our meals wearing polar fleeces and toques for the past 4 days. After taking off the front plate to access the heat exchanger he asked me to take a look for myself. There were no visible cracks in the heat exchanger just as he expected. He then reconnected the furnace, fixed the fan bearing (the original complaint), and completed a full furnace service. Afterwards, he ran a complete CO test for 15mins to confrim that there was no CO leakage. He said that unfortunately this sort of misdiagnosis is not uncommon, since it isn't worth the time to service older models so they just condemn them and they get the same service rate, and in many cases they will get to sell a new furnance. He was at our house for more than 1.5 hours and ended up charging us only around $140 which was less than BC Furnace charged to incorrectly diagnose our furnace and turn off our gas. When I confronted BC Furnace they gave me the run around for a couple of days before I was able to tallk to their service manager who said that he stands by their servicemans assessment and asked to come over again to reinspect. I asked what would happen if they said that they saw a crack again, and he responded that they would have to disconnect my furnace. I explained that I had no faith in their integrity and suggested that a neutral third party gas fitter to inspect and they declined. I was not able to get my money back or any satisfaction. I am extermely unhappy with the business practices of BC Furnace and would never recommend for anyone to do business with them.
