Double Cross

Something was not right at my house this afternoon. The house kept getting colder and colder. Doh! The heat was not working. And the temperature was dropping. Initially I thought we might need to bunker down and get help tomorrow. However I later rethought this because it is supposed to get very cold tonight.

I tried calling my HVAC company. They did not pick up the phone. It was the evening. They must have went home. Looked up a new company. They came over within 2 hours. They figured out the problem pretty quickly. They quoted me a large fee to fix the problem. I confirmed that the cost would cover everything, and there would not be "other problems" that would cost me extra. The guys assured me there would be no more cost to get the heat working.

It took only 30 minutes for them to replace the parts and get the heat cooking again. I was taken aback by the final bill. It was almost 20% higher. I said this was not the quote I was given. Well they said there was a big service charge added. Then there was tax to deal with. The time to be clear about all these extra charges was when they gave me the quote, not when they were looking to get paid. In the end we split the difference. However the damage was already done. Poor communications make these guys look like crooks to me.

Now if I am in a bind again, I would use these guys. Two things are clear. They charge a lot. And the try to add on all kinds of garbage fees at the end. Too bad. They could have obtained a customer with their expertise.