Furnace Repairs?? Get a second opinion!!!!!

[Red State Rebel]

My husband has been in this business for 30 years, I've been with him for the past 13. It never fails that we come upon unscrupulous contractors and it never fails to really piss me off!

Yesterday, an older gentleman called to schedule a service call. His furnace was kicking on and off too frequently. This morning he called to cancel, another contractor that he had cancelled showed up anyway and looked at the furnace and told him he had a cracked heat exchanger (i.e. MAJOR repair or just replace the whole furnace). I told him based on his complaint that it didn't sound like a cracked heat exchanger and he should get a second opinion. Needless to say, our service tech just called and said it was just a fan limit switch. (Easy repair- NOT a major cost).

Who in the world would be so ignorant as to rip off a senior citizen 2 days before Christmas for over $1,000.00??????? I don't know who the contractor was, but if I did, he'd be hearing from me right now.

Let this be a lesson to you - a medical diagnosis isn't the only time you might need a 2nd opinion.

[flamingyouth]

1. This is always great advice

And thank you for being a decent person and businesswoman. :thumbsup:

[MindPilot]

2. Boy, I hear ya!!

After almost 20 years in the car business, I've seen my share of rip-offs.

But much of it was the result not of malice but of plain old incompetence. Of course the end result is still the same to the poor bastard shelling out the cash, but a lot of it could be eliminated by employers spending a little more for training, and emphising accurate diagnoses instead of just changing parts until it works.

[bleedingheart]

3. you are correct...I always get three estimates at the very least

the previous owner of my home had a real ding dong put the furnace in...the danm thing is wedged in a very hard to reach location. It will be due for replacement in about two years...(it will be reaching it's 20th birthday and my husband and I think there might be better more efficient models out there...plus we are due for a new air conditioner as well.)

Our furnace guy cleans it but always tells us that he can't imagine what kind of contractor would have installed it in such a crappy way.

[Cuban_Liberal]

4. Excellent advice!

We have hot water heat at our business and it went kerplooey last month, leaving us and our tenants cold. We called two HVAC companies to come look at it.

Guy #1: system is shot,needs a new boiler, blah, blah... Cost, $3000.

Guy #2: bad spring in this little valve thingy... Cost, $58.

Guy #2 was right, because it's toasty warm in here, even though it's only 12 degrees outside.

:)

[Red State Rebel]

5. It's 22 degrees here - almost a heat wave!

I'm glad you got a second opinion on that - it makes ya crazy sometimes.

[Dr.Phool]

6. Crooks are all over the place

I used to work for a guy. On a service call one night, he told the people "Whatever you do, don't light it, it has to be replaced". But, he had his guy do an emergency repair, and charge them $3500 for a $700 furnace.

[NorthernSpy]

7. cheating comes naturally to an awful lot of businessmen

No, not all of them: you and your husband are good people, obviously.

But on the whole, I'm not so sure that the cheaters aren't in the majority.

I remember reading an article about someone who pulled a single wire loose under the hood of his car, and then drove around to dozens of repair shops. Some of the mechanics he consulted told him honestly that his problem was simple, and fixed the wire.

But many of them falsely diagnosed his car with serious problems that it simply did not have, and recommended expensive repairs and a whole slew of new parts. Some of the bad advice was likely due to incompetence. The rest was due to greed, malice, and dishonesty.

Whenever possible, I like to build or fix things on my own, even if I have to learn new skills in order to do that. I'm really not expert at much of anything. But this way, at least I know that I won't get cheated.

[GOPisEvil]

8. I wish you were located down here.

I want to replace my furnace and a/c blower and compressor. I'd like to have a DUer make that money.

[mtnsnake]

9. It happens all the time, even in the boonies. Here's one that happened to

us:

When my wife and I first bought our present home, we had a chimney "expert" come over to inspect our chimney for safety's sake, so we could know whether it was safe or not to burn fires in the fireplace. We called him from an ad he was running in the local paper and he was pretty well known in the area. He went on the roof for a while and then came down with the news. He told us our flue for the fireplace was fine, but the flue for the furnace was defective and dangerous. He told us for $3500 he would run a steel insert through our present flue and then we'd be all set. Well we were worried, and we almost fell for it, but I decided to call a friend who was in the plumbing & heating business. He went up and said there was nothing wrong with our chimney or flues and he inspected it from below, too. That was 14 years ago, btw.


Another time this plumbing/heating guy running a "special" came over to clean our furnace. Well he informs us our water pressure tank is cracked inside and he'll fix it for $400. Again, we almost believed him, but not quite. We got a second opinion and all it needed was to be bled. That guy said he thinks the first guy did something with the valve on top to give the impression that it was leaking air.