Shane from Ottawa

***The manager will not talk to you if you have a concern*** Mid-November we had our routine servicing. A week later we began to experience problems with the furnace "firing up" at what seemed to be random intervals, which got progressively worse with time. At first I had no idea what to think since the technician had barely left our driveway before the problems started. I called the centralized line, but got tired of listening to the sales pitch for service plans and decided to replace the thermostat thinking that the problem couldn't be with the furnace. It was. January 29th and we couldn't get the house any hotter that 17 degrees at best and we have two kids under the ages of 3. It turns out that the original 11-year old flame sensor had been eroding and was finally not firing as frequently (registered a complete failure at 0.06yA). We were charged a diagnostic of $130 and $150 to clean the flame sensor so that it would fire at 1.3yA. 1.8yA is the threshold for replacement. But wait, didn't the technician look at this right before it started to fail? He did check the box indicating "Check flame rod (clean as required)." As I understand it, the flame rod erodes, does not fail, meaning there is next to no chance the technician looked at the rod, decided it was in great condition and cleaning was unnecessary. Human error happens, people get tired and want to get home to dinner with their family. I get it. But the human error resulted in me paying someone a second time to check the flame rod and a second time to clean the flame rod. Now we still have to pay for a new flame rod to be installed since the technician didn't have one on hand (bill would be another $150 as per the cleaning). What upset me the most about this is that I had to call the 613 number, which gets routed to Toronto and is answered by a woman who says "I'm sorry sir, I'm not a technician and can't speak to the situation." I said no problem, I wanted to speak to the Nepean/Ottawa manager anyway. Could she call me? "No problem sir. I will ask her to call you" An hour later, Toronto calls back and says "The manager says that you can't have a refund." Huh? I never asked for a refund. True, I am upset about the double billing, but what sort of service manager won't call her clients? If I can't talk to someone when I have concerns about their service, what sort of company is it?

We had a squeak in the dryer and had concerns about the oven. On both occasions, scheduling with Lisa was easy. While the coordination was easy, it was the technician Tony that was above and beyond expectations. He was very courteous, polite and honest. When the dogs jumped on him, Tony just shrugged it off and smiled, when our 2-year old son wanted to borrow his tools, Tony handed him some safe ones to play with. Tony fixed things that weren't asked of him (eg. shortened our exhaust hose) and explained what he was doing while working away. I felt confident at all times that he was honest and the price reflected it. There's a mix of contractors out there, and I am happy to have a company that I can refer to friends (and I suppose strangers too). Shane