Before you hire an air conditioning contractor, read the tips below. It can help you to hire a reputable company that will get the job done without overcharging you.

1) Read Testimonials and Customer Reviews

Most of us instinctively want to let our friends and family know if we’ve been given good service, whether at a store, in a restaurant or a hotel. And this is no less true when it comes to the company that services or fixes your air conditioner; you probably want to let others know if you had great service and were happy with the visit. Look for testimonials and reviews from customers who can give you a good idea that a company is reliable and is a safe bet. A new company may not have any testimonials on their website yet, but of course, a lack of positive reviews and comments can also mean the company should be avoided.

2) Be Careful of Prices That Are Too Low

Be careful of those companies that charge you a ridiculous price for repairs even though they might have reasonable rates for a service call. These companies need to make up the costs somewhere else, so if they say they can inspect your air conditioner for free or for a low fee, just be careful, regardless of how tempting it is to save money. Most homeowners end up paying the high repair costs, as it’s a lot easier to do that and use the same company that you called for the service call. After all, the technician is already in your home and is ready to carry out the repairs. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is, and that’s something we all know.

And the employees probably aren’t getting fairly paid if the company seems to be charging prices that just seem too low. The best technicians are attracted to those companies that pay well, and as a homeowner, it’s probably worth it to you to have someone you can trust to work on your HVAC system. Your repairs “will be carried out as they should on the first visit without you having to call someone else out, and that can save you money in the long run.” says Nick from www.grandcanyonac.com/.

3) Know Who Is Coming To Your House

It can be a challenge to know if you are getting good service if you don’t really know one air conditioning contractor from another, or you just don’t know much about a/c in general. You don’t want a sloppy and botched repair job, and one way to get an idea of what to expect is to look at the make, year and overall quality of the delivery vehicles the air conditioning company uses. You may be in for sloppy and careless service if the fleet of vehicles is old and poorly maintained. On the other hand, you can probably count on better service if the company’s trucks are well maintained, clean and modern.

4) Look For Clean, Neat and Professional Technicians

Of course, you want to have a technician visit your home who is clean, neat and professional looking, especially if you are a single mother or have kids at home. Nobody wants someone turning up to repair their air conditioner who looks dirty, unshaven, scruffy or simply unprofessional. It’s important to demand clean and tidy technicians who look professional, are wearing the company uniform and carry ID if asked for it.

5) Standardized Pricing

You don’t want an air conditioning company charging different prices for service, depending on whether you live in the ritzy area of town or on the wrong side of the tracks, and standardized pricing should be a given. And the same goes for the technician who comes to your home; just because you don’t live in an expensive development doesn’t mean that you should have a technician who isn’t as well trained or as presentable.

6) Warranty

You probably don’t want to work with a company that doesn’t stand behind the work they carry out, and it goes without saying that a good warranty should be part of the package. Even air conditioning technicians make errors sometimes; the important thing is that any error or faulty part is covered under warranty.

7) Continued Training

Technicians should always be taking training throughout their career, as just like anything else, air conditioning technology keeps on changing. You want to work with a company that can accurately diagnose and fix your air conditioner, whether you just bought it yesterday or whether it’s a model that has been in your home for 20 years.

8) Awards

Awards and recognition are always a sign that a company is top of their industry, are reliable and do a good job. Look for a company that has got some recognition.

Right now there are multiple companies going door to door misrepresenting themselves as affiliates of Fortis BC or the B.C Environment Agency and using high-pressure sales techniques to sign customers up for monthly rental rates that mean they will pay double or triple the cost they should be paying for a furnace. Their business plan is to prey on unwitting homeowners, they knock on the door dressed in a smart suit or wearing a smart uniform with a name badge that includes the logos of Fortis and the BC government.

They say that they are in the neighbourhood doing “Free” furnace inspections, once inside your home they will normally say that the furnace is “ not to code”, “unsafe” or a “fire risk” and they need to replace it. They then use these fear tactic’s to sell them a new one at an inflated rate using high-pressure sales techniques. They say that they are waiving the upfront installation fee’s and they just need to “rent” the furnace for a short period at a low monthly cost. When you read the fine print of the contract you will see quickly that they don’t define the term of the contract although the salesperson will tell you its around 5 years. The contract in very fine print will tell you that your total cost of renting is triple what it would cost you to just buy it conventionally. They will also file a lien on your property which may affect your mortgage renewal or sale of your home, worst case it will hold up the sale as this needs to be removed in order to complete on a sale or purchase. They will not warn you of this beforehand and finding out last minute is not a good circumstance to be in. Not to mention that the value of the lien is often $15,000-$20,000.

Once they have the contract signed they want to get the furnace in as quickly as possible so that you have no time to read the contract and change your mind so they typically show up at 9 am the next morning and get the installation done as quickly as possible. These companies do not have your best interest at heart, their goal is to get you stuck in a long contract where you pay way more than you need to. They don’t explain the rental program fully and definitely don’t draw your attention to the hugely inflated cost to rent. Luckily, legally you have a 10 day cooling off period so if you are lucky enough to realize within the 10 days you can fight them to get out of the contract but by that time they have scraped your old furnace and will try and get you to buy the furnace they installed, again this price is hugely inflated and not what it would have cost you through a respectable furnace company. Our advise if you are lucky enough to have them remove the furnace is then to do research on local furnace companies and have one of them put a new furnace in for you on a conventional purchase or finance option. Get multiple quotes and make informed decisions.

Read our story in the Maple Ridge News

Door-to-door furnace sales reps not Fortis or government – Maple Ridge News

Couple signs up, but Maple Ridge company comes to rescue
[ Read More ]

We have been working with an amazing local couple in Maple Ridge who was recently pressured into changing their furnace by one of these companies, luckily we have been able to help them get out of their contract and the company is coming to remove the new furnace and cancel their contract. We like to help at least 1 family at Christmas and we have chosen this family this year, we will be installing a brand new furnace and thermostat free of charge for them to keep them warm this winter. We would like to thank The City of Maple Ridge for their excellent service in promptly issuing the gas permit. We would like to also thank Emco Poco HVAC for their incredibly kind donation of a new thermostat.

Bottom line and the message here is to never allow door to door salespeople into your home no matter who they say they are affiliated with, if you are looking for a furnace do your research and only invite local, honest and respectable companies into your home that you have pre-arranged appointments with. Never “Rent” your furnace no matter how many times they tell you its the best option, you will pay triple the cost of that furnace and there will be a large buy out at the end of the contract if there even is an end to the contract.

Please stay safe out there and make informed decisions.

Kind regards,

Tek Climate