A Good Heating and Cooling Contractor Is Essential
April 3rd, 2007 | Published in air quality, contractor selection, heating and cooling | 1 Comment
Don’t Assume That All Contractors Are “Pretty Much The Same”
The most important part of shopping for a new indoor comfort system is to pick the right contractor. Choose the wrong one and you risk getting a new system that will not keep you comfortable and will not save you much, if anything, on you monthly utility bills.
In order to get the efficiency and comfort you deserve, you must find a contractor who will:
1. select the right size of equipment for your home
2. install the equipment properly
3. uncover and solve any pre-existing problems with your duct systems or house insulation.
4. ask you a lot of questions
5. NOT provide a quote before doing a diagnostic testing - a good contractor will mention this, a bad one won’t.
6. NOT force you to make a rush buying decision - steer clear of pushy sales people
7. explain everything and suggest several options available to you
8. NOT try to sell you a system over the phone
All contractors are certainly not the same. Sad to say, a small minority are downright dishonest. Both NBC’s Dateline and CBS’s 48 Hours recently aired hidden camera sting operations exposing fraudulent heating and cooling contractors. A number of these companies that they called out either bent the facts, or commited outright fraud on national television. The Better Business Bureau ranks heating and cooling as one of the highest complaint generating industries.
Fortunately, the great majority of contractors are honest. They work hard and mean well. They are ethical, at the leading edge technically and have business and customer service systems in place that ensure high levels of client satisfaction. Invest the time to identify a good contractor, it will be time well spent.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:20 am (#)
This article is dead-on. The HVAC world is unfortunately a mixed bag of good and bad contractors. One of the biggest problems is that there is no glaring billboard to indicate which ones are good or bad. The companies that appear to be the largest and most public, with huge advertisement and yellow page ads can be the ones with only their best interest in mind. On the other hand, the little one truck Heating Tech can be the best in his trade. The problem lies in the fact that all of the above can be just the opposite.
Education will be the defense for unknowing homeowners. The more they are able to see through the smoke blown by less then honest contractors, the better prepared they will be to find a good honest tradesperson.
Here is a site that concentrates on helping homeowner see through the dark side of the HVAC world. All the information is given freely. I hope this helps your readers.
http://www.askboyd.com
Thanks