I recently had my furnace serviced. The repairman put a camera into the heat exchanger and reported I had two cracks in the unit.
He then gave me a paper indicating I was no longer to use the furnace, shut it down due to possibile carbon monoxide leakage, and called a salesman to give me a quote on a new one.
I am a single woman, I know nothing about furnaces, it is winter, and now I have no heat.
The salesman was kind enough to bring two space heaters for me to borrow, and gave me a quote of $4,800 to $6,800.
Lucky enough, the weather was not cold, so I called around.
The fact they shut down my furnace did not sit right with me (it is 20 years old).
I got another company to look at it and was again told it was cracked. After eight quotes, I decided on a furnace with P.J. Mechanical Systems.
He was the most reasonable, went the extra mile in getting extra rebates for me, etc.
He also looked for cracks and did a CO2 test (which the others did not). There was no leakage.
I decided to change the furnace anyway, as the rebates were very good.
After taking the old furnace out, they found there was absolutely nothing wrong with it; the cracks in question were scratches in the dust on the exchanger caused by the camera.
After talking to others, I suspect some shops pay their service people bonus money to get new furnace purchases or to sell parts that may or not be required.
This is deplorable, and this practice cannot go on.
Without regulations, they are somehow allowed to shut a person's furnace down in the dead of winter, without reliable proof that there is a problem. How many other unsuspecting people have been affected this way?
Thankfully, there are good, reliable, companies out there.
Bonnie McLaughlin,
Kelowna