If you're like us, you hate when you have to call a heating or cooling specialist to look at the furnace or the air conditioner.
It's as if the technician knows, walking in the door, just how helpless and uneducated you really are about those mechanical monsters connected to your home's thermostat.
First, you don't understand the technical mumbo-jumbo involved: ("Lady, your combobulator for the fisconda is discombobulated and broken.. We're going to have to replace it completely and also the lalapalooza it connects to.") Say what?
Second, you don't have a clue what they're doing when they're messing with all those wires and gadgets, which only adds more mystery to their biz in general. The longer they work, the more expensive it all begins to feel.
If that wasn't enough, you can practically hear that familiar little snicker in their voices when they deliver the bad news to you because they know - they just know:
• you are financially tapped;
• that monster couldn't have broken down at a worse time and
• the bottom line for that stupid "part-plus-labor" is going to mean you and the kids will be eating Ramen noodles and soda crackers until payday.
On the other hand, you could be given some really scary advice like we were a few years ago. A local heating and cooling repair company that was too doggone busy to come out and actually look at our heating system in the dead of winter when it kept shutting off for no apparent reason told us:
"Simply reset the furnace every time it does that and don't worry about it."
Soon after, we received a snail mail flyer from Climatemakers in Virginia Beach offering an easily-affordable promotional evaluation. We had them come out to take a look-see at the system. Good thing. The technician showed us the problem and we immediately understood just how dangerous it was.
The heat exchanger was malfunctioning so badly that flames were literally shooting out of the furnace every time the system was turned on. That malfunction could have easily burned our house down.
As you may have guessed, we've been with Climatemakers ever since.
It's important to note here that we have run the gamut when it came to heating and cooling companies in the area before we hooked up with these folks. We actually felt a bit on the cynical side about these kinds of businesses after all the bad service we've received in the past.
One such company left us completely without heat in a rented home we lived in back in 2004 during the holidays because they couldn't get the work done in time. During two furnace breakdowns, we actually had to sit down to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in that house wearing jackets. (Ask my kids...they will vouch for me on this!)
I can't sing the praises of Climatemakers enough.
If you sign up for their service agreement, they'll come out and give your heating and cooling systems preventive maintenance twice a year. They don't try to make money off you during these seasonal maintenance visits, either.
We've had them out a number of times thus far and not once have they tried to make a sale for themselves from properly working equipment.
We did have them do the work to replace the heat exchanger early on. They didn't take us to the cleaners for the part or the labor involved. The technician was efficient, highly experienced and extremely polite. He treated us with nothing short of top-notch customer service.
The additional work Climatemakers have done in our home we actually requested - having the ductwork evaluated and ultimately redone after receiving a very reasonable estimate on the work involved.
Let me tell you, the guys who came to do the ductwork last month (a two-day job) were incredibly respectful, friendly and sincerely worked their tails off to get the job done in a timely, conscientious manner and with nothing but sheer respect for our home.
They laid down drop cloths where they had to walk from the front door to get to our heating system. They took speedy lunch breaks. They conversed with me as they came in and out to replace the ductwork. They not only cleaned up their mess in the yard (ductwork necessitates spreading things out in your yard before it is installed and some litter gets involved), but they took plenty of time to even pick up the tiniest of pieces from the yard when they were finished.
One of the men commented to me as they were preparing to depart that he loved his job and expressed that he couldn't work for a better company.
That kind of job satisfaction shows when you've been through the mill with other heating/cooling companies in this area like we have - those companies that clearly don't give a hoot about the quality of their work certainly outnumber those who do.
If you've got a problem with your furnace or your air conditioner, I urge you to call Climatemakers. You won't be disappointed if you do.
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