spider
Senior Member
AT 2:00 am the other day my furnace started emitting a grinding screech on start up so I turned it off until I could take a look. It turns out that a little motor and fan was making the racket, probably a bad bearing.
I called a large heating contractor here in town, the one who had installed the furnace 7 years ago and they set up a service call later that morning. Meanwhile I looked at the printed material that came with the furnace and identified the offending part as an “induced draft combustion blower†it’s function is to create an air flow in the flue without which the flame will stop burning resulting in no heat.
Service guy arrives on time, agrees the blower motor is the problem and needs replacement at which point the trots out to his truck to source a part I guess. He returns with a work order already made out and priced, it seems he will be able to replace this motor/fan for me and it will only cost $899.00 including labour.
I laughed at him and asked if he really thought that was a reasonable price, he shrugged, I showed him the door but not before paying a $99.00 diagnostic fee.
10 minutes later a squirt of WD40, a little oil and we have heat again. I need a new part but now I am not a hostage. A leisurely search on the ’net reveals several US sources for the exact part but I haven’t located one here in Toronto yet. Did I mention that the part is priced at $67.00US.
Do these people commonly rip off everyone like this or was I selected for special treatment?
Do you have story to tell, let’s set up an award for the sleaziest service provider in town.
I called a large heating contractor here in town, the one who had installed the furnace 7 years ago and they set up a service call later that morning. Meanwhile I looked at the printed material that came with the furnace and identified the offending part as an “induced draft combustion blower†it’s function is to create an air flow in the flue without which the flame will stop burning resulting in no heat.
Service guy arrives on time, agrees the blower motor is the problem and needs replacement at which point the trots out to his truck to source a part I guess. He returns with a work order already made out and priced, it seems he will be able to replace this motor/fan for me and it will only cost $899.00 including labour.
I laughed at him and asked if he really thought that was a reasonable price, he shrugged, I showed him the door but not before paying a $99.00 diagnostic fee.
10 minutes later a squirt of WD40, a little oil and we have heat again. I need a new part but now I am not a hostage. A leisurely search on the ’net reveals several US sources for the exact part but I haven’t located one here in Toronto yet. Did I mention that the part is priced at $67.00US.
Do these people commonly rip off everyone like this or was I selected for special treatment?
Do you have story to tell, let’s set up an award for the sleaziest service provider in town.