Our furnace stopped working on Thanksgiving. We hadn’t needed it much this year, but it was working…and it stopped. On inspection, it was pretty clear that the igniter was not working. The thermostat would click to activate, the furnace would turn on the gas, but the gas wouldn’t light, and then it would shut back off a few seconds later.
I’m pretty handy around the house, and I thought that I had an accurate diagnosis of the problem — but seeing as 1) I’ve got new babies around the house keeping me busy, 2) my parents were in town and 3) I think it’s better safe than blown-to-bits when it comes to gas related repairs, I thought I’d just call a repair guy to fix it for me.
It was warm on Thanksgiving, so we waited until Friday and I had a guy come out from one of the larger local heating and A/C companies that was working on Friday. They were going to charge $59 to come out, and I assumed that would cover diagnosis and the first hour or work or something along those lines. Wrong.
My diagnosis was correct, I just needed a new glow-coil igniter. It involved about 10-15 minutes work to install…about 8 screws in-and-out and a few wiring hookups. You know what they wanted to charge me to do it? $220. That’s over the $59 just to come look at it. That’s just insane!!!
I sent him on his way, obviously. Made a few calls, found the part for $37 at a local appliance supply store, and put it in myself.
Where do these guys get off? I feel bad for the elderly ladies in our neighborhood who end up getting ripped off by companies like this because they don’t know any better, or feel they don’t have any choice.
