I had to deal with a lot of ethical and moral dillemas during my 20-month stint as a customer service rep at a residential HVAC corporation. This particular one parades around as a service company but at its core, their business was selling, not fixing. The owner is a marketing genius. In fact, if you live in Southern California you have probably read his letters either sent directly to you or printed on the classifieds of your local newspaper, offering you a "precision tune-up" service for your furnace for less than $80 (which according to the letter is worth closer to $200). The brilliance of that scheme is you'll end up paying $80 to get a sales pitch. I'm not surprised at how successful this particular company has been. What amazes me is how many suckers are out there. The letters are geared towards the upper middle class and one would think that they attained that status because they were smart. Apparently not that smart. Upon talking to hundreds of potential customers I found that the huge majority of them did not question the ambigious marketing bullet points in the letter. Reading the letters myself I found a few loopholes that I was terrified to have to address should a customer with half a brain confront me with them. I didn't have any answers because there weren't any answers. The content of the letter is garbage and is worth less than the paper it's printed on. Its main objective is for the customer to agree to pay $80 for a salesman disguised as a service tech, to tell them that they absolutely need a new furnace. At least pesky telemarketers or used car salesmen do not charge you for their sales pitch. When it comes to heating, their trump card is usually that you have a cracked heat exchanger which could potentially cause carbon monoxide leaks. The scare tactic in the letter is downright shameless, associating common flu symptoms with possible carbon monoxide poisoning!

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF RESIDENTIAL HVAC COMPANIES

This particular corporation, as sleazy as I might've made it sound, is still a legitimate HVAC company that hires technicians who can at least perform simple tune-ups that will help extend the life of your furnace. Before calling any residential HVAC company, keep in mind that their main objective is always to sell you a new system. When the rep asks you over the phone how old your furnace is, they are essentially trying to determine what type of technician to send to your home. Should they send a salesman or a service technician? If you're looking to get real service and are fairly confident that your furnace is in decent enough shape to not require replacing, then I strongly suggest you tell the rep that your furnace is only around 5 years old, definitely less than 10. The downside of this is that they'll probably put you at the bottom of the list, but at least you're more likely to get a service-oriented technician and are less likely to receive a sales pitch. Also, these technicians are trained and encouraged to "pass you on" to a selling tech if they see any potential of selling. When a technician informs you that he wants his "supervisor" to take a look at your unit, know that what he is attempting to do is to have a salesman take over the situation to try to reel you in. If you want sooner service, then telling the rep that your unit is at least 15 years old will get you a technician before you even hang up the phone. He'll be hugely disappointed to discover that your furnace is actually only 2 years old but will still have to perform the routine tune up which even sales techs are capable of doing, which is what you agreed to pay for in the first place.

Unless you are having serious issues with your system, your best bet is to just do a little maintenance of your own. Most problems with heating and air conditioning could be resolved by simply changing or washing the filter, depending on what type of filters you use. If you're concerned about carbon monoxide leaking through your furnace, have the gas company check it out for free. They are qualified to assess the safety issues associated with your furnace, and they will let you know if you really need a new furnace.