#MicroblogMondays: A service saga

When we owned a house, we had a regular HVAC guy who would come twice a year -- fall and spring -- to service our furnace, as well as in-between times when we were having issues. We found him by sheer luck, after trying a couple of other companies. He was a lovely Italian man -- on the verge of retirement by the time we sold our house, which made me feel somewhat less guilty about leaving him behind...! (lol) 

I know next to nothing about HVAC systems, but apparently our condo unit has an individual HVAC unit with a "fan coil" and a "drip pan" -- which we are responsible for.  We've been advised we need to have our coil cleaned & serviced regularly (as we did with our furnace at the house) and to be sure to check and empty the drip pan, especially during humid weather. (If it overflows and causes damage to the unit below ours, we're responsible.) Someone told me "oh, you can just vacuum the coil off yourself" -- but when I open up the little door to where the unit is housed, all I see (besides the slot where the filter goes) is a wall of sheet metal and a dark empty space below it (that presumably goes down to the unit on the next floor?).  

We've been living here more than 7 years now, and I'm embarrassed to admit our HVAC unit has never been serviced. The building opened a year or so before we bought the place, and I doubt the original owners ever had it serviced either -- so we're overdue. Granted, we haven't had any real issues to date, and we've always been conscientious about changing the filter every 2-3 months.  And I did make an effort, a few years back, to call someone to come look at it. BIL had no recommendations to offer, so I just did some Googling and called round to several HVAC companies. Some never returned my messages. In a couple of cases, I did talk to customer service/sales reps who didn't seem to have any idea what it was I was talking about or what I wanted. (I think the condo thing confused them.)  One tried to sell me on a monthly service plan. (I'm not going to buy a service plan from you without sampling the service first...!)  Then along came the pandemic, and any thoughts of having service people inside our unit for quite a while...!  

As fall approached, I decided we really needed to have someone come look at the thing, for my own peace of mind, if nothing else. The name of the company that's responsible for the building's overall heating/boiler system is listed in the lobby, and I Googled them, but from what I could tell, individual unit systems weren't part of what they generally did.  I did some more Googling, and lo and behold, I found a company -- not too very far from where we are -- that specializes in serving individual condo unit  HVAC systems (as well as overall building systems).  I figured that they should know what they're doing, right? They were well rated on all the ratings sites too.

So last Monday, I called to ask for an appointment.  The girl I talked to took some information from me (the usual personal information and some information about the age of our building, etc.), and said someone would call me back. 

Lo and behold, about five minutes later, someone did!!  He asked me to text him a photo of our HVAC unit. (?? -- I guess so he could see what kind it was?).  Okay -- I took a photo of the outside of the unit and texted it to him. And then I waited to hear back from him. 

And waited some more. 

Finally, on Thursday, after consulting with dh about the best course of action, I decided to text him back. I said I was just following up and would like to book something soon. He texted me back a while later, apologized, said he just saw my text (! -- seriously?) and that he could come any day in November, 9 to 11 or 2 to 5. I said fine, how about 2 p.m. on Nov. 1st? 

Silence. 

Then the next day (Friday),  I got another text from him -- with a link, asking me to fill out an online form on their website. Basically all the information I'd already given him AND the original girl I spoke to (eyeroll), but, okay. I filled in the form -- once again, attached the photo I'd taken of our unit, as requested. Of course, by then it was Friday afternoon. 

Nothing happened over the weekend, but this morning (one week after I first called this company), I got an email, confirming my appointment for Nov. 1st -- for the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. time frame (?! -- okay, whatever...). The name of the service person was a completely different guy from the one I'd been texting with. They encouraged me to upload any photos of our unit (seriously? -- again??)(this would be the third time).  And there was a link: "Click here to secure your booking."  

I clicked, and a window opened up asking for my credit card information to pre-pay the $180 (plus taxes) fee -- final total $203, plus change (!) (I don't remember what we paid at the house -- and I usually paid the guy with a personal cheque, which I know is getting to be rare these days -- and I know that was 7 years ago -- but I know it wasn't $200...!).  I consulted dh & we reluctantly decided we probably had to pay the fee. So we did, and I got an emailed receipt.  

All this, just to get an appointment...!  

And now we wait to see if someone actually shows up...!  

Why is it that getting a service person to come to your house these days (for anything!) is like pulling teeth??  I know these HVAC guys are busy at this time of year, but seriously?? 

Of course, I have the "advantage" of being retired and at home to make these calls and field the responses (such as they are), and wait around for someone to actually come do the work. It would be even more aggravating if I was trying to do this while working and/or taking care of small children. (Which is not to say I don't have other things to do as well...!) 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.