Shipton’s Heating & Cooling Ltd

So, first off let me say my furnace broke. I’m not a furnace service technician so that was the initial extent of my knowledge before I called shiptons for service. I had no heat.
Service call #1 — someone showed up, opened the cover, reset the furnace and that was about it. He was on the job for less than 10 minutes. 89 $ for a piece of paper that said «might be a capacitor issue» the furnace worked for appx. 5 mins after the fellow left. So, I immediatly called Shiptons and informed them that I would need a return call and that my expectation would be that I would not be charged Labour on the return call for the same problem. They agreed.
Service call #2(same technician, same problem) — The next day the guy came back and replaced the capacitor. He said that the current was slightly low on it and this was a common problem and he was certain this would fix the issues I was having. The work took about another 10 minutes.
After replacing the part the gentleman proceeded to write up a work order/​bill. He slyly pushed the paper across the table to me and at the bottom I noted the tax in price was 213 $. I laughed to myself (and possibly a little aloud) than inquired as to why I was being charged this price considering the service call the previous day. He righteously informed me that a capacitor switch was a flat rate service and his hands were tied on the matter.
I bit my tongue (even though I knew better) and signed the check, After all my furnace was working and that was the object of the activity. 300 odd dollars didn’t seem like the end of the world of I had heat … 5 minutes after the technician left the furnace stopped working.
So, I called Shiptons and informed them of my situation. The woman on the phone was very sympathetic and polite. So we arranged for a technician (a different technician by request) to come for a service call asap.
Service call #3 (5 days and 300 dollars later) it should be noted that this was a weekend call. The technician showed up, took off his boots and read the service call reports I had laid out on the table. I watched his face carefully for a reaction. He smiled quietly and looked at me, «Ok, sounds like it’s a blower motor» he said. He promptly went down to the furnace, removed the cover and looked at the circuit board. He watched the blinking LED to recieve the code from the troubleshooting little light. «yup, blower motor» he said than put the cover back on.
He quickly informed me that since it was Saturday there was no chance of getting the part replaced until Monday at the earliest. I grinned to myself and said «ok.» So he wrote up a third service call report. This time it did say no charge for this call on the paper. He than informed me there was a chance the capacitor might need to be replaced again with the blower motor if it had been drained due to the problem with the motor.
I laughed.
Service call #4– I called early Monday morning to confirm someone would be coming to fix the furnace. They said absolutely. Late in the day Monday I made a call to Shiptons (appx 3:30pm) to inquire as to when I should expect to see someone. They let me know lots of people were calling in with furnace issues but, the part had been picked up and someone would be there before 5pm to service the furnace.
I laughed.
So 5pm the technician showed up and replaced the blower motor with no issue. While doing up the bill I was told I was getting 150 dollars off due to the 300 I had already spent on nothing. Its hard to say if that is the case or not because I dont know what it would have originally cost but I choose to trust I was given some discount. So it was only 600 odd dollars for service call #4. Parts included.
The furnace works now. All said and done this week long event cost almost 1000 $ and I only lost x amount of money due to lost wages.
Although I am pleased with the overall outcome (having heat after not having heat) I cant help but have a sour taste left in my mouth due to timeframe and cost issues.
Also two weeks prior to the furnace event I had a 2000 $ water heater installed and provided by shiptons. This went smoothly except for the sales person neglecting to tell the service personel my broken heater was a rental and they would need to bring a piece of paper for me to sign getting me out of my rental agreement. So that was a bit of a pain considering the point that sold me on using Shiptons was the fact that they offered this specific service.
Overall the work is good when they get it done.
Thank you