My Carrier furnace broke down late in the day on a cold, snowy afternoon. I called Gillece and the guy showed up about 8 pm. He diagnosed the problem as a faulty ignitor and told me the replacement part would be $575 (over and above the $95 service call). I don't know much about furnaces, but enough to know that $575 for an ignitor is off the charts. Since it was late and the house had no heat I had no choice (that's what Gillece counts on) but to tell him to fix it. While he was doing so, I looked on the internet and found two Carrier ignitors - one $199 and one $69. I wasn't sure which was the correct one for my furnace (it ended up being the $69) but I printed the information and took it downstairs to show to the repairman, who was just finishing. He knew he'd been caught red-handed, so he called into Gillece Headquarters and the guy there told him to take $175 off. I told the repairman $400 was still WAY to much, and that I'd take it up with Gillece Management in the morning. The next morning I tried to reach the regional sales manager, but of course, his flunky, Celeste, intercepted the call for him. I explained everything to her and she was extremely defensive, rude, and abrasive with me. She wouldn't put the call through to the sales manager and I ended up just hanging up on her. Later that day I went out to a local place, Climate Systems, and got the $69 ignitor. I put it on in less than 10 minutes and the furnace works fine. As for the Great Gillece $575 ignitor, it's going back to Tom Gillece and he can stick it up his ass. He should be in prison for Grand Larceny.
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