I don't know whether to title this ""It's a Miracle,"" or ""Buyer Beware."" I guess I'll use both.
I have a home with an old heater -- it's been working fine, but I figure it is a good idea to have it cleaned/checked every year. Like most people, I received a flyer in the mail from Paul's, with an offer to clean/check the heater for a low cost. I called them, set up an appointment, and they showed up two hours after the END of the time during which they said they would show up. While I was aggravated, I was also just relieved they had finally come, and I showed the friendly service guy down to my heater. After looking it over for about ten minutes he told me that he had bad news for me: there definitely were cracks in the heat exchange, and it really didn't make sense to replace that in an old furnace. His advice was first, not to turn the heater on again, and second, to strongly consider replacing the entire furnace. He indicated that the furnace which he recommended usually went for $2500, but he would credit me with the money I spent on the clean/check, so it would be about $2400, if I bought the furnace from Paul's in the next two days. I thanked him for coming out, and for the warning; I paid him, and as soon as he left I made a call to arrange for someone else, from another company, to come out to give me a second opinion, and a second quote.
Well, you can guess how this went . . . the non-Paul's service guy looked the furnace over closely, ran multiple tests, and concluded that not only was the heat exchange not cracked, but that the heater was in good shape for an old furnace [and that there certainly were no immanent safety issues involved].
So, either I witnessed a heater miracle . . . or I got a lesson in ""Buyer Beware.""
I will never call Paul's again, and I searched out this on-line review site so I could tell people about my experience with Paul's.
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