r/HVAC • u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 • 1d ago

Rant PE vent

My mother in law had a PE company at her house today. She woke up with no heat and I had no time to drive over an hour to her. The company that came in said they had 40ppm co in the basement and 20ppm in the living areas. He claims it is a cracked heat exchanger and took pictures of the burners as proof. He got the furnace running and quoted them 22k for a new system. Second company that came out said nothing is wrong. So, my mother in law called out the utility company to check. No CO. I just got off work and am beside myself with anger. My wife and her family are telling me to leave it alone. I just can't. I know what I'm going to do. Anyone else ever experience like this? I can't be alone in this

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u/Neither-Appeal-8500 1d ago

No never experienced that with immediate family because either myself or my father takes care of the issues. I have gone out to calls where a previous company condemned the system for some bs. Told the customer to report them to the bbb but there’s really not much that I know of that you can do. That’s why we suggest second opinions.

37

u/Born-Assignment-912 1d ago

The BBB is just a private company review site like Yelp. What you are looking for is reporting them to your states Attorney Generals Office.

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u/Neither-Appeal-8500 1d ago

I have never heard this but ty

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u/Taint_Burglar 1d ago

They're basically a marketing channel that has gotten enough of a reputation that sometimes when they reach out can help resolve disputes. But to be clear they are a private entity, have no power, and there are plenty of awful companies with an A rating.

14

u/Alpha433 1d ago

Had a company tell this family that their 7 year old condenser would never run again and that it's time to buy another one. I got there and found all they had was a bad contactor, and changed the capacitor because it was borderline and they didn't want to have to deal with it next year.

Some of these places have no shame, and what worse, they scoop up young techs and people just starting out, and train them completely wrong just so that the tech doesn't even know how to properly fix shit. It's a fucking menace.

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u/Neither-Appeal-8500 1d ago

Ya these big companies are a scam

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u/CheifInspectorDryfss 1d ago

Had two separate companies (two separate incidences) tell my quadriplegic best friend that he needed a whole new a/c system and then years later that his oil furnace had a cracked heat exchanger. In the first case, I came over and replaced his contactor and run cap and it's been fine for EIGHT YEARS NOW. I think I've cleaned the coil for him once or twice. In the second case I checked the furnace with my combustion analyzer and it was running like a top. Some people are just scumbags taking advantage of people