“Connecticut homeowners do not have to wait for the gas company to service their furnace or boiler when it breaks down.”

If you have a Gas Furnace or Boiler, you do not have to call the gas company for service.

There are over 900 heating contractors in Connecticut that are available for repairs, and replacement of all brands of furnaces and boilers.

The gas company will not fix most major problems that occur with your furnace or boiler. They also do not install heating equipment. So why do you need the headache of calling the gas company, pressing 2 – 5 buttons on your telephone so that you get to the right department and waiting for a gas company employee to get to your home just to find out that you need to call a heating contractor to fix your heating system.

As I am writing this, I called a popular gas company in CT and I had to press 3 different numbers on my phone and then listen to a recording for about 3 minutes.

The representative finally answered and I told her my furnace is not working and my home is in Branford, CT. She asked for my account # or my Social Security #. That’s right, she asked me for my Social Security #.
The representative (who never told me her name) said, because I am not a service member, I will have to pay $79 first 30 minutes $50 for ever 30 minutes after the first 30 minutes (get the calculator out).
(I think that for the amount we pay for gas to heat our homes, year after year, we should automatically be a service member)

I asked her when they could send a repair man to my home and she said “it will be considered an All Day Service Call”.

I asked what she meant by that and she said that an All Day Service Call means, “between now (10:30 AM 12/27/2011) and 12:00 midnight”.
I told her I will try to call another heating company and she said OK, bye.

If it was freezing cold outside and I tried to call them, I would have been put on hold a lot longer and I bet she would have told me that she would consider my “no heat emergency” to be an “All Month Service call”.

This is no joke!

Think about that for a minute…What does an average homeowner really know about a gas furnace?
Let’s say that a person who has no idea about their furnace calls the gas company and says “I hear a sound coming from my furnace that is not usually there” and the gas company tells the homeowner that problem is considered to be an All Day Service Call or maybe longer if it is really cold outside and they are swamped with calls.

No big deal… What’s the worst that could happen?

• A simple noise can be creating a potential carbon monoxide problem. (You can’t smell Carbon Monoxide and it can kill you)
• Water pipes can freeze and crack causing major damage to your home.
• A little noise can be the beginning of a major problem which can be much more costly to repair or you may even need to have your furnace replaced.
• A fan or blower making a noise can cause overheating of your furnace which may a cause fire.
  Your family may have to find another place to live until your furnace is fixed.

Those are just a few things off the top of my head.

Thank god there are over 900 heating contractors in Connecticut who would leave their family in the middle of the night, get in their cold trucks and drive to your home to make sure that your family is warm and safe.

I have 3 recommendations for you when calling a heating contractor in the State of Connecticut:

1. Be sure that they have a valid Heating Contractors License.
   A technician that maintains, repairs or installs heating systems must hold a heating license. That is mandated and governed by the CT Department of Consumer Protection and your homeowners insurance will only cover you if your heating system was worked on by a licensed technician (if there was a problem caused by your heating system).

2. If you call and you get an answering machine DO NOT LEAVE A MESSAGE.
   Remember… There are over 900 heating contractors to choose from. This is an emergency and it should be treated as one. There is no reason that you should have to wait for someone to call you back.

3. Ask them if they have a fully stocked truck with parts to fix most any brand furnace or boiler.
   I have worked for a few companies before opening my own in 1991 and the owners of some of those companies would only let me stock the truck with the bare minimum so that he didn’t have to spend the money on parts that may just sit there for months. Well this is great for the company but what about the homeowner that has to wait because the technician has to order the part the next day and then wait another day for it to be shipped. And let’s not forget that if that company charge$ by the hour, the homeowner will have to pay for the technician to come back out and make the repair.

You can save yourself a lot of hassle and just call my company and my staff will be more than happy to serve you. 203-315-0323

Thank you for reading this and I hope it helps.

Wayne Krasnow
President
Air, Inc. Heating & Air Conditioning