Situation: Late one night Lura was woke up by her dog. He kept at her until she got out of bed. As she walked down the hall, she noticed it was very, very hot in her home so she turned the thermostat temperature down. Later she noticed that the furnace never shut off so she went down to the basement where the furnace is located and it was even hotter so she knew it wasn’t working properly.

Action: Lura called Anthony Plumbing, Heating & Cooling’s after-hours technician to come out that night because the temperature had risen to 87 degrees in her home. Because Lura was so worried, she also called the fire department.

Results: Our technician discovered that the furnace never shut off due to a malfunction in the gas valve. This caused the flame to continue burning which burnt holes in parts of the furnace and sooted up the outside of the duct work which is a good indication that the indoor cooling coil (which sits over the furnace) melted due to excessive heat.

Our comfort consultant met with Lura and agreed on the replacement of her old furnace. A complete installation was proposed which included the furnace and the indoor cooling coil.

We called in the morning to prepare for the installation, but Lura said that her friend referred her to someone and he was coming over at 9:00 a.m.

At 11:00 a.m. our comfort consultant called Lura and she said the “other guy” was already installing her furnace. Lura said, originally he was “cheaper” and that an 85-year-old woman’s income has to be watched carefully. Right after he started the installation of the furnace, he informed Lura that the indoor coil would need to be replaced and it would be an additional charge. The person installing her new furnace did not include the indoor coil so he was cheaper.

Lura had a new furnace installed by someone who didn’t give an upfront honest estimate before the installation.

In the customer’s own words: "You were right all along; I just thought I was getting a better price, but I ended up paying more. I only hope the person installing the new furnace will do as good of a job as I know Anthony would have.”