People Who Do Little

Got up and went to the grocery store early Saturday morning. Thinking with that out of the way I'd settle into a relaxing weekend by noon. Yup...

Came home around lunch time and had a message on the answering machine from an old relative.

A relative from 132 miles away was having problems with a furnace. She had it serviced this past summer and had another company come out and look at it but they said too that there didn't seem to be anything wrong.

She asked my son about any tips he could give her about the problems... I knew at that point... He told her it could be next to impossible to say anything helpful without really seeing it. We looked at each other after the phone call and without talking we knew what was next. So we called the neighbors and asked if they could come every two or three hours and let the dogs out. (To darned cold to tie them out.) And if they could keep an eye on things for us while we were gone. We were pretty sure we would not be home until around two or three Sunday morning...

Now those prospects alone are a nightmare for me. I get up around four of five almost every day so not going to bed by midnight just doesn't work. But hey, I'm tough, I can take it... Heck when in my 20's and 30's there were times I wouldn't sleep for a few days and I survived and did my work without missing a beat. But now... The back doesn't like long trips...

So we were off. The weather wasn't to bad so the trip there went really well. Made for a nice ride and we had plenty of time to gab. Don't know how but seems we never run out of things to talk about. For a young guy in his early 20's he's pretty good at talking to us older farts.

We arrived in town and filled the tank so we wouldn't have to stop later on the way back. We got to the house and no sooner pulled in the driveway and the son's cell phone rang. Yah, and emergency call from back home. He explained he would not be able to get there until three or four the next morning because of our family emergency and arrangements were made. That problem handled we went in the house.

The problem was her oil fired furnace was running. Using more fuel than usual but not getting much heat. Now this has been the worst December we've had in years so using more oil is not so unusual. We chatted a few minutes and then he began his inspection...

First cover he pulled off was the new thermostat that was installed this summer. Well these newer controls have switch settings and he found they were never set properly. With that set we went to the basement... He just dug right in. First furnace cover he pulled was for the humidifier. Plugged... Looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years. No big deal though sometimes extremely hard water can do that. Next he pulled the air filter cover... Wow, now that would in no way have been plugged that bad in that basement if it would have been cleaned this past summer. He removed that filter too for cleaning. Then he went to actually looking over the working parts of the furnace. He then found her banging problem. A belt that would not go bad for three or four years had a serious crack in it.

He asked for her technicians number and I rolled my eyes. Now to us we're in a strange town and only know a very few people. I just knew he was going to give this complete stranger a polite , but royal chewing out. I almost begged him not to. But nope. He did it. He called the company, (after hours) and politely reamed the owner out. Well the owner didn't like what he heard so he called his head tech and had him call my son. After my son chewed him a new butt he agreed to replace the belt at no charge. To save the time and get done my son agreed to meet him and get the belt and fix it himself. While talking to the guy he was asked for the entire list of what was found. The guy wrote everything down and I guess it sounded like someone was getting a well deserved butt chewing...

My boy got back, replaced the belt, cleaned the filter and humidifier screen and cleaned a bit more of the furnace. He turned it back on and within about 20 minutes there was plenty of heat.

“If” the technician that was there this summer or the next tech that was called to look at it had done their job, we wouldn't have had to make a 264 mile round trip, the first would have saved himself the humiliation of the inevitable butt reaming and would have saved us the ride home in a snow storm on icy snow covered roads! And today I wouldn't be cursing you for the extreme pain my back is giving me...

Now this isn't the first. The boy has even had the BBB called by angry people when he pointed out problems. One guy ended up with quite a fine for his shoddy work. And now my son is the area representative for the company that makes that furnace. Yah, a few short cuts really cost him...

If you have a job to do why not take pride in what you do and do it right!!! Do you not realize what kind of person that makes you look like when you are found out? Then how does it make the company you work for look? Do you really think your boss is going to want to keep you?

Like the old saying... Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

And folks, please, take the extra time to call and check to see if the guys your getting are really worth the money you may be saving. It may be costing you more later!