If your building or home needs HVAC servicing, the level of service that you'll receive can vary greatly from company to company.
Most HVAC servicing companies offer professional grade service, competitive pricing, financing options and maintenance agreements.
But there are also HVAC companies whose reputation for air conditioning maintenance and HVAC installation leaves a lot to be desired.
If you need to contact a heating and cooling company to address your HVAC problems, then you probably aren't skilled enough to handle those problems yourself.
Nonetheless, there are some steps that you can take as a consumer to determine whether or not a certain company is likely to offer you value for your money or end up costing you money in terms of botched installation, botched repair work or work uncompleted.
Contacting the Better Business Bureau While some consumer websites tell you find out how long a company has been in business or how many skilled technicians it employs, the easiest way to figure out whether or not a company is living up to its billing is to contact the Better Business Bureau and find out if it has unresolved customer complaints.
While a company that does lots of business will inevitably receive complaints to the Better Business Bureau at one time or another, a company that values its customers will resolve those complaints as quickly as possible.
In some instances, a company chooses not to resolve a complaint because a customer's claims are outlandish.
But since it's difficult to determine whether it's the company or the customer that's being outlandish, it's best to go with a company that resolves its complaints no matter what.
Time Sensitive Service Agreements The most common complaint against companies that travel to customers to do their work is that they don't get the work done on time.
In some cases, this complaint results from a stickler who's upset about a project running a day longer than planned.
But there are also projects that run weeks and months longer than planned, if they ever get finished at all.
Companies that don't offer timely service typically do so based on one of two situations: they take on too much work for their workforce, or they have bigger fish to fry.
In either case, you get stuck with a home that doesn't heat or cool properly until the company honors its commitment.
But with a time sensitive service agreement that offers a refund if the project isn't completed on time, you can be sure that a company will take the project seriously.
Licensed, Bonded and Insured Companies that are licensed, bonded and insured show that they have the expertise to perform the work that you require and the insurance to pay for damages to your person or property should that work somehow go wrong.
The problem with hiring a company that isn't insured against damages isn't that you don't have a way to receive damages; it's that your chances of receiving damages through the court system is rather slim.
Even if you win a civil case against a company, statistics show that most civil judgments aren't willingly paid by the guilty party, which is likely to leave you with both a botched heating and cooling job and a never ending series of court dates as you keep trying to get reimbursed.