Hvac Nightmare

Location: Vermont. I’m redacting personal information. I’m seeking advice regarding a dispute with an HVAC company that has escalated beyond a typical service issue…

Here is a Google review I left outlining what happened:

I scheduled a preventative maintenance visit with Company X to inspect the heating system in my home. During that visit, the technician told me my furnace had a cracked heat exchanger, described it as a serious safety hazard, and recommended shutting the system down immediately. I was then presented with replacement options ranging from $8,426 to $12,919.

This diagnosis caused significant concern for my household—especially since my wife is pregnant—and we temporarily left our home out of caution based on the urgency and severity communicated to us.

To confirm the issue, I contacted Company Y for a warranty inspection. After disassembling the furnace, their technician found no cracks or damage whatsoever in the heat exchanger. The marks identified by Company X were determined to be minor dried condensation residue from the AC unit above—something that could be wiped away by hand. There was no safety concern.

A cracked heat exchanger is one of the most serious issues an HVAC technician can claim. In this case, that claim was unfounded. Recommending immediate shutdown and pushing a full system replacement based on that diagnosis is deeply concerning.

What we experienced feels like negligence, misrepresentation, and at a minimum carelessness or poor training. We are also pursuing formal complaints with the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division and the Better Business Bureau.

Company X took us for a ride and we would absolutely not recommend this company to anyone.

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Here is how the company replied publicly:

Hello, I’m the wife of the owner of Company X and last night we were driving home from the wake of my fathers funeral and we received this 1 star review from you and I looked it over and looked you up to see who would write such a review like this. Come to find out, you and I have the same degree, geography and planning, I spent the last 30 years of my life as a public servant as planner for the city of ———- and other various government jobs just as you do for the town of __________.

I led my life with integrity and that’s how we run our business. We are all human and our technician found an issue with your system of pooling water and rust which shouldn’t be found in a system. That is not compromised. He took do care in his opinion to make sure your family was safe. We have you your money back, we paid for the warranty of the other company where they had to replace your heat exchanger, and Iay awake at 3:30 am of the morning that I’m laying my father to rest worrying about our customers and the review you left. We did everything we could to make this right for you short of telling us that if we didn’t install a free ductless mini split system you would report us to BBB and Attorney General and give us the bad review as you have done.

I just know that at our company we give people that work with tier hands great opportunities and we home that you do some soul searching and come to light with these decisions you are making.

Again, our company runs on trust and integrity and is always in the best interest of our customers.

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I have not received any refund even though they offered. Due to the severity of the situation, I solicited a free service to make things whole and regain trust, to which they replied they would look into it. I find their public reply disturbing, borderline defamation, and now they are calling it civil extortion.