Convertible Heating And Air Conditioning

My search for a company to replace our gas furnace, AC and possibly water heater, started in February. Over several weeks 8-10 reps visited the house and we talked about Lennox, Carrier, Goodman, Rheem, American Standard...and more. Since we are the middle of a row of three houses, the question of venting (2" or 3" white pipes) quickly emerged as the "hot" topic. They all seemed to think that we could go through the family room, under the front porch and out the front of the house. No problem they assured me.
As I was getting ready to decide on a company, a flyer arrived in my mailbox from Convertible. My first contact was with owner/founder Sam and he set the tone with easy to understand talk...no upsell, no nonsense. A short time later Marnie visited the house and quoted on Rheem and American Standard equipment. The prices were the best I had received. Marnie was also the first one to express any concern about the "out the front" venting plan, so she arranged for installer Dave St. Croix to have a look. After 30 secs with Dave I was convinced that the front venting plan would have been a disaster, resulting in vent pipes running through our family room at head-height. Dave spent almost an hour looking at all possibilities and came upo with a solution nobody else had considered.
By changing the water heater to power vented we could take out the chimney liner and run both the furnace and water heater pipes up the chimney.
The installation was done by Dave and Mike...outstanding job with lots of attention to detail. In all, a very satisfying process with Convertible and I would give them a 15 on 10 if I could. Huge thanks to Marnie, Dave and Mike.
What did I learn:
don't be scared by the "big two" who will try to convince you nobody else has good product.
make sure that the installer can deliver on what the salesperson is telling you, especially if your case is in any way difficult.