Mr C in Calgary

The spring on my sectional garage door broke. I called The Garage Door Company and someone was able to come on the same day. The worker/owner replaced the spring, then proceed to replace all the rollers. When I questioned why the rollers needed to be replaced he gave some meaningless response. When all was done, he handed me a bill of almost $900 (really). A negotiated price should have been agreed upon first but his style is to keep moving around (he works pretty fast) so it’s hard to talk to him. Do NOT let him begin work until you agree on a price and put it in writing and have him sign it. I also suggest calling other companies to get an idea of how much the work should cost so this guy doesn’t rape your wallet. By the way, this company has an “F” rating on the Better Business Bureau site and Global TV News Calgary also did a negative story on this company on 2012-04-13. One star because he did fix the garage, but buyer beware of his charges!!

My furnace died during a cold snap so I needed it to be fixed immediately. Ace Plumbing was able to send someone on the same day. This is the type of company that has a flat rate schedule of fees for all the work that they do. This means that they’re expensive, but it also means that they don’t charge by the hour. The fellow who fixed the furnace was very nice, clean, knowledgeable and professional. After diagnosing the problem, he had to leave and go purchase the part required. That meant that the job took many hours but since it was a fixed price service I knew how much I had to pay, regardless of how long it took. In the end, I was generally satisfied with the service, but not sure I would recommend due to their rate schedule (for example, a very simple job could cost hundreds per the flat rate schedule vs. another company that charges per hour + call out fee would be significantly cheaper).