David Heide from Edmonton

I appreciated their policy of prep taking so much time but even so, booked us in JUST before the snow flew. Only some minor confusion as the quote (old school hand-written in duplicate) was interpreted by Peter, the painter, in a couple different ways which i had to keep track of. To Peter's credit, he phoned me from the paint supplier because he thought the color mentioned on the quote was not what I wanted. He was right and we averted what could have been a big problem. (Randy hadn't written a color- just a grade of stain that happened to match a color name.) Randy listened to my needs and Peter was smoothing and touching up almost til the sun went down, he even adapted to the problem of painting louvers with an experimental method that worked well. Peter encountered some challenges (steep roof pitch, sanding tight areas, a/c proximity) that he didn't have the proper tools but he did solve them somehow. More than pleased.

For 8 years we have had a defective Navien tankless hot water system. The technicians who installed it (Knight Heating) and those who serviced it (Butler Plumbing) all agreed that the machine was running properly and did routine part replacements. They said fluctuating temperatures were sometimes expected and my plumbing was probably to blame. None really knew what they were doing. I called Harmcor to install another solution - an estimated $900 shower valve installation with automatic temperature control - and Roy was less interested in that solution than in the original problem. I explained it to him and he sounded pretty confident they could solve it properly. The fact that we stocked all the parts impressed me, because the others frequently didn't. Roy and his helper took a lot longer than expected (the $199 fee was to cover 1 hour of troubleshooting) but the dispatcher indicated they frequently waive the overages in cases like this. They didn't waive the overage but came in half of what the shower valve would have cost. They also attempted to convince Navien that the defective board should be covered under warranty because it's been this way for years. I've never encountered this kind of advocacy before, certainly not from the fore-bearers. Thank you Roy and Alicia.

While I have no beefs about technicians, I rue the days I have any questions about the bill. Lloyd, the main customer contact, is exceptionally protective of his bottom line and treats me to a world of pandering, insulting and abrasive arguments, bordering on (though never crossing into) abusive territory. He's the expert. You're just a pleeb with a cheque book. Take a pass.