"My furnace stopped working and my regular service provider could not come out same day. Rolf Griffin was able to send a service technician within two hours, and the service technician got my furnace working again and notified me that my heat exchanger had failed. I was happy with the quality of work from the service technician.
I was not happy with the sales process to replace my furnace. While he was friendly and informative, it was pretty clear that the sales consultant (Ross Parker) has been instructed to try to steer customers into the Advantage Plan. In fact, when providing the initial quote, he only provided the monthly payment amount for the Advantage Plan ($117.50 for a one stage 93% efficiency furnace, 13 SEER one stage A/C, and humidifier or $180.50 for a two stage 96% efficiency furnace, 13 SEER one stage A/C, and humidifier) and not the price to purchase and install the equipment outright. When I indicated I could afford to purchase one outright and would prefer to do so, he provided me with a rough estimate for the equipment I was leaning towards ($10,200 for the one-stage furnace, one stage A/C) rather than an official quote, and tried to steer me back toward the Advantage Plan because of all the "benefits" including ongoing maintenance and repairs. He did mention that if I decided I didn't want the Advantage plan after the fact, I could always cancel by paying the plan's install price of $6800). What he failed to explain was that the Advantage Plan was a lease and that at the end of the ten year term I would not actually own the equipment, or if I decided to terminate the agreement there would be no manufacturer equipment warranties. I reluctantly signed up for the Advantage Plan, but was uneasy because of the required high termination fee if I were to sell my house sometime before the term was over. But after reading the full agreement when it arrived via email, I quickly decided to cancel. I called Ross and asked him for a quote to purchase the equipment outright and asked him to cancel the Advantage plan and the install appointment. I also told him I would be obtaining a quote from another provider. He said he'd get everything taken care of.
He provided the purchase quote of $8,450 plus tax for the one stage furnace A/C combo (which was about $2000 less than the rough estimate he had previously provided when trying to steer me toward the Advantage Plan) and $11,434 for the two stage furnace/one stage A/C combo. The other provider I contacted quoted me $7,100 (inclusive of tax) for a Bryant two stage 96% efficiency furnace and 13 SEER one stage A/C. When I told Ross I was going to go with the other provider, he offered to check with his manager to see if Rolf Griffin could match the price, but by this point I was frustrated that the other company gave me this price as their first quote whereas it had taken three inquiries with Rolf Griffin to get the price down to this (from the initial $180.50 per month Advantage Plan or $11,434 to purchase outright) and told him I'd be using the other provider.
The other provider also explained that all the equipment would have a 10 year registered manufacturer warranty (lifetime warranty for the heat exchanger) and a one year warranty on labor, and if I continued to hold a service/maintenance agreement with them (free the first year and $200 per year after plus an extra $50 if I wanted them to change the filter) then they would extend the labor agreement every year for ten years. So basically, for a $7,100 install fee, plus $250 per year for years 2-10 (roughly $9350 total for install and maintenance) I'm getting the same benefits as the Advantage plan which would have ended up costing $21,660 through your organization. That's a savings of more than $10,000. Plus I'll have the benefit of actually owning the equipment as opposed to leasing it with the risk of an early termination fee of more than half the initial install fee if I were to sell my house before the ten year term was up. Not to mention the fact that if the equipment lasts longer than ten years without needing repairs, I'll only have regular maintenance and filter costs after year ten as opposed to either needing to extend the contract with Rolf Griffin or extending the existing Rolf Griffin contract month to month or paying a termination fee of 25% of the initial install fee. Which means in the long run it's very likely that I'll save much more than just $10,000 since the life of the equipment is estimated at over 20 years. So for your question about whether Rolf Griffin is a good value with competitive pricing, it's clear that you are taking advantage of your customers when it comes to price on the Advantage plan.
On top of all that, I called the main office later in the day to confirm Ross had cancelled my install appointment and even though the individual I spoke with confirmed he had cancelled it, I received an email an hour later confirming my appointment, and when I called af"