Shafer Services - Not a Rant. I really like this company
Shafer Services is a local (San Antonio) plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning company. I’ve dealt with them on and off for a number of years.
Last year I had some work done and I signed up for the annual maintenance plan. Last week they came out to perform the annual checkup on my “stuff”.
They found a serious problem with the gas feed to my water heater, which they came out and fixed today - and it’s a good thing I didn’t wait. The copper tubing crumbled when they tried to loosen a connection. Since my water heater is in my attic, that could have been very ugly. I wouldn’t have know it broke until the attic filled with gas and the house blew up! They came out on the coldest day I can remember in San Antonio - ice, and rain, and sleet. Ugly. But they got me fixed up.
Later the same day another representative came to give me a quote on replacing my antiquated heating/cooling system. It might be just a bit safer than the water heater was. Funny thing is, the guy who came out was from the same relatively small Illinois town I am from! What are the odds? He was more than polite, and more than nice. He was efficient, and friendly, and very helpful. He answered all of my questions without a hint of eye-rolling. I like that. Thanks, Gregg - I appreciate it. The fact he is an XBOX gamer as well didn’t hurt anything!
They put shoe covers on to come into my house, which I thought was funny. They probably carried more dirt out with them then they could carried in (ok, I’m a single parent. My priorities don’t include a picture perfect house).
I’m probably going to go with the most expensive of the alternatives they offered - which is to replace the furnace, A/C unit, and re-do all of the duct work. I know in the long run I’ll get my money back on saved energy costs. And I won’t have to worry about my furnace turning my house into the Towering Inferno.
*** Random Post ***
January 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Curiously small world we live in. I was going to recommend Shafer Services to you (they sold me my most recent HVAC system, and I was very pleased with the price and the service). Then I thought, “No, Rob has his own ideas, and the last recommendation I made didn’t work out so well for him.” So I remained silent. Glad they did good preliminary job, and my experience leads me to expect they will do a good job throughout.