Choosing an SEO Agency to Help Your Business Thrive

The people you depend on to keep you cool in the dog days of summer are HVAC companies. But are some air conditioning repair men actually taking advantage of you. Recently we went undercover to find out what’s really going on.

When your air conditioner breaks,it’s an emergency. No one likes to be excessively hot not to mention the effect the heat has on air quality which makes it difficult for those with breathing problems. So,when it breaks,you call the AC Company of course trusting them to come and fix the problem at a fair price,but… are they really providing you the best solution at the best price? We’ve found that some companies are blowing you hot air when they hand you that big bill.

We called in a few companies to cool our house down. But when these AC repairmen show up we found that many of them were either being dishonest or all together incompetent. One after the other tried charging us big money for repairs that other experts say we didn’t need. We set up our test of these companies right smack in the middle of a heat wave.

First we rented a house inDelawareand had 3 AC experts inspect our system from top to bottom. --- All 3 reported that the AC system was in great to very good condition. Then we brought in another expert to set up a common and easy to fix problem with the system. He set up a simple broken wire that shuts the unit down. He said he would charge less than $200 to fix it. We found that other technicians tell us that you need other work done to fix this problem. This begs us to ask,”Are you either being incompetent or are you just simply being dishonest”?

Once we set up the easy to fix problem,we called in six separate AC companies to come out and fix the problem. The first contractor finds our broken wire but instead of fixing it he wants to charge us for an expensive part. The part he wants to charge us for is called a capacitor. He wants to charge $395 to replace a part that we originally had inspected and found it had absolutely no problems. We called him out on this assessment and he left in a huff declining to comment or return our calls.

The next guy finds and fixes our broken wire rather quickly. But,instead of leaving it at that,he recommends we replace an expensive part saying that the unit is leaking combustible fluid. He claims it needs to be fixed today in order to fix the problem. The cost,$692! The part he claimed was leaking simply displayed harmless rust.

The 3^rdcompany tries to charge us for several expensive parts totally $850! The 4^thcompany claimed we needed new parts as well,including one that didn’t even exist in the system. The price for his repair… $950! At least this company ended up firing that technician for his dishonesty. The 5^thand 6^thcompanies did the same thing with trying to charge us for unnecessary repairs and parts.

In the end,6 out of 6 companies tried to charge us for parts and repairs we did not need. Honestly,we did not expect to see this level of dishonesty or incompetence from so many HVAC contractors in the area.

Experts say that you should get your unit serviced every year so it doesn’t break in the middle of a heat wave but even if it does of course despite what we found there are actually very honest A/C companies out there. To make it easy to find one in Delaware at least,we recommend you start with-.

The first thing you need to do is to check with your local city or county planning department to learn what the regulations for the address where you want the sign placed.

What they will tell you first is whether the zoning in that area allows for a sign,and if so,what is the maximum size for that sign,if you are allowed to have an internally illuminated sign or neon sign or electronic readerboard or just a monument type sign,or even just a banner or a 4 foot by 4 foot plywood sign. Not to worry,there’s a regulation for everything you do in your business in most 1st World countries (such as the US,Canada,and W.Europe).

Assuming that you can put a sign in the zone you want to place your business in,they will require you to provide some sort of drawing that shows how your sign will be installed.

If you are planning some type of monument sign with metal letters or the like,or an electrical sign mounted on a monument or a pole,it is likely,especially if it is a large electrical sign mounted on a very tall pole 20′ or taller,that you’ll need to have an engineering firm clear the installation method for wind load and weight and whatever else engineers sign off on for loads of cash.

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Once the engineer and/or the city planning department has signed off on their approval that the sign will not fall on their Mom,they’ll issue you a sign permit for anywhere from a few dollars (in small towns) to ridiculous sums of money that would make George Washington go bald… oh,wait,he was bald.

Once that is done,often in conjunction with a professional sign company,now you are ready to have the sign put up – unless you are particularly skilled and have the tools to do it yourself.

A simple sign can be installed by a sign installer from your sign company or you can do it yourself if you’re trying to save coins. As I said before,you can install most any sign by yourself if you have excavating equipment,experience with building concrete forms (or have watched at least one YouTube video on the subject),a boom truck,and an electrician’s license (in many municipalities).

For sake of this discussion,let’s say you are having a 12′ x 18′ sign installed on a metal pole 37′ in the air. Let’s also say you’re having XYZ Company install the sign,a reputable local sign installer.

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The first thing they’ll do is dig a huge hole. This is for the concrete which will surround the pole. The engineer required enough concrete so that just in case there are 2000 mph winds,this sign will not EVER fall down. Or thereabouts.

Next they’ll place the pole in position,plumb and level it,and weld stabilizer bars to it so that when the concrete is poured it will,hopefully,stay exactly where it was placed. Electricity will also be run up inside the pole in most instances when possible.

The next step will be to let the concrete harden,then cut the stabilizer bars off the pole. Now they’re ready to place the sign on the pole. This is where a boom truck comes in very handy. The sign is lifted into place,and for larger signs,usually a 2nd truck will have a “bucket” where a professional sign installer will weld the sign into position – hopefully plumb and level.

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Lastly,the sign installer will add lamps inside the sign cabinet,hook up the wiring to the sign cabinet,install the sign faces,and paint the pole or install a pole skirt.