Middle of last year, Swift purchased A-1 Comfort Systems and branched into Florence. My interactions up until last Saturday, 1/22/2022, were favorable. If you live in Florence, then you know by evening we have sleet, and it was cumulating and sticking to the ground and the temperatures were dropping all day and into the evening. Now the heating system turned 3 years old this month. We were toasty all evening long. Retired for the evening and overnight the sleet turned to snow, and the temperature dropped into the 20's.
Woke up at 5 PM Saturday morning and noticed the house was chilly and I look at the thermostat and the house dropped to 64. From 70 when we went to sleep. Looked out the window and saw the 4" of snow. Increased the heat setting, which indicated heat on, up to 1 degree from 70 and nothing engaged.
Thank goodness for gas log fireplaces. Turned them on so the central part of the home had warmth.
Immediately called Swift to report the situation. That was at 5:20 AM. Spoke with a woman by the name of Candy. She asked me for my address twice, name and call back number twice. Informed her I was a member and had a just renewed my service and annual Maintenace was performed 2 weeks ago, and there were no issues. But I needed someone to look at the unit, since the entire house was cold, and forecast for the weekend was nothing but freezing temperatures. She replied I reported and entered the information, and someone will contact me about more information.
Now it is 7:30 Am, no call. Called Swift again, and Candy answered again. Informed her no one contacted me, and the house was bitter cold. She looked into the system and said my information is in the system and reported and someone will be in touch.
Now it is 10:30 AM, and I have not received a call from a SWIFT tech. I call again, but this time a man answered. Wish I could remember his name, he understood the severity of the problem and was apologizing for the lack of service. He did tell me the earlier reports were not appearing in the system.
All I know, less than 5 minutes after talking to him, a service tech called me.
Why did my earlier calls go unanswered when the internet advertises open 24 hours?
Now for the service tech. When I told him I had been reporting the problem since 5:20 AM and we were convening in the room with the gas logs because the remainder of the house was unbearable to stay in; he gave me the following reply: "stay in front of the fireplace and bundle up." I let it go.
Then he told me he would get to me, but there were two other homeowners ahead of me. Asked him why he did not call me earlier than now, he replied, he just received the information. He proceeded to tell me the answering service was not local it was out of the county. Sorry, Dude, Candy was not out of the county, she was southern, as fried chicken and gravy.
Asked him to estimate when he felt he would get to my location. He replied sometime this afternoon. Really! He proceeded to tell me they were closed right now and due to weather conditions; they were waiting for the roads to clear.
Okay, so now all of the doctors, nurses and medical personal in Florence made it in for their 7 AM shift Saturday morning, but the SWIFT tech cannot drive the company vehicle until afternoon, when the roads have been melting away since 9 AM. It was a mere 4" of snow, not 4'.
Now for the finally. At 12:30 PM the unit engages and starts pumping heat out of every vent. The heating gods or goddess heard my pleas and prayers.
Shortly afterwards the tech called to tell me he was on his way. Informed him what occurred, and he wanted to know if I still wanted him to complete the service call. Informed him, "YES, do not need the unit to stop working again this evening with the bitter cold freezing temperatures." When he arrived, he looked at the unit. Gave me a diagnosis and told me what to do if it happens again and to call him.
By the way, the unit has been running fine since the heat gods and goddesses placed their healing hands on the unit. read more