Over this past summer, our air conditioner failed. It wasn’t a quiet failure of the compressor. The outflow line for the condensation water blocked up and sent water down over and through the oil furnace below. In looking at the state of the HVAC system, particularly the oil furnace, it became apparent that they had been poorly maintained for a lengthy period of time, despite our service contract with our oil company. Getting recommendations from neighbors and friends is one way to help avoid this kind of abuse of trust. Many sites on Teh Intarwebs use reputation systems as well, but most are oriented around transactions with short durations. Many industries, including health care, HVAC maintenance, accounting, and investment work over considerably longer periods.
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