We imagine you noticed the asterisk following the most overused, misleading tagline in modern business practices. Most consumers have realized that they often get exactly what they pay for when it comes to service and learn very fast that in fact, nothing is FREE*.

The heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) business is littered with companies offering "FREE" system checkups and problem diagnosis. In other cases, companies will offer such services at significantly reduced rates ($29.95). Some offer these "deals" hoping to find a problem requiring a higher priced repair, or in many cases a total system replacement. We are not implying that all of the local companies that offer such bargains are in fact attempting to replace or repair things that do not need to be, but the practice is large enough that the nationally televised program Dateline NBC ran a story on such shady service practices. Oddly enough, the city they ran the sting operation in was Houston, Texas. Several technicians were cited for telling customers that they needed replacement parts or costly repairs when in fact the equipment required entirely different repairs or no work at all. Some even suggested that customers needed entirely new systems when technicians were unable to accurately diagnose the problem. While it may be to our benefit to list the companies that were cited, we've gained 90 percent of our business through referrals and word-of-mouth and will not be adopting a competitive strategy based on price alone. If you are interested, the transcripts from the Dateline program are available through Burrell Transcript Services at 1-800-777-TEXT.

At Nash Mechanical, we provide honest and ethical service at a fair price. You won't find discount coupons for our services in the Houston Chronicle or see large billboards indicating we handle appliance repairs, plumbing needs, pool maintenance service, and pest control; we stick to what we've known for over three generations: the heating and air conditioning business. Give us a call, we'd be glad to offer references and our honest opinion of your HVAC needs. If you insist on using companies that provide "FREE" checkups, do yourself a favor and call two different companies and see if they site the same problem. Thank You.