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I’ve run into this when looking for an hvac contractor to do some work in my basement. Was just going through the listings and making a bunch of calls. It was d

• therealdrag0 4y ago
  As a noob homeowner. What questions did you ask?
  • bandyaboot 4y ago
    It’s possible my case was a bit unique in how obvious it was. I was specifically looking to find a small local shop or independent contractor just to do a walk through/consult on expanding the bare bones hvac setup in the basement for finishing. I was doing the work myself but wanted expert input so I could try to avoid the common problem in cold climates of basement living spaces being significantly colder than the rest of the house. Independent contractors are easy. Many are just listed under their names, and even if they use a business name, their business number is almost always just the cell phone. When you call they’ll either not answer and you have to leave a voicemail to get a call back, or if they do answer, they’ll pick up with something like “this is <insert name>”. So for them you don’t even need to ask anything. When calling a number that is supposedly a small shop, I found that when I told them what I was wanting and asked “is that something you would do?”, the fake ones would immediately say yes. The legit places would ask follow up questions, or if it was an office worker, they would have one of their techs call me back.