My 5 year-old Carrier furnace has never worked properly (view details). Carrier has admitted in writing that a manufacturing defect is causing the failures, yet they refuse to do more than replace the faulty part (even though it has caused the interior of the furnace to corrode) or refund to the *installer* what *he* paid for the furnace (which is not even close to what he charged me for it).

If you have had a similar experience, we want to talk with you. We have already been contacted by over 55 individuals and even a public housing complex manager.

The people we've heard from primarily fall into three categories:

people who claim their furnaces failed after a short time (average seems to be about 3-6 years), were told by technicians that design flaws and/or faulty materials caused the failures, were told that the replacement pieces were made using different materials/designs, and yet found themselves fully responsible for paying for all repairs and replacement parts,

people who claim to be unable to get problems resolved because some combination of the installer, distributor, and manufacturer are pointing fingers at each other and not making an effort to resolve the problem for the customer, and

people shopping for new furnaces and seeking advice for avoiding what we've been through (many are also calling 1-800-CARRIER for information).


We are actively talking with a number of organizations to get these problems resolved and prevent other consumers from having to endure the considerable stress and additional expense we've endured:

- The Federal Trade Commission, Division of Marketing Practices
- Carrier's ISO 9000 registrars: Underwriters Labs and the British Standards Institution
- Members of the United States House and Senate
- Utilities
- Industry and homebuilders associations
- Local and national television news journalists
- Consumer groups
- Individual consumer advocates
- Popular and trade journals

In the long run we are also working to get the lemon law revised to include furnaces and other HVAC equipment. If HVAC manufacturers do not have the ethics or business sense to notify customers when they learn of manufacturing mistakes, and then refuse to replace the faulty equipment or provide a refund, laws must be enacted to protect the consumer.


At least three vo-tech schools are using this web page as a case study on customer service quality.
It is also scheduled to be used as a case study in an engineering book due out next year.


Details of my ordeal
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