By blondezero at Citysearch January 04, 2010
Yes Bemidji, there is a Santa Claus, but Peterson does not exist. Last year at this time it was 50 degrees in our house; in fact, it hadn't been above 60 degrees since Peterson Sheet Metal installed a high-efficiency Carrier heat pump coupled with an brand new Carrier electric furnace at the end of September, 2008. I was on a consulting job in Mexico from October through December while my wife (from the east coast) and my 3 sons were beginning their very first northern Minnesota winter. Prior to leaving for the job in Mexico, I knew I had to get a secure heat-source for my family -- being untested by a true winter. I decided to go green and accepted a bid from Peterson Sheet Metal to install a brand new Carrier heat pump and Carrier electric furnace. I love Bemidji and moved my family here in the summer of 2008 so my boys could take advantage of the fantastic schools and teachers, so I could share the lakes, woods, and hobbies of my childhood with my family, and so that the people I did business with I would know and could trust. In a town as large and as small as Bemidji, my family gets to meet and know the people of the community; their faces appear everywhere we go -- in our church, at the grocery store, in the park, at the science center, in the restaurants, on the ball field. I digress. While I was in Mexico supporting my freezing family last winter, neither Peterson Sheet Metal nor Carrier were interested in warming them up (or fixing the brand new Carrier heat pump and furnace). The reason I chose Peterson Sheet Metal was because it was a local company with a local face I thought I could trust. But, who would leave a mother and her three boys to shiver? Me, in Mexico, and Peterson Sheet Metal, right here in Bemidji. So, I suggest that Peterson does not exist, because I don't know anyone in Bemidji (now or from my childhood) who would be so cold. Peterson, the concept, must have been in a second home with the air-conditioning on in Arizona or Florida or somewhere where snowbirds go, but could not have been here. Even when I returned from Mexico in January to find that the furnace still didn't work, my family was freezing, and the $1000 rebate on the furnace had expired, I couldn't -- with multiple requests -- get anyone named Peterson to call me. When, at the end of January, Peterson Sheet Metal finally got the temperature in our house above the formerly elusive 60 degree mark, I still had not heard from Peterson. I paid 25% of the total cost one month before the furnace was installed, by the end of December I had paid 75% of the total cost (and the furnace didn't work), at the end of January when the brand new Carrier heat pump and furnace were finally repaired, I paid all but the final $1000. Every check I wrote went to Peterson Sheet Metal, the contract I signed including a $1000 rebate was with Peterson Sheet Metal, but when Peterson Sheet Metal wanted that last $1000 they said my "issue" was with Carrier. Peterson, I asked your desk by phone and in person more than 5-times to have you call or meet with me. I said that if you would tell me face-to-face that paying the last $1000 of the invoice made sense on a furnace that didn't work until after the rebate expired -- I would pay. But you don't call, you don't write, you just have your employees (who I have, nevertheless, very much enjoyed working with) repeatedly send invoices with threatening notes and late fees. Well, it can all stop, I will come by this week to pay you the $1000 plus the late fees you have tacked on, Merry Christmas. I'm not worried, I doubt you'll cash it, because Bemidji, Peterson does not exist. ...read more
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