Electrical, Heating and cooling experts, Just south of Okotoks, closer to you than Calgary!

Check with friends and neighbours about whom they recommend. Make sure they have the right experience. Having a plumber change out a furnace or a sheet metal technician repair a water heater doesn’t often work too well. Now there are exceptions to this rule, but make sure that they have been trained in the job that you are going to have them perform. Check how long a company has been in business. A company won’t last long by giving customers poor service and not standing behind their work. Watch out for small start-ups. There are a lot of people back from the oil patch, starting up their own companies. Although they may be less expensive, if the price of oil goes back up, they are likely to leave you in the middle of a job or the event of a product failure. Remember that you often “get what you pay for”. The cheapest contractor is likely to cut corners or use an inferior product to save money. Or worse, they could be desperate for the work which is usually due to poor quality work in the past.

Also, make sure that they have their appropriate WCB coverage and insurance so that if anything happens, you are not liable for a repair to your own house or the contractors’ hospital bills. Do they answer their phone and return messages? If they don’t answer their phone before they do your work, how easily are they going to be reached in the event of a problem with their work?

As always, if you have any questions or need our help, please call G.M. Mechanical at 403-652-1282 or visit www.gmmech.net.

Was just doing some looking around on Facebook and read a story of some local people being scammed by a contractor. As a contractor, I cannot stand when people do this, as it gives us all a bad name. I know many contractors in the area of all different trades and even some competing trades, and the majority of them are all good, honest, hard-working people. That being said, here are a few ways that you can protect yourself from scam artists.

If you are hiring a contractor there are a few things you can ask for: a business license is an obvious start. In Okotoks, the town has just requested that all of our employees keep copies in their vehicles. WCB coverage, so they cannot go after you if they are injured on the job in your house. Insurance, so if something goes wrong and there is damage done to your house or worse, the contractor has insurance to cover your repairs/losses.  

Those are the important 3; you can also request their Alberta Business License. A company cannot legally ask for a deposit unless it has a "Prepaid Contractor License", it will say "Prepaid Contractor" right on the Alberta license certificate itself. Another thing to check for is if they have a G.S.T. number. Another way that may sound strange is to check their advertisements. If they advertise in newspapers or radio or other relatively expensive mediums, then they have invested money into the community and plan on staying around long enough to get a return on that investment.

Lots of little ways to try and protect yourself.