Alpine Access jobs is one that I know is legit. Do a google.com search for it.

When I read the first paragraph about the heat exchanger crack, I thought this was going to be the classic scare tactic for replacing a furnace. You could have a small crack, but it seems the tech was not concerned about it. It is difficult to say what happened with the wire. The description of events sounds like the setting for a scam. But the strange thing is he only charged $50 to return to your house. You are not going to get any HVAC tech to come to your house to do a repair for $50. I think one of the wires on the control board either broke of became disconnected while he was inspecting your furnace. The wires are very thin and held by a screw. It is possible if you brush up against one of them then could become loose or break. The wires usually are longer than they need to be, so it is easy to either reattach it, or cut off the broken piece, strip back the insulation and reattach it to the screw. It is takes a minute once you figure out the problem. I have no idea why he would write down 1.5 hours. Maybe he did not want go get in trouble with his boss for causing the problem in the first place. You could have insisted he caused the problem, but it is difficult to prove. You are fortunate he only asked for $50. Things like this happen, but his big mistake was not verifying the furnace was working before he left your house. For this reason I would have second thoughts about using him again.

There are two ways to make (or lose) money in real estate - equity and cashflow. Equity in this market won't just happen on its own in most market, you have to buy VERY low, and probably have to put some elbow grease in. These shows, I watch them and see these tight profit margins that are tight even if everything goes perfectly (making 10% on a %900,000 house in L.A., come on, one false move and you lose 200 grand!) and you haven't even paid the realtor yet! You have to buy at a pretty steep discount, generally 30% or more (which means foreclosures and distressed properties for the most part unless you get lucky), and whatever you estimate as the repair cost, double it. Cash flow from renting the house out is different...but also requires either a BIG down payment or again, a steep discount. Take whatever you can realistically rent that house for, and multiply by 55%. If the principal plus interest of your proposed mortgage payment is over that number, YOU WILL LOSE MONEY.

OK, not 15 minutes after my original post, I was FINALLY able to get through to the Singer Consumer Affairs desk. The district manager of the store that hosted the sale had emailed Singer about my situation. As a result, a Singer Consumer Affairs rep had called me twice this week. I was unavailable both times, but have spent hours today trying to return the calls. The Singer rep listened to my story, and said it lined up with the email she had received from the store district manager. She told me it was not a scam, that Singer wanted to make things right and that she had permission from her manager to offer me an upgraded machine (a CG 550). I was a little leery of her offer ---- after all, I know nothing about sewing machines. (We may as well be dealing in airplane parts here!) She led me to their website and to the photo and specs on the CG 550. She seemed sincere in saying it was a true upgrade and not "a pig in a poke." All I need to do is fax her my receipt and she will mail me a label to slap on that old machine for return. The new machine will be sent to me next week. Since there was no hope of a refund, I took her offer. I hope this ends this little chapter in my sew-sew life. But I still stand by my recommendation to avoid this kind of too-good-to-be-true purchase.