In the 1980s a major manufacturer began to promote to its dealers a unique sales technique – have service technicians sell replacements. The rationale was that a service technician had the inherent trust of the consumer. If a repair was needed a service technician had ability to take advantage of that trust and offer to install a replacement system. This provided an immediate solution to an immediate problem that would lock out any competition, result in a much higher than normal selling price and much higher profits. Because companies make more money, a lot more in fact, selling you a new system rather than fixing the one you own this approach was widely adopted over the next couple of decades. To generate even more sales and profits many companies today apply a lot of pressure to service technicians to sell even more. Several local companies’ guidelines state specifically that a consumer is to be advised to replace their furnace if a repair, even a minor one, is needed whenever a furnace or air conditioner is over 10 years old. They set goals for their service technicians to turn at least 1 in 10 service calls into sales leads and pay them a commission when a unit is sold. Service technicians can also get caught up in the quest for more money, with some diagnosing problems that may not actually exist just to earn a commission. This is how “cat toys in furnaces” and “chipmunks with attitudes and power drills” became major problems.