Last Tuesday, the heater went out. Jake found AC Heating & Air in the Yellow Pages and we hoped their "30 years of experience" would mean a quick thaw for our noses and toes. Danny (name changed to protect the.... "innocent") said he could come that night and despite the nagging feeling I had about the guy, I was grateful we'd have heat again before our guests came for Thanksgiving the next day. Well, Danny and his 5'5" 210 lb. self showed up in black jeans and black cowboy boots with his chest hair exposed, thanks to his half-buttoned white shirt and he reeked like cigarette smoke. I had to hold my breath as he shook my hand and that nagging feeling popped up again but still, I was grateful he came on such short notice. Danny explained that we didn't need a new heater (whew!) but we did need to replace some sort of box which could only be ordered out of Sunnyvale or Benecia (he wasn't sure which city). Jake asked how much this box would cost and after thinking for a minute, Danny pulled the number $375 out of his you-know-what. As Jenna would say, "Oh, maaaan." He said he'd try to get the part the next day and left without charging us a service fee. I tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, especially after he didn't charge us, but there was still something shady about him. At about 8:30pm, Danny called us and magically got the part we needed and Jake told him to come back over. While he was in route, Jake thought to look the part up online. No sooner had he done so than Danny knocked on the door. He explained that the part wasn't exactly the same, and he'd have to rig some wires to make it work, but it would get us heat. Jake asked again how much it was going to cost and Danny said $375 for the part and $95 for labor. Then Jake said, "Well, I just found the part online for $95." Danny got very defensive and said, "You wanna do this yourself then?" To which Jake replied, "Yeah. If it's going to save me $375!" This whole time, I was eavesdropping from another room rooting for Jake, who totally impressed me with his quick thinking. Danny asked for $45 for the service call, had a hard time knowing who we should write the check out to and then left without another word. I think he was ticked that his plan to dupe us failed and embarrassed because we figured him out. I guess their 30 years of experience is in the business of scamming people. Meanwhile, thank goodness for unseasonably warm weather.... and Febreeze.