Bah!
Re: Number 10.
I had a new furnace and water heater put into my house on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving morning, about 12 hours into the new furnace's life, no heat.
I called the vendor and told them I'd gotten it to work by fiddling with the electromechanical bits, but someone needed to come round and sort it out. They grumbled but said they'd send someone as soon as they could. I countered with another offer: since I could manually start the thing I was willing to wait until Friday so their staff could have their Thanksgiving dinner in peace, provided they were ready to start fixing it at 9am Friday. They agreed.
10:30 am Friday I called the vendor, and was connected with a disagreeable woman.
Me: My furnace isn't working. Where are the people who promised to come and fix it?
DW: Do you have a service contract with us?
Me No.
DW: Well, we don't service furnaces unless
Me: I have a furnace installed by your crack team which broke down less than a day after it was installed. I, out of the goodness of my heart, agreed to wait until today to get the thing properly installed. I expect someone around here before noon to do that.
DW: I don't think
Me: The work done by your company is under warranty. The furnace itself is under warranty. My wife works in an office with fifteen attorneys and we can get all the legal muscle we need for free as long as we need it.
I think it was the last one that swung the deal myself. I had this same chat every year for the duration of the warranty, until I got a young guy who simply disconnected the never-working but legally mandated electromechanical "damper" that went wrong every 12 months.
Now I have to reboot the furnace if we have a *really* bad windstorm while the furnace is idling (the CO monitor shuts it down because of backdraft) but at least it starts when the weather gets nippy without the need for a Brummy Screwdriver.