Publication Date: Friday, May 28, 2004
ReaderWire
ReaderWire
(May 28, 2004)
Rebate ripoff?
The City of Palo Alto offers a rebate of $50 each for having one's central furnace and air conditioning system "tuned up." The Utility Department has a 15-point checklist for each system that the service provider must follow to qualify the resident for this rebate.
I recently called to have my two central systems tuned up. Here is what I discovered. The first company I called quoted a price of $109 and then asked for my zip code (94306).
Hearing this, the price changed to $218.
I was told that Palo Alto would rebate me $100 so my net price was $109. I asked for a quote for a residential property I have in San Jose. I was quoted a price of $109. I was assured that the same 15-point checklist would be followed in each case.
When I asked why the price in Palo Alto was double, the company hemmed and hawed and could not give me an answer. I then called several other companies. I was quoted prices ranging for $104 to $115 for the same 15-point tune up, for both properties.
Choosing the $104 offer, after receiving the $100 rebate, I will have paid a net of $4. Go figure.
Clearly the first company I called is taking unfair advantage of the Palo Alto rebate program. I have given the name of this company to the Utilities Department. To my fellow residents, please be aware, and check around.
Richard C. Placone
Chimalus Drive, Palo Alto
Calm reaction
We commend the police department and its staff for the calm, professional manner in which they handled the mountain lion on our streets (May 17).
Not one detail was amiss from the initial procedures to the follow-through. One child mauled would have been too many.
We are grateful.
Ellen & Tom Ehrlich
Walter Hays Drive, Palo Alto
Letter about love
I would like to challenge the readers to submit their favorite short definitions or sayings about love.
Here are several examples to get you warmed up:
Love is the saying of yes.
Love without service is no love at all, service without love is no service at all.
Love is not shooting a sleeping mountain lion out of his tree.
Love is using your brain and a tranquilizer dart to protect the neighborhood.
Ken Hahn
Weeks Street, East Palo Alto
Encounters on increase
Those who bleat about the mountain lion killing astonish me. They seem to place a greater value on the life of the lion than on that of fellow humans.
Wildlife experts said that no amount of tranquilizers could have guaranteed that the lion wouldn't have been able to race off and endanger anyone in the area for up to 30 minutes or so (and if they couldn't find him, he might have fully recovered and kept on prowling).
Indeed, even after being mortally shot it leaped from the tree and went into the next yard.
Thanks to the law passed about a dozen years ago prohibiting hunting them, the lion population has ballooned to about 6,000 statewide. Among the consequences, they are decimating desert sheep in the Mojave.
Human encounters are bound to increase.
Thomas Letchfield
Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto
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