I left several messages on business sites.
Yesterday one of those businesses replies - received your message, someone will contact you shortly.
Really? First contact after two months?
Busy? At least an acknowledgement of my request two months ago would show courtesy.
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Bretrick, seems these companies are giving you the āColdā Shoulder.
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Oh very drollā¦ 
This will be my third summer coming up.
Has performed well. Just time for a full service Iām thinking.
Iāve been waiting to get my front gate fixed for more than three monthsā¦
Iām thinking of taking a course in iron masonry 
Most of those service agents simply take the cover(s) off and give it all a good blow-through while brushing to remove dust and fluff etc. With care, you could undertake this task yourself. If its thermostatically controlled, they might also check its operating range, but very little else. Of course, they could pull a fast one and advise a motor bearing is on its last legs then charge you a fortune. They wouldnāt do that, would theyš
I contact my local council if i need something doing,they have a good list of companies that are trust worthy and professionalā¦
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We need more folks taking on trades as a choice for education instead of college. The opportunities are abundant, arenāt they!
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Wow, a future iron mason? I can already picture you crafting something strong and beautiful, just like you. Maybe you can build me a gate too? 
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There is a problem there as I see it. A shortish time training and then the trainee is let loose complete with a certificate of so-called competence. There was a time when apprentices served at least 5yrs in training and accompanying a journeyman, but these days the bods at the top are all about speedily ticking boxes and never mind some of the disastrous consequences.
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That it a very keen observation, LD. Most students here come out of certification programs in less than two years and are put out in the workplace without restrictions on the number of years they are under someoneās wing for on-the-job training before being cut loose. My son was one of them.
While working on his college degree, he concurrently earned an HVAC certificate. He sailed through he program, which was mostly book work, and was hired immediately. After little more than a week shadowing an experienced pro, he was sent out on calls alone. If he ran into difficulties, he was advised to call a supervisor, send pictures, or even check out Youtube videos!
As a conscientious kid, it really bothered my son that he might not do a top-notch job, so he broke rules by giving customers his cell phone number to call him if there were any lingering problems. He said that he felt like he was learning through his mistakes instead of by example - which was not what customers were paying for. He was missing out on many tricks of the trade that old-timers know well. I remember one night, he started thinking about the job he had done that day and raced over the first thing the next morning to correct something he thought he had mistakenly done. That is no way to treat apprentices or customers, and I think that lack of training is why there is so much turnover in the early years of being a tradesman these days.
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Sometime after gaining my masters degree, I did, for a short while of just one term, help out at my technical area college by taking some āstudentsā though evening classes two nights per week, and it was then that it hit me that most in that class were not only undereducated in the subject, they were also without any proper hands-on experience of what they could encounter in their field. Some did have a little, but without exception, none had experienced a system failure and how to go about in-depth fault finding to restore that system. After one term of trying to push theory into that class without much success, I withdrew from that college in despair and I also wrote to my professional body also without any success, so I guessed they were happy with the low standard of so-called passes.
You sound exactly like my sonās lead teacher. He was a hands-on guy who was frustrated with teaching the students the theory that would have been much more meaningful after a few years on the job. To bypass the lack of training, he would have the kids work at his HVAC business on Saturdays, but it wasnāt enough, so he too left the technical college after a couple of years of frustration.
Good for you for trying, LD. Every little bit helps.
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