hvac technician

warehouse associate

customer service representative

junior maintenance technician

facilities associate

Action-Furnace

This company does it's best to hide their faces behind a sheet of paper that says "very important company beliefs and values", but it's really just a bunch of scrambling people who barely make up a functioning business.

There are constant work flow changes for "in office" CSR staff, ones that the progenitors of said changes can't even keep up with, and the managers do nothing but place blame on their humble CSR staff rather than reflect on their own poor management shortcomings.

As an Action Furnace CSR, you are expected to read from a 2-3 page script (PER DEPARTMENT, as in, there are in excess approximately 6-7 scripts that all have 2-3 pages EACH for different customer requests), and eventually you are expected to PERFECTLY memorize each script, on top of every and all nuances, including pricing for every single service, knowledge on every single service, basic understandings of how our services and products work (and there's a lot), as well as a thousand other things that are completely impossible to know, with very little access to any kind of documentation or "cheat sheet", because the "cheat sheet" is either constantly changing, or not good enough. If you deviate from the script in any way, you get in trouble.

Every other department other than the CSR office and the technician departments are understaffed, so CSR's are expected to know their department (which is basically everything except accounting, and technician training), and everyone else's department because they can't be bothered to hire more accountants, and more install coordinators to handle their departments. They also refuse to separate the departments to ease the workload burden of their current CSR's, and instead opt for just hiring more of them, rather than making service its own department, maintenance it's own department, and everything else into it's own department so that CSR's aren't barraged with so much information they can't keep up.

The changes in this company are night and day, hot and cold, ketchup and mustard. When you're hired you're told that you need to be able to keep up with on the fly changes, but there are so many changes that are the complete opposite from how you are trained, that you're going to make mistakes, and then they'll tell you that you need more training to be better. Which is fair, but is a completely arbitrary way to do it. They're wasting their own resources, and making every one else insane. I've gotten whiplash from how fast they go back on a decision.

Tenure means more to them than mistakes and customer treatment. There are employees who regularly engage negatively with customers over the phone, and who make just as many mistakes as the rest of the staff who are over looked because they've been with the company for over half a decade. "Yeah, we sure do care about our customers to the point where we'll hire other companies to train our CSR staff to treat our customers the best, but rather than put the focus on ourselves and fix our problems, we'll just blame our CSR's for them, and then give a promotion to the ones who abuse our customers the best!" What a way to run a business, seriously.

Being an honor student isn't what they want to see, and is too exhausting to keep up with this company. You will try your hardest, and be told by your manager that you're doing amazing, and then they'll turn around and tell you that you're the "best" at doing the worst. You could out shine the rest of the CSR staff, but if you fail in 1 single area, you're just as average as the rest of them.

By the end of it, I was so mentally checked out of this job, I couldn't even remember why I was so excited to start working there in the first place.


TL;DR - The company likes to pretend it's up to date on all modern ways to approach customer service when we literally just read off a script someone else wrote and hide behind higher management when a customer is mad, management constantly sets everyone else up to fail with mistake-driven focus rather than self reflection on their own methods and standards, puts impossible standards on it's CSR staff, offers no individual praise only company/department wide ("wow, all the CSR's did so great last week"), constant barrage of "you made mistakes". It's a small company trying to be a big company, and it's killing itself (and it's employee moral) in the process. Everything is a mistake, even if it's not affected by payroll, batching invoices, or reporting. I wish I'd never taken this job.

PROS:
- KPI incentives implemented due to work from home initiative, which include regular monthly bonuses if within a certain threshold

- Other random "bonus" incentives received on birthdays, christmas, etc

- Once a year team building events, free food and free activities

- Once or twice a year company "hangouts", free food and free activities

- Free friday lunches (precovid)

- Free coffee (precovid)

- Free snacks (occasionally, and also precovid)

CONS:
- No PTO and penalized/guilt tripped when time off is taken

- Vacation time is doled out on each cheque, instead of stored by the company to be used by employee at a later date to ensure employee has paid vacation (future job listings may state "paid vacation" but it's only paid if you can afford to save it)

- Policy unevenly distributed across departments, what one department get's away with, another get's penalized for
- Inappropriate task delegation between employees and management. CSR's often pushed back against from management to deal with an issue that should be dealt with by management

- Incompetent management, management team seems to only be around to make money and attend meetings, often asks questions about tasks given to them by their team instead of reading and informing themselves of said task that was given to them

- No promotion/raise opportunities. Management says they've given raises. What they mean is that the company has given raises to some people, just not to you. Management makes no opportunities to meet with you on a regular basis to discuss the potential of a raise.

- KPI program is built upon an expectation of perfection. Company does not allow for ANY mistakes within the KPI program, or else your integrity, commitment to the company, and your work ethic is called into question. You will be told you need more training if something happens even once, and brought back into the office for said training.

- Product training is not provided in a timely fashion, and also does not address the basic things required to help CSR's do their job, which includes troubleshooting with customers when equipment is not working. How are CSR's to troubleshoot when they don't know how an AC works.

- Mandatory 6-8 hour weekend shifts which mean a 6 day work week and mandatory overtime due to management oversite. Management was unable to hire weekend CSR's in time, told current CSR's we'd be doing weekends temporarily. That was in 2020. We're still forced to do mandatory weekends, but as of May 2022, we were provided a day in lieu of this.

- Management asks for feedback through various anonymous surveys. Doesn't address criticism presented in surveys.

- Management introduced 90 day check ins, and then immediately forgot about them after the 1st one.

- Very little opportunity to move up in the company. Company would rather hire externally than verify if their current employees would be suited for a role, or see if their current employees would be interested in a new role.

- Management advised that employees would be able to work from home and that we would not be coming back into the office. Recently advised that certain office staff would be returning to the office permanently with no hybrid schedule, with no real reason given other than "because we said so".

-Management is unable to practice the problem solving skills they demand their CSR's have to adopt different strategies for the CSR's who are struggling under their care, and instead move straight to punishment and lay offs, rather than developing a solution to accommodate the different psychological and mental needs of their staff.

- The only reason their staff isn't leaving in droves is because this company will start you out at a salary most other companies can't match. However there is no room for advancement as their is a tight monopoly on management, the positions the company does create are given to employees hired externally before considering employees already employed.

Some of the good points about Action Furnace include: a "Fun and Casual" culture/environment, "Free Friday Lunches" on the last Friday of each month, 2 staff parties a year plus quarterly department events on the "off-quarters" to assist in team-building/cohesion, and skill development and advancement depending on where you start within the company. Also, many employees have been with the company for many years so can provide insight into the way things are.

There were quite a few things that didn't suit me personally.  There were many processes that needed to be streamlined/written down and properly communicated to ensure all parties know what they are. 
Communication across the company required improvement - various people didn't know what any given process was which makes it difficult to complete tasks.  
There was a focus on "Right person for the right role" - the right person might be hired for the position and not properly utilized.  In other cases, the right person might not be properly supported within their role.
Bereavement leave was unpaid, adding to the stress of a death(s) in the family.
Occasional errors happen at all levels of a company, and it's how one learns.  I didn't feel that everyone was set up for success from the get-go - instead there were complaints about them after the fact.
The Work from home policy was difficult to have them adhere to.  Some positions are unable to due to the nature of the job, but other positions can work remotely if required.

The most disappointing aspect of the position for me was the lack of skill-set development or advancement.  I never felt like I was being utilized fully, and spent a lot of time trying to find stuff to do.  As well, I found myself being asked for my opinion, and felt that it wasn't respected or utilized with the good intent with which it was offered.


I worked at Action Furnace for about a month and wanted to share my experience.

Training was honestly one of the harder parts for me. My trainer came off pretty intimidating, and there were a few times he told me I wasn’t being attentive and reported me to manager lead trainer or was on my phone, which I didn’t feel was accurate. From my perspective, I was focused on learning and getting the work done. At the same time, there were situations where I was doing most of the job myself while he was on his phone or waiting in the van.

It actually got a bit awkward because a couple of customers pointed it out, saying if two workers show up, they expect both to be working—not one doing everything while the other sits back. That kind of situation made the experience uncomfortable.

The schedule is also something to consider. The pay is piece rate OT is not paid after 5 months of probation.The 6 days on 1 day off 4 days on 3 days off rotation with 8–12 hour shifts felt pre try heavy, especially since the pay is piece rate. For me, it didn’t feel like a great balance between effort and pay. If you are good at sales and a fast worker this job is for you.

I also noticed some favouritism on the lead trainer during training, which made things feel a bit inconsistent depending on who you were working with.

That said, the company does seem to invest in new employees and has a solid system in place. I think with more better balance in workload, it could be a better experience overall. Just depends on the person who has a work ethic aligned to this type of field then it is a good fit for them 
Just my honest personal experience.

I came from a “bulletproof” union job, I moved into action furnace with the hopes of better career advancement, and learning some useful trade skills. Action furnace went above and beyond for me. They have sent me to school, done paid training. they have actively taken an interest in my career path and skill acquisition. This company has a true commitment to teaching and learning. They aren’t just words that are said they prove it in their actions. This being said this is not a punch the clock and do the bare minimum, job.  you will need to be skilled, you need to be driven, and you need to be positive as you deal with different people, and personality types daily.  If you are a go getter, who likes making money and providing service to people this is the job for you, it will build on skills you have and just make you a more complete person. it will Challenge you, but also support you in your growth and ambitions. 

If this is what you’re looking for join the team yesterday. 

I've been with Action Furnace for about five months now, and it's been a great experience so far. Coming in as a Senior Accountant, I was looking for a place that values both people and performance — and I’ve definitely found that here.

From day one, the team has been welcoming and supportive. There’s a strong sense of teamwork — people help each other out, share knowledge, and genuinely want everyone to succeed. I’ve learned a lot in a short amount of time, and I’ve also had the chance to share what I know, which makes the work feel more meaningful.

There’s a real openness to change. Whether it’s improving processes or adopting new tools, the team embraces innovation instead of resisting it, which keeps things fresh and moving forward.

Leadership is approachable and encourages continuous learning and growth, which makes it a great environment for anyone who wants to develop professionally. Overall, it feels like I’m part of something that’s not just about business — it’s about building something solid with good people.

I started this job after working at a few other HVAC companies and this has by far been my favorite one to work for. There have been multiple experiences to move up and get wage increases over my time since I started as well. Management does do its best to help with issues, it is not always rectified but they do listen as best they can and try to make it so you are happier in the long run. The people at work are phenomenal, to work with and interact with daily.

The one issue I would have is that a lot of stuff gets dumped on my department and processes are constantly changed and the field supervisors don't always treat us with respect when we work hard everyday to keep things running and it seems like we are the bottom of the food chain. 
We also are one of the only departments that do not get work from home options anymore (office staff), whereas everyone else does. 

As with any job there are pros and cons but overall, this is an amazing company though and 100% recommend to anyone to work at! The pros FAR outweigh the cons 

A typical day of work for me is I come to the shop pick up supplies that I will need for the day. I drive to the customer house and get the work done that Im there to do. What I believe I learned is how to talk to customers in a proper and mannerly way and fashion to ensure best customer service. As well as to problem solve and ask for help when needed. Management is great as they have helped me when I have needed it at a customer home or even at home. They have pushed me to do better as a person. The workplace culture is great as we have 4 motos that we follow. The hardest part of the job is when I mess something up while I’m working and it just makes me worry of what the customer might say to me or get angry with me or maybe management team but the recall I had management team talked to me and supported me threw the mess up and supported me and I never made that mistake again. The most enjoyable part of the job is getting to interact with all the customers we visit as well as always new opportunities to work on new furnaces always learning something new.

Action Furnace is an incredible workplace with great culture, fair wages and an attitude of always improving and changing for the better.

The ownership group at Action Furnace have an incredible commitment to the happiness and growth of the employees.  From a variety of team building activities throughout the year to continuous paid training and development the company commitment to excellence shows in their investment in building an incredible team of employees.

The work / life balance is strong.  As in many companies, the expectation of excellence is a continual focus and on occasion that means longer hours so that the customer base is serviced at high levels.  This however is balanced by flexibility when needed as families and personal priorities are always expected to be the most important.

Days are always interesting as we are often met with new and different challenges every day.  It is a very collaborative environment where no one is left to tackle tough challenges on their own but where everyone is empowered to do right by customers.



I worked at Action Furnace from 2018 to 2025 and had an overall great experience. The company culture was a big highlight for me — I genuinely enjoyed the people I worked with, and the team made coming to work every day enjoyable. There was a strong sense of teamwork and support, which made even busy days feel manageable.
The job itself was simple in structure but still offered enough challenges to keep it interesting and fulfilling. It was the kind of role where you could feel accomplished at the end of the day while continuing to build skills and confidence.

I decided to move on because I was ready to try something new and continue growing in my career. While compensation could have been more competitive, the positive environment and great coworkers made my time there very rewarding. Overall, I’m grateful for my years at Action Furnace and would recommend it to anyone looking for a supportive and engaging workplace.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Hvac technician 10 salaries reported	$63,000 per year
Warehouse associate 6 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$24.67 per hour
Junior maintenance technician 1 salary reported	$70,000 per year
Facilities associate 4 salaries reported	$22.75 per hour

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