Bait Coupons

After figuring out the problem lies with the RPM sensor, I still wasn't able to find it within the opener, as I was only looking on one side.

During that time, I found the Valpak coupons in the mail and among them I noticed this one:

From initial look, it has some good offers like "Free Service Call" and "$50 Off", so I thought why not calling them if that will help me solve the problem faster without wasting more time on it. And as expected that turned out to be another trap but luckily it has some good consequences. I called them and a technician came, this time was more professional and polite than the initial one. After looking at the door, he noticed it's unbalanced so his offer to fix the issue was to just do some "lubing and tuning" for $189! I mentioned to him about the RPM sensor and how I believe it's the real cause for the problem, but he didn't even seem to know about that sensor and insisted on just doing his adjustments, bragging about his 7 years experience and that manuals don't solve problems. I wasn't ready to get cheated again so initially I refused to take this and here he asked for a $49 service call!

That time I started to figure out the trap, looking at the coupon fine prints, you get the free service call only with a service, and in this case you don't qualify for the $50 off since you cannot use with another offer! Got it? So either I pay $189 for a lube and tune which is so expensive for that, and I was sure won't solve the problem, or I pay $49 for nothing. I didn't give up and started arguing and calling these numbers complaining about the bait and mentioning that his diagnostic is not going to solve the problem, I could hear him at that time talking to his boss on the phone saying "I like customers that think they know better than me"! I finally gave up, but the good thing after this fight, I got a word from them that for the $189 he will get it fixed, or at least I showed them that I won't be an easy victim.

He went on to do the lubing, which consist of spraying lubricant on the door rollers and hinges, then he adjusted the spring using a big iron bar. He got the door balanced in less than 10 minutes, which I could have probably done myself, but it's good to see it at least once. Also the spring tuning was a bit challenging and needs a special tool. I will post links for videos online showing how to do this. After that he went to adjust the opener force and time limit controls and thought that's going to get him the $189, but as expected that didn't work and the problem remained the same. He then removed the remaining of the opener cover (I had it already opened when he arrived, so no excuses) and kept looking inside with no clue, until finally he gave up. He was obviously embarrassed after this and spent some time thinking what to offer,  so he mentioned that the logic board needs to be changed which I can either wait for them to order and replace it for me or I can order it online and replace myself! It's nice when you get such suggestions from a service call, why am I calling them then? My concern was that they ask me to replace the whole opener similar to the previous one or pay $189 for the lubing and tuning, but I guess, feeling the embarrassment, he just asked for the $49 service call and told me that at least I got my door balanced, which I thought was fair. He also gave some good suggestions for what lubricant to use and doing it every 6 months. I finally wanted him to show me where's this RPM sensor (which was my main goal for this service call anyway), but he didn't have a clue, so he just told me to search online :)

Overall I was happy with this service, better than the first guy, at least getting the door balanced, but the real surprise came after he left, when I finally found what I was looking for. Since he removed the opener side nails and cover, I was able to spot the interrupter cup and RPM sensor inside and proceed with the solution.