A New Water Softener? Don't Get Ripped Off!!!

I was called to McKinney Texas this week to do a maintenance check on a water softener.  When I arrived I saw a plumbing truck in front of the house.  It was a local company that I had seen not only in McKinney but also in Frisco Texas as well.  I knocked on the door of the home and the lady answered and asked me to wait until the plumber was done.  I thought that was strange and asked if I could look at the water softener while I waited to come in.  She said fine and told me where it was.  I went around to the side of the house and found a Reionator, it is made by Water Tech, has a Life Time Warranty on the tank, media and PC board.  I ran it through its different cycles and found it to work like it is supposed to.  No problems here.  The plumber left and I was invited in.  I checked the reverse osmosis system and it was fine, I also checked the water and it was soft.  I told the lady that everything was okay and there was really no need for me to come out until they knew for sure they had a problem.  She showed my the quote she received from this plumbing company, it was for more than $4,000.00.  The service man told her that her water softener was not working and that she needed a new one.  He said he pushed the button and nothing happened.  Well of course not, that will only make it regenerate that night, we all know that you must hold it for atleast 5 seconds or until it begins to regen.  None the less he either did not know what he was doing or was trying to rip her off.   Don't buy a new water softener unless the guy can prove that it cannot be fixed.  I have found that almost all water softeners can be fixed and have had one exception.  It was a culligan machine and only because they discontinued the parts so the customer would have had to buy a new one.  Other than that I have been able to repair all the ones I come across.  You can ask the next service guy some questions to see if he really knows what he is talking about.  Here are some questions and answers that may help you identify a rip off artist.
1. What is the difference between a clack and fleck valve? A; Fleck uses a teflon coated brass piston on most models and fleck uses a hard plastic piston
2. What is the raw water hardness?  A;He should have a test kit to ensure the softener is or is not working.
3.  Does my water softener have cation or anion exchange resin? A; Almost all residential water softeners use cation exchange resin, some may have a little anion exchange resin.
4. Ask him to explain what the ion exchange process is. A; simply put it is a matter of positive charged ions connecting to negative charged ions to remove hardness and get rid of it and recharge the media.
5. If you have a filter ask him what it is you are having filtered out.  He should ask specific questions to determine the kind of media you have or what you think you have that needs to be filtered out, IE, odor, chlorine; most common media is carbon, for iron most common is birm. 
If you aren't sure about this guy then call another company, but do some research first, there are so many people out there that will sell you a new water softener when there is no reason to buy one, just fix the one you have.  We ask you if you would like to buy a new one and we do give cash back towards a new one but we don't try and sell you a new one unless we can't fix what you have.  99.999999999% of the time we can fix what you have and so should they so don't get RIPPED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!