How a request becomes a phone call, and who pays whom
HVACMatch is a referral service. We are not a heating and cooling company, we employ no technicians, and we do not do or answer for any work. We write about heating and cooling costs, permits and licensing, and we pass your request to an independent company that has agreed to receive it. This page says what happens to the request and where the money comes from.
What happens when you send a request
- 01You give us the job, your ZIP code and a way to reach you.We keep the request, the time, your IP address and the exact consent wording you agreed to, which is our record of what you asked for and what you said yes to.
- 02We send it to one independent company that serves your ZIP.That may be a company we deal with directly, or a referral partner that places requests with the companies it works with. The consent line on the form says a referral partner may act for the company. Either way the request goes to a single company.
- 03The company contacts you.You agree the work and the price with it. HVACMatch is not part of that agreement, and the company answers for the work.
- 04If nobody contacts you, no company took the request.That can happen on an unusual job or in a ZIP code few companies cover. Treat the request as unmatched, and use your state's licensing lookup or your city's permit office to find a contractor yourself.
Why only one company gets your number
A furnace that quit in January is not a reason to field six calls. One company gets the request, so you get one voice on the phone and one quote to weigh. If that company cannot take the job, nobody else will call, and you are free to phone anyone you like.
How we are paid
The heating and cooling company, or the referral partner acting for it, pays us for each request it receives. You never pay us. The fee does not depend on whether you hire the company, and we take no share of the job.
Being paid per request gives us a reason to make requests easy to send, and we push against that in the writing: every service page says what to check first, and where a problem needs no technician at all, such as a filter or a tripped breaker, it says so before it shows the form. Payment never changes what a page recommends, and the companies that pay us do not see a page before it is published.
What we check, and what we leave to you
Two things you can rely on us for, and two we leave to you.
- Every code, permit and licensing statement on the site links to the statute, rule or government page it came from, and a fact we cannot source is left out. Where we could not read a source on its own page, the sentence says so and tells you whom to ask.
- Cost figures are labelled as estimates and say how they were built.
- We do not inspect, rate or answer for any contractor's work, and we do not publish reviews of companies.
- We do not set or negotiate prices, and we cannot promise that a company will call or that one serves your address. Ask for the license number and check it with your state's licensing board.
Check the license yourself
Contractor licensing is set by each state, and the rules differ. Ask any company for its license number and check it with your state's licensing board; our state pages link the lookup and say where to complain if something goes wrong. Refrigerant work has a federal rule as well: EPA Section 608 requires technicians who service equipment that could release refrigerants to be certified.
What a referral cannot do
A referral does not tell you whether a quote is fair or whether the equipment is the right size, and this site cannot see inside your house. Furnace and air conditioner replacement often needs a permit, so ask your contractor whether yours does and who applies for it; your city or county permit office has the last word.
We are not a party to your agreement with a contractor, so complaints go to your state's licensing board or your state attorney general's consumer protection office. Our state pages give the routes.
Your information
Your request goes to the company described above and to the vendors that run our forms, hosting and call tracking. Depending on where you live, privacy laws let you ask what we hold and ask us to delete it, and the sharing that some laws treat as a sale can be switched off on the Do Not Sell or Share page. The privacy policy is the controlling document.
Who runs this
HVACMatch (hvacmatchusa.com) is operated under that name. Editorial questions, privacy requests and partner inquiries all go to support@hvacmatchusa.com, and the mailing address is on the contact page. Heating and cooling companies that want to receive requests can use the partner page.
- EPA: Section 608 Technician Certification Requirements Read Oct 19, 2026.