From my days as a maintenance tech.:

Knock on the door: "Howdy, ma'am, what seems to be the problem?"
"My heat ain't working!"
It sure seemed cold in there, so I head on over to the furnace. The fan is up and running, so I know I've got power. What usually happens is one of the two 5kW heating coils would fail, and the tenant would never notice the difference. Then when the second one failed years later, suddenly there's a no-heat situation.

I open up the control panel and see if I have voltage across the heating coils. 241 V., check. That tells me my control circuits are up and running. I trip the breaker and ring out the coils, they both read a couple of ohms. Tells me my coils are good.

So, why in the world is it so cold in this house? I go and I look at the thermostat (I should have started there...) and find it set on 59 degrees.

"Ma'am. The reason it's so cold in here is that you have your thermostat set on 59."
She looks me dead in the eye: "So?!?"
Me: "...Uh, well, if you want it to be warmer than 59 degrees you have turn the thermostat up."
Tenant: "I shouldn't have to do that!(that part killed me)If I turn it up my light bill goes up to!"
Me: "Yes, ma'am, that's because this is an electric furnace..."
Tenant: "That's because this furnace is cheap! Ya'll can't give us nothing that works right."

Apparently the expensive furnaces actually produce heat without using power. Who knew one of the selling features was defying the laws of physics...? [Linked Image]

-John