Our old thermostat recently bit the dust and would no longer stick to its programmed schedule or allow us to reprogram it. We got it through a pilot program with our utility and it was free and it was pretty good when it was working. But it was produced by GE and a couple of years ago, GE decided they were no longer going to update or support the app that they designed to go with the thermostat. It still worked fine but we couldn't use the app to change things, then this past winter, the programming function stopped completely. It wasn't bad during the winter when we could just set it manually and not worry about it but once spring rolled around the big swings in the temps meant we were always getting up to turn on the furnace or turn off the furnace or occasionally turn on the AC or when we would be away for a long time we'd come home to find our furnace had been running all day even though it was 75º outside.
I was just planning on removing the thermostat and putting the old one, that I never threw away, back on myself but on a whim I called our utility to complain about the thermostat they gave me... 5 or 6 years ago. To my surprise, they said they'd send me a $100 Visa card and give us a $100 credit on our account. Score!
I decided to put the money towards a new programmable Nest thermostat. I installed it Saturday, and after struggling to make all the wires flush enough with the wall that the faceplate would sit without continually popping off :-{ , everything seems to be working great!