My service people sure don’t have boats. They are worker bees employed by the company I buy my oil from and who I bought my boiler and burner from.
So you just let the guy in the garage and don’t ever question what he does? He could be having a cold brewski he pulled out of his toolbox instead of looking at your gas furnace insides! 
Sure, if you can be home and just want peace of mind because you are not super handy, $10/month seems fair enough.
Emily, I would not touch an oil burning furnace. Those things do need regular cleaning.
I may have the answer to the monitoring question. Hubby recently retired and spent his morning in the basement learning from the furnace man. Both men seemed pleased when they emerged - Hubby with what he’d learned and the HVAC employee with his teaching abilities and the interest he’d created. I was just pleased that the guy wasn’t irritated by the attention. (and I’m glad that I know they don’t charge by the hour for annual service calls.)
So, is this “service contract” thing a regional thing? Or do I not know about it because I have a forced hot air gas heater?
We’ve had 2 houses, our current one for 18 years. We’ve used 3 different companies over those 18 years, including the company that installed the system initially. None of them have tried to get us into a service contract. All would be happy to come out and do an inspection whenever you want to schedule one but nobody has tried to sign us up for ongoing maintenance. No one has said, “You know, you should be having this checked yearly.” We’ve had two issues in the 18 years plus some work done with some basement finishing/new ductwork/after construction cleaning. One many years ago when the heat/cooling wasn’t kicking on. Turned out to be dust on the thingie that reads the temp and kicks the unit on. Second just happened a few months ago. The control panel needed to be replaced. Husband replaces filters, etc. Totally cost for all repairs/service over 18 years has been <$1,200. 18 years in, I just want the unit to keep on working!
Around here, when you buy a new furnace or central A/C, the HVAC company usually offers you a service contract that includes an annual yearly tuneup/checkup and service. If you’ve bought your equipment through the people you get the contract with, it’s usually less for those annual tuneups. If you go to another company, they’ll usually charge you a bit more (maybe $10-$20). Regardless, if you don’t prove you’ve had an annual tuneup (receipts), they may void your warranty if something goes wrong. I think by buying both my furnace and A/C contract through the company who installed the equipment, it ran about $135/year which included checkup for both furnace (usually I’d schedule it in the fall) and A/C (usually schedule in the spring.
Also, as someone said upthread, if you’re a customer and have an annual contract with the HVAC company, you tend to move up higher on the priority list if something does go wrong.
Side effect of too much Kevin Hart : I thought the title of the thread was referring to something else, not real furnaces 
Lol
We use oil. Furnace is serviced annually. But it’s over 20 years old now…and we really didn’t start that until about 5 years ago.
Ugh, furnaces. Replaced ours two years ago. We get it serviced to maintain the warranty. Waste of money as they just do what we could easily do.
Having other issues going on right now too complicated to state. But to summarize, we had our previous furnace for 27 years with very little problems and no annual service call. And the old furnace was already here when we moved in. I don’t know how old it was then. Now, two years after we installed our new one there is already an issue, i.e. not turning on properly. I was told that these new furnaces are so efficient that they are very sensitive to everything.
One step forward and another step back!
Up north we had the furnace check/maintenance in the fall and the A/C unit in the spring. Cleaning the outside air conditioner unit, cleaning the humidifier, checking the thermostat, checking and cleaning the blower motor, electronic air filter (I did that one other times as well) area plus other stuff. Was $120 for two checks with a years’ service contract which gave discounts on parts plus labor after the warranty- it did not need to be original installer either. The same guy often came and they could explain things to the nosy homeowner and were helpful in deciding whether to repair/replace/ignore an “issue” that came up.
With our heat pump, A/C unit in Florida I get things checked once per year. Not 100%- maybe 90%- pleased with the cleaning done by the person who installed it (used person previous owners did)- the leaves that got into the outside unit’s unit weren’t all removed but feel worth making sure there are no leaks in the attic unit- a place I won’t spend the time on for fear of stepping through… Thought about changing until a local friend had a water leak not found by her company- mine seems knowledgeable about what counts, answered questions and had a good install. $70 here or sometimes less advertised. Our house came with 5 returns with filters in bedrooms and family room that I change less often than the product stated “every 3 months”- they don’t get that dirty. We are protecting our ductwork from stuff- including molds and such this climate has more of. Decided against a whole house filter system of any kind. Things are/were built differently here.
The pros in both places not only tested/checked things but cleaned as well.
TIP - CHECK TO SEE IF YOUR THERMOSTAT HAS A BATTERY.
When returning from vacation, we had a “battry low” message on our thermostat Of course our first step was to change the AA batteries, but that did not help. We had the house built in 1993, so I had the owner manual. Interestingly they gave a trick for reset by installing the battery “backward”. That did total reset, and then DH reprogrammed.
Imagine our shock when we noticed the label inside cover saying “install new batteries every fall”. We don’t recall doing it eer in the 23 year. But if we did, it must have been many years ago. In our case it was no big deal because it was summer and the manual says you have another month of battery life. However, if we were taking a long winter trip after retirement it might have been a problem.
2 days and the reset / new battery fix had held. Phew - DH was contemplating Nest thermostat, and I like to keep it low tech on this kind of thing.
Just made my appointment for the annual service…happening in October.
Going back to the OP’s question, our gas/electric provider will come for a no-charge safety check. Being in SoCal and close to the coast, we don’t have AC but do have two (rarely used) gas forced air heaters. They will also change filters if you have them available.
Maybe if you have HVAC in use all year, more maintenance is prudent. But there’s no reason not to take advantage of a service you’re already paying for.
Something makes me think that the $350 I pay each year for the service contract, which includes the annual cleaning of the oil burner, may be on the high side.
I never had the C/A serviced, other than replacing the air filters myself. Sadly, at 20 years old, the system on one floor now needs to be replaced. I don’t think a service contract would have helped me here, other than these two calls this summer before the diagnosis of the need to replace.
We paid $300 plus sales tax for our service contract this year, which also includes the annual cleaning of the oil burner. I fully expect it to be more expensive for next year.
Our service contract for forced hot air/oil burner in the Boston area is $225 per year. That includes one visit for preventative maintenance/tune up and priority on service if something breaks in the middle of the winter.
I need to move to wherever it is that you can get a $10 per month service contract that includes cleaning on the system. I have a multi unit system, and even if it was only one, it would be about $25 per month. We bought a new house 9 years ago, and the heating and A/C was installed by a company that went bankrupt afterwards. I think they must have bought “seconds” even though these are supposedly top name brand units. The high efficiency unit sucked in leaves and clogged any number of times. I know how to clean it out now, so I can avoid waiting for the guy every time it does that. The pump to pump out the condensate broke. The upstairs unit got clogged and leaked in year two (before we had it serviced annually). The AC goes on the fritz regularly. They can’t find the freon leak. I would find another company, but PSEG is much worse (due to my prior experience), and it is hard to find someone who will guarantee to come out and get your heat going again in a couple of hours. I am sure that whatever I save on my high efficiency machine is made up for in service fees. My neighbor replaced her AC this past summer (only 10 years old).
We used to service our units in our office, and they were the kind that broke down a lot. At one point they couldn’t even figure out why there was no heat, and the electrician had to fix some wire that the HVAC guy couldn’t pinpoint. Some years everything hummed along great, and others - awful, no heat for weeks. There were two units, so “luckily” they never both went out at the same time.
I had oil before this, and the cleaning was included in the contract at no additional fee. If you were a regular customer on automatic deliver they just come. I had two AC units there, never serviced either for about 10 years and never had a problem. Sigh.
My in laws never serviced their gas furnace or AC. FIL was a handy guy and would try to repair himself, but when it way beyond his capability he would call someone in. His house always felt too cold in winter and too hot in summer. The units worked poorly. And then there was the thing about adding water to the furnace periodically - that seemed quite off to me. There was baseboard heat. What would have happened it they didn’t add water? Explosion? We sold their house after they passed on. Lots of deferred maintenance there. One thing about the units, they were the originals, about 35 years old.
I pay $350/yr for oil/hot water system. This covers tune up/preventative maintenance once a year and no cost for any labor except for parts as needed at any time 24/7.
I don’t have to remember to schedule tune-up. I get a letter telling me when it will be and only need to call them to reschedule if date doesn’t work for me.
We’ve always lived in northern climes with oil furnaces. We’ve always had a service contract. Can’t imagine going without.