A Service Roundtable post - Doesn't it make you want to cry...Our trade is rapidly becoming like the auto repair industry was in the 80's and we need to improve.

Our industry is fragmented from lack of regulation. Every state is different and California, while not bad compared to some others, has a lot of room for improvement.

The article below was written in response to an email thread on Service Roundtable (www.serviceroundtable.com), a membership group I belong and contribute to, by a member in northern California. I wanted to share with you this members experience so you can gasp with me! Robert Conner is a very good guy who runs his company with high standards and his technicians are truly a group of well certified, experienced people. I have spoken with him twice before by phone to discuss things about his operation.

I hope you small tonnage HVAC folks aspire to be much more than these salesmen are projecting for their companies. None of us are perfect, but I am sharing a story I hear all too frequently.

Items where the contractors "missed the mark" are in red...

I wanted to see how my competition approaches the customer.

So I just finished up with the 5th HVAC contractor at a friend's rental house. He purchased it 2 years ago. None of the contractors know me personally and I knew none of them. I only knew the company names and have never met any of them.

What I did was call each from the house phone there and set up an appointment for a furnace and A/C replacement estimate or see if they could be repaired. I told all of them up front that I was getting other quotes and would make a decision near the end of April. That I will return their calls if they propose anything and tell them I have made other arraignments).

I told each one of them that I had just purchased the house as a foreclosure and was going to renovate it and turn it into a rental, and when I tried to operate the furnace it only runs a short time and shuts off, and the A/C doesn't even come on.

The house is a small 1080 square foot single story with dual pane vinyl windows, 3" of insulation in attic, a concrete floor with carpeting, and no insulation in the walls, no western windows. The system that is in the house now (remember I am looking for suggestions on replace vs. repair) is a 5 year old Carrier 80% variable speed 2-stage furnace 60,000btus and a 13 seer 3-ton A/C with R-22. The furnace is located in a closet with a condensate pump. Non programmable thermostat. Attic ductwork is unsealed with the glass fallen off of it. Nothing is wrong with the equipment operation, but just in case anyone wanted to check it out, I installed a completely plugged pleated air filter in the furnace, closed all the supply registers in the rooms, and turned off the breaker to the condensing unit.

All five of them told me the system needs to be replaced because it was in-efficient and old, and between 8 and 15 years of age.

Three of them asked me the square footage of the house. None of them did a load calc even though the office of two of them bragged about how much better they are than anyone else, and the person coming out would measure the house and do a calc. Two of them recommended a 3 ton system, one a 2.5 ton system, and the other two a 2 ton system.

None of them recommended replacing the lineset "since it is copper." ???

None of them included replacing the thermostat or the condensate pump. Maybe they figured they were newer than the equipment.

I told all of them that Fairview Air had been there and went into the attic to check the condition of the ductwork but hadn't told me anything, and none of them offered to go up and look! None of the five companies bothered, although one did recommend a second return grill to be cut into the adjacent wall, so I could "double the air flow".

Between the five of them, they all recommended four different brands of equipment and "their brand" was the "best equipment with the longest warranty". Labor warranties given were 1 to 2 years from all. Only one mentioned maintenance agreements, but did not include it.

Only one of them included city building permits (required by state law). Only two of them where going to seal up the duct work (also required by state law in our climate zone).

At least two were franchise companies, one was rated in the "top 500 of HVAC companies worldwide", he showed me a AirTime 500 certificate briefly from his franchise.

Total prices given had a range of OVER 300 PERCENT with the lowest being the guy that showed up with his shirt untucked and holes in his pants and only listed on his proposal a furnace, a boxed coil, and 3 ton A/C unit.

Out of all of them the AT500 gentlemen was the most impressive, was only one of three that had driven a marked truck, and I liked how their office answered the phone and also called to remind me of the appointment (on the answering machine I placed at the house).

If I were to give a quote on this job from our flat rate book, I would have been the 2nd highest price out of us six contractors.


Robert Conner
President

100-A Brownstone Road, Oakley, CA 94561
Lic # 533790 C-20
Ph. 925-625-4963 Fax. 925-625-7816

See our web site for money saving coupons!

www.fairviewair.com
robertc@fairviewair.com

Voted Best Heating & Cooling Contractor in Brentwood 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 
and in Oakley 2008, 2009, 2010

NATE. Certified Technicians and Installers

Truly a Higher Standard


Comments please...