We got a phone call from a potential new customer. After a little info, we found that we had already been servicing their parents house for years. Even replaced the parents furnace, A/C coil, air cleaner, UV and water heater. We've been servicing the parents home twice a year for years and years. So the potential says, "Hey, we had a company come out, they had the booties, a small red carpet, they camera'd our heat exchanger and told us it was cracked, rusted, etc, etc and needed to be replaced. What they have is a older 100k btu 90% that would need to be replaced with a 60-75K 95% gas. This company tells them they will replace it with a
100k 95% gas furnace for.......................................... hang onto your hats now............... $8,000 !!!!!! Now this is replacing the furnace only. NO other accessories. Existing PVC, modify the supply to fit and reuse the return air. We gave them a price of $3500. Now they start to wonder so they start checking around. (They are living with their parents while they decide). They call a company that is huge and known for selling appliances. They have a kinda neat online site where you answer a few questions and you get a complete written estimate!! They haven't been out to look at anything. The customer keeps calling us back and saying, now I want to replace this, now I want to replace that. The company is including "this", does yours?" "Now it includes "this" too, does yours?". Finally the price is getting ridiculous and I go off on them. I tell them, "Here is what I do as you can check by asking your parents. We also advertise at the schools and churches. We support the local schools in our town by providing money and gifts for all their drives, outddor activities and anything else that goes on in this community. Does the company across the river you want to use do any of that? (No, they dont). Anyways, long story short, they are probably going with the other company because we wont give the job away for "free" and the husband has used that company at his office. (So did the parents at their house and we won them over). Anyways, thats life in the fast lane of the hvac world. Bubba- posted
16 years ago