Aprilaire 6303 CP/Braeburn thermostat

[Zyp]

ROFL

[Zyp]

Or the first series of S86A intermittent pilot boxes. Man we went though a crap load of those Honeywell boxes. Oh the 80's those were the days... LOL

Broken T8600's doors, with digital readouts you couldn't read.... you gotta love Honeywell. They're almost as bad as CARRIER... with their "fix it kits" to fix "fix it kits." ROFLMAO

[dcaster]

I did not say anything about hiring a hack. What I said is that I would hire someone like GeothermalJones who seems to be intelligent and helpful, rather that someone like Bubba, who seems to be mostly interested in how much money he can get. Bubba may be just as competent and just as fair in his pricing, but he does not project the feeling that he is trying to give the customer the best value.

My wife did the books for a builder, Walt Johnson. He was not the cheapest builder, in fact he was known as being a bit more expensive than most builders. But he worked with his clients and all his clients were glad they hired Walt because they got what they paid for and had a minimum of hassles. If you decided you wanted a larger room, he would let you know about what it would cost, and if you still wanted it, you would get your bigger room. You would not get any comments on how dumb the change was, or how much labor and material was lost because the decision was made after the house was started. If there was a way that some material could be reused so that the customer saved some money, Walt would explain what could be done. Most of the houses he built were billed on time and material. Often he would be able to come in a bit lower on changes than the price he told people.

Walt was very successful. When he started working, he worked in a body shop. Then he owed a body shop. Then three body shops. Then he built houses. Retired when he was about 45 and restored old cars for people.

And so you run into a lot of situations where low bidders did a poor job, and you run into home owners that did stupid things. So what. That is all stuff already done. So why whine about it? Why not explain what needs to be done now and get an agreement with the customer on what is to be done. Make the customer feel like he now has someone working to help the customer. Don't make the customer feel like you are like the last guy that screwed things up.

Dan

=20 Dan

[Bubba]

Dan, It works like this: I dont solicite business from the internet, especially a newsgroup. I have never claimed nor ever will claim to be the cheapest. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard a customer tell me or someone I know that I am expensive or too expensive. I dont care. Its the quality they always come back for. Ive had two customers like that just this past week. They hired the cheap hack, thought they were getting a deal and wound up calling me back. I do it right and I do it right the first time. It doesnt take me 5 calls to fix a problem. For someone that is competent in this business (it aint rocket science) it is a piece of cake but it does take someone that knows what they are doing. Im fair but Im not cheap. I do this for a living. I dont do this because I want to see how long I can work everyday and weekend for free. By the way, Im not looking for you as a customer either so............... Bite me! :-) Bubba

[dcaster]

I agree that the internet is a poor place for HVAC people to solicit business. The number of people that frequent this group and live in your area are probably very few. And I don't believe in being the cheapest either. As I said Walt was not the cheapest. I also believe in being fair to the customer. So we agree on the major things.

Just do not believe in making rude comments to people that ask for advice. They are already in pain from something going wrong.

Your response was excellent right up to the " bite me ". If I were in your area, I would look you up. You are probably better in person than the impression I get over the internet.

Dan

[Bubba]

Dan, Internet is a "play" area. Dont get so serious in here. You need to have a thick skin, especially in alt.hvac. Thats just the way it is. HVAC is a brutal world. There are plenty of stuipd, mean and ridiculous customers out there. You just play it like a game. Do the best job you possibly can and dont try to think that you can make everyone, everywhere happy all the time. It just doesnt happen. Now, like I said......... "Bite Me!" :-) ( you do see the little smiley, dont you?

[dcaster]

You need to

My skin is fairly thick and I was prepared for a much nastier reply than what you sent. I have a reasonable feel for the internet and use groups , but admit alt.hvac does require a bit thicker skin than most groups. My first contact with the internet was before there were browsers when I had a Radio Shack Color Computer and a 300 baud acoustic modem. I am old old old. Dan

[Steve]

You need to

My skin is fairly thick and I was prepared for a much nastier reply than what you sent. I have a reasonable feel for the internet and use groups , but admit alt.hvac does require a bit thicker skin than most groups. My first contact with the internet was before there were browsers when I had a Radio Shack Color Computer and a 300 baud acoustic modem. I am old old old.

-----------------------------------

My first contact with the internet was in 1973 when I was in high school... the school had a Model 28 TTY terminal that was connected by direct land line to the mainframe at Stanford University. My first encounter with digital language was Morse Code when I got my HAM license the first time.

[ftwhd]

BFD. I have an etcha sketch. I am ftwhd and I aapprove this message

[dcaster]

So there are some other old guys here. My first contact with computers was in a college course in 1958. About the same time you were in high school, I was the lead engineer of the computer group at the Saturn 1b breadboard in Huntsville, Ala. But no internet connection until much later.

Dan

[Bubba]

Oh crap. Did you have to bring up that damn Engineer thing? :-) Bubba

[American Eagle]

Those guys in Huntsville were the biggest fuckups ever. It was a damned good thing they had main contractors to straighten them out. That Engineer should tell you who really put that thing together and it sure wasn't those clowns.

[dcaster]

I went to the S1b breadboard when GE won the contract. Spent the first month or so replacing muffin fans. Apparently with five people assigned to just the display system, no one did any maintenance.

Dan

[dcaster]

Sorry about that. I will try to not have it happen again.

Dan