What nobody is telling these folks is that as a rule, there only needs to be
*ONE* licensed person in the company, and that shopping around for the lowest service call price will get you what you pay for. I could spend hours relating horror stories of the crap I have found, and messes I have had to straighten out..... after they got screwed by the cheapest service call price. Unfortunately, in this neck of the woods(rural south Mississippi), there is no code enforcement or license requirements outside of the city limits.... that is not a good thing.
Steve, Im afraid that morality crosses over all types of people whether the= y are licensed , not licensed, trade school graduate or not , or how much = money they have or dont ; it urks me when i see the HVAC Trade put on = a worse level than auto repair shops and the honest HVAC Techs need to exp= ose other fraudulent Techs and Owners .=20
I wonder if any of the folks actually did fork out the $800 to $900. I've never done that, but I guess some folks whimper, and pull out the check book and pay.
Really astounding, I think. In a bad way.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Steve, Im afraid that morality crosses over all types of people whether they are licensed , not licensed, trade school graduate or not , or how much money they have or dont ; it urks me when i see the HVAC Trade put on a worse level than auto repair shops and the honest HVAC Techs need to expose other fraudulent Techs and Owners .
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true that...
We have had scoundrels in the trade for a very long time. I was an apprentice (1967-1972). A guy in my class told me that his employer told him to take a hammer and a long screwdriver and knock a hole in the exchanger and sell him a new furnace. I went to work for a large utility company (taking care of their own buildings, not their customers) and I found a pebble in almost all the shraders through all their buildings. One day I received a call that a compressor was bad in one of their buildings. When I came down off the ladder I was asked, "how long till we get it running again?" "About 30 minutes" was my answer. It wasn't the compressor it was the contactor. I had one in my truck.
I'm retired now and live in a community of 53 homes, all manufactured, most with heat pumps. All these homes were built in 05-06. I moved in here in 09. Over the next 2 years, by the end of summer, 2011, at least 8 heat pumps had been replaced. I can't speak for any of them, I am truly retired and don't want any work but I think I mentioned this before, I did look at one when I heard the lady was living there without it for almost a year. I checked the serial number and this Trane unit was built in 1998. So where was it until 2005 when this house was built? It was flat. I have no tools so she called someone who took a 5 minute look-see and said, "$7500. you need a new unit". Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. A unit that old even though it's R-22, I find it difficult to believe it can't be repaired. I also checked around there's still plenty of 22 available. In my 40 years I never did anything dishonest. It just isn't in me. I worked union most of that time and during the 80s, we were only working 20 hours a week. Company didn't want to let anyone go but would do a layoff on request. So we took turns on the calls hoping something would break. John
It's too bad this sort of thing can't be kept out of the news. Do the sting to effect corrections but the public doesn't need to see this. Instead of laughing over some guy squirming away in his van, get the police involved and arrest for fraud. Maybe the dishonest will think about the next opportunity that comes their way. Plastering this all over the news hurts the honest guy and there's plenty of honest techs out there. John
I was at a deposition a while back where a service company that had advertized a $69.95 Spring tuneup had one of their techs sabotage one of the AC units for the elderly mother of a friend of mine. Big mistake on their part. The company's tech shorted out the compressor and told my friend's mother she needed a new $7,995.00 system. I let my friend purchase the parts and I repaired it for him at no charge. The crooked service company decided to settle out of court. ^_^
TDD
of the day that you had integrity and honesty. It may be tempting, but in the long run its going to catch up with you .
Hi, There is always two sides of story. There are many bad crooky consumers as well. I just had our system upgraded in time for the heat wave. Tech. knew my back ground I know his technical competence, good two way communication and job was done well and passed city inspector's inspection w/o an issue. All around every one is happy.
of the day that you had integrity and honesty. It may be tempting, but in the long run its going to catch up with you .
There are bad clients.
In this case a monitored and recorded woman homeowner... who probably is just sitting there looking like the perfect pigeon, as these "investigative reports" go.
They got exactly what they expected to find, and that too should make one suspicious.
the day that you had integrity and honesty. It may be tempting, but in the long run its going to catch up with you .
No question about that.
I did some TV repair calls in the 60's, part time while going to school. We hated to get these calls where you drive out and have to charge the client for plugging the TV in to the receptacle.
In-shop repairs we charged for the part, list price from the book, then used a national guide to price the labor. You were allowed so many minutes (based on what the average troubleshooting time is nationally) and charge your labor rate.
The customers liked it because we'd bring out the book show them the times allowed for problems in specific types of circuits (an RF problem takes longer than a power supply problem, for instance) with a tiny allowance for soldered connections, removing and replacing screws, etc.. It was fair and they didn't come away with the idea that we charged them arbitrarily.
It shifted the burden of labor costs, hard to find problems and easy ones always paid the same labor rate depending on what circuit caused the problem.
But TV repair is a little different than auto or AC repairs. Most parts are inexpensive and easy to replace. What takes time training and experience is diagnosing problems; most of the time they aren't visible or obvious.
I think AC/R repairs also need a lot of diagnostic skill. I got a call yesterday, from a friend whose refrigerator warmed up. I went through three or four possible diagnosis, before I was sure.
The old days of "just add some freon" are long gone.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
But TV repair is a little different than auto or AC repairs. Most parts are inexpensive and easy to replace. What takes time training and experience is diagnosing problems; most of the time they aren't visible or obvious.
I like my flat rate book.... the service call fee gets me there, a complete system assesment, and initial diagnosis. I *show* them what I found whenever possible, or take pics and show them the pics, then give them the cost of needed repairs, the customer signs the ticket to authorise the work
*before* doing the work.
of the day that you had integrity and honesty. It may be tempting, but in the long run its going to catch up with you .
I read that text and while I believe there are contractors that will do such evilness.... I do believe most or all of that text is fiction to suck in the gullible. With the wild lawsuits bouncing around all over the nation... I am sure most contractors are being very careful in their billings. Hell, if we/they were all that corrupt and crooked, we would be running for public office under the Democratic National committee.
I agree... If such happens..Have the Perp locked up for fraud. Most big companies and many small companies have their skilled Techs Bonded. After all we do enter the private castle of the homeowner.
OK you got me there. I just changed the oxygen sensor on my truck...
But you probably don't troubleshoot to the component level. I did manage to find a good board layout for my AC - variable speed three phase drive, that might get me to the point where I could replace some of the major heavy switching semiconductors, but could find no schematic or "theory of operation."
Manufacturers don't seem to care about providing detailed technical manuals (at least for mini-splits). With the high reliability and use of surface mount parts, the need for repair diminishes and the difficulty increases.
If you have to replace the controller IC, assuming you have the physical ability to de solder one, you still need the replacement part programmed for that device.
I learned electronics when they still taught vacuum toobes. I'm still employable but only because I can read, connect, and troubleshoot large complex multi-discipline industrial equipment - hardly the field I trained in.
Heck, multi-discipline is what I do and it's the reason I stay worn out. Energy management and IAQ systems are becoming more prevalent in commercial buildings and I get run ragged straightening the darn things out. O_o
TDD
Do you need a Dilbert buzz phrase generator? I mean, you charge more, if you're synchronizing the data interface input output processors, to facilitate greater operational efficiency.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
Heck, multi-discipline is what I do and it's the reason I stay worn out. Energy management and IAQ systems are becoming more prevalent in commercial buildings and I get run ragged straightening the darn things out. O_o
TDD
I looked for my brothers thermostat on carrier website. Nothing old on that site useful. Were did I write the model down, maybe I can get advise.
I still works on tube if someone asks me too. Still got tubed tektronix scopes in use now.
Greg
Even though I can troubleshoot boards as well as desolder/replace indivual componants on the board, its not worth the time or the trouble to do so. Also consider that most often the boards and major board componants are propriatary. If you don't have anything better to do, knock yourself out. When I am runnin from can to can't, I just don't have time to screw around for an hour on a $50 board.
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