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QUESTION:Last week an old friend who I hadn't seen in over two years, stopped by my
shop to visit with me. Over the last 20 years he has had many different
jobs and been in to many different trades and crafts ranging from
change-person to painter, truck driver to stand-up comedian and somewhere
along the lines he became a rooter/plumber 6 months ago. He mentioned to me
that he had broken into the "industry" and was working on a forced-air
furnace at a residence just a few blocks away. Anyways, he mentioned that
he had only been doing rooter service for about 6 months and was
inexperienced when it came to repairing furnaces. As we were talking, I
missed it at first because I was very busy explaining circuit boards and
asking questions about the furnace he was working on, however I barely
caught it when he said very briefly and in a non-shillelagh way that his
boss didn't pay him to fix, he gets paid to sell. I wasn't sure I heard him
correctly. Anyways, shortly after that, when he said he wanted to learn how
to fix these units and asked me about the Carrier circuit board on his unit
I was happy to give him help I found some Carrier circuit board info in our
files for his exact unit and gave him a copy of it to help make his
troubleshooting and repair task easier. Although, I told him about many
things in the trades (rooter, plumbing & heating) that a field technician
should be aware of, I stressed the importance of checking the multiple
hi-limits on this particular furnace. He said he would check all of the
hi-limits but his boss might get mad at him if he fixed it instead of
selling the homeowner a new furnace. That was the last thing he said to me
as he was saying good-bye and driving off in one of the companies brand new
2004 Ford E-250 vans. I remember feeling a little embarrassed that I only
had a 1997 Dodge van - but I felt good that mine was a B350 (1-ton) with an
extended body that use to make me pound my chest and holler like a wildman.
Actually, 1997 was the last time I did that - when it comes to a van.....I
mean.
Now, this morning he stopped by my shop again. Except this time he had a
new guy with him because he was "breaking-in" the new guy. However this
time, instead of just one new 2004 Ford E-250 van parked in front of my
cheesy little shop, there were now two new 2004 Ford E-250 vans parked in
front.. As a matter of fact, the new guy's van didn't even have a license
plate yet. "Lucky MF'er" I exclaimed and then he seemed even more pleased
after I explained.
My friend has barely got a total of six months experience in the
rooter/plumbing & HVAC trades and he's "breaking-in" the new guy who's also
driving a new $30,000 company van? Puzzled, I wondered; What the !
Somewhat happy to see my old friend again, I had the balls to ask him how
the furnace repair went and he explained that after being on that job for an
hour, his boss called him on the Nextel radio and had chewed his ass out
totally for over 10 minutes after he explained to his boss that he knew what
was wrong with the furnace and that he wanted to repair it. After the ass
chewing, he was instructed, over the Nextel radio to go back to the customer
and use what was taught to him and sell the homeowner a new furnace or else.
As ordered, he went back inside and successfully sold the job to replace the
furnace. I was totally bummed-out when he told me that. It really didn't
make me feel any better when he also mentioned that his pregnant wife was
out of work, they're finally starting to catch-up on several old and overdue
monthly payments and all three of his teenaged kids were looking forward to
and depending on him to provide a nice "Christmas & New Year's Holiday".
Later on, after he and the new guy drove off because they're Nextel radios
were calling, I wanted bad to run into a rooter contractor with a Nextel
radio just so I could kick his ing ass. Instead, I have decided to wait
and now I have something to look forward to; I'll just wait for the
opportunity to someday meet his boss. Oh yeah, BTW, I didn't dare ask him
how much money they got for the replacement job because I was afraid that at
that moment, I would probably over-react, go out and kill a mother-ing
rooter-contractor just on the price alone. I have to remember to keep my
cool because I have people depending on me too. Sheeeet, as a matter of
fact, I've got grand-childern.
Now that a hard and long workday has come to an end 12 long hours later and
I have had all day to think about when and if I finally do meet his boss, I
don't know whether or not if I should kick his bosses ass from here to
eternity, or if I should just say "thank you boss" and suck his dick.
ANSWER: The company I work for hires new "technicians" who are in reality
salesnicians who with enough hvac experience to make sure they ear up
more than they fix are sent out to homes with a book that pretty much
explains not how to fix the things they are working on but hw to scare
the customer into buying a new furnace or heat pump. These guys are
paid ty but can make good money from sales commisions..... They
are sent out on new customers and old customers alike and are told hat
their first priority is to sell the customer something, if it is an
old established customer they get them for parts on every maintenace
call, if the unit is 5 yrs or older than it is up for replacement if
possible.
We dont have any sort of training program at work for these guys other
than hw to sell equipment. I work with guys who cannot fix a damn hing
and end up tearing up everything they are sent to "repair"
Nice trucks, nice uniforms, professional sales staff........we send
salesmen ou to every service call after the guys the "technicians"
have thrown out their pitch.
What is funny is he amount of highly educated people we do work for,
they like the professional look of the company and most are taken in
by the fear factor....more money than sense I guess.
Its the older folks on a fixed income that get me though, Ive seen
them pay 6-7 k for a 2 ton changeout with 10 seer equipment when the
only thing wrong with their system was a relay or contactor.
This is the future, more companies are hopping on this bandwagon
everyday....
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