Furnace Repair RIPOFFS!

I will not go into detail, but I could fill pages with the LIES I've been told. I'm tempted to list a couple names of companies here in our community as I think they deserve the publicity, but I'll restrain myself!

Let's just say I'm in the process of filling out the necessary paperwork in reporting my most recent encounter to the Wisconsin Department of Consumer Protection.

Why is this field so full of crooks? They certainly feed on people's fears...seem to think some of were just born yesterday.

Any of you have similar experiences...?

Glenn F.

My neighbor had no heat and he called a serviceman
and he charged him around $200.00. I think it was on a Sunday too and it was a bad ignitor. My neighbor showed me the old ignitor and I told him I was going to buy a spare since we have the same furnace in case I had that problem. They cost $13.00 plus tax. He told me to pickup a spare for him. I still have mine sitting on a shelf near the furnace. Here's a picture. Hal

I know the price seams high but just think the service company has to warrant the electric parts as the supplier will generaly not take them back for warranty and trying to get a mfg to warranty parts takes an act from GOD.

Even Sunday prices are more higher to the company. I've had to pay $50 extra 20yrs ago for a compressor supplier to open his doors for me and the compressor cost was also 50% more than normal. We did about $175k worth of bizz with that supplier a year.

T_Bone

I think the biggest problem comes from the market won't bear what it costs to train qualifed repair techs.

If the companys can charge enough to stay in business then you have the unqualified techs go out on there own and undercut the company they were working for.

That causes the 1st company to drop there prices to compete for business thus the cycle starts all over again.

Even in residential appliances it takes alot of continous schooling just to keep up with changing technology. The employer doesn't want to pay for it as well as the homeowner doesn't want to pay for it so alot of companys won't train there techs very well.

When I was managing service techs, we figured if we hired a tech with a 70% completion ratio, that's 70% of the jobs that were repaired correct the first time out, then we had a good tech. That's sad.

Even at my best I was running a 97% ratio with most of the 3% being bad new parts and less than 1% being my mistakes. In order to accomplish that, I was putting in 60hr/wks and getting paid for 40hrs. The 20hrs was the extra studying I had to do to be able to keep the 97% ratio. After a few years of that, I went back to a job that paid 40hr/wk for 40hrs of work. I just couldn't find a employer willing to to pay for that schooling and you can't blame them as they can't bill the customer for the schooling either. I was not going to do a half a$$ job tho when I knew better.

Your lucky that you can find someone that can work on the older systems. Most of the kids out of tech school are parts replacers, not service techs. The mfg's are the blame for that one as they want to sell you a new unit, not repair the old unit. Were lucky that we have a law that requires them to furnish parts for 7yrs.

As to dishonest companys, it's in every type of repair biz. The best you can do is pay by credit card, keep the old part and throw it away yourself and report the bad company's. If you think the HVAC industry is bad, go get a puter repaired and you'll change your mind in a hurry.

T_Bone

Best responce on the subject. Your best chance is to go with an owner/operator and even then its hit and miss. They can't afford to pay the techs to do what they do for themselves for free.

That's what happens when imports from China make replacement cheaper than repair.