looking for a job in a honest environment co.

[fishunterhvac]

hi, im looking for co. that really into doing the right thing and in the business of more on repair than pushing every call into selling a new unit,dont mine selling if is really necessary.location is vegas.i take pride on what i do ,and i treat every h.o the way i want to be treated.thanks in advance.

[Joe Cool]

I think that you need to take more pride in your grammar.

[Mstrav]

being that you are in vegas and that I had many years there, you will find that 1/3 of the companys are to cheap, 1/3 ok , 1/3 push every call into a change-out and have minumum ticket $$$ or you get fired. I could go on, but I will hold back and tell you that you might want to get a job as a commercial sheetmetal installer and go from there. the track thing is piece work, and residential service is run by some scums that look like pit bosses and count the money they rape each victom for daily. The others just drop units and never return phone calls.

matt

[Ammonianite]

Unfortunately, no matter what your location, honest HVAC companies are becoming a rare breed. I was talking just yesterday with a guy from another company and he was complaining that the customers he deals with have been getting upset about "extra charges" and material added to the bill that
he never used or installed, just to crank up the $$$. I personally have been with two different companies that do the same thing. These companies put so much emphasis upon paperwork (ostensibly, for legalities) and so little on quality, you wonder how they stay in business.

My friend agreed that the worst thing that ever happened to the HVAC industry was when it went "corporate." These mega-companies that have become the Wal-Marts of the industry have really ruined the trade- they have cheapened it and slimed it up by massive marketing campaigns that promise the world but deliver a bucket of snot. They have convinced the public that bigger is better. They promise "trained" technicians but the only training those techs receive is "on-the-job". Gone are the days when a quality job was appreciated. Frankly, today it is often punished. Management has performance bonuses to achieve- must have more productivity! Good service practice is gone in many places. Personally, I think some of these organizations are hoping that the equipment will break down in a different mechanical area just so they can soak the customer again.

Yeah, I know, the past can't come back. The trade is what it is and we just have to try and maintain our own personal integrity. That's about all you can do. Be honest with everyone and if you end up butting heads with management, so be it. Take the higher road.

[fishunterhvac]

i hate to keep getting new job but i just have to find a good co.im not saying perfect co. just honest so i can have my dignity & pride in life.

[temp rise]

Let me tell you about the co. I worked for just quit yesterday they to have become a very large maintenance/hvacr company they contract in all fifty states and it is all about volume they do not care about quality. i got an email from them to go and do some quoted work from a tech that did the maintenance at store and this tech wrote up all kinds of things that there was nothing wrong when i called my boss his response was we already got paid so put the parts in it made me sick and made me feel dishonest again that was the day I gave my notice this company could care less about how they make the money just make it. I myself had a call last may that I found that two out of 10 roof tops were not cooling found the problem quoted the work the same night and this store called two more times for the same problems and instead of telling the customer we were waiting for an approval they made me run it port to port at time and 1/2 just to get that money knowing that we could not fix it. and the way they treat their technicians is unreal when I gave my notice they asked me and the wife to come down to their home office in Ohio so they could show the new benefits pkg. and talk about how much it would take to keep me that was a joke it took a lot for my wife to free her self for two days but she did they tried to sell me a pkg that would cost me twice what the one i have now cost then the service manager and his wife took us out to dinner now you would think if you are trying to keep someone from quitting that you would have a decision maker not a service manager. now i can not tell you the name of this company for fear of being sued but i can tell you they are not the best contractor of the year to work for.

[Ammonianite]

Holy crap! I used to work for that company. I took a new job about three weeks ago. Everything you say is 100% true. They used to give me a hard time about being upfront and honest with the customers. They didn't like it when I told the customer exactly what was wrong, the parts needed, and the cost tabulated (they used to like it when stuff was quoted out in the field, but this seemed to change over the last few years). When I did that, they couldn't add materials that I didn't need to the bill (some guys have complained that they have given a verbal estimate on a job and then had all sorts of irrelevant items charged to the customer to the point that the customer has complained to the tech about it).

How 'bout that "new benefit package"? It boils down to a few dollars an hour reduction in pay. It's never enough for these guys. The profit margins are never wide enough.

The turnover rate of techs is phenomenal. They don't care. They'll take almost anyone off the street (a warm body to fill a parts-changer position). The attitude is that techs are a "dime-a-dozen" is pervasive and that's no exaggeration. You wind up with techs like this one guy they hired who condemnned every unit heater in a warehouse (good $$$, but condemnning every unit heater caused the customer to get another opinion- bad situation) or another guy who said thaty he hadn't changed out a compressor since 1990.

It's all about marketing and has nothing to do with quality or honesty. I thought for awhile that I might be able to work from the inside to get them to change, but became firmly convinced that the ownership and management had absolutely no intention of changing course. It was indeed time to leave.

[fishunterhvac]

when i turn in my invoice and they see 7 years old or older unit that i change some parts to it and is less than $500 and no notes saying recomend new unit,98% boss will call and ask why is that ticket is less than .5 G.and why you did not recomend a new unit. you cant just change 7 year old trane unit w/ a bad combo cap and try to sell them some good o" goodman unit!i had one today h.o. is thinking that she's gonna needed a new unit,i told her that is was just a blown fuse and some minor wire repair(loose wire)told my boss that the h.o is expecting me to tell her that she need a new unit and was ready to make a check my boss was so upset about me. he told me that his going to send some comport adviser and if the owner went for a new unit,im not getting anything from it, i said thats fine.yeah im not feeling this organization.i need to move on.

[Mstrav]

your boss is a scum, I turned jobs down from those guys there in vegas, same crap, gone 4 years still the same, I could follow their vans and make a living off the repairs. most dont even set their units and do the cranes, they sub that out and collect the gravy!!!

there are so many seniors, half cant even walk out to the roof to see the unit and will by anything the tech says, sad, very sad!!!

matt

[fishunterhvac]

yup specially the elder.sometimes i call my boss and explain to him that this h.o. has 14 yrs old unit and it need some new cond. mtr, evap coil cleaning,and there kind of old, can we give them a break on are price sheet,boss said no! and tell them they need a new unit and no we do not want touch that unit cause if we do, now we own the unit.

[Twilly]

I think that you need to take more pride in your grammar.

Give the guy a break.

[temp rise]

well there back to wanting techs to do the quotes from home and charge the customer for the time because the turn over rate in the office is just as bad as the field. three weeks ago they sent up a compressor with one off the bosses that someone in the office orderd which turned out to be the wrong one they had me stay at this account until the right one was brought up to ann arbor mi. from cloumbus ohio i did 16 hours that day and they asked me to do a service call on the home. thats ok I get the last laugh I am driving their truck down there only because my knew boss is picking me up at their office then taking back to his office to pick up a new truck in processing dinner a hotel then back north to mi. friday morning. I have to say this I have been doing this for 10 years and this place in the worst I have ever seen. I also left a lot of bad jobs out there left to be done because you know how they are they get a contract and have know ideal what is there.

[lirunaway]

[QUOTE=the worst thing that ever happened to the HVAC industry was when it went "corporate." These mega-companies that have become the Wal-Marts of the industry have really ruined the trade- they have cheapened it and slimed it up by massive marketing campaigns that promise the world but deliver a bucket of snot. They have convinced the public that bigger is better. They promise "trained" technicians but the only training those techs receive is "on-the-job". Gone are the days when a quality job was appreciated. Frankly, today it is often punished. Management has performance bonuses to achieve- must have more productivity! Good service practice is gone in many places. Personally, I think some of these organizations are hoping that the equipment will break down in a different mechanical area just so they can soak the customer again.

Yeah, I know, the past can't come back. The trade is what it is and we just have to try and maintain our own personal integrity. That's about all you can do. Be honest with everyone and if you end up butting heads with management, so be it. Take the higher road.[/QUOTE]

Bingo:
Ever since Carrier was bought buy UTC it has been going downhill abusing the "Carrier" name. Advertising says"Turn to the Experts", but it's far from the truth. No training, no tool account, no laptops. We can't seem to get the time to service our contracts. I've been working overtime without pay just to keep some of our contracts. Now corporate still says we've spent too much on contracts, we must have too many technicians. Corporate ordered our region to lay off nine Techs. We have new bosses with Degree's, but no idea what we do.