Michigan's elite gas co techs

[djantz]

Around South Eastern Michigan we have lots of trouble with gas co. techs., the ones from Consumer's Energy especially, tend to be former meter readers and they think that being a tech for a Public Utility gives them the same authority as the Governor. Many seem to be totally in awe of themselves because they have been given this authority over something that they can't even begin to comprehend. The commercial people and some repair crew people I've met seem okay, but the residential service people are a bunch of wing nuts. I called them out on one occasion because I was asked to find the source of a chronic recurring gas odor in an area where there were no gas lines, in an apartment building. The person that called said she was getting sick from the smell. After I saw there were no gas lines in the vicinity of the hallway where she claimed the smell came from, I went in with my combustible gas detector on and it started responding immediately, but all I smelled was a very strong cooking odor. Indian people make this stuff where they cook about ten lbs. of onions down to a thick brown goo and it gets a strong sulphur smell to it and naturally all the volitile oils are released, which is what my meter was reacting to. I wanted the old gal that called to sleep well at night so I called Consumer's to send a tech out, there was no mistake to what I was smelling and I was able to trace it the source. They sent a woman, no problem for me, but she had a problem. She thought I was tring to dupe her when I told her that her gas detector would react to many things besides gas. She smelled the onions but believed there was gas in there too, because of her meter. She started talking about shutting all the gas off and venting the building etc. etc. so I left. She called for help and it turned out to be another woman whose calling in life was to set all menfolk straight. I happened to drive by a couple hours later and I saw that they had a furnace torn open on a ground floor apartment and the doorwall wide open. So I stopped and it just so happened it was the onion cooking apartment. They informed me that they had found a dangerous leak (on the outside of the building) and that is where the smell came from and the tech that came by after I left stepped up to tell me that I had overlooked a very dangerous furnace in my inspection and now I hear the onion cooking lady saying that she had been tired and sick recently and had these headaches. So I said let's check it out. I put it back together half thinking that maybe I overlooked something and as soon as it fires up the (man hating) gas co tech walks around the back of the furnace, so I followed and she has her meter stuck in the flue pipe!!! She begins to tell me about unacceptable measurements of CO, but I don't get it, the furnace was burning clean, the flue was clean, she was getting start up gases right then, I thought she was telling me that the furnace was choked and needed to be cleaned maybe. I said the heat exchangers were okay so that wouldn't be a concern. But, she kept saying "in the vents" and "dangerous levels" and "that woman may be very sick", I realized that she didn't know what she was measuring, so I asked if she realized that her meter was pointing at the flue pipe, I told her it was like the exhaust pipe on a car and that's why it was outside. She looked up, I think she was looking for a chimney and told me I had better do something about this furnace and left. No red tag, left the gas on.

[coolwhip]

I hear ya. Im located in the same area and was recently on a call where consumers energy had tagged the furnace. The female tech said that it had a bad xformer and left them a new one without installing it. I found that is was not the xformer but the furnace switch which I replaced and the furnace worked fine. Thats not the first experience either.

[infwsdm]

I had one of those goofballs telling a HO that the gas pipe I installed in his house is the wrong size yada yada.
The HO had me on 2-way nextel when I said "tell that a$$hole to show me his sizing design for this house."

It's bad enough consumers is trying to take over the HVAC industry, now they want to make us look bad to HOs

[Spidy]

These guys are jokes.....they once left a customer of mine waiting on a gas valve for 3 weeks in the middle of winter they finally called me out and once I put it back together Gas valve was fine....ANd the Gas company never came back...


My mother-in-law had the the "plan" a girl came out replaced every part on her furnace! shes fixxed it though....lol

[infwsdm]

I had a guy call me, who was on the plan, because they couldn't get out there for a week.

I told him to send them the bill and insist that they give you your monthly fee back.

Do they make money on charging people this low sum per month and only have a few techs per county or what?

[Spidy]

Originally posted by Spidy
These guys are jokes.....they once left a customer of mine waiting on a gas valve for 3 weeks in the middle of winter they finally called me out and once I put it back together Gas valve was fine....ANd the Gas company never came back...


My mother-in-law had the the "plan" a girl came out replaced every part on her furnace! shes fixxed it though....lol


I take that back there are some good gas company techs.

I hear they don't let you cancel the plan.You have to finish out your year,even if you got a new system with 5 years parts/labor on it...

[djantz]

Originally posted by coolwhip
I hear ya. Im located in the same area and was recently on a call where consumers energy had tagged the furnace. The female tech said that it had a bad xformer and left them a new one without installing it. I found that is was not the xformer but the furnace switch which I replaced and the furnace worked fine. Thats not the first experience either.
Hey neighbor, I have had many experiences as well with red tagging. I think the CE techs feel that everybody should be on their maint. program, if not they try to scare the hell out of 'em. I have had people hand me the "RED TAG" like it was a death warrant and come to find out that they condemned the furnace for a pilot that was candling, or for a gas shut-off that was leaking (barely), but they used the same leaking valve to shut down the furnace and left the gas on. In all the calls I've had, 50 or 60 maybe, they have never shut off the gas at the meter. I'm out in the Farmington Hills area.

[htg guy]

Its nice to know that they did'nt ship all the gas co rejects up here. Its amazing how big their heads get after spending an entire two weeks of training on furnace repair.
I used to do all the repair work for them for the people they had on their program. Then somebody got an idea that they could make money if they sent their guys/gals to a two week training seminar. Since then they try to do all their own repairs and I only get called to get them out of a jam.

I have been told that they will soon be dropping their maintanence program. I would imagine its due to all the money it has cost them sending their guys out and having them change out part after part till they get the units running. Bad thing is that when they change these parts out they always leave the new parts in whether or not it was bad.

I suppose its not really a bad thing since the HO gets a bunch of new parts even if they are'nt needed.

[Diceman]

1- The general public thinks the "gas company" is some all powerfull all knowing group who couldn't possibly be wrong.
haha.
2- If ya call the "gas co" be prepared to have the service line shut off and high press testing done which will most likely cause leaks in the old lines where none were before.
3- The only advantage they got over most of us is a curb key.
4- In my opinion, they are a monopoly and have no right to offer repair service to the public.
5- I got lots of gas co stories similar to DJ's, his was pretty good though, the part about the woman straightening out all men was a nice touch, most likely a lesbo... good job......:D

[slimwoodie]

a Curb key ???? .... c'mon ... invest in some tools, will ya !

[Diceman]

My brother does. I don't do service lines anyway. Too much work. Besides I did enough of em in the good ole days, digging them by hand. Screw that....

[infwsdm]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Diceman

4- In my opinion, they are a monopoly and have no right to offer repair service to the public.

I feel the same way.

In Michigan they are trying to get into the replacement business.

I pulled a sticker off of a furnace that states and I quote:

"This unit has been serviced by Consumers Energy.

For information on appliance service plans, furnace or central air conditioning replacement or other services, call us at 1-800-....."

The sentate allowed them to keep servicing. The replacement end is being fought as we speak.


[Edited by infwsdm on 10-24-2004 at 10:12 PM]

[SeattlePioneer]

<<They informed me that they had found a dangerous leak (on the outside of the building) and that is where the smell came from and the tech that came by after I left stepped up to tell me that I had overlooked a very dangerous furnace in my inspection and now I hear the onion cooking lady saying that she had been tired and sick recently and had these headaches. So I said let's check it out. I put it back together half thinking that maybe I overlooked something and as soon as it fires up the (man hating) gas co tech walks around the back of the furnace, so I followed and she has her meter stuck in the flue pipe!!! She begins to tell me about unacceptable measurements of CO, but I don't get it, the furnace was burning clean, the flue was clean, she was getting start up gases right then, I thought she was telling me that the furnace was choked and needed to be cleaned maybe.>


The gas utility I worked for had a standard that required flue gasses to have no more than 100 PPM CO. If they had more than that, the equipment was either repaired or red tagged.

And utility repair people can tell plenty of stories about mistakes made by private repair services as well. No one gets it right all the time.

I remember being called out by a customer who was being sold a new furnace because of a cracked heat exchanger. The private repair service was out doing periodic maintenance on the furnace, and when I got their the blower motor had been removed by cutting all the wires to the motor rather than disconnecting it. The customer told me the repair guy had found a hole in the heat exchanger and wanted me to verify it.

After checking out the heat exchanger I found nothing, and asked the repair guy to show me where he found the problem ---still I found nothing. After looking again, he said that apparently the hole was a bit of rust.


Perhaps this utility company's program and training needs improvement. I know I red tagged hundreds of pieces of equipment that were unsafe, often referring people out to private service agencies for repairs I couldn't make.




Seattle Pioneer

[djantz]

Originally posted by SeattlePioneer
<<They informed me that they had found a dangerous leak (on the outside of the building) and that is where the smell came from and the tech that came by after I left stepped up to tell me that I had overlooked a very dangerous furnace in my inspection and now I hear the onion cooking lady saying that she had been tired and sick recently and had these headaches. So I said let's check it out. I put it back together half thinking that maybe I overlooked something and as soon as it fires up the (man hating) gas co tech walks around the back of the furnace, so I followed and she has her meter stuck in the flue pipe!!! She begins to tell me about unacceptable measurements of CO, but I don't get it, the furnace was burning clean, the flue was clean, she was getting start up gases right then, I thought she was telling me that the furnace was choked and needed to be cleaned maybe.>


The gas utility I worked for had a standard that required flue gasses to have no more than 100 PPM CO. If they had more than that, the equipment was either repaired or red tagged.

And utility repair people can tell plenty of stories about mistakes made by private repair services as well. No one gets it right all the time.

I remember being called out by a customer who was being sold a new furnace because of a cracked heat exchanger. The private repair service was out doing periodic maintenance on the furnace, and when I got their the blower motor had been removed by cutting all the wires to the motor rather than disconnecting it. The customer told me the repair guy had found a hole in the heat exchanger and wanted me to verify it.

After checking out the heat exchanger I found nothing, and asked the repair guy to show me where he found the problem ---still I found nothing. After looking again, he said that apparently the hole was a bit of rust.


Perhaps this utility company's program and training needs improvement. I know I red tagged hundreds of pieces of equipment that were unsafe, often referring people out to private service agencies for repairs I couldn't make.




Seattle Pioneer









WE HAVE ANOTHER GAS CO HERE, MICHIGAN CONSOLIDATED, NOW PARTNERS WITH DETRIOT EDISON THAT HAS A HIGHER STANDARD OF PROFESSIONALISM FOR THEIR RESIDENTIAL TECHS. CONSUMER'S SEEMS TO HAVE THE WORST. I WAS TOLD THAT THEY LIKE TO PROMOTE THEIR METER READERS. APPARENTLY THEY DON'T TRAIN THEM VERY WELL. I HAVE SEEN SOME PRETTY LOUSY TECHS AND CONTRACTORS FOR THAT MATTER TOO (LOOK AT THE WALL OF SHAME)