Why are you here?

[k-fridge]

Taking off the mod hat for a moment and giving my personal opinion...

There is simply no reason to be rude or nasty to homeowners here. All it really does is to further damage the image our industry already has.

I want to be paid like a professional. For that to happen, we need to be professionals and present ourselves as such.

[TCreacy]

I for one have given from my own pocket, labor and equipment to customers who are 1) past customers, and 2) in a legitamite bind.

Now Texas law says if you have the proper EPA certification you can perform HVAC services on your own system. Thats fine with me. (I do my own plumbing and electrical) If you need a little help thats understandable, most on here will provide generic assistance and it will prove helpful if you have the general knowlege.

Complaint: Unit not running
Me: Indoor or Out
Customer: Out
Me: Is breaker tripped?
Customer No
Does the compressor run?
Yes
fan?
No
Bad fan or cap...
cap? yeah its a componet of the system if you dont know call a tech...
Im not gonna set you up to possibly kill yourself.

Would your auto mechanic tell you to dissasemble the clutch, or differential, or better yet pull the wheels, rotors, bearings, and what not. (if you dont put those back correctly your wheel will fall off while going down the road)

There is a post in the Pros section about everyone being so grouchy...right now it must be our time of the year. But the rules where set up by the company providing this forum no DIY, DIY is a vague rule in itself.

[rogerk]

If you cant afford to fix your furnace, then you shouldnt have a house and if you cant afford to have children, then you shouldnt be having them either!

WERD!

Amen and haloluya, and why are they passing out food in Africa when they need to be passing out condems?

[belliott]

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, apparently you have not had to clean up too many of these frankenstein systems. Kind of gets old after a while. The best solution is to do it right

I'm not directing this at you -simplyrollin-.

I just wanted to chime in a "frankenstein systems". I love them, the more screwed up the better. Cut wires,mismatched components and shoddy work. Bring it on. It takes patience to repair those things and I charge by the hour. I do not like to work on anything I cannot warranty. I'm not going to make temporary repair to get someone by till they get the money to pay someone else to complete the repairs I advised.

That being said I don't believe in giving handymen or homeowners advice to repair a system I have not laid my eyes on. It's to dangerous, why should I enable them with knowledge that may injure them or myself.

[cjpwalker]

I think you guys are getting away from the point. If you are not comfortable giving advice to people, then don't give it... great! But don't imply or flat out tell them that they are stupid for trying to fix what they have. Stick to the pro forum.

The company I work for would not sell or install a frankenstein system either and that's not the point. No one is saying bypass safeties, or do something that shouldn't be done that would make a system dangerous. No one is saying to tell a homeowner how to do these things. No one is advocating hack work by industry professionals.

I'm also not advocating DIY advice. I'm not going to tell a homeowner to put his hands into this equipment. It's dangerous and takes food off of my table as well.

And to address a previous post: no, the mechanic shouldn't tell you how to change out your car's clutch over the internet, but when the customer asks "how do I fix my car?" the answer can be something other than "you were stupid for buying that car. You should have walked your butt to work until you could buy a NEW car."

[sarge]

I think you guys are getting away from the point. If you are not comfortable giving advice to people, then don't give it... great! But don't imply or flat out tell them that they are stupid for trying to fix what they have. Stick to the pro forum.

Agreed. It is rare that I leave that area and this is what I find.

Coolwhip, lol.

[coolwhip]

I know I sound gruppy, but I worked hard in this life to get where Im at. This job is not easy and you have to put up with a lot of crap...not only from customers, but from employers. It takes a long time to learn this trade and be confident in it.

We work in all forms of crappy weather, bad hoods, are consistently dirty, get carpal tunnel, pinched nerves and slipped discs...yet we are looked down upon because we work with our hands.

Sure, I have compassion, but I need to see proof with my own eyes before I show charity.

Im in this to make a living and to support a family and a mortgage. The day you start to advise folks how to fix things over the phone or the internet because suddenly you are some sort of do gooder, is the day you start depriving yourself, your family and the trade you spent so much time learning.

No good deed goes unpunished!

Would your dentist advise you on how to do your own root canal over the phone?

[midhvac]

Better get used to seeing those scenarios with the economy where it is. You'll be seeing a lot more of them. The resi forum is full of sad stories. Some are real, and some aren't. Being destitute is often a relative thing having to do with relative lifestyles. It's easier to gauge the level and truthfulness in person. And some folks live about as well as they want to. They go through life sponging off anybody who'll listen to their never ending stories of personal crisis.
The longer I'm here, the less inclination I have to go to the resi forum. It's like walking through a portal into another dimension. All that DIY stuff, "help" from non-pros, HO's who come to argue with pros. Some even come here to seek advice on how to sue their HVAC contractor. And some here are quick to help them do it.
And you see countless threads where an HO posts a request for DIY help, a member tells them that this isn't a DIY site, and another member jumps right in to give them the DIY help.
If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. But sometimes it falls in your lap in the general forum anyway. Never really understood what the purpose of the general forum was for when the resi folks are allowed to post there, and why the threads aren't moved over to the proper forum. Seems like there should at least be a mention of that in the instructions, i.e. not for resi threads by non-HVAC people.

[wgrr]

Better get used to seeing those scenarios with the economy where it is. You'll be seeing a lot more of them. The resi forum is full of sad stories. Some are real, and some aren't. Being destitute is often a relative thing having to do with relative lifestyles. It's easier to gauge the level and truthfulness in person. And some folks live about as well as they want to. They go through life sponging off anybody who'll listen to their never ending stories of personal crisis.
The longer I'm here, the less inclination I have to go to the resi forum. It's like walking through a portal into another dimension. All that DIY stuff, "help" from non-pros, HO's who come to argue with pros. Some even come here to seek advice on how to sue their HVAC contractor. And some here are quick to help them do it.
And you see countless threads where an HO posts a request for DIY help, a member tells them that this isn't a DIY site, and another member jumps right in to give them the DIY help.
If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. But sometimes it falls in your lap in the general forum anyway. Never really understood what the purpose of the general forum was for when the resi folks are allowed to post there, and why the threads aren't moved over to the proper forum. Seems like there should at least be a mention of that in the instructions, i.e. not for resi threads by non-HVAC people.

A good no nonsense post on the subject. Thank you for pointing out the obvious. I don't mess with resi in real life, but I do read the general resi forum.

Note to DIY'ers. I would love to help you , but if you kill yourself and I posted specific info on how to repair your unit, it would take a bad to mediocre lawyer a few minutes to figure out who "killed/injured, my husband, wife, boyfriend, etc..." if they are aware of my post. It is not worth it too me.

I am not heartless. If I help a customer out with a no heat/cool call, I have been known to let the bill slide. We techs/owners can tell when someone is in dire straits. Unfortunately, some of us work for other people or we simply cannot absorb the cost for "free" service calls.

If you ask me if your 1200 sqft house requires a 5 ton unit I will gladly tell you to get a reliable load calc because there may,possibly, might be something wrong.

[Twilly]

Twilly says you guys kill twilly, your way to serious.

[seatonheating]

Twilly says you guys kill twilly, your way to serious.

I don't think they are being too serious, just honest.


How many of these people have expensive kitchen counters and appliances??? Most of them I would guess.


But yet they will sit in their own castle and complain about how hot and cold they are, meanwhile expressing how they don't want to spend a certain amount on it. Ridiculous!!

Yet, these same people will go pay a ridiculous amount for marble tile that does nothing to keep them comfortable. I won't even get started about their ridiculous DVD collections.

[garya505]

I don't think they are being too serious, just honest.


How many of these people have expensive kitchen counters and appliances??? Most of them I would guess.


But yet they will sit in their own castle and complain about how hot and cold they are, meanwhile expressing how they don't want to spend a certain amount on it. Ridiculous!!

Yet, these same people will go pay a ridiculous amount for marble tile that does nothing to keep them comfortable. I won't even get started about their ridiculous DVD collections.

Who told you about my DVD collection?

[seatonheating]

Who told you about my DVD collection?

Gary, shoot me an email.