York & JCI

[HVACFITTER562]

I have never heard of such a large dept or financial problems. I worked for York in Europe and we made a pretty good business through the years.

I was with York one month shy of 20 years when JCI bought us out, and this is the first time I have ever heard of some large debt that could not be paid off. As far as being on "credit hold", that was usually because a local office did not have their paperwork in order, not because York could not pay their bills.

There are a lot of rumors about the demise of York, most are not true. What you need to look at are the "Golden Parachutes" that York's upper management had in place when the deal went down. For those of us that had York stock, we knew that we were not going to get rich investing in it,
but is was a solid investment. Lets face it, the dividends that the York stock was paying, was no where near what we got for that stock when JCI bought us.
JCI is many things, but stupid when it comes to money is not one of them. They saw that they were heavily over invested in their automotive division, and with the down turn in the automotive industry, they needed to even out their investments. When we were brought in to JCI for our brain washing, I mean indoctrination, they told us that they bought York because we had a much larger footprint in the global HVAC marketplace. Therefore it was a no brainer to buy York and start selling Metasys from an already established clientèle base.

For those of you that never worked for York, will never understand why there is / was such a hard time transitioning over to JCI. At York corporate, a lot of the people who ran that company on a day to day basis worked their way up the ladder. Some started in manufacturing, others in sales or a service office. There were product engineers that were second and third generation York employees. And for the most part, these people were always accessible if you needed something. In our field office, we were expected to take care of the customers needs. In other words, if their was a warranty problem, FIX IT, then we will figure out who owes for what later.
It was a great place to work.
We were spun off by Borg Warner, do you think JCI could do the same?

[sargent york]

I also worked for York New Orleans for 16yrs and am in agreement with HVACFITTER. I worked for Ned Hebert who was the best Service Manager I ever worked for! Before the buy out some new people come into York and started pushing the good managers out and pushing the"national account garbage". Things then started to go down hill under their watch. Most people now realize they were setting things up where they could sell York Int. and pad their own wallets. I made the mistake in staying on for a couple years, then when I had enough and left, they entered federal law suite against me! they had no case and knew it, but they wanted to hurt me by making me hire lawyer. Well lawsuite was dropped but I hold them in the greatest contempt and will bite them ever chance I get! Working for York New Orleans was the best years of my working years and 2 years @JCI was the worst.

[Tmac1622]

Sergeant York
Jci also took me to federal court to stop me fom working in my trade but the diop**** Milton Heather of the branch here in Tampa did not read the UA Jci national contract that stats "no UA member can sign any legal binding contract "non compete" outside the national agreement or that document will be nul and void". I kicked jci's but in court.
The UA sent down their Big Gun attorney from Washington DC to represent me.
Ha! JCI was counting on me having to foot the bill in the fight against them.

[Nuclrchiller]

I was with York one month shy of 20 years when JCI bought us out, and this is the first time I have ever heard of some large debt that could not be paid off. As far as being on "credit hold", that was usually because a local office did not have their paperwork in order, not because York could not pay their bills.

There are a lot of rumors about the demise of York, most are not true. What you need to look at are the "Golden Parachutes" that York's upper management had in place when the deal went down. For those of us that had York stock, we knew that we were not going to get rich investing in it,
but is was a solid investment. Lets face it, the dividends that the York stock was paying, was no where near what we got for that stock when JCI bought us.
JCI is many things, but stupid when it comes to money is not one of them. They saw that they were heavily over invested in their automotive division, and with the down turn in the automotive industry, they needed to even out their investments. When we were brought in to JCI for our brain washing, I mean indoctrination, they told us that they bought York because we had a much larger footprint in the global HVAC marketplace. Therefore it was a no brainer to buy York and start selling Metasys from an already established clientèle base.

For those of you that never worked for York, will never understand why there is / was such a hard time transitioning over to JCI. At York corporate, a lot of the people who ran that company on a day to day basis worked their way up the ladder. Some started in manufacturing, others in sales or a service office. There were product engineers that were second and third generation York employees. And for the most part, these people were always accessible if you needed something. In our field office, we were expected to take care of the customers needs. In other words, if their was a warranty problem, FIX IT, then we will figure out who owes for what later.
It was a great place to work.
We were spun off by Borg Warner, do you think JCI could do the same?

That last paragraph makes me think of Trane. I now believe the beginning of the end of the golden days of Trane came when the company went public. Stockholders are more important than customers, at least to the people in position to call the shots. I think this applies to many publicly held companies.

[Taicool]

Working for York New Orleans was the best years of my working years and 2 years @JCI was the worst.

Sir;
Totally agreed!

Ryan

[teamkudzu]

I was with York one month shy of 20 years when JCI bought us out, and this is the first time I have ever heard of some large debt that could not be paid off. As far as being on "credit hold", that was usually because a local office did not have their paperwork in order, not because York could not pay their bills.

There are a lot of rumors about the demise of York, most are not true. What you need to look at are the "Golden Parachutes" that York's upper management had in place when the deal went down. For those of us that had York stock, we knew that we were not going to get rich investing in it,
but is was a solid investment. Lets face it, the dividends that the York stock was paying, was no where near what we got for that stock when JCI bought us.
JCI is many things, but stupid when it comes to money is not one of them. They saw that they were heavily over invested in their automotive division, and with the down turn in the automotive industry, they needed to even out their investments. When we were brought in to JCI for our brain washing, I mean indoctrination, they told us that they bought York because we had a much larger footprint in the global HVAC marketplace. Therefore it was a no brainer to buy York and start selling Metasys from an already established clientèle base.

For those of you that never worked for York, will never understand why there is / was such a hard time transitioning over to JCI. At York corporate, a lot of the people who ran that company on a day to day basis worked their way up the ladder. Some started in manufacturing, others in sales or a service office. There were product engineers that were second and third generation York employees. And for the most part, these people were always accessible if you needed something. In our field office, we were expected to take care of the customers needs. In other words, if their was a warranty problem, FIX IT, then we will figure out who owes for what later.
It was a great place to work.
We were spun off by Borg Warner, do you think JCI could do the same?

In simple laymans terms this was a huge problem that cost York tons of money that most field guys never even grasped. At some point you have to quit giving the customer everything when it is not under warranty and make them pay. Yep, good for the customer and relations but what effects the bottom line will bite you in the butt more than the other yet it seems to this day some still do not realize this was a huge factor in York going downhill.

[york56]

JCI as a company doesn't really do any R & D what they do is when they see something of interest to them they just aquire them and then promote as if they were the innovators of this new found knowledge and that would be with any of there divisions they just buy up the companies , never did like JCI and never will.

[HVACFITTER562]

In simple laymans terms this was a huge problem that cost York tons of money that most field guys never even grasped. At some point you have to quit giving the customer everything when it is not under warranty and make them pay. Yep, good for the customer and relations but what effects the bottom line will bite you in the butt more than the other yet it seems to this day some still do not realize this was a huge factor in York going downhill.

When you are a chiller manufacture, taking care of the warranty work was your ticket to continued service after it came out of warranty. In 25 years with York and JCI, I have very seldom given any free work under the disguise of warranty. Once the chiller is up and running, I have never had a problem getting a customer to pay for what was a problem on their end. And over that time, that customer service, made York and JCI a lot of money.
Working as a factory rep is a lot different than working for an independent contractor! Along with customer service, you are working on your next chiller sale, air handler sale , control system sale , and all that equipment is York or Jci, not some off brand equipment.

[sargent york]

Some new people come into power at York near the end that started to screw up everything. They pursued the national accounts(Family Dollar stores,Nextel cell phone sites,even Parrot Ice machines). They hired other idiots to run these accounts. They also started trying to push the local offices into installing new equipment competing with contractors. Some moron thought it would be a great idea to start a building automation systems business. They lost there a&% on that and made Siemans and JCI along with other customers that bought York equipment upset. Then there was the great handheld gizmo that cost 40 million bucks and flopped! Giving a customer some part or little a little labor causing the company to have a finacial problem? Bul#$%t! Who is John Galt!

[jayguy]

...I think this applies to many publicly held companies.

correction...ALL publicly held companies. the board, CEO, CFO, etc. are voted in by the shareholders. the shareholders want higher stock prices so they can sell their stock for a profit. if you want to keep your job Mr. CEO...make the stock price go up THIS QUARTER not next year. shareholders do not care whether you make chillers or pens or chillers AND pens...just stock prices.

i am not complaining about the system, it just the way it is. someday, i will be one of those shareholders that wants a higher stock price.

[Trane_Dude]

The York office is just a block away from ours. Since the JCI buy out they lost virtually all their technicians. I talk to the JCI & York guys who are still there and they all say it sucks working there. This may be a local issue but this is what I hear. Locally; York is winning most of the chiller jobs buy WAY under pricing their equipment. The problem is they have no one to service what they sell. I've been at Trane for 17 years and I've seen this before with the local Mcquay office. With no one able to service the new stuff their reputation quickly tanked in the local market.

I don't like the stockholder mentality either but IR has been a good marriage with Trane (IMO). Like JCI, IR watches and tracks all expences on everything they do but Trane techs have vastly more technical support (electronically-on line) than ever. We have a dedicated technician web site with a massive database to work with. The bad is the corporate stuff but the good is the support improvements that have occurred. However, as we know, here today gone tomorrow seems to be the norm.

[bunny]

For those of you that never worked for York, will never understand why there is / was such a hard time transitioning over to JCI. At York corporate, a lot of the people who ran that company on a day to day basis worked their way up the ladder. Some started in manufacturing, others in sales or a service office. There were product engineers that were second and third generation York employees. And for the most part, these people were always accessible if you needed something. In our field office, we were expected to take care of the customers needs. In other words, if their was a warranty problem, FIX IT, then we will figure out who owes for what later.
It was a great place to work.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, this sounds so remiscent of Parker's acquisition of Sporlan and perfectly explains why so many great people left after said acquisition.

[jfridge]

I am in the same boat, No representation from ua or local, this has been going onfor 2 years. JCI will attempt to lock down all ex employees with proprietary intellectual agreement that ua members were forced to sign when jci took over york