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OOOOOOOOOOOO The blood is BOILING!
Rich Kontny_3
Member Posts: 562
John,
Please e-mail me relative to this matter.I have important
info for you!
kontnyrichard@yahoo.com
T.Y.
Please e-mail me relative to this matter.I have important
info for you!
kontnyrichard@yahoo.com
T.Y.
0
Comments
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bit more civility john,
i agree with your outrage but:
i would suggest the utility company 'may' have basic understanding of your furnace, but the company you should call are the ones that service that particular brand, and may even bring the parts needed for repair, something the utility company can not provide.
what the homeowner will end up doing is paying the utility company to tell them they need to contact a company which services that furnace, in the end costing far more money.
my 2 cents for your industry......
EDIT copy to their site as well!0 -
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Keep the comments coming
to the TV station and also on the Detroit Free Press forum- we just might get her fired. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.
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Big BUMP
She's gettin' an earful -- more needed.0 -
Not the same, but...
Just yesterday I heard a radio commercial for an excavating company that does MA Title V inspections (required septic system checks before a house is sold). Seemed like the last company I would call for that - I want an inspector who doesn't have a vested interest in requiring me to dig a $30K hole, and since there are plenty of licensed plumbers who do quality work in the area, it shouldn't be too difficult to get an unbiased opinion.
Point is, I could understand how someone not familiar with your business might mistakenly think that her advice was reasonable; the flood of comments is definitely appropriate. However, keep in mind that it was most likely a poorly informed mistake, not intentional malice.
-Mike0 -
Done
This may be like the old Buck Henry skit on Saturday Night Live. To get people to call in to his live show, he said he was going to bus communists into your neighborhood to kill your puppies. Just trying to get a rise and start a discussion.0 -
Ruth
I'm not familiar with this reporter's column as I'm not from the Detroit area but I have to wonder why the statement was made. Does Ruth have an agenda of her own? Did she have a bad experience that compels her to use her column for some type of retribution?
That would be unprofessional at best.
The paper should print an apology to local businesses and at least offer a counter opinion.
It's simply not good advice, especially for the reasons given.
To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"Contact John "JohnNY" Cataneo, NYC Master Plumber, Lic 1784
Consulting & Troubleshooting
Heating in NYC or NJ.
Classes0 -
Done
Gave her a small bit of advice myself. It'll be interesting to see if anything at all happens with this.0 -
Might there be
a counter-opinion as to why utility companies that do installs so often provide over-sized replacement boilers and furnaces and at lower efficiencies than originally contracted for? Happens all the time here; a HO will go through the utility install programs, is promised X efficiency appliance, 92%+ and at install time, wouldn't you know it- they are out of stock or the venting will not allow over 90% appliances... all things being "news to everyone"... so the appliance that burns more gas somehow always wins.... and somehow the rebate promised is no longer valid. Like magic.
Not to drop a red herring or dilute the core message, but has she even considered or thought that there may be an agenda on the other side too?0 -
i sent her...
to Ruth Spencer: please explain you tip to the homeowner that had the wires to his boiler snipped by the local gas company - and told he needed a new boiler, and one of their salesmen would call, when all he needed was a new pump - as the old one died and was poping the circuit breaker!!! - chaulk another one up to the "isle of long's" untilities!!!0 -
It will live
If the Free Press pulls Ruth Spencer's comments from its website, which it is likely to do, I'll keep it alive at mine: www.ideaperson.net. The menu item is "Boycott WDIV." Thanks.0 -
must be a trick
I am still waiting for my access code so I can add a post on their site. Did anyone else have a long delay?
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Been thru this many times,...
Done, first of all, but in our area the utility has been out sourcing to local individual contractors, additionally Boston Gas or Keyspan or whatever they are calling themselves this week is the larges source of individual "gas Licenses" they, the utility runs a code busting answer the question, screw the theory course to get their employees to pass the test, this is truly the height of irresponsibility!!!!!!! They avoid the plumbing exam like the plague, it is one of the political reasons the gas test as an individual test remains.
On a side note one of the companies the Boston Gas utility hired was "Gary Donovan, company of Mt Vernon St., Dorchester MA." IT WAS NO SMALL FACT that his wife was none other than the daughter of THEN REPRESENTATIVE William Bulger of the MA legislature...an example of the quality of personnel that BOSTON Gas outsourced. Gary Donovan quickly went bankrupt because of the poor quality of work...think homes blowing up!!!! To save his skin.
This is the home depo argument all over again, the local gas utility requires insurance, but doesnt actually check, you deal with the utility but in reality they do not stand behind the quality and in fact have local laws that indemnify them as well!
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Can't access the BB
And, can't sign up a second time as I'm told another user (that's me!) has already registered with the same e-mail address.
So, I followed the station's link and send this to Ruth:
Dear Ruth,
For some reason, I cannot access the bulletin board to post a comment regarding your suggestion regarding utilizing a utility instead of a licensed professional heating contractor.
Using the same logic, or reasoning - if you will, regarding the contractors' judgment being skewed by potential sales, the utility would (therefore) be a horrendous choice because they're motivated by potential sales for the fuel! Ergo - they shouldn't be trusted (using your standards) as they'd be inclined to 'adjust' the equipment to use as much fuel as possible and would have no incentive to install high-efficiency apppliances!
As a fellow member of the Fifth Estate, I'm stunned that you painted with such a wide brush. I write for a number of magazines (Contractor, Journal of Light Construction, Smart Homeowner - to name a few) and am a contributing author to The World Book Encyclopedia.
I also own and operate a 107 year old mechanical contracting firm, am a Master Plumber and hold more training certs than I care to look at! We didn't get to year 107 by behaving in the fashion you intimated all contractors do. The vast majority of mechanical contractors do not exhibit the behavior you've attributed to the group as a whole.
Everyone makes mistakes. It's how the individual handles the aftermath that let's others know their character. A simple apology and retraction would be a delight to see/hear in this instance. There's still time for you to turn this into a positive event.
Sincerely yours,
Dave Yates
www.fwbehler.com
www.contractormag.com
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yes
I gave up, it could be shut down or Ruth has been knocked unconsious.
I would suggest if anyone gets through to leave her this site so maybe she can learn something.
She obviously made an uneducated statement.0 -
Ruth Spencer
She's been on channel 4 forever. Truthfully, channel 2 "I missed it news", is much worse. Our news anchors only seem to read the news not report it, Ruth is no different from the rest. Unfortunately I doubt she'll retract her story, few ever do, but I will e-mail her about her lack of knowledge in regards to our industry.0 -
If our collective voices get rid of her
it will only make that TV station more ruthless.0 -
TV2 just contacted me
The lead investigative guy on a rival TV station is about as ignorant as Ruth. In his e-mail to me he called me a "knee-jerk reactionary" and he lauded his positive experience with the local utility. These folks are all in cahoots.0 -
remember
that "they" { all local news, national news and especially news shows like FOX, especially FOX cater to the ad, if X company is paying a lot of the bill they are beholden to them.
I went to school for Radio/TV and was seriously turned off by the total amount of control now, notice there are no real DJ's with an indentifiable personality, they won't allow it.
we no longer have any kind of decent press in the US
and....
we in the HVACR are probably the least appreciated MASTERS of a trade
very few people understand that we have to be proficient in Oil, Gas, Electric, Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Heat Pumps, Radiant, Steam, Warm Air, Hydro Air, Plumbing, Electrical, Customer Service, Sales, Estimates, ect etc
we are the most complicated trade, but one schlepper can really give us all a bad rap
I think she should apologize, and tell consumers to always get a second or third opinion.0 -
TV2
John R. I bash TV2 as they failed to retract a TV newstory form a couple years ago that claimed a local "mini-mart" (a couple miles from my home) was a haven for violence/drugs, etc. Sheesh! Not true at all! Yes, there was a shooting outside the store. Unrelated to the store and it owners. It was, however, a "sensational story" about our area that, unbeknownst to us, was a horrible place to live. Hey! Brad! You ARE a funny guy...more "Ruthless" ;^)0 -
a good lesson
hey, thats the News Media for you. One reason I pay little attention to the News anymore, little truth, one sided and all about sensationalism....0 -
Mailbox overload
Jam it up:
ruths@clickondetroit.com0 -
Another tact
WDIV is owned by the Washington Post in Washington DC.
Perhaps a few e-mails to TWPCoreply@washpost.com might get a bit of notice??0 -
Done!
Let's flood their inbox too.
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Re:Ruth
Just sent in a reply to Ruth , still working and accepting replies.
John Hall, I sent you a cc of the reply thanks for the email about this .
Ken ResnickThere was an error rendering this rich post.
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In cahoots
The local Detroit news media is circling the wagons. Here is an e-mail response to me from a rival TV station:
"Well let me just dust off my pitchfork so I can join all you HVAC folks in storming the castle. Being a reasonable, and reasonably well educated person, I can see your point. But making use of terms like moronic, silly, and ignorant makes you sound like a knee jerk reactionary with blinders on. Is getting an objective opinion a bad idea?
Ive never had a complaint saying the utility company sold someone an $1800 furnace for $4800. I do have good HVAC people calling me all the time pointing out all the bad HVAC people who are taking advantage of consumers. Please remember, the Hall of Shame is about crooks, people who steal, rip-off artists. Its not a place to grind axes. We go after the bad guys hard but we try even harder to let people know there are good folks out there too.
Im no fan of the big utilities either, but Ruth has a good point as well. Believe it or not, having the Utility check out the furnace first is just exactly what I did the last time I had a problem. And guess what, they fixed it for free! And do you know who suggested I call the utility company? One of the good HVAC guys I called for service who could have charged me a hundred bucks just to send someone out for a look see.
If you truly want to defend your industry then go help all the good HVAC guys out there that are working so hard to clear out all the crooks. Thats what Im doing.
Ken Martinek
Sr. Producer/Investigations
Fox 2 News WJBK-TV Detroit
(248) 552-5163
Fax (248) 552-8565"
Ken likes to trap HVAC contractors in stings, portraying our trade as the "bad guys." You might want to drop him a line, too.
And don't forget to keep filling up Ruth Spencer's e-mailbox at ruths@clickondetroit.com.0 -
Just amazes me
When Ken Martinek and other media person can make statments like "Well let me just dust off my pitchfork so I can join all you HVAC folks in storming the castle." and "making use of terms like moronic, silly, and ignorant makes you sound like a knee jerk reactionary with blinders on." Yet for the opposing view point to use the terms moronic, silly, and ignorant are concidered just down right verboten0 -
Ruth
Gentlemen,
You are targeting the wrong entity here,Ruth could be any consumer reporter for any news outlet.It is the utility that is subsidized by their monopoly over gas supply in Detroit that this industry needs to target.
Chances are if the utility offers inside services and they do so at a very low rate.(Subsidized by the utility's guaranteed return)In the past 38 years in the industry I have ran across this countless times !
Ruth (whoever) is not the enemy here in fact she most likely gave consumers good advice about cheap heating service. In fact we should thank her for exposing this unfair business practice and go after the utility!
Calm down take a breath and direct your anger at the utility through trade organizations unions in the Detroit area etc.While Ruth (whoever) could have used a little more tactful verbage, she did in fact do her job.0 -
Brad...
... That must have been dry humor. You didn't even smile ;~)
Yours, Larry0 -
Well, who is telling them
to go after us? How much you want to bet it's Consumers' Energy, which I believe is the name of the gas utility in Detroit?
"You want our advertising dollars, you have to make independent contractors look bad so we can take their business"?
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excellent points
steamhead
that is unfortunately where we are in this country, advertizing and big bucks calls the shots, it is not who is right or better
our tax dollars also get used this way which freaks me out, I mean how many times do we hear of suposed reporters { who never leave their desk } getting paid by our govt to write stories that citizens will take as fact, Novak and Miller come to mind but there are probably 1,000's more
In my state of CT all the local news and papers told everyone to reelect, back and vote for John Rowland, right after his last election all kinds of stories came out about his corruption.
Funny things was many people already knew he was corrupt and if the news had done it's job we wouldn't have re elected him.
It's a sad state of affairs
we are not going to get anywhere with this woman or her bosses, they are too above it all0 -
I tried as well...
and could not get in.
My point - besides the obvious ignorance so well stated by you and others, Dave - was this: where I live there is no "utility company"...I heat with oil. That advice does nothing for me in more ways than one...and could be very damaging as well.
My tech Glenn just did the annual cleaning/testing of my boiler...and he will never try and sell me a certain model or anything inefficient because he's INDEPENDENT. He certainly gives good advice, though...that's what is the key.
I know I'm not the only one in this situation...so what if you are not served by a gas company/utility? Just another point she needs to see.
Take Care, PJO0 -
Ratcheting up a notch
Well, despite promises by her producer that Ruth Spencer would personally call me to discuss her comments on Monday or Tuesday, the phone has not rang. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt -- the clock hasn't struck midnight yet.
So the next step will be to start an anti-WDIV website. With the strength of every angry HVAC contractor visiting the site, it will climb the Google search engine charts to a point that when someone wants to find out more about WDIV, they will also learn about Ruth's comments and how an entire trade is up in arms.
Too bad, it can be avoided with an apology and a retraction.0 -
John
John,
Please e-mail me relative to this matter.I have important
info for you!
kontnyrichard@yahoo.com
T.Y.0
This discussion has been closed.
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