Need to vent

Steve Whitbeck

Customer calls about two months ago with no heat - I go out and the boiler is running.

I installed it seven years ago. Cycle it a bunch of times but can't get it to act up. So I clean the flame rod ( the flame current was a LITTLE low ).

about three weeks ago he calls and says he has poor heat. House won't get over 65*.

When I get there the boiler pump is running and the boiler is at 120*, vent damper is closed, LED's ( power, thermostat and limit are lit ) damper LED is not lit. I then start to find the fault. Customer couldn't find the book that I left with the boiler and the wiring diagram on the front door is for a standing pilot. ( wire collors are not correct )

I find out that the damper has power but not recieving signal to open. I then start looking for a loose wire in the main connector on the control board and the boiler fires up.

I told the customer that I thought the control board is bad. Picked up a new board and installed it. everything is fine for a week and he calls back - same problem - boiler is cold.

I get there and it is running and at 180*. Cycle it a few times and the LWCO sticks open. (GUARD DOG) I have replaced quite a few of these. On the privious visit I told the customer that I had these go bad.

So I replace the LWCO and just to prove that the control board IS bad I put the old one back on. Told the customer that I still though it was bad but wanted to be sure. I credited him for the control.

This is ALL on the invoices.

Tonight HE calls all Pissed off. It is doing it again and he damands I fix it and he is not paying me another dime. I am not going to give him that control for free. He kept saying that I am the expert and I should have already fixed it. I couldn't get him to understand that If the boiler is running and won't act up I won't be able to find what is wrong.

What he has is two problems that are intermitant. I finally caught one acting up beyond a doubt.

The problem is he has a friend ( his term) that works at another HVAC company ( that I have been hired by to fix two of their boiler installs) that is telling him I don't know what I am doing and the whole problem is the aquastat limit. He says that the limit is bad because it is letting the boiler get too cold.

Like that wasn't the first thing I checked.

What do you do with a situation like this. How can you win the customer back. ( one pissed off customer can turn off at least ten potential new customers)

Should I just give him the control board???

Steamhead

Time to walk

tell him to call his "friend". They deserve each other.



Don't worry about the fallout. I bet you're not the only one he treats this way, so he shouldn't have that much credibility with others.

VictoriaEnergy

ouch

Steve:

You are a good tech.  Those of us who have read your posts know this.



You can't win this guy over.  You've taken the high road by giving his money back on the expensive board.



I suggest :

1) You apologise for letting him down, despite your best efforts;

2) you remind him you did the honorable thing by rfunding him the board.  Few others are willing do this, and;

3) suggest he get his trusted friend to fix it for him.



You can't win with a critic following in your footsteps.  So cut your losses and move on.



If you are reading this and you play the critic role in situations like this.  You are an a$$#ole!!

Steve Whitbeck

Thanks

Thanks for the kind words.

I take pride in my honesty and it hurts when this happens. I get about one of these every 5 years.

He bitched about my hourly charge. ( I am higher than most one man operations but lower than the big companies that don't do work as good as mine.) The last few years it seems that I am one of the go to guys if you are having a boiler problem.

heatpro02920

Tough call..

I have ran into this multiple times, I always explain to the customer, "when the unit doesn't fault while I'm standing in front of it, it is hard to diagnose, I'm not going to leave with out trying something, but that "something" is only going to be my best guess, I'm only charging you one service fee but it may take multiple visits to find an intermittent problem." If they can not understand this I always say " If you want, I can have one of my techs bring a chair and sit in front of the unit until it happens again, but that costs $65 per hour, that I'm sure you don't want to spend" jokingly... It has worked thus far, no matter how good you are there is no way to fix something correctly that is not broken when you are trouble shooting it.



Last week I get to an oil service call, the customer hit the reset and the unit is running, when I get there I check the pump pressure and vacuum, then the I pull the motor and check the coupling, it is split so I change it, even after finding the bad coupling I continue to check the transformer, change the nozzle, check the endcone and electrodes, check the fire and drafts then I'm on my way, CONFIDENT, that I found and repaired the problem... That night 11:15PM my cell rings, its my answering service they have an emergency call and of course its the service call that I did... SO I call her back, and she says "I have no heat, I thought you fixed it, blah blah blah" I don't want to wake up my night tech, so I jump in the truck and head down, I get just after midnight, I find nothing wrong, I hit the reset and the unit runs... I change the motor, its an old marathon which I have seen with dead spots before... Its been a week no trouble so I am again confident this was the problem, but who knows, time will tell... Now the customer doesnt want to pay for the first service call since it wasnt fixed, So I refund her the nozzle and the coupling even though she was standing there and seen the nozzle with a furball hanging off the back of it, and the bad coupling.... But both parts are only $13 total so I am just happy she is happy....



BUT- in the case she wasn't happy and was inconsolable I would cut my losses put her old motor on and refund the entire first invoice, then recommend someone else.. BUT most of the time with customers like this, they are just looking for something for nothing... Not a customer you want to deal with anyway....



Now for the "my friend is a pro" issue, I would ask to have his friend give me a call, and welcome to meet him there to help diagnose the problem, they never want to do that...



I am sorry you had to deal with this, but at this point I think you did what you could, let him get someone else, they are going to have to change the board and they are probably going to charge more than you, so he will {or should rather} have nothing to say at that point, except for "I'm sorry" lol.....



I find as soon as a customer is "short" with me, I don't want to work for them anymore, I had a customer call me and say my tech stole a box of baseball cards from his basement, this guy has worked for me for 7 years, never had a complaint, he has been in my home dozens of times, 50 years old, doesnt even like sports, I know people that knew him his entire life, he has never been called a thief.... So I ask, are you sure you didn't misplace them, move them, ect???? Nope, he is positive my tech and starts screaming at me... So I told him to call the police if he feels that strongly about it, he wanted $5000 or the cards back.... About 2 hours later his wife calls they found the cards, she wanted to apologize for her husband {I had just installed a $12k boiler and indirect} I told her "if your husband doesn't call and apologize to my tech within the week, please do not ever call me again, go through someone else for warranty and service issues" he never called....



No big loss, after installing a new system that customer most likely wont own the house by the time it needs to be replaced and you only have service calls with warranty parts to look forward to, there is no profit there, lol....



Good luck Steve with what ever you chose to do...

JStar

Customer

I'm just the opposite on this. I have very little ego with my customers. It's not personal. It's business. I am also extremely specific with my service invoices. Use phrases like "most likely cause" or "may require further service if problem persists", and have them sign the invoice before doing anything. Then if they get ugly, you have something to use to defend yourself. I never recommend finding another contractor, or to stop calling me. Most of the tough customers appreciate that I'm willing to put up with them. There are a lot of ways to make them happy, and not get taken advantage of. I'll always let a customer choose to leave me, never the other way around.

Tom_133

What I should do and What I would do...

Thats the problem, I should do just what the other posters are saying to do, walk away and not worry about the pieces.



What I would do because I am the type who likes people to like me is, take a hit in labor make sure the customer sees the discount but charge 100% for parts plus mark up and when they call back I would go and take another round of their crap.



Steve, I totally get what you are saying and its those type of service calls that make me want to pack it up and go find someone to work for and let them deal with those customers and the headaches.

heatpro02920

jstar that is also a good policy

but I will leave a customer, It has only happened a few times in a lot of years but some times people just aren't good to be around... I had a customer try to call leak damage into my insurance company, we fixed the leak after it froze and he had no homowners, then he called my insurance company and tried to make a claim... then when I approached him about it he said something like "what do you care the insurance is going to pay for it" and I didnt see it the same way, since I have never had an at fault claim and dont plan on it... I had another customer who was mentally ill and attacked one of my techs, we refused to go back... But thats about it...



Its not the equipment I quit on, its the customer, some people {maybe more around here} are just not worth dealing with...



I have plenty of customers that are just a normal pain in the ****, we put up with them, but its the handful that cross the line I wont deal with...

JStar

Customers

I hear yah. I have a few lines that can't be crossed; ie: physical abuse, blackmail, etc. I've even walked from customers due to racist comments about other techs. I guess my point is that most customers are already on edge about contractors, especially here in NJ and the major cities. They are always going to assume that we're guilty first. It's all part of the job. It's a psychological nightmare, this business.