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what do you do when the supply house makes a mistake and and you lose money on a job

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  • Jellis
    Jellis Member Posts: 228
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    the way I understand it... just to be clear...

    You Quoted your friend a price for a replacement water heater
    Found out that it needed a special control not originally anticipated...
    I'm a bit confused by the "2 controls and $300 later"... i take that as you ruined 2 controls trying to get them to work with the unit?

    Silly of the Sales person to say what they did... they should be an expert in their product... however... the Letter is a message to the "contractor/installer"

    I get it, you trusted the Sales guy and got Burned... Getting burned hurts... They should at the very least hook you up with a discount on the needed control I would say... However all the blame can't be laid on the supply house in my opinion.

    While I very much appreciate when the salesperson advises me on things I do not know... I never EXPECT them to know more than me about what I am installing.

    That being said... what control do you need? maybe someone has one/ can get one cheaper.

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,546
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    This is a sad state of affairs all over, I here this all the time and it is not brand specific or supply house specific.

    The commercial side of the business where I used to toil is just as bad if not worse.

    We have had to wait for parts to be flown in from Germany, Italy and France, it seems on commercial side they don't even have parts within the United States. It's happened to us several times. Metric blower motors, oil pump made in France etc.

    Sometimes on Commercial you have multiple boilers, residential you usually don't have an option.

    We had a Mod Con in a building at a State University go down on New Years Eve, bad board. Supply house couldn't get a hold of anyone from the boiler MFG. We couldn't either, tech support wouldn't answer the phone nor would there local techs.

    Had to bring in a rental boiler on New Years Eve. You can imagine what that cost$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a lousy board.

    Not sold on Mod Cons unless multiple boilers
  • mikedo
    mikedo Member Posts: 174
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    i did not ruin the 2 controls. i opened the first one a digital control and i wasn't sure it was going to work so i bought and old style honeywell because the supply house was closing it was saturday at 1130. this was at a different supply house than where i bought the tank. they were not open. supply house does not want returns on opened electrical components. if the supply house inside sales rep expert on heating and hot water said he wasn't sure i would have researched it more. jellies did you read in the post that after i left the supplyhouse the sales rep called thermoflow found out that you can't reuse the old control and never called me that friday. and when i picked up the heater i took the sticker off and showed it to him. so I'm supposed to buy products at the supplyhouse for more than a homeowner pays at home depot or supplyhouse.com and get incompetent service and be happy
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,546
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    @mikedo

    I wouldn't be happy with your supplier either. There are plenty of back seat driver who look at the facts and come up with a different conclusion. You did the best you could at the time.

    Hindsight always has 20/20 vision
  • GroundUp
    GroundUp Member Posts: 1,909
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    EdTheHeaterMan said:

    GroundUp said:

    I had a similar situation awhile back where they didn't send a remote with a mini split. Complained, they offered to sell me one. I needed it now so I bought it. It wasn't even the right brand. So I complained again and was told they'd take the last one back and I could buy the right one. Ordered it, set it up and I had cooling. Fast forward a month when I needed heat, the remote didn't have a heating mode. For the 2nd time I had the wrong remote and this time they wouldn't take it back because it was used. They still hadn't refunded me from the last one I returned either. Again they offered to sell me the "right" one, which at this point I was livid that they screwed it up 3 times so I did my own research and bought it elsewhere so I knew it would be right. I never did get reimbursed for the first one despite at least 30 phone calls and "oh I'm sorry we'll get that refunded to your card right away", so here I sit with $300 and 20 hours of my time wasted on this disaster, but at least it was installed in my own shop and not a customer's. Not that they care, but they should- that little stunt cost them $800,000 a year in sales they will no longer be getting from me and my coworkers. Fool me once....

    CALL YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY... THEY CAN CHARGE BACK THE VENDOR IF IT IS RECENT ENOUGH!

    I did. They fought it, claimed I never returned either remote. The first one I did return but the second one I still have, explained to CC company that they refused to accept it as a return because it was opened, etc. I did not get my refund.

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