\"Free Boilers\"

Gregg Jackson

I just wanted to let everyone in on my wonderful weekend dealing with the well know "free boiler company" here in New England. I have seen alot of talk about their free boiler program and can admit that it can be a bit ominous when looked at from afar. Anyway, i just had the pleasure of being in a "friendly" competition with them.

You see, we bid a job for a property owner who has two identical housing properties here in the RI/MA area. The owner had just signed a contract with said company and they begin installing 5 retrofit boiler room packages with multiple boilers, Tekmar controls and indirect water heating. The papers were signed and the job took off with a crawl. Boiler room 1 was "completed" and we were in negotiations on the second property.

The negotiations were endless as we were much higher priced and they couldn't understand how this could be.

"We weren't as big as them"

"They are a big professional company with experienced installers and high overhead"

"Did you look at the scope of work? - You people are way higher"

Long story short - We finished our project (all 5 boiler rooms), punchlist completed and inspections complete in six weeks. They finished weeks later than us and nothing works properly. Now they are battling over punchlist items, change orders and "why the damn Tekmar rep won't show up". It must be Tekmar's fault that the boilers don't run.

I have spent countless hours with the property manager explaining why "ours works like a swiss watch and theirs ........"

"They won't come out to service it !!!" (How do you service something that was installed wrong to begin with?)

"They say such and such wasn't in the contract"

"Boy..their piping doesn't look like yours"

So, anyway, my point of the story is that free boilers and mega-marketing will only overcome quality installation and service for so long. And when it does - it will only happen ONCE.

We got our price AND did it right. I spent much of my weekend servicing OUR customer because the "free boiler guys" wouldn't respond. I went and got 5 buildings heat - when they needed - they chose not to.

I had to miss Wetstock because of this but I think I won the battle against a "big box" company.

A free boiler can not and will not ever wash away the feeling of disgust when it doesn't work properly. I've seen the local utility try similar programs and they do fail eventually.

Keep on pushhing the enevelope and there will be no problems.

Gregg