Went with the other guy

Anthony Mobilio_3

Received a call today from a pal of mine he has a small local fuel company we do installations and service for. One of his biggest accounts (servicing for 10 years) a 4 story building has no heat or hot water. The old One pipe steam boiler has water leaking from the blast tube. Pull the burner, flood the boiler and found the leak. The boiler that's there is 1.2 Million Btu's and has 2 coils (rotted) We went to each apartment to measure the EDR and with the pick up factor the Btu's were 450,000 gave a price on a Burnham steam boiler all new main vents insulate the header's and riser's all new 4'' schedule 40 pipe also install an indirect holding tank with a boiler feed pump.

We were few thousand more but we looked at the big picture, do it right the first time.
Got the call today from my pal said the went with the other company to do the installation
(a big oil company) There installing a bigger boiler (don't ask my why) and there leaving everything the same
The question I have
1. Was it overkill or should I have went along with everyone else.
2. When or if the inspector goes there to check out the unit by having it oversized will he say anything (will he care)
My pal the oilman thinks he might have lost the oil account also

I feel bad for the guy. he has a small operation and he kills himself for his accounts there nothing he wouldn't do for someone

[Deleted User]

seems to me that

the guy who owns the building should be the one who really cares since he's going to be paying more for fuel..i'd keep sizing things right, the way you do...what else can you do and still sleep okay..sorry about your friend.

Al Letellier

lost job

Don't ever, ever, ever compromise your standards just because you fear losing the job. You did your best to do a quality job and you should be proud of that. That's the stuff pros are made of!!!!!
I for one never worry about lost jobs or accounts. Nobody likes to lose them, but somehow, that great Project Manager in the sky seems to replace 'em 10 times over....I walked away from $100K remodel job last year because the GC was a total jerk and my customer of 5 years decided he knew more about heat than I did (not even close). Within 30 days, I signed two contracts worth over 250K.....go figure!!

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