Buderus Bias

singh

I went to quote a boiler replacement the other day.I explained the benefits of using a Buderus oil fired boiler. H.O asked some questions like, where boiler was made. I said it was a German boiler owned by Bosh.
H.O then told me how he lost relatives in the Holocust and does not want a German furnance in his house! An efficient one at that.
I apologized and then suggested another,which will be installed next week.
I am simpathetic, even more so because of my ethnic background also.
But some people need to move on.That was 60 years ago.
By the way ,they had a BMW in the driveway. : )

Dan_15

Survivors

I know many survivors, or family of survivors who feel quite strongly about buying from German companies that were complicit, however indirectly, in nazi atrocities. That wasnt your Beemer I assume. The BMW in the driveway is odd, given the HO's response.

Al Letellier

German bias

I've always believed in this saying, I use it all the time, and this is a classic example.
"The customer is not always right. It's our job to make them think they are!"

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D Logan Ireland Oil Co Inc

Buderus Bias

I am curios what you apoligized for since you had no responsibility for what happened 60 years ago.

Jared M

I quoted a job once for a small church and we were installing A/C. I didn't know it when I gave them the proposal but there was one member of the church that was donating the great majority of the funds to install the A/C system. We had quoted some Japanese ductless units to do some areas. He asked to meet with me before we proceeded with the job. When we met we reviewed all of the particulars of the job and he asked about the two Japanese units we were proposing to use. He asked if there was an alternative and I asked him why. It seems he fought in WWII in the Pacific theater and didn't want any Japanese products used if it was possible not to. We wound up using an alternative made in Korea and he was fine with that.

Who am I to argue with him? It's his money that they were spending, right? Besides, I can understand his point of view even if I don't fully agree with it.

-Jared

Mad Dog

Funny you say that......

We installed a few Buderus Panel Radiators in the home of a nice young Jewish Lady. As we were installing them, she just happened to start raling against the Germans and what they did to her relatives. Right on the side there were big proud stickers that said made in Germany. I asked her to go down work the thermostat for us...it gave us an opportunity to scrape the stickers off. We didn't think it could be an issue, but she probably would've wanted us to rip them out. By the way, she loves the way they look and heat...sometimes we don't need to tell people stuff that will freak them out and will not do them any harm. After that, I always make a point of letting people knopw where they are made. About the BMW: some people are selectively prejudical and seemingly hypocritcal. I guess it is their prerogative. Mad Dog

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Mad Dog

That's right...it is his choice

He put his life on the line against the Imperial Empire and will never forgive them for that. I can respect that. Mad Dog

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singh

Sometimes as a business owner you have to appear to be on their side.I apologized for perhaps offending them.
Today the same homeowner told me he wants more work done in the house,bathroom remodel, and more,it may not have been wise for me to told him to get over it, I could have lost work.

Dean_7

60 years ago

"But some people need to move on." "That was 60 years ago."
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were two of the most racist and sadistic entities ever to exist. Both tortured, killed, and exterminated men, women, and children on a massive scale. Both conducted horrific medical experiments on men, women, and children, simply because they could. Multiple generations of whole families were exterminated. It took the entire industrial production capacity of the United States placed on a 24 hour, 7 day a week schedule combined with the efforts of the other allied powers over three years to defeat these regiemes. And it took the development of nuclear weapons to finally end the conflict. The repercutions of these events at that time in history are still being felt today. For some people it is very hard to "move on."

Kal Row

especialy since there are many people alive...

with the tattooed concentration camp numbr on them, After the last of them die…
all the people like mel-gibson’s father that say it never happened, will come out of the wood work and rewrite history

in the meantime, Germany is paying reparations to these people so I don’t mind helping out – besides – the “national borders” are very blurred when it comes to the real products and jobs – you got more Toyotas made in the usa than anywhere else – and German companies employ thousands of jews worldwide – so it goes either way, there is no hard and fast rule – just listen to the customer - and in a pinch you but on your best accent and say, “af-tah oll da mah-nee da cher-mans tuk frahm ahs, aht leeest day gif ahss ah prrrah-ductt dat vil safe some mah-nee!!!”, but you really have to be from Brooklyn to pull it off

Mad Dog

The crux of the issue, Dean!

You nailed it. The Bataan Death March and Bergen-Belsen are not things that can ever be wiped from one's memory - especially when they witnessed it first hand. It is a consumers prerogative to choose what they want in their home. Mad Dog

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Paul Pollets

Changing Times

I'm sensitive to the owner's right to determine the product selection, especially if I know they're Jewish. I see hypocrisy when the German boiler is condemned and the owner steps into their BMW or Mercedes. I've never been told to "spec another make, made elsewhere" and I've dealt with many owners who were Holocaust survivors or 1st generation survivors. My previous partner Sheldon, is a first genration survivor...both of his parents were in Auschwitz. He has a Viessmann boiler in his home and sold them exclusively with me. Maybe Moses Fischman could comment from the Orthodox perspective, but my experience has found it's budget and sales presentation that determines the boiler selection, not religion.

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Weezbo

namaste. singh.

it is wise to get out of the way of a problem,or bypass it . I know people in thier 80's and 90's, really if you consider thier living thier last years and have certain idyosyncratic behaviour patterns why not just allow them that and move on. the living hell some of them managed to weather might have killed you or me...

Kal Row

BMW or Mercedes...as jakie mason says...

if you cant afford one of them you say, "i vudnt be cawt ded in ah joy-man chaah fo noh moh-nee in da voirld!!" - funny how in the high end kitchen food processors, the cheaper bosch and braun stuff outsells the USA , Brit, french, and jap brands 2-1 -

you got to focus on the second $ sign in the vie$$mann name, that's the one for savings - the first one, is for the huge up front cost

singh

I hope I did not offend anyone that is not my intention.
I just find it comical that a jewish person could drive a german made car and yet have reservations about a german boiler.

As for moving on,there are so many atrocities against so many people of all walks of life perpetrated by all groups of people and religions that we can spend days or weeks discussing who did what to whom, perhaps this the wrong place to do it.
I am sympathetic to those that suffered and lost in the holocaust,I am also sympathetic to the Native Americans that lost their nations and lives from the crimes commited against them,I also symathize with all people of African descent because of slavery, Japanese- Americans that were interned and lost their livihood and business' and so,and so on and so on.....
Hopefully as humans we try to learn from our mistakes (hopefully,one day we will) and we move on.

Nuf said, God Bless us all. Peace and I wish all here a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Devan R. Manan Singh

Kal Row

you natrualy did everything right, means you are a good man!

Mark Eatherton1

I had a lady customer once...

that saw the words "Ehco en Mexico" on the copper tubing we were installing in her solar system. Shehad a FIT. Demanded I take it out and replace with AMerican copper.

I pulled her husband to the side (a retired plumber) and explained to him that we don't request where the copper comes from from our suppliers, and that I'd be more than glad to rip it all out and start over, at his cost...

He pulled his wife to the side and whispered something into her ear, she walked away madder than a wet hen, and the copper stayed.

ME

Mad Dog

True enough, but it still comes down to the customer's

prerogative...whether they are hypocrits or not, it is their $$$$$ > Mad Dog

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Mad Dog

You didn't offend anyone, Singh

and I do agree it IS hypocritical and silly of them - yet they have the right to be that way. God Bless you and have a great New Year. Mad Dog

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