We're sorry

Brad White_17

"That was my favorite balloon.... when it was a balloon...

Gotta Love Eeyore. Patron Saint of the Downtrodden.

Mark Hunt

We apologize for the inconvenience

Gotta' ask.

How many of you have had to go back to a job to repair a factory screw-up and get this answer at the end of the solution...."we apologize for the inconvenience"...?????

That is a line DIRECTLY out of "The HitchHikers guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. (A wonderful trilogy and I highly recommend all 4 books)

Now did you ever get a dime from the manufacturer for YOUR time to diagnose and repair THEIR problem???? Don't answer....I already know.

Is it me, or have we contractors become like that fabled "Winnie the Pooh" character Eor???? You know, the eternally depressed donkey. He doesn't necessarily welcome hard ship so much as he expects it. He is accustomed to misery and he accepts disappointment as a way of life.

Supplier: "We're sorry we didn't send the boiler like you asked" .......Eor: "Thaaaats okkkk.....I'm only a tailess, stuffed figment of some childs imagination. I deserve what I get....."

Here's Eor. You in or not?

Mark H








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Steamhead (in transit)

One of my favorite Eeyore lines:

response to someone telling him "Good Morning"-

"If it is a good morning.... which I doubt....."

My response to a manufacturer who keeps screwing up- "I won't buy from you any more".

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Weezbo

Mark, it is not only our trade that gets this....

same thing goes for the automotive industry. those line mechanics that "find" some major malfunction or the back yard wrench twister never get a dime. trust me .

Cosmo_3

I know what you mean

Nothing crawls up my skin like hearing those words......


Cosmo Valavanis

Dependable P.H.C. Inc.

thp_8

Well

Once I bought $80.00 worth of parts that were trashed in days and the company (a giant) paid me better than 3G's to fix the problem. After I submitted the paperwork, reason for the failure and the solution for the problem. All within 7 days.

Brian

Call backs

I know what you mean.I had the same problem with the one Manufacturer.I finally got fed up and switched.Now I'm a happy Buderus dealer.

TTFN

Dobber

Mark Hunt

OK Weeze


but I ain't in that line o' work. Blessings on them all....

Now answer me!! How many times have you been squeezed to fix a manufacturer issue for "the fun of it"????

Mark H

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Bill Nye_2

Mark,

Lighten up Dude, it could be way worse.

"Your the first person who ever had that problem"..........

Or like when you call the manufacturers rep 6 times to get him to come out, then he "loses" all the information. 4 months before the issue is resolved [mainly because the wholesaler got involved to get it fixed]

Yeah Mark I'm in Eor's camp, I've resigned myself to expect lousy service. It all happens when companies are owned by boards and stock holders and the bottom line is most important. When John Doe owned John Does widget company and John cared about his product and his reputation things were different.

Mark Hunt

clap, clap, clap

> Once I bought $80.00 worth of parts that were

> trashed in days and the company (a giant) paid me

> better than 3G's to fix the problem. After I

> submitted the paperwork, reason for the failure

> and the solution for the problem. All within 7

> days.





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Bill Nye_2

Cost of

The cost of doing business. I eat a lot of labor, usually I don't have to eat the product. My supply house backs me sometimes when the manufacturer won't.

I guess you have to build a little cushion into all your jobs[easy to say] to cover this. But look at how it develops your trouble shooting skills and makes you grow as a person.

Tell that to your customer who just paid you $50K and he is living in a cold house listening to his wife.....

Weezbo

Nobody can count that high:)))

db_6

AllderTyme...

Happens

Steve_35

Someone on the Service Roundtable brought this point up.

Apparently the manufacturer's are paying their claims.

Someone mentioned the auto industry. Well the auto makers pay the dealer for repairs under warranty. Granted they don't allow as many hours for the repair as "The Book" but it's usually at least enough to make the repair.

I'm going to start submitting claims when something is defective out of the box.

Weezbo

may be. buh when did the last check..

roll out to the guy who fixed the electrical control board or the guy who found the cracked section of pipe between the c carb and the fuel preheater or a bazillion other Finds ? the diagnostic anylizers say its the Oxygen sensor. ok put another one in. nah it aint the sensor at ALL. maybe you have better luck. i just take the part back hand it to them mention this or that get a new one and split. paying for a 2 cent delrin ring doesnt really approach the new meaning of floating floor.

Mad Dog_2

and the donkey can like a mule when he gets angry...............

Its true. MD

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Mark Hunt

Can you imagine


if we, the contactors, started listing the faults with the products we were told were "the next best thing"????

Just imagine what we could do.

Eor is my hero.

Mark H

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Josh M.

The other side... I work for a manufacturers rep. doing factory service. All I do is fix contractors screw ups.. FOR FREE... And when I bring up the fact that we did that work for free when we have a little defect in the equipment you guys look at us like we are from outer space. Truth is even rep. firms rarely get money from the manufacture. It is the nature of the beast. Choose your products wisely. Remember most contractors aren't like you guys. Most shift the blame else where. Which is why it is so hard to get money for fixing defects. To many contractors cry wolf! You are paying for their stupidity!

will smith_4

A little defect-

Like Entrain II? Or something a little less devastating? How dare you come to this Wall and complain, as a manufacture's (hourly paid tech) that you work for free, solving "our" problems, with "your" technology? Your people send it out there, why do you have a problem standing behind it? (By the way, you didn't tell us who you work for-you should!) You're the typical manufacture' rep that we in the field deal with that gives the good ones a bad name.

Unknown

\"listing faults\"

Done that. The results: Less than desirable;-)

I had a ball valve today that would not shut off. The next best thing for expansion tank isolation from RAVEN. IPS not sweat. Should I SCREAM?

Too late.

Wallace Radiant Design

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Mitch_6

Its Not Manufactures its the reps and supply houses

I was buying one brand of water heaters start with R. They have a non resetting thermo link for the flashgard system. One of them failed (not tripped) on a very difficult installation. It was the first time this had happened since the product was new, I went crazy trying to figure it out since the literature did not mention the symptoms. The rep new what it was right away since they had seen a lot. The only thing we could do to fix the problem was replace this three month old heater. It took for ever to get just a little compensation from them.

Now I will not use there product even if it is a warranty replacement tank, I tell the home owner what happened and if it happens to them the cost is between them and the manufacturer, the home owner almost always goes with a new tank from another manufacture.

On the other side I have had some problems with other products but the reps and supply house back me up. Some times free merchandise I can sell to make up for my labor loss. Those products I push.

Mitch S.

Supply House Rick

Another View...

Hopefully this is not us Mark is referring to. If it was I would have heard about it by now. When we do make mistakes and yes they do happen. We will run the correct items to the job and we have done a 150 mile round trip for contractors. I will do this personally if all our trucks are out.

The problem is when a manufacturer send an item out missing something that's not a normal stock item. Then we are all at their mercy and we always here "WE ARE SORRY FOR YOUR INCONVENIENCE" I think they have that on tape and just push a button when it convenient... Not all suppliers are created equally.
Rick

Mike Reavis_2

Not to Nit Pick Here, but isn't it::

We "apoligise" for the inconvenience?

Mike

Troy_3

Quality control--Whaassat?

I think the quality control departments are all gone. Why worry about quality when the contractor (your customer) will fix it for FREE! I bet if we all billed for this garbage we get, the quality control would improve. Or they would go broke. Like us. I'm fed up too! It is getting worse every year and none of them care because we put up with it. I will accept that things go wrong but we shouldn't have to double order so we can complete a job. We now open all boxes in the shop to see what is missing before going to the job. Soon we will be installing and firing in the shop so we know the junk will work when fired.

Boilerpro_3

Worse all the time

I agree, In the last 12 or so boilers I've installed, I've had: 2 defective gas valves (one with a casting leak, one with a defetive regulator), 2 defective stack dampers, 1 stack damper with too short of a wiring harness, 1 with crooked piping, 1 with the wrong size burner orifices installed and an overtightened plug in the boiler
In the previous year, I had 3 incorrectly adjusted gas valves (manifold pressure) and 1 in which the factory's piping layout was incorrect (in the manual) and firing controls were defective, 2 with overtightened plugs in the boiler casting, and (an ongoing problem with at least 3 manufacturers) a broken off Pressure relief vavle nipple which is used to stabilize the boiler in the crate(what are they thinking) In prior 8 years, I had a couple of factory installed bushings that leaked and more broken off or damaged relief valve nipples.

The rate of junk being sent out seems to be accelerating exponentially, even from reputable (and this adjective may be changing) boiler manufacturers.

Boilerpro