Working on Junk

I hear you Bill

That stuff can be depressing. I get the feeling that there have always been hacks out there when I look at one of those Frankenstein piping arrangements. Yikes!!

You are right on the money about educating customers re: wasted fuel dollars with old junk. What to do? I keep having the nagging thought that Steve Ebels was correct: $4.00 oil brings a rude awakening.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

I know

from experience as long as you are willin to keep fixing it they will never replace it.

So why are you still fixing it?

I'm still waiting on that day where I can say sorry, we only service what we install.

That $4 Statement is False.

Oil may go to 10 bucks a gallon, and people will never wake up. There is no "magic" ceiling.

When oil hit 70 cents was when people should have woken up.

I believe it is more of people living at the upper end of their means. When it comes to "fixing what ain't broke" the money is hard to come by. But new cars, and other tangible "instant-enjoyments", can be immediately felt and seen (and shown off).

We need MTV to a "bling-bling" series on celebrity's houses. All the acoutrements displayed on TV to modern music, half nekkid wimmens.....sorry. You get the idea. Who the heck would ever think the whole (younger) world would be wearing their pants hanging off their butts with 10lbs of fake gold around their necks, and have $500 cars with $15,000.00 worth of wheels on it? And a super-expensive stereo that was too loud to listen to?

Boys, we gots to add some bling to the basement...

We are the only people (Wallies, and some of our customers) who show off their heating equipment and mechanical rooms.

I'm off to the Jersey Shore.

marketing

Keith,

Great point about the marketing. This industry does VERY little marketing. Oh yeah, all the manufactures advertise in the trade mags. trying to get us to install their stuff, but how many advertise to the general public, not many. The car makers dont advertise to mechanics do they? They have an entire section in the paper for sales. When was the last boiler or furnace add you saw in any paper?

Its time for the manufactures to step up and promote their wares to then non-trades types. Then maybe John Q. Public will listen. And it will make our sales calls easier.Because right now are marketing does stink.

Just a thought.

Now Im going fishing on my boat I found advertised in a fishing magazine.

Tom

marketing

Yes our industry has horrible marketing and always has. the companies advertise to us not to the customer. Mitsubishi has recently been advertising to the customer and our phones lit up with folks wanting quotes on them . Why boiler or control companies don't do this is a mystery.

When the companies do advertise to the consumer they also tend to screw it up , they should ask for dealer input. Take York they spent millions pushing the Affinity line to consumers , but unfortunately marketing never talked to engineering or production. Consequently folks where calling up trying to buy units that we couldn't even sell them.

Then they adverstised them again in the middle of the freakin summer . More folks called only to be upset again as most of us good HVAC guys where already booked for the summer.
Conclusion York basically wasted millions of dollars . I think they hire these harvard educated wizz kids with marketing degrees , problem is they've never even run a lemonade stand.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

I think Al Corelli has this right. Spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a new heating system dosen't "feel good" It means nothing to most (but not all) homeowners. They would rather spend it on vacations, new cars, boats etc. Well who wouldn't. Only the people in the heating, cooling or plumbing businesses know the value of a new heating system. Maybe someone who has lived with a "no heat" situtation may understand.

Unfortunatly most see it as a money stealer. Heating fuel along with its nasty equipment. Something that is taking their hard earned money that they could be spending on other things to have fun with.

And the jokes about "plumbers crack" etc. most have little or no respect for someone in the business who gets his hands dirty.

Ed

the glass

while many folks feel that way about thier heating equipment not all do. the way to sell it is to show them that if they get the good equipment and quality instal that they will then have more money for all the good stuff. We just did a boiler replacement job where i think they will save several hundred$ a month . Not too mention a quieter system , better looking , lower electrical consumption you know the drill. I talked about the technical stuff his eye's glazed over.

Guy was a car nut i told him with with the new boiler i was throwing in the lease on a new sports car. His eyes lit right up "huh?" .

"Well sir we are going to save you enough each month to cover the lease on a new sports car."

More boiler really does equall more bling and not just in the boiler room.

"When can you start"

The glass is not half empty folks it is half full and i like to think mines full of of very fine wine. It's all in how you look at it boys.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Advertising

An area P&H company is doing cable TV ads featuring Biasi boilers. They show the triple pass and mention efficiency and oil savings etc.

A lot are

I work in a small town with three small oil companies and two plumbing companies and one propane company. One of the oil companies tells customers they will not work on Riello Burners or System 2000's. The propane company had something going and asked to borrow a combustion test kit. Gee my wet kit and my Pro 125 both have provisions to test LP. Then you have companies wanting to pay peanuts for for experienced techs. The industry is often it's own worst enemy.
Leo

tv ad

> An area P&H company is doing cable TV ads

> featuring Biasi boilers. They show the triple

> pass and mention efficiency and oil savings etc.

Depends on where you're installing the unit

In older buildings such as we find in Baltimore, it can be impossible to find a way to vent a mod-con boiler that will meet Codes and the manufacturer's instructions. We've seen where others have played fast-and-loose with this; we'll probably read about it in the papers or see it on TV news at some point. Then the lawyers will get involved.....

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

More to it than that

tearing out old systems is labor-intensive. Shady contractors see many dollar signs in tear-outs, that's why they push scorched-air so much.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Too high tech?

Steve, one company too many you say? Ha! You would flip if you were in my area. You don't know how many guys say that the new stuff is just too complicated! At least if a thermocouple goes bad in the winter you can get one and change it quickly! That zone valve is just one more thing that can go bad! Why put on a complicated T-Stat! Here's all you need! And the classic, I'm from the old school! If you can't tighten it with a wrench, solder it, or tap on it, to get it to go, its high tech to them! I recently was involved with a water heater replacement referred by a friend of a friend. Long story short, two new heaters in four or five years, a new forced air furnace a couple of years ago side wall vented, leaving only the water heater in an old masonry chimney. The condensation and basement dampness were obvious, my explanation of why was accepted at the time. I offered several options, from new instantaneous, so on, to my least expensive was lining the chimney and a new standard water heater. They'll get back to me. Never heard from them, so I asked the friend that referred them what happened. They felt that I was honest and probably an excellent craftsman, but they thought that I wanted to do the job “too good.” Another plumber told them that a standard water heater like they had was all that they needed, and that there was no such thing as a chimney being too big, basements are damp places! He further told them that if they installed the "high tech" equipment that I first recommended, that they would be asking for nothing but trouble! Those babies break down and it’s hard to get part in the winter time! Always the winter time! I give their new water heater two years and they may finally have the job done "too good!" Or another guy will just change that one blaming the greedy manufacturer that wouldn't replace their junk under warranty! How can you compete with that? I may go broke not getting the jobs, but, I won't give up trying!