The Winter Replacement Program (Legal ?)
February 28, 2008
Have you ever opened the newspaper or received a letter or flyer in the mail that offers you an “Incredible Deal”, “Phenomenal Opportunity”, “Limited Time Offer”, “Help, We Are Overstocked and You Save”, “Free Furnace”? When these offers come from HVAC Businesses they will usually involve a “Special Deal” that the contractor has negotiated with the manufacturer or distributor. In this article, at the expense of creating a stir among some HVAC professionals, I am going to try and explain how some of these offers work and uncover some of the aspects of this type of marketing that HVAC contractors would not want you to know.
Let’s get started. Here is how it works in some cases. The HVAC contractor contacts its equipment distributor and lets them know that they will be offering a “Winter Replacement Program” to their customer base. Many distributors have been involved with these programs and require no education and therefore are prepared and usually willing to be a party to this borderline scam.
HVAC Service Technicians and the Sales Spiff
February 27, 2008
This is a very common practice among HVAC contractors. I don’t have a statistic to quantify this, but my own personal experience of dealing with HVAC contractors for over a decade, gives thought that perhaps more then 75% of HVAC contractors participate in this sales tactic.
Here is how it works. The contractor sends the service technician to your home to perform a necessary repair. For example, you have called for service because your air conditioner is not cooling as much as usual or has shut down. The service technician shows up and diagnoses the problem. You are told that it appears that a ???? has overheated and this has caused the ???? to fail. He informs you that a repair will “probably” (leaving you to wonder if it will cost more) cost you $$$$ and will take possibly three days to get the parts and to come back to repair your unit.
You are now left with the thought that it will be DAYS!! without air conditioning. Your spouse will not be happy. Your kids will not be happy. And the cost of that repair was really high!!
Improve Air Quality by Upgrading Your Furnace Filter
February 27, 2008
by Bill Whitworth
What many people do not realize is that by upgrading your furnace filter you can significantly improve the air quality inside your home in a truly inexpensive way. The average person is breathing in about 32,000 pints worth of air in a single day. Can you imagine how many particles of dust can be found in these 32,000 pints? The truth is, there are around 1,120,000,000 dust particles, most of which that are 3 microns or smaller, floating around in the air that we are breathing on a daily basis.
According to studies by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be as much as two to five times more polluted than the air outdoors. Indoor air quality is affected by a number of things. Your primary defense against problems with air quality is your air conditioning filter and your furnace filter.
Homeowner Asking For a Price Breakdown
February 27, 2008
This is a question from a homeowner asking for some competitive bid information because his contractor only gave him a lump sum. He is curious what the breakdown should be for each piece of equipment. Basically, he wants an itemized breakdown of his bid. A reasonable request, right? Apparently not!
The professional contractors come back with very rude remarks, telling him that he should accept the lump sum and be done with it. I only copied the request and one professionals response, and then the homeowners retort. There were pages and pages of responses from professional contractors that were nothing less then brutal.
The Marketing-Based Contractor Pushes “Buy” Buttons at Will
February 26, 2008
Just like the TV advertisements that sink into your subconscious and trigger buying impulses, the HVAC industry is starting to realize the value of pushing “buy” buttons with it’s customer base as well. The quote below was presented at last years ACCA conference. What this implies is that the “Professional” HVAC contractor today, in order to get ahead of it’s competition, needs to lead it’s customers by pushing their “buy” buttons and therefore instead of performing a needed service at a competitive price, lead the customer in their buying decision.
BLUE-TUBE UV™ Light Sytems For Your Health
February 26, 2008
Why Ultra Violet Light? Most people spend the majority of their time inside their homes. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that the air inside your home may be up to five times more polluted than outside air. The EPA has listed indoor air quality (IAQ) as one of the top five environmental health risks today!
Which Brand of Furnace or Air Conditioner is Best?
February 25, 2008
The question has been asked forever. And the answer has actually evolved over time. There was a time when different manufacturers of HVAC equipment produced varying degrees of product quality. With the advent of programs that have been put into place by major manufactures in recent years to concentrate on product quality, such as ISO 9000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000, the quality gap that once existed has narrowed. Now, the fear of lower quality is not as significant of a concern as in days past. The biggest differences in HVAC equipment today is that of proprietary technologies that each manufacturer offers.
Public Perception or Misconception?
February 25, 2008
I have copied and pasted below, a conversation between a homeowner and “All Experts”, Bill Brainard. Bill has helped thousands of homeowners with HVAC questions over the years. In this situation, the homeowner is asking if the brand of equipment he is considering, lives up to it’s larger then life reputation and if the price he has been quoted is reasonable.
The first point I want to bring out is that of Brand. If you look, the homeowner is considering Carrier because his original brand, Bryant was not doing the job. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, it is until you learn that THEY ARE THE SAME! Bryant and Carrier are made in the same factory and are mostly identical. Then Bill points out that Carrier’s repair reputation is not the best. But wait a minute, I thought it was the best? 
How the Residential HVAC Industry operates and what it means to you the homeowner.
February 24, 2008
Before getting into the nuts and bolts of the supply chain of HVAC, Let’s take a look at a couple other related industries so you can get a sense of why it is important for you to know any of this at all.
First let’s take Plumbing. Back in the day when your parents built or remodeled houses, the normal procedure for getting your plumbing work completed was to call your plumber and meet with him to go over your project. You would tell the plumber what type of fixtures and faucets and other plumbing related apparatus you wanted. Once you made that decision, your plumber would go to his wholesale supply house and purchase your fixtures and then install them for you. He would mark up the price of your plumbing products along with his labor and you would pay him for everything. Not so these days. Now, it is common practice for you to go to your local big box store, plumbing showroom or On-Line and purchase fixtures yourself.
How much is R-22?
February 24, 2008
Here’s the deal. In the post below, this homeowner has just had about 7 lbs. of R-22 refrigerant added to his air conditioner. He tried to pay the contractor but was told he would have to bill him because he didn’t know the current price. The homeowner also had the contractor give him an estimate to replace the entire system. This was what the contractor spent most of his time on according to the article.
Now, the homeowner gets a bill for this service and is stunned. Because the forum he was originally on has a rule of no pricing talk, he eluded to the price by saying he recently had four Michelin HydroEdge high end radial tires put on his car and it cost just about the same as 6.7lbs of R22. So I come up with approximately $450-$500.
