Jay Dillon - HVAC Scams

HVAC

SCAMS

Secrets of the Heating and AirConditioning Industry

This book is dedicated to my wife Amy,who graciously put up with me working all those long hours andsomehow managed to keep her sanity. Love you babe!

Also to my kids who created the coverfor this book and have always been the most helpful and encouraginglittle people. Love you Jared, Jude, Joseph, Jillian andJediah!

2015 Jay Dillon All RightsReserved

Introduction

What is HVAC? It stands for Heating,Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. We have become a nation thatcant live without comfort. We want it to be warm in the winter andcool in the summer. We also want our kitchen exhaust fans above ourranges to remove smoke and odors from cooking and bathroom exhaustfans to remove shower steam and smells from our bathrooms. The HVACindustry is a multibillion dollar business. From new constructionand replacements, to repairs and upgrades we need HVACcompanies.

Unfortunately, not every company ishonest and even good companies have shady employees that will tryto extract every cent from you they can. This is called a nickeland dime tactic. Maybe you need a part but you also need thingsyouve never heard of but take the word of the tech that is at yourhome.

I have spent the last 23 years workingin just about every aspect of the HVAC industry and have seen someof the most dishonest work done to trusting customers. I startedout working in HVAC manufacturing as a temporary job on theCondensing Units line. I manufactured them but I didnt even knowwhat they were, until one day I asked my manager what we wereactually making. He said condensing units. Of course I had to askwhat condensing units were and he said air conditioners. Wow, Imade air conditioners for one month before I even knew what I wasmaking. My second job in the industry was with a one man company asa tool hander and I learned nothing about how air conditioners orheaters worked. After that I worked for a national home warrantycompany, then to a company that specialized in residential newconstruction. From there it was another, more respectable newconstruction company. After many years of learning the ins and outsof how HVAC systems were installed I managed to get a job as aMechanical Code Enforcement Inspector for a local municipality. Atthat job I was able to see installations from many differentcompanies and learned a lot about the quality of the jobs for whichpeople were paying. When a company pulls a permit from the citybuilding department to replace a piece of equipment or a completesystem they have to declare the value of the job and pay theappropriate fee. Well, I knew how much the home owner paid thecompany and there were times I was shocked at the quality of workfor the price paid.

During the housing crash of the 2000sI got laid off from my inspector job and had to go back into thefield. I got a job as a service tech repairing existing equipment.The company I worked for got most of their business from a majorhome warranty company. We were only allowed to fix the exactproblem even if we found a problem that was going to requireanother service call. It was a new company ran by people that hadno experience in the trade. After 2 years of nearly starving todeath because work was slow and getting behind on all my bills, Iwent back to one of the previous companies I had worked for, thistime doing nothing but residential replacements. That was very hardwork and we always did our best, but the home owner paid a prettypenny for it. I have spent over 2 decades in the HVAC industry andIve seen the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

The purpose of this book is to revealthe tricks of the trade that are either straight up dishonest orborderline scams. Some of these, most probably, will be things thatthe average customer wouldnt even consider or believe.

Some major and minor scams well bringto light:

• Buzz Words that are intended to makesales

• Service Agreements and Tune Ups

• Major Parts with Minor Problems

• Flat Rate Pricing

• Permits

• Disposal Fees

• Home Warranties

• Getting What You Pay For (or not getting whatyou think you are paying for)

• Tricky Techs

Buckle your seat belts because wereexposing the information that the HVAC industry doesnt want you toknow. Its their secrets of massive profits at the expense ofhonest people.

Buzz Words

Someone said a long time ago that therewas no such thing as a free lunch. From a quick google search itseems the saying comes from pubs that started offering a free lunchif you bought a drink. Sounds like a winner, but the catch was thatit was almost always a salty, dry lunch which encouraged thepatrons to buy more drinks to quench their thirst. The extra drinksare what paid for the free lunch. Bars dont have bowls ofpeanuts sitting out because peanuts and beer are inseparable. Infact, I dont think Ive ever eaten peanuts with beer. Folks sitdown, order a beer and munch on salty peanuts while chatting withtheir mates. Next thing you know they are thirstier than when theycame in for a drink.

A clever modern version (that doesntinclude pubs or bars) is the yard sale. Ive been to yard salesthat give free popcorn to the kids. The parents think that is greatbecause it gives the kids something to do and it is so nice of theyard sellers. But guess what? Kids munch down salty popcorn and getvery thirsty, but dont worry, the yard sellers have everythingcovered. They went out to a big box discount store and bought abunch of sodas and iced them down real good. Maybe they paid 25cents a can, but theyll sell them to you or your thirsty kid for$1 a can. Now they paid for the free popcorn and made a smallprofit off the sodas. They say there is a sucker born every minuteand I feel there are two people born every minute that will takeadvantage of the suckers.

Free is the most common used buzz wordin almost every industry. Ive seen the free thermostat with systemcleaning offer. These cleanings include blower motor and evaporatorcoil cleanings (sometimes heat exchangers) and they are veryexpensive and not included in yearly maintenance cleanings.Maintenance cleanings are mostly hosing down the a/c unit andchanging the filter (maybe vacuuming the dust off the heater). Nowa thermostat costs the company less than $40 for a good digitalone. The system cleaning is almost all labor except perhaps somecoil cleaner. Ive seen companies charge over $300 for a blowercleaning and more for an evaporator coil cleaning. That freethermostat was just the nice looking frosting on a very expensivecake. Even more outrageous is the free furnace promotion somecompanies offer. My mother-in-law saw a commercial for a companythat every January offered a free furnace with a complete systempurchase and she asked me if that was true. Of course I had seenthis scam before and assured her that the company wasnt givinganyone a free furnace, but how did I know? This is how I firstfound out about this scam.

Winter is a slow time for HVACcompanies in the mid south area, where I spent my time working inthe HVAC industry, and sales drop off dramatically. Its easier tosell a complete system in the summer because the furnace is a partof the a/c system as it houses the blower that distributes the airthrough the ductwork, but in the winter most of the sales arefurnace only replacements. When a home owner needs a new furnaceand they see an ad for a free furnace it catches their attention.I remember one winter doing more complete system replacements thannormal. The company required the installation crew to collect thepayment after the job was completed, so we knew how much thehomeowner paid for each job. I noticed that the average completesystem replacement was around $6500.00 for a certain brand andmodel that we installed. By January the work had slowed downconsiderably, but we were assured that sales would pick up duringthe free furnace promotion, and sales did pick up. As we wrappedup the first system replacement that was sold under the freefurnace promotion I noticed something that struck me as odd. Onthe paperwork that had the total I was to collect after the job,there was a breakdown of the price. It literally said: Completesystem replacement-$8500.00 minus free furnace $2000.00, total$6500.00. I stared at that paperwork and felt disgusted by thedishonesty because it was the same make and model as we had beeninstalling for the same price all year with no extras to justifythe inflated price. The furnace wasnt free for the manufacturer toproduce, it wasnt given to the supply house for free, the HVACcompany bought it from the supplier (for about a fourth of the costof the supposed free furnace savings), and the customer gotscammed into paying full price while being fooled into thinkingthey got a free furnace. The sad thing about this promotion is thatit works every year to increase sales.