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HVAC is not immune to Criminals. Plenty just waiting like anything anymore.
Can't begin to count all the "You need a new unit's" I've fixed with a $25.00 part. And Generally the most highest rated Company's according to all the stupid "Best of/in" type propaganda poll crap. Those TV ad's and Weather cams ain't cheap and Their Tech's get Commission so they would rather lie and on to the next call and let the Installers deal with it,who don't get much more than their hourly wage usually or run ragged for a small stipend or actually not even know how to troubleshoot the problem. Very common place.
Main reason I haven't quit completely because I have customers who have followed me around since the early 80's and won't let me. LOL...
And I still need fishin' money.
Honestly I've considered writing a book chronicling my Life in the business but would be in Fiction because Nobody would ever Believe IT.
I haven't seen it All but there isn't much I haven't seen. Animal rendering plants,Morgues,Funeral homes,Naked customers,Insane customers,Dead customers,Anything possible Under,In,Outside a structure that will bite,chew,claw,sting,slither,kill you,been burnt,cut,stabbed,broken,cussed out,asked out,dropped off,fell off,stepped into,poisoned,asphyxiated,hazardous Cancer causing agents,asbestos,PCB's,Lead,Phosgiean(burnt Freon)Gas,Carbontetrachloride fluid,most all Solvents,Van roll down hill 1/8th mile and totaled itself while I was in the back yard,Truck catch on fire,Yard catch on fire,accused of burning down a 3 story apt. bldg and was cleared it was the roofers thank God,a whole Living Room ceiling fell in 2 seconds after I walked out the room because the complaint was" I have water dripping out my ceiling vents" and had completely saturated the sheet rock,yeah the Whole ceiling. That one really bothered me..... Oh, and mostly with NO PPE,Why? Because there Was No such.

Now I play it safe and just do Iso's and paint solvents and fumes. No Problem
 
Goodman did have a run of leaky condenser coils in their package units..warranty bought part but expensive labor
 
Barry said:
The local heat guy had to come every 30 days to fix a leak in one unit, and the same day he had to do the same thing for the office down the street, but such a good guy did not charge us labor, just the cost of freon.
After a year of this, I called Apine and came unglued, and the guy said unless you are driving this thing on the street, you are not getting a leak
Every month. It is a scam by your service guy.
Click to expand...
My dad was a HVAC contractor for 45 years. One of his service techs told us one day how he got fired from his first job in the trade. When he finished trade school in the mid 50s there wasn't a lot of air conditioning around so he got a job with a man who did refrigeration service work.

Most of the customers were neighborhood grocery stores that were everywhere back then. At first he just tagged along with the owner and it seemed like they just went from one stop to the next adding gas and moving on. Once he was sent out on his own, he was still adding gas at every job, but he also looked for and repaired leaks before adding gas. This went on for a few weeks and the owner called him in and asked him if he'd done something to make customers mad because there were hardly any calls coming in.

Fred said no, all he'd been doing was fixing leaks and recharging the systems and far as he knew each one was working fine when he left it. The owner.said Fred had ruined his business as he'd trained all the customers to believe that refrigeration units all just used up some gas as they operated, and adding gas was just a necessary regular maintenance item. And with that, Fred was fired.

As Barry found out, some thieves are still running the same con 60+ years later.
 
Refrigeration was it.
Refrigerated Air was only in Theaters and few Commercial buildings. Why everybody wanted to go to the movies back then.
Carrier got it rolling in the 50's but was still considered a Luxury and only the wealthy could afford it. Wasn't till the late 60's that middle class could afford it and Fedders came out with cheap Residential equipment and began the A/C Revolution and it becoming a Necessity .
My dad's company did it All except sheet metal and a big part was window units. He had multiple long tables the helpers would line w/u's up on and my job was to disassemble and clean them,reassemble and test them out for return. Basically "How I spent my Summer vacation' story. Kinda hated it but I was the Richest kid in the neighborhood by a long shot. Then all the boys wanted to go.

True story,
This older African American man comes in and wants to buy a window unit.
Dad asks him,"How many BTU's do you need?"
Man looks at dad kinda puzzled for a moment, "That is how we size them for your need",
"Well Mr. Kelly,
I don't know nothin 'bout no B-T-U's
But I needs 'nough B-T-U's
To cool a B-U-TT big as a T-U-B"..
Dad about pissed himself laughing and gave him a great deal on one
 
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