The purchase of heating and cooling systems is a very big purchase, not like a hair cut that you make once every month or two, but a decision that is more like buying a home, or a new car. I won’t talk about the technical attributes of the brands and systems on the market today, this article is strictly to help you make the right choice in hiring a contractor. The following is a list of things you can do to eliminate a potential problem. Most people think they are capable of making a good buying decision and want to believe in their choice for the next 20 -30 years, the following is meant to help you make that choice.
#1. People tend to ask for references, they ask for referrals from friends and they try to remember names they have seen or heard of when they think of buying air conditioning and heating systems.
Don’t take the contractors list of references as the tell all about your potential contractor – chances are that they are only giving you the names of those customers they have satisfied enough to get them to agree to put their name on the list any way. Your not going to locate dissatisfied customers using their list of references. You have to dig to find dissatisfied customers, but you also have to know where to dig. The best place for you to dig, to find dissatisfied customers of course would be to go to the contractors file drawer and pull out his files of existing customers and find your own list of customers to call and to survey, but this is hardly practical and I think most contractors would scoff at the mere thought of you doing this. But you could ask the question just to see their reaction, it would be really telling if they tried to evade the question or talk you out of your request.
The next best thing to do would be to make a list of contractors that you are interested in utilizing or hiring and then go to the City Building Department in your City and in surrounding cities, tell them you are contemplating hiring these contractors and tell them you would like a list of the job site addresses that this contractor has done work at during the last two years, because you would like to contact these customers yourself.
You could then write to the homeowner and ask them how they liked the system that the contractor installed for them and you could offer them a referral fee if they respond by telephone. The power of information would then be in your hands. Imagine if you had a list of your own referrals that you could bring up when your contractor came to your home to give you an estimate, imagine if you had a list of customers they did not want to talk about. If you did not want to make the contact with these other customers, you could at least have their names and ask your contractor if they have any problem with you contacting these people for references. If the contractor has any hesitation about you making contact with these people and talking with them, then perhaps there is something the contractor does not want you to know about that particular customer. I mean just because the contractor got the building inspection does not mean that the system has performed well or that the system has not broken down.
The information at the City Building Department is free and available in most cities because of the Freedom of information act. I believe they have to by law disclose the information to you.
# 2. Know who you are talking to before they come out. A lot of the bigger companies do business based on always buying new customers. They run large advertisements in the phone books, have multiple ads in the phone books under every heading possible, mail out campaigns, run big newspaper advertisements, have nice vehicle advertising and just in general spend a lot of money branding their name. In general a sales lead can cost a company anywhere from$200-$400 dollars per lead, and large companies tend to hire sales people as estimators.
Most of these sales people have no experience in installing systems or trouble shooting systems themselves, but have a lot of experience in closing sales. They can pick up a brochure, read it, do some product research and through the power of persuasion can make themselves sound very knowledgeable about the industry and the products they are pushing. What you need to know is how to identify who you are talking to, are you talking to a sales person or someone with experience in the field. I myself have done it all, so its easy for me to identify who I’m speaking to but the average home owner may not have that luxury. A good sales person will talk their way through anything, avoid confrontation and will avoid giving you an answer that Will give you any doubt.
The sales person will try and do a few things when he enters your home. The first thing they will try and do is take over the situation, by looking around your home, finding things to talk about that you are interested in and then trying to make you comfortable with them by bringing things they have seen in your home up in the conversation such as a sports team or hiking place they may see pictures of. They may also lead you through your own house, and try to get you to follow them. For instance, the may walk in and start a conversation with you and then when they ask you to show them the heating and cooling system, as you start walking they will go in a different direction and ask questions, trying to get you to follow them which puts them in control of the conversation.
You need to have a plan of attack in dealing with sales people. Know exactly what you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do. For instance, closers will try to get the Mr. and the Mrs. to the table so they can sit down and start pressuring you into making a purchase. This is the crucial step that must be avoided if you don’t want pressure. Before the Mr. and the Mrs. sit down at the table with the sales person (that is if you have not decided on a company yet) have a plan of escape, by this I mean plan on disrupting his sales pitch, by having one of you get up and leave for the day.
After he has made his pitch about the product and about the company he works for, the real pressure is going to begin, that’s precisely when you must get the upper hand, by having one of you leave just before he starts to apply pressure. If he tries at all to get you to sit down, to make a purchase to sign anything, you know you are going to be pressured. Its at this point that you ask him how many days you have as a consumer to cancel any contract. The answer is three days. Before you allow him to make his final push, you have to get him off track and get him talking about what you want to talk about which is how to cancel the contract. This is also when you can bring up customers that you have identified from the City Building Department. That’s also when you ask him how many systems he himself has actually installed. Ask him when the last time he himself installed a system and what the customers name and phone number are.
If you are dealing with a sales person only you will know. If you’re dealing with someone who has installed hundreds of systems himself you will know that too. Large companies need sales, they have huge overhead, huge costs and lots of people to support but that’s not your problem, its theirs. You are not buying to keep them in business, your buying for your own comfort your own needs and your own Peace of mind. Let them figure out how to operate without pressuring you into a sale, take charge of your own decision making process and eliminate your problems before a contractor makes them.
If you’re going to buy a condensing furnace having it properly installed according to the manufacturers instructions is at least three times as critical to its long life as a non condensing furnace. Your installer, and your sales person have to know their job, its imperative. A sales person only may not recognize a potential problem with the installation and the installer my be forced to install the system as it was sold. This may be a problem to you in the future.
The more information you know the better off you will be.
