On May 1, 11:33*am, gonjah wrote:
On 5/1/2012 9:51 AM, wrote:





On May 1, 10:26 am, *wrote:
On 5/1/2012 7:40 AM, wrote:

On May 1, 2:45 am, gonjahgonjah.net * *wrote:
On 4/30/2012 8:48 PM, cjt wrote:
On 04/30/2012 10:41 AM, Tamara Lynn wrote:
"Ed * * *wrote:
"Tamara * * *wrote in message
I was told about 16 years ago when I bought the house that the Lennox
central heat and air was on its last leg. *I am glad I have waited
this
long.
I have been cheated nearly every time a service 'professional'
comes out.
One drove a half a mile, slammed the doors shut and billed me $85
for 5
minutes of work. *I am a single mother, now unemployed and can't
afford a
new unit at this time. *But it is on my wish list...after the
election,
when I hope to be able to get a job. :-)
T
Once you get working, think about a new unit. *It may pay for itself
with
energy savings.
Oh, that tech worked more than five minutes, unless he lived next door.
And he has a lot of costs to maintain that truck and tools. *In this
area,
it is about $120 to ring the doorbell.
As I said above, it's on my wish list. *I had two bids to buy one at the
time I lost my job. *I have to live on meager savings, because my child
support is more than $367 per month, which means no foods stamps or
healthcare.
As to $120 to ring the bell, well that is pure bull****. *Not only am
I an
accountant, but have owned and ran several businesses over 25 years.
I am
not going to break down the costs for you, but he was practically
next door.
The one before him lied about a pound on the freon.
I may be a female, but I am not an idiot.lol
HVAC seems to attract crooks, IMHO.
Conjecture you can't back up with any meaningful stats. Fact is, most of
these techs work for companies that have no interest in screwing anybody
because they live an die by their reputations just like any business..- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Statistics? * I doubt there are any statistics and
how you would get any would take quite an effort.
It's not like traffic deaths where they are clear and
logged.
That's what I said.

"Conjecture you can't back up with any meaningful stats."

Just as you can't back up your claim that they are
inherently honest. *There are plenty of contractors out
there that make a career of screwing customers.
Examples being the home improvement guys that
contract to do a bathroom, take customers money,
do some half-assed work with no permits, then
disappear. *And that happens plenty of times.
I don't think statistics are necessary. *Life experience
is enough in cases like this.

Yeah, is see your point. Maybe a glass half full/empty type of thing
too. I basically trust people until they screw me which might be why I
get so upset when they do.

But from my experiences, here at least, I'd give Central Texans a higher
than average score for honesty. I've had quite a few people come out and
work for me and so far I've gotten my money's worth.

WTS: I keep my eye on them and I always check references, thoroughly.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

One of the best examples of crooks I saw was with a
car. I used to work for a large company and those of
us in the field had company cars. At the end of the
company lease we could buy them for a real good
deal. My GF at the time needed a car and one of my
co-workers had a Pontiac with about 70K miles on it
that was coming off lease. So, she wound up buying it.

About a year later, the ABS light was on. She took it
to a local dealer. She also told them that the power
steering made a noise. They investigated and told
her the on board computer was shot and the PS was
leaking. Total to fix $1300.

I immediately smelled a rat. I asked her what noise
she was complaining about. It was a little noise when
you turn the steering wheel to one extreme or the
other. I've seen lots of cars do that and IMO it's
perfectly normal. I asked her is she saw any PS
fluid on the garage floor and the answer was no.
I looked underneath, all over and no evidence of
anythiing leaking.

I talked to my co-worker and he told me that he
had a problem with a wheel sensor and which
dealer he had taken it to. I had her take the car
there. Their diagnosis: one bad wheel sensor.
Cost her about $150 to have it fixed.

Now, it's very hard to explain this in any way
other than the first dealer being a crook. That
car has two main computers. One for the
enginer and one for the ABS. Both read out
extensive codes. For the ABS it will tell you
on each wheel if a sensor is open, shorted,
etc. It also has a self diagnostic that will tell
if the ABS computer is shot. So, it's impossible
for me to believe that was a simple case of
the wrong diagnosis. And she kept the car
for another 3 years with no PS leaking and
the PS continuing to function just fine.

The only part of this I can't understand is how
they can pull it off. It requires at least some of
the employees to be in on it and you would
think that sooner or later one of them would get
****ed off and rat them out. On the other hand,
one way of pulling it off indirectly would be to
compensate the mechanics based on the
total repair bill. That way, the dealer isn't
directly telling them to pad bills, but just
incentivizing them to do it.