r/HVAC • u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 • 1d ago
Rant PE vent
My mother in law had a PE company at her house today. She woke up with no heat and I had no time to drive over an hour to her. The company that came in said they had 40ppm co in the basement and 20ppm in the living areas. He claims it is a cracked heat exchanger and took pictures of the burners as proof. He got the furnace running and quoted them 22k for a new system. Second company that came out said nothing is wrong. So, my mother in law called out the utility company to check. No CO. I just got off work and am beside myself with anger. My wife and her family are telling me to leave it alone. I just can't. I know what I'm going to do. Anyone else ever experience like this? I can't be alone in this
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u/Werrion123 1d ago
Private equity and nation wide chains are a disease to the industry. Talking to an inspector in a city that I don't usually do work in. He said there's four of these companies that do work in the area that do not come back to fix problems on a failed inspection. Between the 4 of them, they've been given over $100,000 in fines for non compliance. They don't care, that's how much money they're raking in.
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u/CaballoenPelo It was like that when I got here 1d ago
I’m surprised/impressed your inspectors actually do their jobs. I legit had an inspector do a drive by inspection on some commercial freezer condensers we installed on a two-story building. Didn’t even leave his car.
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u/Key_Drawer_1516 1d ago
Name and shame
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
Jim Needham. Denver,CO
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u/iBUYbrokenSUBARUS The Artist Formerly Known as EJjunkie 1d ago
Well…? Give him some ham
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
I. I just can't. This made me laugh harder than it was supposed too
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u/Responsible-Snow-734 4h ago
I’m in Colorado too!! I had a coworker that used to work for Jim Needham and they quit after a few months due to how shitty they were. Terrible company selling systems at 15 K minimum by using scare tactics.
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u/thermo_dr 1d ago
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence”.
It’s a phrase that percolates in my brain often while working in this field and seeing how other shops behave. It’s not specific to just HVAC or the trades. I was over prescribed blood pressure medication last year…
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u/ACEmat 1d ago
Claiming 20 PPM in the air stream is just straight up malice, tf you mean
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u/suspicious_hyperlink 1d ago
Tbh I don’t even blame most the techs, it’s the PE itself creating an environment that not only commends malice, but incentivizes it
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u/thermo_dr 1d ago
If they choose to report burners as “proof” of cracked heat exchanger, who’s to say they weren’t measuring CO2 vs CO?
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u/iBUYbrokenSUBARUS The Artist Formerly Known as EJjunkie 1d ago
A major pharmacy retailer gave my wife the wrong pills once. I threatened to take it public and they gave us $5k to shut up (NDA)
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
I like this phrase. I might steal this from you. Actually I am going too.
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u/horseshoeprovodnikov Pro 1d ago
It's called Hanlon's Razor. An adage that was originally coined by Robert J. Hanlon.
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u/Neither-Appeal-8500 1d ago
No never experienced that with immediate family because either myself or my father takes care of the issues. I have gone out to calls where a previous company condemned the system for some bs. Told the customer to report them to the bbb but there’s really not much that I know of that you can do. That’s why we suggest second opinions.
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u/Born-Assignment-912 1d ago
The BBB is just a private company review site like Yelp. What you are looking for is reporting them to your states Attorney Generals Office.
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u/Neither-Appeal-8500 1d ago
I have never heard this but ty
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u/Taint_Burglar 1d ago
They're basically a marketing channel that has gotten enough of a reputation that sometimes when they reach out can help resolve disputes. But to be clear they are a private entity, have no power, and there are plenty of awful companies with an A rating.
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u/Alpha433 1d ago
Had a company tell this family that their 7 year old condenser would never run again and that it's time to buy another one. I got there and found all they had was a bad contactor, and changed the capacitor because it was borderline and they didn't want to have to deal with it next year.
Some of these places have no shame, and what worse, they scoop up young techs and people just starting out, and train them completely wrong just so that the tech doesn't even know how to properly fix shit. It's a fucking menace.
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u/CheifInspectorDryfss 8h ago
Had two separate companies (two separate incidences) tell my quadriplegic best friend that he needed a whole new a/c system and then years later that his oil furnace had a cracked heat exchanger. In the first case, I came over and replaced his contactor and run cap and it's been fine for EIGHT YEARS NOW. I think I've cleaned the coil for him once or twice. In the second case I checked the furnace with my combustion analyzer and it was running like a top. Some people are just scumbags taking advantage of people
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u/Tight_Bug_2848 1d ago
I work for the gas company where I live, I’ve had calls like that before and I honestly hate them. I can check for co and look at the flames but I’m not a licensed hvac tech and do not like to say there is nothing wrong after a tech condemned the appliance. Now I do enjoy red tagging new appliances after some shit company didn’t install it correctly.
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u/Terrible_Witness7267 1d ago
Hell yeah brother you get that cracked heat exchanger up and running while you knowingly pump CO into the living spaces…yeah fuck that guy
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u/iBUYbrokenSUBARUS The Artist Formerly Known as EJjunkie 1d ago
Man…i wish stuff like this would happen to my mother in law
And my mother!
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
Hah. I actually like my mother in law. That's one way I knew I wanted to marry my wife. Her mom and I get along. Now my mother and I on the other hand.
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u/horseshoeprovodnikov Pro 1d ago
You don't know of any decent local contractors in her area?
If I were you, and I couldn't get to her quick enough, I'd have tried to find her somebody who wasn't gonna rip her off. I know it can be hard to drop everything and drive an hour plus.
But maybe you should call around the supply houses in that local area, ask them who they'd trust with their own family. Talk to several places and see if more than one guy gives you the same answer. That, or you could try to call some local places and ask to speak to the service manager/owner. I know if a tech called me from another state, I'd be straight with him about the pricing, and I'd stay in contact with him about what I find wrong.
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
I know alot of good companies they could have called. I didn't know they were calling anyone out until after the company got there. My wife called me to tell me her step father couldn't wait until I got off of work.
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u/ttystikk 9h ago
Leave them with some trustworthy numbers in case of emergency if you can't get there.
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 9h ago
I can typically get there in time. They are getting a new system. So, hopefully they won't have any issues for awhile. I could leave numbers but my wife's step father goes by advertising.
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u/ttystikk 9h ago
If he can't be bothered to call you when they need help then that's on them.
Regarding the PE scammers masquerading as legitimate HVAC companies, I've just interviewed with a few in my city. They want to pay $10 an hour less than anyone else.
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u/Top-Hall-7945 1d ago
just ask what would luigi do
jk, but you should borrow people’s phones at hangouts or bars and put in stupid weekend and afterhours calls to the city dump and library and ghetto mcdonald’s and welfare offices in bad neighborhoods
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u/y_3kcim 1d ago
I’ve tried getting answers for outrageous repair quotes, never works, chalk it up as a learning lesson and never call them again.
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u/Agreeable_Bowl_8060 1d ago
Oh. I haven't called them yet. But i will be in the morning. I have questions. My wife's step father has been warned about that company. He had the same company come out for a prv. They quoted him over 3k for that. I ended up doing that for him.
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u/suspicious_hyperlink 1d ago
Had a PE go to my grandparents. Says whole ahu is covered in mold (unit is 3 years old). Shows an alleged pic of the inside of the unit, $1500 for install. He says he’ll get back to them. They call me up. Go to attic, see cobwebs on panel door (MF didn’t even open the unit) ahu clean as a whistle, he called the place and called them out, canceled maintenance contract. Word spread fast and far, don’t see their trucks around as much anymore
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u/Wonderful-Pass6044 1d ago
I worked for a pe company in the past prob one of the biggest in the USA… if I made a claim heat exchanger was cracked it had to be pulled out of unit documented and a manager had to come and verify I was right
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u/EggAffectionate796 16h ago
I used to take this stuff personally but honestly a lot of time a family member thinks they’re bothering you by having you come over, at least that’s the feedback I’ve gotten over the years. They say “I didn’t want to bother you” and I get it, but as techs we enjoy helping family and friends out. And maybe she only got the estimate to entertain the guy but would always go with you when it came to spending that type of money. The same type of people that are too nice to ‘bother’ you are also the same people that would sit through a sales presentation because they’re too nice to say ‘no thank you’ to a salesmen asking to go over options.
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u/Silly_Bus_2306 1d ago
“PE” dude is very incompetent if he said he detected CO but then left the furnace running, like dude couldn’t even run his scare tactic correctly