Entries Tagged 'scams' ↓

Over the weekend I was reading the local Naperville paper and noticed one of our competitors` large ad.

Among other things the ad stated ‘Buy an A/C receive a FREE furnace, no payments till late 2009 and free airline tickets to destinations like Maui’ So let me get this straight; pay for an air conditioner get FREE tickets to Hawaii, and a FREE furnace and don`t have to pay for it till next year!! Considering the average cost of an A/C install is $1500 I was ready to call!! lol This is the same company that advertises FREE SERVICE CALL (see article below) and a while back they were giving away a FREE hot water heater with a furnace install. I thought to myself WOW, does anyone really believe such advertising?!? Everyone should know there`s no free lunch by now, right!? If it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

Well, let me explain how this works as I heard it from customers. The catch is this: Sure you get a FREE water heater, all you, as the customer, has to pay for is the installation labor. On that water heater the labor was $800! Not much of a deal considering AccuMax Inc. installs a quality RHEEM self-cleaning 40 gal water for $750!

This company also advertises furnaces installed for $1495. Of course this statement is followed by an asterick and see store for details. I`m pretty sure the devils in the details. That`s why their Better Business Bureau report has 36 complaints in the last 36 months and Accumax Inc has none. We have a link to our report on our home page at www.accumaxinc.com.

So to compete AccuMax is announcing the FREE furnace, A/C, water heater deal.. all you have to do is pay for install labor he he

Daniel Baloun

Accumax Inc.

No large misleading ads that add to overhead costs, just honest, reliable, service with great prices.

 Certain companies in the Chicago area have some great sounding warranties, One states “If you’re not happy then we’ll yank the new system out and refund your money!” guarantee. Or “If the compressor fails in your A/C unit we`ll replace the whole system for FREE”  Almost all of these have an asterick next to them or state ” See store for details”

These guarantees are riddled with provisions designed to make it utterly frustrating if not completely useless. The most important provisions involve time and specificity. You have to be specific about your complaints. Then they get a year, sometimes two, to address them one by one. By the time the two years is up you’ll be so sick of the ordeal that the last thing you’ll want to do is invoke the guarantee and have to install the system yet again.

Most whiz bang guarantees in this trade are like that. The specifics of the guarantee may be different from my example. But no matter what the guarantee, the marketing departments that write them aren’t concerned with whether or not they’ll ever have to make good. They’ll write the guarantee so that they’ll almost never have to. Rather, they’re concerned simply with creating a good hook. It’s marketing at it’s finest. The actual benefit to you is of little importance so long as they can get you to sign the contract.

The answer of course is to get quality work in the first place. A guarantee that they’ll fix a botched job is worthless compared to the assurance of quality work in the first place.

The “NO SERVICE CALL WITH REPAIR” Scam

Free works in marketing, not in real life.

Let’s say that un beknownst to the customer a wire has burned out on their furnace. We would charge $69.90 just for coming out and troubleshooting. Once diagnosed the repairman replaces the wire, inspects the furnace and performs some minor adjustments. In all the customer might pay another $40 for the repair work for a total of $109.90

But what if that $69.90 service call is supposed to be free with repair? We still needs to make $109 in order to be profitable.Fact is no HVAC company can afford to buy a $30K truck, fill it with spare parts and speciallized tools and equipment for another $10K, then pay a qualified tech a fare wage along with all the other overhead of running a business. including medical, workers comp, insurance, advertising, gasoline, taxes, support staff..etc..etc and drive around for $40 a trip.It just  cant be done. So inevitably we`d have to tell you that the service call is $69 but that if you pay us $109 to replace the wire then he’ll waive that $69 fee. See the absurdity? Most people do. We find that most contractors who offer Free Service Call with Repair are deseptive even before they enter your home. They know very well that the service call is part of their cost and that they will have to hide it somewhere else…… or they do this:

“You see Mr. & Mrs. Customer, the wire burned out because your blower motor’s magnetic stembolt was out of alignment with its transverse kiper spring. Of course that’s not a field serviceable item so we’ll have to put in a new blower motor at a cost of $450.”
In other words, they makes up something that sounds plausible and makes the contractor some real money.

Now you may wonder how a customer could be happier with a $450 motor than a $109 wire. But in many cases that will be the case. It all has to do with perception. Changing a wire is both familiar and seemingly cheap. As such many customers devalue such a service. But changing out a motor is unfamiliar and its actual cost unknown to most customers. As a result many customers will think less harshly about their contractor if they pay $450 for a motor than if they pay $109 for a wire. And if the technician happens to be paid on commission then he’s feeling pretty good too.