Hey so Alex here again , I was just wondering today after reading marcus aurelius, and yeah I have took my business problem as an acceptance and trying to solve it, ( basic stoicism ) so I was wondering what problems you veterans are facing and keeping you up at night, which when goes away will give you a significant advantage over your competition and lead you a better life. For me, its just more installations and getting more jobs of a concern right now. Thank you !!
What are the current problems you guys are facing in doing business as a HVAC owner ?
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AloxaHVAC
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You know I asked about parts availability in Taiwan for inverter mini splits (as you can't just Frankenstein everything together like you can with fixed mini splits), someone said buy from reputable brands like Hitachi or Daikin who will have parts for decade old models. Both companies make mini splits for sale in Taiwan.
I guess Mr Cool doesn't qualify as reputable.
I guess Mr Cool doesn't qualify as reputable.
Finding trustworthy and knowledgeable technicians. I just caught an employee installing two full systems at my customers house (paid lead from Google) that he purchased the equipment using my license number and in addition he told me that is not the first customer he has stolen from me but says I will never catch him because he didn’t use my account to chase the equipment. My other employees told me that he told them he was making $6-$7k per weekend doing side jobs but they assumed the work was being done for his friends or contacts so they didn’t say anything to me. He’s not currently licensed and definitely isn’t insured but says he will have his license in two weeks so “it’s fine”. He won’t ever have a license if I can help it. Someone with zero integrity should not be licensed to perform any type of work in a persons home. It is the job of the licensing agencies to protect the general public from scum like this. He was being paid a livable wage of $35/hr. He believes he’s done nothing wrong. Not only did he take food off of my table but off of his co-works tables as well. These were customers I acquired through marketing, advertising, branding and most of all 15 years of blood sweat and tears building a business. Since my former employee is a pathological liar he probably told the customers he was licensed. He does CRAP installs so he was never allowed to do them alone while working for us. If damage does come to their property their home owners insurance won’t cover it. When I retrieved my van from his apartment I found a business card he had made saying he was the owner of an HVAC company. I have had to call every customer he has visited in his short career with me to warn them. Embarrassing but they appreciated it. Some even told me he had offered side services and they should have called but they felt like he was trying to over charge them and decided not to work with my company anymore. Not only did I loose the customers he stole but also the ones he pissed off. He is probably going to call the labor board on me because I haven’t given him his check or his personal tools yet but I need to inventory the van and separate his tools from mine and back charge him for missing tools per his contract. In addition I need to check all of his gas receipts against the gps records and make sure he wasn’t filling up his personal vehicle with my gas card. I have been too busy contacting the CSLB, city, police, etc to ensure the equipment he purchased fraudulently using my license won’t be traced back to me when something goes horribly wrong with his crap install. I have also had to contact all of my suppliers to stop him from making purchases on my accounts. He refuses to return all of his uniforms because he “can’t find them” and I’m concerned he is going to use them to gain access to my supply house accounts. Most of the supply houses I’ve already called are putting him on a permanent ban so he can’t make purchases under my company or anyone else’s. I am not sure what other recourse I have but that is my current biggest problem. Any advice?
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1st year, DOA, that shows a lot problems are in play.
I think one of the Top 5 reasons for that death rate is the so-called Tech who jumps into his/her own business can not fix sh!t.
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That sucks.
Talking to a Lawyer, the Police, an Accountant, your employees. Make a list/chart his dirty deeds.
Holey moley!
Did you have a non-compete clause? Was he using your truck while doing these side jobs?
Since he represented himself as licensed he commited fraud. The CSLB should have some provision for that.
But I doubt that you will recover anything he stole from you.
Best you can do is to make sure that it does not happen again.
If you can get him to come clean and honest, get him to give you the name of all of your customers that he did work for and contact them and let them know the situation. You could ask the CSLB for arbitration to squeeze that out of him.
Talk to your other employees. I will bet that at least some of them knew what he was doing. They may have details.
He will be using those uniforms to represent himself as a licensed company. Then have the customer pay him directly. You need to get help from the CSLB to force the return of those uniforms.
Did you have a non-compete clause? Was he using your truck while doing these side jobs?
Since he represented himself as licensed he commited fraud. The CSLB should have some provision for that.
But I doubt that you will recover anything he stole from you.
Best you can do is to make sure that it does not happen again.
If you can get him to come clean and honest, get him to give you the name of all of your customers that he did work for and contact them and let them know the situation. You could ask the CSLB for arbitration to squeeze that out of him.
Talk to your other employees. I will bet that at least some of them knew what he was doing. They may have details.
He will be using those uniforms to represent himself as a licensed company. Then have the customer pay him directly. You need to get help from the CSLB to force the return of those uniforms.
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He used the company vehicle at least once. He also used the van to pick up the check from the last customer he did an install for but I am not sure how many others. Still combing GPS. No non-compete.
I’ve contacted all of the customers he serviced. The ones that sent me to voicemail are the ones I suspect. I confirmed one other. I think they are scared because they broke laws by hiring him as well. I will be sending out emails to those customers. Other customers told me he was quoting astronomical prices then offering his services the his “company” cheaper. So they called someone else and didn’t tell me because they thought the prices he quoted came from me. He actually inflated my prices so he could undercut me.
I am asking the CSLB not to license him ever. They are inundated with investigations and short handed so I need to keep calling. He’s admitted everything in text except the contract prices. He also won’t tell me who he worked for and what he did. Another employee is the one who told me about the two systems and that’s how I caught him. I will press for more info.
I actually went yo the last customers house and took pictures over her fence of the equipment in a box matching the serial number to my invoice. I made him return the equipment that wasn’t installed yet. I emailed the customer links to the CSLB pages about hiring unlicensed contractors. She was scared enough to cancel the second install and not pay him any more $$.
I am highly concerned about the uniforms since he already used them to purchase equipment in my name on my license. (He paid for it) I will ask them and the sheriff what can be done to get them back. He could also have a friend wear the uniform to use my account so all suppliers now have to call me for approval of all purchases.
I’ve contacted all of the customers he serviced. The ones that sent me to voicemail are the ones I suspect. I confirmed one other. I think they are scared because they broke laws by hiring him as well. I will be sending out emails to those customers. Other customers told me he was quoting astronomical prices then offering his services the his “company” cheaper. So they called someone else and didn’t tell me because they thought the prices he quoted came from me. He actually inflated my prices so he could undercut me.
I am asking the CSLB not to license him ever. They are inundated with investigations and short handed so I need to keep calling. He’s admitted everything in text except the contract prices. He also won’t tell me who he worked for and what he did. Another employee is the one who told me about the two systems and that’s how I caught him. I will press for more info.
I actually went yo the last customers house and took pictures over her fence of the equipment in a box matching the serial number to my invoice. I made him return the equipment that wasn’t installed yet. I emailed the customer links to the CSLB pages about hiring unlicensed contractors. She was scared enough to cancel the second install and not pay him any more $$.
I am highly concerned about the uniforms since he already used them to purchase equipment in my name on my license. (He paid for it) I will ask them and the sheriff what can be done to get them back. He could also have a friend wear the uniform to use my account so all suppliers now have to call me for approval of all purchases.
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I used purchase orders, each tech had an assigned pad numbered in sequence. Vendors were required to get a po with job name & tech signature. Po’s checked against vendor invoices each billing.
Let one employee go for doing “side” jobs with my vehicle & supplies. Rather than fight it out, just told him that I couldn’t afford to have him working for me anymore.
Had another offering to my customer to do jobs on the side “to save money”. Thankfully the customer told me. He gone….
Let one employee go for doing “side” jobs with my vehicle & supplies. Rather than fight it out, just told him that I couldn’t afford to have him working for me anymore.
Had another offering to my customer to do jobs on the side “to save money”. Thankfully the customer told me. He gone….
Great idea! I told his previous employers what he did. He was shocked but said he only worked for him for 3 weeks and didn’t have any issues.( I should have asked the length of employment the first time I called to ask if he was eligible for rehire.) He did tell me that he found it strange that the tech had a $6000 refrigeration tool and told me he pawned it to pay rent. So that is something he would do.
For Me guys it has been so much hectic , I have to just work like 12 hours a day and have to feed my family my wife my two kids and my mum, I have to go on and find jobs take those jobs and service calls. I hardly find any time which is valuable and weekends are spent doing family chores. As above people have discussed finding employees which do not carry any baggage is just finding a unicorn which is true indeed and the inconsistent revenue also just spikes in.
( Bonus " It feels bad to see your kids growing without their father and when it happens in front of your eyes its just bad )
*Sigh I hardly find anytime to be social but you guys just are amazing in giving me inspiration to do the work
( Bonus " It feels bad to see your kids growing without their father and when it happens in front of your eyes its just bad )
*Sigh I hardly find anytime to be social but you guys just are amazing in giving me inspiration to do the work
I haven't been here for years. I retired and sold my business in PA and moved to SC about 4 years ago. I thought it was the greatest move ever- no employees, no more "Why do you contractors all......" and all that stuff that I thought was coming with the new EPA laws.
So I got bored. I started a one man show here in SC. Got my residential SC HVAC license a couple of years ago. I just needed to "do something". I don't golf or fish......I guess I like HVAC work.
I find this area much different than in Central PA. So, I started to do warranty work. It was good for a while during the peak of covid, but man, those companies suck today. Choice Home Warranty is by far the worse. They changed their name to Rely. They call 20 times a day from different numbers. Anyhow, that's another story....
So I am trying to find a helper as I have many people asking to do their new homes as they are being built at an alarming rate since the end of covid. My county has never seen anything like it-A housing boom! Mostly NY, Conn, NJ and PA people building houses down here and they see what they get for their money compared to Red Bank, NJ. I live in rural SC. Think Duke's of Hazzard, and that's the area I live in.
My problem is getting my 64 year old body to do the work of the 30 year old me, as I cannot find a helper. I guess everyone is in the same boat? Nobody knows anything about the trades in rural SC and they don't even care to learn.
So I got bored. I started a one man show here in SC. Got my residential SC HVAC license a couple of years ago. I just needed to "do something". I don't golf or fish......I guess I like HVAC work.
I find this area much different than in Central PA. So, I started to do warranty work. It was good for a while during the peak of covid, but man, those companies suck today. Choice Home Warranty is by far the worse. They changed their name to Rely. They call 20 times a day from different numbers. Anyhow, that's another story....
So I am trying to find a helper as I have many people asking to do their new homes as they are being built at an alarming rate since the end of covid. My county has never seen anything like it-A housing boom! Mostly NY, Conn, NJ and PA people building houses down here and they see what they get for their money compared to Red Bank, NJ. I live in rural SC. Think Duke's of Hazzard, and that's the area I live in.
My problem is getting my 64 year old body to do the work of the 30 year old me, as I cannot find a helper. I guess everyone is in the same boat? Nobody knows anything about the trades in rural SC and they don't even care to learn.
Customers not seeing the dollar value in manual j d and s. In low static, big filters and duct modifications. No matter how much you talk and show pictures and testimonials it comes down to “bob was $1500 cheaper.”
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