You need heat in Los Angeles in the winter. Not as much as you need elsewhere, but you need it when the temperature drops at night into the 40s.
We have a heat pump that serves the family room and guest bedroom, and about a month and a half ago the family pointed out to me that the heater was blowing air that was warm at best.
It had been years since we had any heating and air conditioning work done, and I wasn’t sure which company to call. I dug through the files and found an old bill. I called the number which referred me to another number, where a company by another name asked me to leave a message. I got nervous about that and hung up.
So with nowhere else to turn, I opened the yellow pages and looked up the number for the big plumbing and heating company that advertises on TV, has a big ad in the yellow pages and trucks all over town.
Their call center answered, took down my information, told me they would refer my repair needs to a technician and gave me an anticipated window of time he would arrive.
The repairman came later that afternoon in his big truck with the big company’s name on it, wearing the big company’s uniform. He took a look, and after a bit of poking revealed my heat pump had been losing Freon, which likely meant I had a leak. The first choice, which he recommended, was to just replace the whole heat pump. He explained that leaks are hard to find and fix, and replacing the heat pump would be about $8,000.
I clutched my chest, and he told me option two would be for him to do a pressure test of the system to try and identify the leak and see if it was repairable. The test alone would cost $1600. Repairs extra, of course.
I looked askance at the suggestion.
My third choice was admittedly a stop gap measure: refilling the Freon for $400.
At that point I paid him the $100 the big company required for an estimate and asked him to leave. The numbers didn’t make sense to me. Nor did they make sense to my uncle who is my expert on such things.
I then screwed up my courage – motivated by anger at how much it might cost to replace a 9-year old heat pump – and called the number that the old heating company – the one I had a bill from dating years earlier -- now referred its call to. I left a message on the voicemail – no fancy call center -- and hoped for the best.
The next day I got a call from a man named Preston, who was calling on his cell phone. The company I called turned out to be made up of him, his cell phone and his pick up truck. He wanted to know what the trouble was. I told him about the problem I had with both the heat pump and the other estimate. He seemed perplexed and appalled at the prices I was quoted, and promised to come by the next day.
He arrived, as promised, in a plain, white pick up truck. No big name on the side of the truck No uniform.
He spent some time poking around the unit and then came in to report that he had found the leak, and that it was in an area where the part could be replaced. He recharged the Freon to ensure my in-laws wouldn’t be cold while they visited and told me he would call once he located the part. Total charge for his visit, finding the link and recharging the system: $200.
A couple of days later he called to tell me he had located the replacement part, and it would cost $1600 for the part and the labor. I’ve never been happier to spend that much on a home repair. If the big company had pressure tested the system, recharged it and replaced the part at the same price (and that’s a big if), the total cost would have $3700, including the $100 I had paid just for an estimate.
I had saved $1900 but, as importantly, I had been a part of a good reminder about the cost of bad ethics and the benefits of good ethics.
The big company had taken an ethically questionable route. They figured they knew more about heat pumps than I do – a very good assumption – and decided to milk me for all I was worth. They leapt straight to the most expensive option and set up a number of barriers to my following a more financially prudent course.
In the end, we both lost from this approach. They lost my business. I lost time and respect for them.
On the other hand, Preston understood the importance of ethics and integrity as well as what they are worth. He knows that his business depends upon people like me being satisfied with his work and then telling our friends about the value of what he does.
It’s a shame more big companies don’t understand what Preston does.
And it's why, if you live in the Los Angeles area, and you need work done on your air conditioning or heating system, I’ll gladly give you Preston’s number.