I have been a mentor at the HVAC company for almost 10 years, when this young man came in. He was fresh out of HVAC school, and top of his class. He brought his HVAC certification paper into the office and plopped it on my desk. He was cocky and thought he knew everything there was to know about HVAC. I remember my son being the same way, and needing to knock him down a few steps. I thought working with him was the most frustrating mentorship I had ever taken on. Not only was my son cocky and thought he knew everything, but he was also challenging me as his dad every step of the way. I thought I was going to have to do the same thing with this young man. Working with him was very frustrating, but not nearly as bad as when I worked with my son. He thought he knew everything about HVAC, but he soon found out he didn’t know near enough. Within three weeks, he went from servicing a furnace to working on a broken down furnace and repairing an air conditioner. Our temperatures went from 80°, down to 35 within less than a month. He said he never realized that he would have to work on both an air conditioner and a furnace in the same week. I told him that here we live; he needed to get used to it. HVAC was never the same thing repeatedly, and he also had to learn how to deal with the people, even if they didn’t understand what you were telling them..
He told me to do one thing, but it needed so much more work.
I had only been on the job for a couple of days when my mentor told me he needed me to go to an elderly gentleman’s house and change the air filter.
I had no problem changing the air filter, but it seemed odd.
When I got there, he showed me where the air filter was. I thanked him and stood there, waiting for him to leave. He waved toward the furnace and told me to get work. I couldn’t believe he was going to watch me change the air filter. Once I got the air filter changed, I was hearing some odd noises coming from the furnace and inspected it. I found a lot of dust around the components and quickly dispatched it. Once the dust was gone, I cleaned the entire furnace and checked the ductwork. I wanted to make sure there were no clogs in the ductwork that were disrupting the airflow and possibly doing damage to the major components of the furnace. The entire time I was doing the inspection, the homeowner sat on the steps and watched every move I made. When I completed the job, he asked if I thought I forgot anything? I shrugged and said I was pretty certain I hadn’t, but if there was something more he wanted me to do, I would gladly do it. When I got back to the HVAC company, my mentor asked how things went. I told him how I thought I thought it was strange the way the old man watched me and my mentor laughed. He said the old man was his dad. He was also his mentor when he first became an HVAC technician, and I passed the test.
I couldn't take my eyes off his nose ring.
My granddaughters have their ears pierced and their belly buttons pierced. My oldest granddaughter also has a nose ring and several tattoos. You would think I was used to seeing people with piercings and tattoos. All of my children have tattoos in various places on their body. When the young HVAC technician came to my house, however, I couldn’t take my eyes off his nose ring. A small chain connected the nose ring to a piercing in his upper lip. He had a tattoo that went from his ear down to his jawline. A part of me wanted to laugh and shake my head, but I didn’t want to insult the HVAC technician. I showed him where the furnace was and headed back upstairs. When my oldest granddaughter came over, I laughed. I told her I didn’t care how many tattoos are piercing she got, I just didn’t want to see one in her lips. She looked at me oddly, and about that time, the basement door opened and the HVAC technician walked in. I didn’t know she knew the HVAC technician until she walked over and gave him a hug. She introduced him to make and said this was the young man she had been dating. Before I thought, I asked her if they ever locked nose rings? They were both laughing when I asked, and she said that she had her lip got pinched by his lip ring once. He now takes out the lip ring before they get too close. It’s hard to believe my mom was upset when I had my ears pierced.
I knew I could trust them.
I often wonder why I have stayed with the same HVAC company for the last 20 years.
- They do excellent work, but it always takes a day or more for them to come to the house, unless it is an emergency and you will pay emergency fees.
I have to admit that the people work in the HVAC company are really nice and they do an excellent job. I knew the people at this HVAC company and I trusted them. The only beef I had was there all day waiting period, or needing to wait for service until one or two days later. I had a problem with my furnace on Christmas Eve last year, and I truly needed to have someone get to the house as soon as possible. When they told me it was going to be after Christmas till someone could get there, I was not happy. I had family coming, and I had no alternative heating. I knew I could get some space heaters out, but there were two babies going to be there, and they were walking or still crawling. A space heater was not workable. The person on the phone told me they could come to the house, but it was going to cost an emergency fee. At that point, I could have cared less about how much I had to pay to get my furnace repaired, I just needed to get it repaired. I knew the HVAC technician who came to the house, and he was quick to make all the repairs. When I asked him about the bill, he just smiled. He said the pumpkin pie smelled fantastic, and I gave him one for his Christmas dinner.
We were racing to see who would take the service call.
Last week, the new girl in town called to have her furnace serviced.
She had just bought the house and wanted to make sure the furnace was in good condition before she turned it on.
The HVAC contractor that worked in our company, was the one who went out and did the inspection on the house. He had checked the furnace, air conditioning unit, and ductwork. He told her she needed to have the furnace cleaned and serviced before could be used. When he came back to the office, he told us about this absolutely gorgeous woman that had moved in to the house. He told her she was single, and if he wasn’t married, he would be the first one knocking at her door to do the HVAC service. There were four of us in the HVAC company who were single, and all four of us raced over to the dispatcher to get that service call. She tossed a coin in the air and said heads or tails. Two of us chose heads and two chose tails, so it came down to one more toss of the coin. I chose heads, which left tails, for my coworker. I was crestfallen when my coworker won the toss. I wasn’t so upset when he came back to tell us about this beautiful woman. He told us she was in her 50s, and although she was still pretty, it wasn’t worth winning the toss for. The owner of the HVAC company, who is also the HVAC contractor, started laughing when my coworker walked away. He said he would lay odds that HVAC tech was going on a date with that young woman, because she was no older than 25.
He offered to sell me a used furnace.
When the HVAC technician told me I needed a new furnace, I knew I couldn’t afford it. He started giving me suggestions on new furnaces, and when I saw the prices, I almost cried. There was no way I was going to find the funding for the new furnace when it was going to cost me over $5000. While we were discussing the cost, he told me they have some used furnaces I may be interested in. I couldn’t figure out why anyone would buy a used furnace. He said that the furnace is where gently used, which meant they were brand new and delivered to the wrong person, or someone didn’t like it. He said they seldom sell a used furnace, that is more than a-year-old. They refurbish the furnace and put it back to original new condition. The price of the refurbished/used furnace was almost half the price of a brand-new furnace. I asked how long it would take before the furnace could be delivered and installed, and he told me they could do it within a day or two. I was happy that I could have the furnace by the end of the weekend, but I still had the problem of coming up with payment. The HVAC tech explained they could give me free installation, and if I was still worried about the cost, he could contact the HVAC company and see if I was eligible for a payment plan. After asking me how much I could pay every month, he got in touch with the HVAC company. Three days later, my furnace was being delivered and installed.