HVAC company scammed an elderly man in Tennessee through weird financing and hiding fees. The main takeaway is knowing this is a tactic used by some HVAC companies and you can protect yourself by getting your quotes and then doing financing elsewhere.
We offer 0% financing options at newhvacguide.com and are very transparent about the terms of your loan. HVAC systems are already a large enough investment for most folks without having someone scam you.
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/elderly-man-winds-up-with-19-000-hvac-system-that-he-wont-pay-off-until-hes-nearly-100-years-old
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0:00 Intro: Crazy scam video
0:43 News Story on HVAC scam on 90 year old
2:48 Check your own HVAC Warranty
3:05 How the Scam was created. 32 Grand!
4:23 Don't sign long term agreements for anything HVAC
4:56 Math on the Loan
5:50 Homeowner can't operate the thermostat
6:32 HVAC Company's side
7:17 Get a Second opinion and quotes
7:34 Protect yourself by financing through newhvacguide.com
8:59 We'd love you earn your business! New HVAC Guide
9:38 We'd love you earn your business! Griffin Air

Hey guys crazy video for you, i heard a crazier story a couple weeks ago that we're going to dive into, but before i go any further. If you caught this video, please stay tuned, because i'm going to go through a solution to this scam that, i think, will help you. Let's dive into this, i think that uh, just so you know the company that we're gon na reference here - we're not gon na name them, but they did take this system out since then, and give this uh guy his money back. But ultimately, uh we've got a an elderly gentleman here, uh, probably not as technically savvy as you are, even if you're just watching this video he had his uh heating and air company take advantage of him because of that.

So, let's dive into this uh that it's out of good lutsville, tennessee i'll, put a link to this article down in the notes. But it like say it's out of goodlettsville tennessee. Most of us do not know much about our heating and air conditioning system. So when they break, we usually have to rely on what the repair man tells us is wrong and what needs fixing or replacing.

So you know i'm going to be summarizing some of this stuff, because some of the verbiage is a little odd. To me. To be honest, that's what a goodlettsville man did, but he says that because he trusted the repairman, he was left with a huge bill that he probably won't ever be able to pay off. For nearly 50 years, robert nolan and his wife have called a 1500 square foot house their home and for as long as they can remember, he's used just one heating and air conditioning company.

So i think the first thing that i'll just jump in here with is just if you have a company that you like fine, but just because they tell you something does not necessarily mean that you can't get other opinions. I think most good. Reputable companies are fine with you getting second opinions anyway. They should have the confidence in what they're telling you enough anyway.

So like. If i tell one of my customers, hey here's what's wrong with your system. Well, that's! What's wrong with their system, if they call someone else, that's still what's wrong with their system. If that makes sense - and so he says in an article that he's been using this unnamed company for 35 to 40 or more years - and he couldn't imagine him taking advantage of him and now he's not sure, i will say that i don't even know necessarily that It's the company it very well could have been that, because a lot of companies will pay commission on certain sales, it's very possible that the person that was up to no good here was the sales person or the technician that was at his home.

Let's having this a little further and we'll be able to touch on how the scam was created, i'm going to call it a scam whether it was or wasn't. It could have been just a misunderstanding and an elderly gentleman signing a paper that he didn't read. So the unnamed company came out to do the annual inspection. The homeowner claims that the system was working.
Fine. However, the company came to him and said the air conditioner was low on gas and said it was about 10 years old and the warranty was out. So again. Let me jump in if you are not sure if a company tells you your warranty is out, go to our website, newhvacguide.com scroll, all the way at the bottom and click check.

My warranty, you can check your warranty yourself. So if you have a company telling you that you're not sure you can check the warranty yourself so moving on uh, the company then said so, instead of just filling his existing unit, the company sold him a new air conditioner, plus a new furnace and an electronic Thermostat, according to the unnamed company, it's a high efficiency system, and not only does it heat and cool the house, it also cleans the air in his home. So then he goes on to say that the technician told him that the new system would be 275 dollars. A month why the homeowner never asked how many months, i'm not sure i'm not really clear on how this all worked.

I'm going to get in again in a moment on how we can solve this entire issue with just one thing and we're going to get into that just a second, but getting back to the article here, the reporter actually asks the homeowner did the technician ever tell You how many months you're going to have to pay homeowner says no. He didn't, but it's in this paper, it's 117 months. So the reporter asked him how old he is now he said, i'm almost 90 and he says so. What age will you be when you pay it off? He says over a hundred years old and goes on to say that he insists that the company employee never told him that he'd be paying nearly nineteen thousand dollars for his new air conditioning and heating system.

For another, thirteen thousand dollars for the highest level service plan for a grand total of thirty two thousand dollars - 32 grand, and so that's just nuts to me. The second thing i will just jump in here with and just tell you - i think, it's silly to sign a long-term contract with any company anyway, why you would ever do that makes no sense to me most of our maintenance agreements. We have what we call our vip club with griffin air, and somebody could just sever ties with us that day. If they want to, they can just call us and say hey.

I don't like seeing josh's fat face on youtube and i want to just cancel my agreement. I'm not sure why you would pay upfront for years on a service agreement, but that's what he said he did. He goes on to say, 275 dollars a month. Doesn't sound too bad uh? I actually disagree.

That sounds really high to me, especially if you're going to do a long-term loan for a heating and air system. But he says it wasn't really going to hurt us too bad, and he says once you see how they have it set up and how many years that adds up to that. It really shakes me up because i probably won't ever live long enough to pay it off so from the way this is written. They probably should have gotten more of an expert to write this article, this reporter some of the things that they're saying i'm not even sure that they really know what they're talking about, but they just say that they looked into how much he spent on the system.
He they checked with the manufacturer and with the contractor, did some homework on the system. They also talk about what he paid for his last system. Well, if his last system was 10 years old, i don't even know why that would matter. I've had two price increases in the last six months alone on the equipment that we sell.

So i'm not sure why that would matter. They also go on to say that the system is so extravagant that the homeowner does not know how to operate the system or change the temperature on the thermostat, and i think the easy solution to that is. The installer should have shown him how to use his thermostat. I think that there are some pretty complicated thermostats out there, but in general, for the most part, if the company takes a moment to speak to the homeowner and say hey, you know, this is how to operate your new thermostat just because it's a digital thermostat and Just because it's connected to an expensive heating and air system does not necessarily mean that the company did anything wrong, just my two cents on that, and so we're about to uh wrap this article up.

The company that we're not gon na name went on to say that we take any complaints of this nature very seriously, and our goal is to provide 100 satisfaction to our customers. We are working to resolve this matter with him and again so the article goes on, but ultimately we know because of articles since then that the company that installed the system has now removed the system and he had someone else install a less expensive system. Ultimately, i think, there's several things at play here definitely sounds like that. The technician or salesperson was probably working off commission, if i would guess, and because he was elderly and not necessarily up on technology and things like that, they were able to pull this off.

That said, if you have a company that says hey look, this is what's wrong with your air conditioner. This is what we think that you need to do. You know maybe it's time to replace it's okay to get other quotes. You know, get second opinions.

I don't care how long you've been with that company definitely check around get more quotes, but ultimately here's the solution that i think i can offer you in this video. That will fix this issue and many more, and that is, if you are in the market, for a new heating and air system, you should get multiple quotes, get the best price, get the good better best. I'm not even saying go with the cheapest price. You know you might want a better system, a system that does clean the air system, that maybe it does have surge protection.
Maybe it does have a high efficiency inverter, but once you make your decision, you've got multiple quotes. You picked out a quote and that's who you're going to go with, to avoid all of this, to avoid the company being able to hide fees on you and adjust their prices and do this and that with the long-term loans and stuff you just take. That quote, and you go to our website and scroll all the way to the bottom. There's a tab that says financing and you can apply for financing right through our website.

You just click that there's some zero percent options and the contractor never gets a chance to pull one over on you, so you got their best price for the system that you want. You go to our website, apply for financing and it's totally separate - and you can avoid all of this. The company that we work with for financing will shop. Multiple vendors find the best solution for you.

They even have solutions for folks that don't have the best credit in the world, and i just think that a lot of this sort of stuff will be avoided if you just keep it separate. So hopefully that makes sense if you are in the market for a heating and air system before you spend thousands check out that website newhvacguide.com and if you get access in there. I basically wrote a book on the website, but instead of a book that would become outdated, we will be able to add information. As technology comes out, new changes in the industry.

You will stay up to date on that. I also put information on there that contractors don't even want you to know. I've got a whole page called no nose. I've got a page of my favorite heating and air brands, and not so favorite heating and air brands, and i put a little blurb on there.

Why i feel the way i do about each and every brand, and so before you spend thousands check that out, but if you're in our coverage area, if you're in griffin airs coverage area in the northern neck middle peninsula or down in williamsburg virginia, give us a Call we'd love to earn your business, we have the best warranty in the area and we'll give you a free estimate. All that said thanks for watching hit that subscribe button, we'll see you next time you.

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