14/07/2024
Morning ya'll. I hope everyone is starting to get back to normal or at least close to it. Since I hadn't posted anything in some days several people have reached out to check on me which I really appreciate. We're OK here . No major damage. I lost some shingles on the garage but no leaks . It is an older roof and it's time to fix that anyway. Getting that shot in my elbow fixed it and that is feeling much, much better thank goodness. I virtually have no pain in it at all. Since the storm everything has been about cleanup , repairs and maintenance which has had me busy. I'm still waiting on my steering parts which I'm told will arrive today. My trip for last night I got notice days ago would need rescheduled and my trip for tonight is rescheduled because I don't think I'll have the steering fixed in time especially if my parts don't arrive today. I had reported before that during the storm my generac went down and my portable has a problem now only running at half it's power capacity but I was able to keep one room cool to be able to sleep, all my fridges and freezers running and kept the bait alive so overall I reckon I scraped by without any major losses for which I'm quite thankful . This post is going to be a bit lengthy . I've got a story to tell which I believe is relevant seeing how I'm always preaching about doing your homework when it comes to a hiring guide to make sure you will have a quality experience. This time I didn't do mine when hiring a service and it almost cost me .
I'll start with as I reported before when the generac went down I scrambled to get my portable going . Once I had that situation at least stable I called generac to talk to customer service. It was still during the storm there was a lot going on , that leaning tree was on my mind and frankly I was a little stressed out. I've got to say my experience Generac customer service was outstanding. The guy on the phone did everything he could do to try and help me remotely and in the end on that call he said a technician was necessary to proceed further being a few possible causes for the code it was throwing and he gave me a few local numbers from his list to call. I called the first with no answer . The second answered and I understood that during the storm they were of course swamped with calls. The lady took my number and told me she would call me back in the morning and try to get someone out but couldn't make me any guarantee because their customers under contracts were first priority which I of course understand and it was what it was atm. I decided to wait and hear back from her in the morning. A call which never came. She said it'd be around 8 and around 10:30 or so I decided to call the next number on the list where I left a message . Never got a response from them either but again I'm sure they were swamped as well. I got my portable refilled with fuel and decided to go in and cool off , grab a bite and chill out for a few. I browsed on FB for a few min to see what all was going on around Conroe saw some storm damage pics and ran across a post offering Generac service. Here's my first mistake. I didn't go to their page, I just called the number. If I had gone to their page I would have seen a 3.7 rating for 6 reviews and I would have just scrolled on . He answered the phone . We briefly talked about the issues I was having. He asked me to text him my information and said he'd get back to me ASAP to see if he could come out that day. I texted him the information and within the hr he texted me back to say he'd be there within the hr. I have to admit I was happy that I had someone coming out so quickly but in retrospect that might have been a red flag being the situation what it was overall. He came out . There were 2 of them. The owner , a young feller well under 30 and an employee evidently. The employee was carrying a battery for the Gen which I told him you " won't be needing that because that's not the problem at all." He just kept walking and said " oh we'll see" . After seeing that it would crank right up and run like I told them over the phone.....lol . I found it odd right off the bat the employee was googling the symptoms and the code while the owner proceeded to tell me how above board, transparent and honest they were going to be dealing with me . They were there a total of maybe 30 minutes. The one was on Google the whole time , the other had a meter out and tested a few things. I watched, asked a few questions and gave them some feedback about some things I had already checked with my simple tester and all they did was confirmed what I already knew , that it wasn't making any power. The owner told me that it was either the voltage regulator or the brushes. I said " well, I guess we just test for that and we'll know what's up then right?" . He responded " there's no test for that . "We swap one and if it's not that then it's the other ". I responded " in my experience there's a test for everything, don't take this the wrong way but I've been around the block a few times and I know the difference between a mechanic and a parts changer" . He said" well , not on these models this is how we do it ". I let that kinda go by the wayside while we discussed the age of the unit and possibly being covered by warranty. It struck me funny that he said he doesn't do much warranty work so he couldn't speak to that . So I asked him what the parts would cost and he said he didn't know for sure but the brushes were at least 200 and the voltage regulator was 1200. That was just for the parts labor was separate. He couldn't tell me how many brushes were in the unit. He said could be 2 could be 4 depending on the model. I asked how much the labor was going to be to change the parts and fig it out . He said" I don't really know could be 20 min could be up to a few hrs depending on which part " . I asked well , how much is the labor per hr ?" . 120 he replied. My response to that was " again, don't take this the wrong way but for 120 bucks an hr one would figure you'd have some kind of idea on how long this should take ". When he told me that it's hard to say because all models are different ... I just stopped him there and said " OK let me figure out my financial situation, those are expensive parts and I'll have to just get back to you on how quickly I'll be able to move on this . How much do I owe you for coming out ?" . He charged me 318 bucks , asked me twice for a 5 star review and said he'd be in touch about parts availability. He texted me a link to leave a review right before he left . I sat around thinking a bit. For someone who has certified Generac technician written on the side of his truck he sure left me with more questions than answers. I got right back on the phone to Generac customer service. I was on hold for awhile but when I got to talk to someone again their customer service was outstanding. I told them about my experience with this so called " tech" and he confirmed what I thought I already knew. There's a test for everything. He was very helpful in giving me all the part numbers for my specific model. Informed me that the 2 most common causes for my issues were the voltage regulator or the brushes and even gave me the MSRP on those parts so I could shop them around and know whether I was getting a good deal or not. BTW. The brushes are between 17 and 25 dollars. The voltage regulator is between 400 and 600 depending on where you are looking. That's for OEM parts too. The voltage regulator is part of the controller and is less likely than the brushes but isn't uncommon. He gave me lots of information over the phone and told me that that so called " tech" from what it sounded like was quite likely price gouging . Something that didn't occur to me at the time and is illegal. I shopped the parts for a good deal on both from a place called generator magic . They even had extremely reasonable overnight delivery! Being that both are fairly common problems I bought 4 sets of brushes, a control board and got it overnight delivery and spent less than 600 bucks. I have spare parts on hand if or when needed next time. I got my parts in. Changed the controller first because it only takes a few minutes. That wasn't the problem. Since disassembled it and found what's in the pics . I replaced the brushes , cleaned up the slip rings and she's back up and running perfectly again. Chuck came over and helped me a bit to get done before any rain came. He also talked to a friend of his who had some suggestions on how to clean the slip rings . Thanks Chuck! . Coincidentally a few hrs after we finished and tested the unit that young feller texted me asking if I had left a review, was ready to get the parts and let me know that the prices he had given me on the parts were good. Of course he didn't know what I had already done . I went ahead and called him. I let him know how dissatisfied and disappointed I was and I wasn't ugly with him at all . I told him that I had already fixed the unit myself and no longer needed nor wanted anything from him and I wouldn't be leaving a review. He blew up! And I mean really blew up! He cussed me out and hung up. Then he started texting me. Over text I let him know that I believed that he was price gouging me and I wasn't happy about that. He texted me that he was coming over right now to " handle it" I let him know that wasn't necessary. There wasn't anything to " handle " I was just done with him and there wasn't any reason to contact me further. We'll, he showed up in my yard about 10 minutes later with the other guy.....
screaming ,cussing ,insulting me. lol making a real scene ! I told him he was acting a fool. He was just pi**ed that he got caught nothing more , nothing less. He and they other guy started to act intimidating and started going in the direction that they wanted to get physical. I told him" if you're feeling froggy jump son ! " I let him know that he was on 24 hr video and audio recorded surveillance and pointed up at the camera lol. The other guy immediately went back to the truck without incident lmao. The young feller continued to insult me . Threw the money I'd paid him on the ground talking smack the whole time. That was kind of a bonus lol! I didn't ask for a refund. He did show up after all initially. Some people's children I'm telling ya. The first mistake stupid people make Is they assume everyone else is stupid too. I'm sure he threw that money on the ground because he knew he got cold busted price gouging and by refunding me I couldn't seek litigation against him . My entire property is under 24 hr audio and video recorded surveillance and our entire dealing is on the DVR or on text . There's a camera right above the Gen, right above the electrical panel as well as placed around the entire property lol. If anyone wants to know who it was so they can avoid him feel free to pm me . I'm not going to put the name public because I'm unsure of the law about that and don't need the little peckerwood trying to come after me lol. I will say that it's an electrician company that supposedly does HVAC as well as Gen services local to Conroe. 3.7 for 6 reviews. I should have done my homework! I could have probably had my Gen running the same day if I'd had called a real professional and could have avoided all the silliness that came along. I guess there's a silver lining . I now know how to fix the 2 most common issues with it and have the parts on hand to do so . After all hurricane season is just starting and they're saying it'll be an active one.
On a side note. If any of ya'll are in roofing or know someone you trust I'll be interested in some quotes to put a layer of shingles on my garage. It's only got one layer . I'll get the material. I'm unsure of the sq footage since I've added on to it some yrs ago and just don't remember so itll need measurements. I don't get on roofs anymore. Sorry for the book but I thought it was a story worth telling. I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits. Thanks again for staying tuned.
