Be Quiet

The Omertà or (The code of silence)

If you are a service person in people’s homes you must observe The Omertà.
(The code of silence)
I did HVAC and pool heat pump service for 20 years and  I am sure that I have been in at least 5000 homes and 100’s of businesses in that time. It is a privilege and honor to earn the trust to enter other people’s worlds. Many times I have been alone repairing air-conditioning or refrigerators because the customer needed to work. That trust I took seriously. I did work for a few big factories. The employees would ask if I could help them at their home. I saw many alternative lifestyles that the employees didn’t feel comfortable anyone knowing about at work. I always kept my mouth shut. I found sexy things in freezers while I was repairing them that mom and dad didn’t want the kids to see. Guess they were too short to reach. Don’t hide your money in the air conditioning closet please. Saw that a couple of times too. I was fixing a heat pump at a night club at 8 am on a weekday and I got off the roof to get something from my truck and when I got back to my ladder 2 big goons were ruffing up an all night customer. The guy was thrown into my ladder and moved it. The two goons looked at me horrified and stopped their fight and both started apologizing and trying to reposition my ladder. I remember the exact words of one of them; “Mr. Miller we are sincerely sorry if we did anything to interrupt your work day. Please accept our apologies.” 2 hours later the customer was drinking in the cool air from the repaired AC like nothing had happened. I didn’t say anything. I saw people drunk in the morning who called in sick to work. Saw married couples fighting about all kinds of private subjects in the same room as me while I worked. I helped contractors who were afraid to work in their own neighborhoods at night. I visited many famous people who didn’t want anyone to know where they lived. I fixed the air conditioning in a home that was going to host one of the most famous singers in the world at the time that night. Didn’t tell anyone. Well, maybe only my Mom. There were answering machines broadcasting private messages next to where I was installing a thermostat. Personal videos playing on big TVs that were not meant for strangers. Mortuaries with stuff going on not for the faint of heart. Famous Hollywood, Football, Tennis and Hockey players who liked their privacy too. swimming pool parties with bathing suits optional and 100′ yacht parties with their own special kind of decadence. Your job is to be a hero and make people comfortable and solve their problems. Never do or say anything to make customers uncomfortable or cause stress in their lives. We all have enough of that.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus

P.S. It goes without saying that if I saw anybody being abused who needed help or any type of animal cruelty, I would talk as fast as an auctioneer who got paid by the word to anyone who would listen.

P.P.S. I know whether young men or young woman keep cleaner homes. 🙂

Customers are buying foreign pool heat pump heaters and not being told they are not built in the USA

There is nothing like home made bread. Kinda like local heat pumps. I just had a week of people telling me they can buy a swimming pool heat pump pool heater for $500.00 less then mine. I asked what brand of pool heater that they saw, and most had trouble remembering the exact name, but eventually we figured it out. The problem was that the marketing company selling inexpensive pool heaters combined the names from two USA pool heater companies to make it seem like an American product. Nowhere on their website did it say where the heat pump was made. I recognized it only because I go to the international pool shows and it looked familiar. I have lots of pride in my country and try to use and distribute USA products. That isn’t enough of a reason for you to buy a local a heat pump though. The pool heater also needs to be reliable, efficient, with a long warranty with a company close to your time zone in case you ever need factory support. If you want to call a Chinese engineer in Shanghai at 2 in the morning with a question then you have my respect. I don’t even want to call my cell phone company in the afternoon anymore. The Chinese have some good ideas with some of the features of their heat pumps. They impressed Hayward enough to sell them small heat pumps. Hayward has the infrastructure to service them though. If you have a problem you have someone to call. Most others do not. I still would’t send my clients in that direction. I still have customers who call me that I have known from 35 years ago when I was repairing their air conditioners and appliances. I hate to get a call that they have a problem with a pool heater that will cost them money and stress, so I do my best to give them the most reliable equipment backed by engineers with big egos who give their heart and soul into making the best product. Sometimes it doesn’t always work out, but most of the time my record is pretty good with my suggestions. I have to be an expert after all these years. One of my favorite brands that went out of business was The Kopec swimming pool heat pump. That man put his own name on the heater. I really respected that. He was a real guy making the pool heat pumps as good as he could because he knew that if there were any issues that it was his name that would suffer. 16 years later I still have customers telling me that their Kopec heat pumps are still heating even though all the lettering has faded from the sun. And I can still get parts for that heat pump because they were USA parts that are mostly still available. So ask me questions. I really have seen almost everything in this industry and want to help you have tropical water in your back yard so you and your family can enjoy your pool all season and not just for 2 weeks when the water is warm enough on its’ own.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574