Yes, very much a scam. I found out.when I called Mchales Plumbing out on a service call and they were twice as expensive as the other estimates. I did start another blog about my experience. Great show but not worth all the money. The plumber gave me the inside scoup. What I can tell you is that they lost a long time customer and probably many more if I can help it. I'm sure its great for the bottom line,but not the homeowner. The next company I called out used the same parts,same warranty and were $200 cheaper for the same repair. Money is not just a number on paper. I am on a fixed income and they dont seem to care i wonder what the old man would say if he were still around. He was so good to us. They were so concerned about snooping around my home for more work and not so concerned about what my issue was.
I am a technician that has worked for 2 similarly priced companies throughout NJ for the last 4 years.
I have been doing electrical, hvac install and tiling in NJ for 14 years and recently was exposed to a different business structure. What I came to understand is that there is a program called Nexstar that offers businesses a full structure on how to operate. Their promise is to grow the business and offer different plans depending on how much assistance you need.
One of the problems I see with this structure is that their prices are through the roof (100% - 400%+ higher than highest average) and it is usually a cut throat environment for the technicians and customers. Profits rise greatly with these Nextar companies, but profit margin doesn't change much. This tells me that a lot of the money is going somewhere and Nexstar is a big corporation that probably has a lot to do with this. One positive is this structure may help raise low pricing and quality concerns throughout the industry. Both of these companies did pride themselves on going the extra mile for the customer and offered lifetime warranties.
The issue I saw is that it is very conflicting for a technician to be told to go the extra mile for a customer and also be drilled all day every day on revenue performance or risk losing credibility and even your job. First of all, to keep your job you need to be bringing in at least 6-10k a week in revenue. Minimum goals are 30-50k a month and they praise the techs through company wide emails that are knowingly taking advantage of customers and bringing in 80-100k+ a month. Some of these techs will say you need a full replacement when there is most definitely other solutions. There is a very basic price structure but you are encouraged to up-sell in every aspect of your day. Consistency is an issue if one tech can sell a switch replacement at $200 and the next at $350. I am a very honest person and an extremely hard worker. For me to make an honest living at these companies, I had to work twice as hard and charge less per job just so I could sleep at night knowing I didn't take advantage of customers while keeping at the revenue standards to keep my job.
Technicians hourly rate is lower and less important because this system is based on revenue performance and bonus. There is a significant payout for hitting your weekly or monthly bonus numbers. You can have a great group of technicians, managers and owner, but this Nexstar structure creates a cut throat environment that puts this performance factor way ahead of pricing jobs properly, customer satisfaction, or doing the right thing in any given situation.
Try to find a reputable company that is within New Jersey's average price range that takes pride in their work and are dependable. This is not an easy task and can be found in companies with a single truck or bigger scale operations. There can be a mix of professional and less than professional technicians in any given company. In my opinion, putting the customer first and doing good work at a reasonable price will sustain business far more than this structure which seems to be focused on lining the pockets of the higher ups. Lifetime warranty doesn't matter as much if you have people doing the work focusing on quality. Say this Nexstar company comes in, does the job in 1 day (until 1 am or later sometimes) and comes back 15 times after the install because they rushed for the revenue and things keep going wrong. Was it worth the extra 10k? It happens more often than it should with these Nexstar based companies. Compare that to a company that took 2 extra days to install and perhaps offered a 10 year warranty and you never needed them back.
To give one last perspective, these Nexstar companies more often hire salesman over technically inclined tradesman. Comfort Advisors selling hvac installs are paid on commission only and asked to convert 30% of leads given. These advisors make 120k-200k+ annually for doing this job. What company says the goal is to get 3 out of 10 jobs quoted. This means that their pricing is so much higher than the competition that they still win with a 3 out of 10 conversion while paying advisors there high commission. The service departments average around 50-70% but its not often a customer would become a repeat buyer. The only reason I had steady repeat work was because I wasn't pricing to their standard and was working twice as hard to meet revenue numbers.
These are some of my opinions and I hope they help people make educated decisions in hiring a company or who they want to work for.
6 comments:
Yes, very much a scam. I found out.when I called Mchales Plumbing out on a service call and they were twice as expensive as the other estimates. I did start another blog about my experience. Great show but not worth all the money. The plumber gave me the inside scoup. What I can tell you is that they lost a long time customer and probably many more if I can help it. I'm sure its great for the bottom line,but not the homeowner. The next company I called out used the same parts,same warranty and were $200 cheaper for the same repair. Money is not just a number on paper. I am on a fixed income and they dont seem to care i wonder what the old man would say if he were still around. He was so good to us. They were so concerned about snooping around my home for more work and not so concerned about what my issue was.
why did you take it off the AT&T line up? I like watching t) & the programs on Channels 7 (WAPA) and 62 (WYCW). A very up set person.
I WANT NEXTSTAR BACK ON MY LINEUP ON AT&T!!!!!!!!!!
I am a technician that has worked for 2 similarly priced companies throughout NJ for the last 4 years.
I have been doing electrical, hvac install and tiling in NJ for 14 years and recently was exposed to a different business structure. What I came to understand is that there is a program called Nexstar that offers businesses a full structure on how to operate. Their promise is to grow the business and offer different plans depending on how much assistance you need.
One of the problems I see with this structure is that their prices are through the roof (100% - 400%+ higher than highest average) and it is usually a cut throat environment for the technicians and customers. Profits rise greatly with these Nextar companies, but profit margin doesn't change much. This tells me that a lot of the money is going somewhere and Nexstar is a big corporation that probably has a lot to do with this. One positive is this structure may help raise low pricing and quality concerns throughout the industry. Both of these companies did pride themselves on going the extra mile for the customer and offered lifetime warranties.
The issue I saw is that it is very conflicting for a technician to be told to go the extra mile for a customer and also be drilled all day every day on revenue performance or risk losing credibility and even your job. First of all, to keep your job you need to be bringing in at least 6-10k a week in revenue. Minimum goals are 30-50k a month and they praise the techs through company wide emails that are knowingly taking advantage of customers and bringing in 80-100k+ a month. Some of these techs will say you need a full replacement when there is most definitely other solutions. There is a very basic price structure but you are encouraged to up-sell in every aspect of your day. Consistency is an issue if one tech can sell a switch replacement at $200 and the next at $350. I am a very honest person and an extremely hard worker. For me to make an honest living at these companies, I had to work twice as hard and charge less per job just so I could sleep at night knowing I didn't take advantage of customers while keeping at the revenue standards to keep my job.
Technicians hourly rate is lower and less important because this system is based on revenue performance and bonus. There is a significant payout for hitting your weekly or monthly bonus numbers. You can have a great group of technicians, managers and owner, but this Nexstar structure creates a cut throat environment that puts this performance factor way ahead of pricing jobs properly, customer satisfaction, or doing the right thing in any given situation.
Try to find a reputable company that is within New Jersey's average price range that takes pride in their work and are dependable. This is not an easy task and can be found in companies with a single truck or bigger scale operations. There can be a mix of professional and less than professional technicians in any given company. In my opinion, putting the customer first and doing good work at a reasonable price will sustain business far more than this structure which seems to be focused on lining the pockets of the higher ups. Lifetime warranty doesn't matter as much if you have people doing the work focusing on quality. Say this Nexstar company comes in, does the job in 1 day (until 1 am or later sometimes) and comes back 15 times after the install because they rushed for the revenue and things keep going wrong. Was it worth the extra 10k? It happens more often than it should with these Nexstar based companies. Compare that to a company that took 2 extra days to install and perhaps offered a 10 year warranty and you never needed them back.
To give one last perspective, these Nexstar companies more often hire salesman over technically inclined tradesman. Comfort Advisors selling hvac installs are paid on commission only and asked to convert 30% of leads given. These advisors make 120k-200k+ annually for doing this job. What company says the goal is to get 3 out of 10 jobs quoted. This means that their pricing is so much higher than the competition that they still win with a 3 out of 10 conversion while paying advisors there high commission. The service departments average around 50-70% but its not often a customer would become a repeat buyer. The only reason I had steady repeat work was because I wasn't pricing to their standard and was working twice as hard to meet revenue numbers.
These are some of my opinions and I hope they help people make educated decisions in hiring a company or who they want to work for.
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