All AC techs are paid by 100% commissions. If they repair your AC they make an average of $30 to $40 per repair. Techs are paid a certain percentage determined by how much they charge you. Lower priced invoices meant a lower percentage they are paid. So if they do an $800 repair they make 16% versus if they sold you more than $1000 they get 18%.
If they sell you a complete system they make an average of $550 - $650 per system sold. Plus any other services they sell you.
Example: A capacitor cost an average of $10 they will charge you over $260 to replace it; the technicians will try and sell you a new system instead of fixing what is actually wrong in order to make more money. About 95% of things wrong with your system are simple repairs, often due to lack of maintenance. This is one of the reasons they do not offer maintenance contracts.
A system needs one pound of Freon, instead of just topping it off they will tell you that you have a leak and need a new system when actually in fact that is a common problem on most systems and can easily be fixed with possibly just a new valve which only cost 10 cents. A lot of the technicians do not actually know how to make the repairs, but they are good salesmen and can convince you to buy a new system. Over the years thousands of good pieces of equipment have been replaced in this manner.
This summer we replaced hundreds of systems with the excuse that the old Freon is obsolete and customers are told that the old Freon is no longer available, when in fact it is still on the market and any Freon related repairs can still be done.
Straight from the owner, Don Valentines, mouth prices for repairs are purposely inflated so that when added up the price is so high that customers are more inclined to buy new equipment. John Moore is in the business of selling not repairing.
When technicians are interviewed they are not asked technical questions or about how to make repairs, but rather if they are good at selling. When interviewed the only question asked is how would you sell me a new system. If you impress the manager, Bob Merchant and James Young, with your selling abilities you are hired immediately. As for drug testing, you cannot really believe that. When hired I was asked if I needed to study for my drug test, in other words did I need a few days to get drugs out of my system. A lot of the new employees did take some time before taking the drug test.
On their website, http://www.johnmooreservices.com/about-us/career-center / you can see where they directly state that sales experience is preferred.
Once hired every technician goes through a week long class on how to sell to customers. One example of what the new hires are told is to lie and say they have been with the company for over 3 years. Another thing they are taught is how to relate to the customer in order to gain their trust. After this week of training they decide who to keep and who to get rid of based on how they do in the class. So when a technician arrives at your door he is actually a well trained salesman disguised as a technician.
Once a week a meeting for technicians is held in which sales strategies are discussed, as well as bonuses given for the highest selling techs for the week.
If a technician came out for one trade and told you that you needed another service and a different tech came out and sold you anything then the original tech gets a commission on that.
Any discounts, coupons, or service charge are actually included in the prices, even the senior citizen discounts.
If a customer complains about a technician overselling to them or he refuses to sell more than what a customer needs the tech is fired immediately with false accusations to make him look bad and protect John Moores image. If the technician is not selling enough to satisfy Ken Alger, CFO, and his quotas you are fired immediately. Also, if a tech couldnt take the pressure anymore and wanted to quit during their exit interview with the managers they are begged to stay and are offered false promises for them to stay. They are then later wrongfully fired without any warning so that John Moores records do not show the truth about what was said in their initial exit interview.
When technicians are hired they are told they will be making $30-$60 an hour average, which can only be achieved by selling unnecessary parts and new HVAC equipment. They are also promised they will be working 40 hour weeks, when in fact they have to work 60 80 hours a week, with no over time, during the peak season.
There is an extreme turnover rate in all departments. For example in just the AC department about 32 technicians are hired per month and only averages of 4 technicians make it through the month during the 6 month AC season. Then when winter comes all but about 5 AC technicians are fired.in just 4 months there is a turnover of about 250 people most of which quit. They do not keep employees for more than a year so that they do not have to pay benefits such as paid vacation or 401K. This is why you will always find a now hiring sign on the trucks and in front of their building year round.
Even your customer service representative is a salesperson. All CSR applicants must have 2 years of sales experience or they are not hired. They are trained to up sell every person that calls so if you call for a plumber they will try and get you to have an electrician come out too. They are paid based on how many appointments they book and receive bonuses for booking more than one trade.
Dispatchers are trained to scan the calls and send selling techs to elderly or uninformed women (techs call these the victims) and real technicians to jobs that will just be repairs.
John Moore also recently started selling their own brand of AC equipment, which is actually just Goodman equipment with a John Moore sticker on it. Goodman is a cheap low rated brand that they are selling for an outrageous price. Goodman is so poorly made that Channel 11 recently did a story on their faulty units.
You may be asking yourself how can they get away with all of this and still have such good standing with the BBB. There is a simple answer to that question, Don Valentine, who purchased John Moore Services from the Moore family several years ago and just continues to use the name, is Chairman of the BBB. This is why they are able to abuse the BBB logo on their trucks and in their advertising tricking people to fall into the John Moore rip off trap.
Some news stations are aware of these crimes yet nothing has been publicized about it because they are afraid they will lose John Moore as a million dollar advertising customer.
I am embarrassed to say I ever worked for this company. It has opened my eyes to what the BBB really is. My suggestions to customers is you should always pick a company based on word of mouth and dont believe what the BBB says. If John Moore has ever worked on your house or has given you a price for work I strongly recommend you call a couple other companies and compare prices. As for techs, dont believe in the promises they make to suck you in to working there. They are all lies and they will just use you for a few months and then get rid of you without a reason. Basically just dont ever work here and that goes for any position in the field or office.
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