Elderly man winds up with $19,000 HVAC system that he won't pay off until he's nearly 100 years old

Robert59

Robert59

Well-known Member
Location
Now I live in Tennesee. Did live in Michigan.
GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Most of us do not know much about our heating and air conditioning systems. So when they break, we usually have to rely on what the repairman tells us is wrong and what needs fixing or replacing.

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.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/n...e-wont-pay-off-until-hes-nearly-100-years-old
 

According to the linked-to article, they cut down the bill by almost one third, and cancelled the expensive service contract. They way oversold him, a trusting long-time customer, on what he needed. Nothing like a little sunshine thrown on their business practices to get them to be more reasonable. The upshot is that they've tarnished their reputation in order to take advantage of a trusting customer.
 

When my father joined the Army, right after Pearl Harbor, he found out he had an IQ of over 150 and he was forever after very proud of being smarter than average (too proud I always thought.) Then he got old and in his eighties he started to lose some of his reasoning abilities, and rather than just laugh off the silly mistakes, like I've always done, he would be so ashamed.

He was taken advantage of by all those groups that prey on old people, furnace salesmen being just one, also the Readers Digest Sweepstakes and Publishers Clearing House. They had gradually convinced him that if he would buy their useless knick-knacks and other products his chances of winning would be better. After awhile all he did was work on his Big Win, which he thought was just around the corner. He wouldn't come to Christmas dinner at my house because he was afraid he would miss them, his living room was covered with boxes of things he'd bought from them, he got mad at me for mailing one of his entries from the wrong post office and it wasn't all irrational:

I actually saw a letter they had sent him implying he was a finalist and asking for directions to his house! :mad:
 
Problem is alot of the HVAC companies and others use corporate strategies and sales tactics. They focus on billing instead of their actual product. The person or people that sold him are just worried about making a quota or meeting a bonus. Some purposely try to milk existing customers because they know they will pay.

I've talked to contractors, mechanics etc and many say admit they upsell every job. If a mechanic offers a 30 dollar oil change they probably want to sell you another 150-300 dollars in work. A plumber told me even though they offered small single repair 200-300 dollar repair they wanted upsells every job. One guy told me the boss said a $1,500 minimum estimate per job-And that company happen to be the most expensive repair estimate we recieved on an issue.

I hope this guy gets some aid and justice
 
Robert59 said:
GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Most of us do not know much about our heating and air conditioning systems. So when they break, we usually have to rely on what the repairman tells us is wrong and what needs fixing or replacing.

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.

https://www.newschannel5.com/news/n...e-wont-pay-off-until-hes-nearly-100-years-old
Click to expand...
What he HVAC contractor did(pushing a high price system and service contract) is nothing out of the ordinary, but certainly unscrupulous to say the least, particularly in dealing with an elderly customer.
From the article:
I didn’t have any idea. You know $275 a month doesn’t sound too bad and it wasn’t going to really hurt us that bad.
Click to expand...

A $275/mo. payment would make me absolutely crazy, but if the man is comfortable with it then...why worry about paying it off? If he dies before hand, the HVAC company can put a lien(probably already did) on the house, and collect when it's sold.
 
Della said:
When my father joined the Army, right after Pearl Harbor, he found out he had an IQ of over 150 and he was forever after very proud of being smarter than average (too proud I always thought.) Then he got old and in his eighties he started to lose some of his reasoning abilities, and rather than just laugh off the silly mistakes, like I've always done, he would be so ashamed.

He was taken advantage of by all those groups that prey on old people, furnace salesmen being just one, also the Readers Digest Sweepstakes and Publishers Clearing House. They had gradually convinced him that if he would buy their useless knick-knacks and other products his chances of winning would be better. After awhile all he did was work on his Big Win, which he thought was just around the corner. He wouldn't come to Christmas dinner at my house because he was afraid he would miss them, his living room was covered with boxes of things he'd bought from them, he got mad at me for mailing one of his entries from the wrong post office and it wasn't all irrational:

I actually saw a letter they had sent him implying he was a finalist and asking for directions to his house! :mad:
Click to expand...
It is so sad to see what happens to our judgement as we get older. My father was a brilliant man who went to college at 15 years old, but as he got older he started to lose his ability to reason. Disclaimer... he was never diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

When I visited him at my parent's house, he had matchsticks lined up along the outside of his sliding glass doors. He told me that kept the Frogs away because it burned their backsides. He lived on a lake with a small patch of land with a walking path on the other side of the lake. One day, he drove his 80's Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham along that walking path and couldn't turn around. One morning, my mother called me to say he had been attacked by a Catbird while getting the mail. When I got to their house, he told me if he "had his slingshot" he could have killed that bird. I had to laugh at the time, but now it isn't so funny.

My father was a successful financial advisor and still had a brilliant financial mind in his last days but had lost all common sense. There but for the grace of God go I. 😞
 
Oh Dseag2 he sounds exactly like my dad toward the end. He had been a gentle animal lover all his life, and I didn't know he even owned a gun, but one day he was doing a job on his property and said a crow had been "cussing at him all day," so he got his gun and shot him! I was and still am appalled at that. We never knew until after my mother died how much she kept him grounded.
 

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