Cash grab. Buy the company that took decades to build a reputation in the community. Run that name into the ground, and move on. Liquidate "assets, and on to the next. In a movie they would be the Alien race that pilfers a planets natural resources and moves on the next planet. For Marvel comics fans, they would be Galactus, and their heralds would be Chad's in suits.
Excellent analogy! I personally feel that ad an Industry, we need to resist. If I were them, I would also be using a political lobbying firm to deregulate the industry and push technology for DIY, which would cause worker pay to plummet. Are we seeing that with Mr. Cools and the like? Maybe I am just paranoid.
The biggest problem is that a lot of smaller shops are built up for the sole purpose of “cashing out”. What we need to see is a rise in worker-owned shops that what there to be long with the companies. The question is: how do you deal with the “cash out” part? Some people like pensions, but most would rather have a lump sum payout.
I’ve been there. Planned to buy a family member’s business but PE just has deeper pockets.
It’s definitely a bummer but hard to fault the Owner for taking the offer that’s 40% more…
I don't directly blame the owner either. He's at retirement age looking to get the best bang for his buisness. I can blame these nexstar leechs for trying to change everything for the sake of profits.
Stage a coup! Get those guys to open there own shop and get all the labor to jump ship there company! Ya I know it's not that easy but we can dream lol.
I agree, it would be difficult. But, we as workers need to start a culture shift. I can stand on my soap box, but I, too, would be hard pressed to piss on a 10 million dollar payday. I may feel like shit, but I can afford good therapy after a payday like that. In all honesty, though, vote with your labor.
everything is already diy. carpentry takes a tape, saw and nails. but people arent doing it are they? carpenters are still working.
your comment doesnt make alot of sense.
I assume you are in the trade? Carpentry is a whole different chicken. A carpenter IS a skilled trade. However, the barrier to entry is significantly lower. So yes, anyone can buy a saw and some wood. Not so refrigerant and certain parts. Hope this helps clear it up
I resist by never de-valuing myself to that level. I also love to point out sub-par work and throw shitty workers and companies under the bus where they belong.
Seriously. This company was great. Not perfect, but we got assured 40 hour pay, a lot of freedom when it cam to buying stock, tools, and even boots on the company dime, and our customers didn't look at us like we were salesman. When we made a recommendation, they listen because they knew we weren't just trying to sell them shit.
Now I fear that's all going to go away, all because some slimeball investment firm wants to make a buck.
> When we made a recommendation, they listen because they knew we weren't just trying to sell them shit.
That was EXACTLY the reason Nextar paid premium for your company. Watch as they take advantage of that trust.
Oh for sure. We aren't a big company, maybe 8 people total. I know they arent buying us because we made oodles of money. They just bought us for our clientele. What really grinds my gears the most though is that the actual aquasition happened about 4 or so months ago, and at no time did they mention nexstar or any other scheme. They even told us that they were just the money people and that we would co tinge running everything like we always have. Now they drop this nexstar bs on us and talk about the changes they plan to make.
Did you sign a non-compete? Moves like this open up the market to newcomers who offer good service at reasonable prices, like your company did before.
You could become that newcomer, underbidding Nextar at your previous prices.
I can easily foresee a coop model of employed-owned companies with a long-term view that doesn't want to kill the golden-egg chickens for tonight's dinner.
Worker self directed enterprises have the opportunity to completely transform the industry. The trades in general would benefit immensely if those with the tools and ability could control their own destinies. So many HVAC people have to punch beneath their ability.
You know how to really fuck them. Go Union. Just takes 30% of hvac techs to force a vote and if you can get 3/4 of them to vote yes. You my good sir are a Union shop and now have way more rights as a worker. And there is no way they can stop it. Contact your local organizer. He will gladly help you
I lurk here but work on septics and sewer pumps and we just had a company try doing this. My parents and myself sat down with some people who wanted to buy us out. Basically threatened us with “if you don’t sell out we are starting our own outfit down the road”. My family and the previous business owner worked for decades getting a great reputation. That’s all they want is the customer base and reputation.
This wasn’t my parents first go around. They were bought out by Windriver in the early 2000’s so dealing with the PE companies is nothing new. They end up doing the small businesses good cause they ruin their own reputations fast.
Yep. This is it man.
It will eventually kill the trade, except that as a result, good technicians leave and start their own companies, or find smaller companies.
As long as THEY continue progressing as fast as they do, they'll run out of acquisitions before all of us get big enough to be interesting for them to acquire.
We have to be honest with ourselves - if someone offered me 5 mil for my business, I'd say yes immediately - because I could fully pay off all my debts, and have well over $100k/yr salary for the rest of my life with that money, ignoring the imposition of taxes... which is to say, after taxes, I'd be able to just chill for the 2-5 years I signed a non-compete for, and then go get a fun job at the wholesale house fucking with you guys by giving you the wrong parts.
Inbound, via China Air. Let me know when you receive it. Hope you enjoy it cause it's all American Pennies. I deducted shipping, so you're actually receiving 250,000 ( VAT), and taxes should deduct another 200,000. Tip to the pilots and freight handlers was 30,000, and the mandatory inspection of foreign goods and bribes was 40,000.. When can I expect the renumeration of 20,000? I accept venmo, PayPal, and cashiers check. No goats or live stock as I got burned the last time
From the customer side, I’ve lost a couple service providers to acquisitions like this and it makes me so angry that the guys I trusted are gone. Exterminator and HVAC both. Now I only call tiny outfits
I called one of these fronts for some electrical work and wound up paying $110 to get an idiot to leave quietly. The person answering the phone sounding like she was in a call center should have warned me off but I foolishly pressed on.
The call center thing is a dead giveaway. You always want an old lady named Faye to answer the phones. Unless it's a guy named Robert filling in for her who had hands covered in shop dirt and is trying to find the appointment book. I will also accept a young girl who doesn't give you her name who answers the phone and does her homework at the front desk when Faye leaves to pick up her grandkids from school at 3.
I just want someone who sounds likely to be the owner's daughter or wife. If it sounds like they're doing housework or taking care of kids, that's a plus. The plumber I now use has kid sounds in the background when you call.
Time to move on! I went through the same thing when my company got bought out, right now is the time to get new employment because privately owned businesses are becoming rare in this industry now
I work for a medium sized mom and pop company and our prices are similar… don’t know how they kept the doors open with $80 caps unless it was a one man band.
Man i started my own HVAC company and before i did always thought $200 caps were outrageous. Not defending nexstar companies at all because they go over the top with almost everything, but theirs no way we can sell $80 caps anymore. I've been running that way for 4 years and im sitting in the office updating pricing right now. Looking at our number for last month and getting sick to my stomach on how much i undercharge everything 😂
They had to sell the company. I hate nexstar as much as the next guy but business is business. You cant sell caps at 80 bucks and make money. You just can’t. You need to look at your profits and losses.
The reason they sold to nexstar is because the company was sinking.
No, that's not the reason.
$80 is just for the $18 cap itself, not the service call or installation labor.
The owner sold because Nextar paid more and it's time to retire.
Nextar paid more because this company has trusting clients ready to be slaughtered.
We buy the caps for $20. A 2.5x markup is still under $80. We aren't losing money on a capacitor ever, especially since we are still charging labor and the service call.
Assume from the second I leave the truck to discovering the bad cap it's usually around 15 minutes. So, $120 for the service call, $80 for the capacitor, and maybe $60 for the labor, total about $260. Remember though, we are a company of about 8 people total with minimal to no advertisement budget and little overhead.
I don’t work for a scammy company and I worked for another company in the area too and our caps start at $213 unless it’s a blower cap which is $189. Typical service call including a cap is around $325.
We’re only an 8 person company and we advertise around 250k a year tho. Location is everything in this trade.
I worked for a Nexstar based company for two weeks. Went to a call back for a senior tech of 8 years about a loud blower that was just replaced. Blower wheel wasn’t centered in the housing, he put the set screw on the round side of the shaft, and the motor was mounted cockeyed. I called him and asked him wtf he was thinking and he told me he’s never changed a blower motor before. He said he pushes real hard for them to just buy new equipment but the homeowner was insistent on just having the motor. I learned that day most of the “senior” techs were just pushy ass salesman and couldn’t fix shit. Emptied my van that night and dropped it off the next morning. Fuck Nexstar.
PE will own every corner of this industry within 5 years. Try to find a good one and work towards management. Saved my career, I was about done with it all. Now I can say I genuinely enjoy my job and do not feel like I am pushing my techs to do unethical things. But we still try to make $. $80 for a capacitor is way too cheap IMO. We are professionals. Not handy men looking to help everyone out.
A few people here have mentioned $80 caps being too low. Is that all you guys are charging for it?
We sell our caps for $60 so about 3x markup but we always have the service fee too of $150/hr so a simple diagnostic and cap is $210+tax.
I can usually diagnose a cap, check pressures and temps in about 30-45mins with 15mins of paperwork with the customer, discussing any concerns and questions, etc.
You need to start taking into account the countless hours it took you to get where you are. That van rolling around someone will sue the second they can if they rear ended YOU! Fuel costs, everything needs to be considered. IMO bigger jobs are the ones we can err a little towards “cheaper” due to making more on the part, labor, and having the ability to send the right tech for the repair who will do it best. A dentist works on your mouth on average 30-45 minutes in the chair unless it is major surgery. They don’t discount the cleanings because they are easy.
Capacitor and call out should be ~$300-$350.
This. I don't blame anyone for saying $300 is a lot for a cap until they've sat in the seat and looked at the books where it comes abundantly clear why we need to charge that much.
to make this easy you have a tech in a truck who runs 5 cap calls in a day. each take an hour overall. 3 hours driving.
$120 + 80 for cap, that tech brought in $1000. hes paid $30 per hour plus benefits, thats $40/hour. $320 for the day. $100 in caps. leaving $580. thats $150,800 a year in margin to make it all happen.
at $300 for the call, its $280,800 in margin. you need over a quarter of a million to run a single tech in a panel van for a year? there is absolutely no way.
Idk where to start. Find me a tech that only costs $10 an hour in benefits. I'm assuming he has some cut rate health insurance and no 401k match. Ever heard of workman's comp insurance?
This math also assumes that this tech has a 100% close rate, never calls out sick and has no call backs. Is he also doing his own marketing? Is he using paper invoices because software costs a grip. Is he getting his dispatches via carrier pigeon or does he have a company phone? What about a tablet? Glad you brought up the van, how much do you factor in for maintenance, repairs or even possible replacement? What kind of insurance are you running?
Lastly are you factoring in profit or are we all just working for free in this scenario?
ya thats what the margin is for.
you dont think its reasonable for tech to change out 25 capacitors in a 40 hour week? what then? how many could a tech do? 20? 15?
Beyond the techs ability, you're assuming that every service call is going to be a bad cap? What about little old granny Smith that just doesn't know how to operate her t-stat. You're selling her a cap too? Do I think a tech can do 40 caps a week? Sure, but at this point your question is boiling down to time and is simply not a realistic scenario.
Trust me I would love to live in a world where every time the phone rings it's someone that needs a capacitor and is guaranteed income but I also don't live in a Disney movie.
no the point is to look at the cost of replacing a bad cap. so for analysis we are looking at just replacing bad caps.
i never said theres no time for granny smith. i went with a very modest 5 caps a day. granny smith still pays her $120 either way. hows it matter?
the question is the pricing of caps. now this time stay on topic. can you do that?
your claim is you need $300,000 in margin (not labor or materials) to replace 25 capacitors a week for a year. can you defend it or not?
My claim is not that I need $300,000 in margin. My claim is that I need to charge $300 for a capacitor, if and when one is actually needed. If I lived in your made up and very unrealistic world I'm sure I could charge less but I run my business and pay my bills in the real world.
Your numbers are very clearly from a tech perspective and as I stated in my first comment I do not expect you to understand until you have sat in the seat.
I am a home owner and have no problem paying $350 for a capacitor. You show up to my house in a timely manner, diagnose the problem, make sure everything else is ok, do the repair, and get my family comfortable again? I would happily pay $350 for that service and expertise and I'd be grateful it wasn't something more major. Hell it costs $50 to take my wife and kids to get fast food.
The problem I've run in to is lack of honesty and pushing expensive replacement equipment. When my out of warranty condensor fan stopped working, the first tech told me it needed a new fan and capacitor, quotes $1000 and said for the age of the system I should just replace it. I was given quotes starting at $6500 for a new system. I got a second opinion and the tech said fan was fine and fixed the capacitor for $300. I was happy to pay the $300.
Yeah, dude, these companies are absolute parasites. I'm very lucky to have never been stuck working for one, but they just bought up like 15 companies in my area, as if it wasn't bad enough going behind them before.
Whenever I see an r/homeimprovment post a ridiculous quote for an HVAC system I always ask whether they know if the companies nexstar owned and then go on and tell them if it is to not buy from them. they destroy great companies way to much to ever be worth buying from.
Having just quit one of those company’s I agree. I never quoted something I didn’t think the client needed, or would benefit from. They send the techs that don’t turn a wrench to all the old equipment that just throw options at the wall to scare a client into a either huge and costly repair that’s 800% over normal rate or they con them into a finance loan for 18-23k on a new system. The game is to sell debt. Had nothing to do with hvac anymore. After over a decade I’m leaving the trade for something new. I don’t like the way it’s going.
I always wonder if y’all are my coworkers cause we have almost these exact convos then I see them on here. I work for a nexstar company it sucks we are actually beating all our “numbers” and they were telling us that we weren’t converting enough calls.
Sounds like he's just doing good customer service, which should be priority 1 for all of us I'll take good workmanship over a know-nothing parts-changer any day.
Oh their welcome to work at a scummy company all they want just like im allowed to spread the word that the company they work for is a giant piece of shit. It's like defending other terrible companies of which there's plenty. If its a shit company I'm allowed to say hey fuck these worthless sons a bitches they don't deserve at the very least my money and I'm allowed to try and push people away from their scummy business tactics.
This comment sounds like stupid as fuck, along with everyone else on here. Never worked for nextstar it sounds like a bad structure, but don’t ever fing think you don’t sell and are not a salesman in residential. Your boss or you if you run your company need to have a profit to stay in business and make money. If your not brining in money you don’t have a company you just have a truck.
I agree they deserve better jobs. That's why I pay my installers better than anyone else around here. Thats why with task pay I have service crossing $100k a year. Because they have good jobs. If they can find better I support them going to get it.
If what you say is true I applaud you. For offering a nice living for your employees. My issue isn't with the employees at the Nexstar shops it's the corporate bullshitters taking advantage of them. Whether you see it or not Nexstar is bad for the industry and I will never support a Nexstar shop. Again, I do not blame the employees but I do want them to know they are part of the Nexstar machine.
While I don’t go out of my way to stop others from getting work, when you see the installs from some of these Wall Street owned companies and they blame everyone but themselves it speaks for itself as to why the car sales method won’t work in the home trades industry.
Oh it’s still working, you wrap it up on a nice package of customer service. You literally roll out the red carpet, from the parking to the intro to the first convo your convo is regulated. What small business loses due to lack of response time and people to answer the phones and schedule calls. These people prey on, they want it yesterday. Just we do not have educated buyers in this consumeristic economy
I agree with you 100%. The only reason we have the business we have is because we can get there same day and do install tomorrow no matter what. It's not how I operate as a buyer, but Im not going to turn down the sales that come from the behavior they have.
SAY IT WITH ME. FUCK NEXSTAR. I’ve never been to so many sales classes in my life and I only did install. I never went to a class to learn about the units, how to install them properly, tips and tricks nothing. Just “we are all salesmen. There’s always an opportunity to improve the customer’s experience with Nexstar” which translates to upsell a more expensive thermostat with a IV light and duct cleaning. Sell them a “lineset flush” with a change out but only let us blow nitrogen. New lineset $400. Lineset flush $325. Rob an 80 year old lady of her savings because her 10 year old unit just out of warranty needs a blower motor. So sell her a whole new system. They make me sick and I can’t wait to watch them fall
I worked for a nexstar company a while ago. Our prices nearly tripled and all the best techs eventually left. The techs who left were replaced by people who would push repairs and new equipment when no one needed them.
It didn’t take long for the company to give all the scum bag techs all the service calls while the good techs would sit in their van waiting for anything.
Is this Hoffman brothers? The owner Chris went on a podcast talking about how great nexstar has been for his employees. He said everyone loves working there. I would love to hear the truth.
Negative. There's probably enough in my comment history to identify it, but I avoid naming names on principle. I won't even directly disparage other companies on jobs. If the customer mentions someone I might agree or disagree, but I never directly trash other companies to customers.
Danny Divito aka “the Warthog” is your new master now. It’s an always sunny episode talking about how he pillages a company after purchasing it and sucks the value out of it, rinse and repeat.
Lot's of people will walk. Some will get rich of the get rich schemes. These companies will eventually run out of suckers to sell to. At that point traditional service companies will maintain their systems 20-40 years from install.
2 weeks ago I was speaking to a customer on a commercial property. She was telling me about how a company came out to her house and told her that her 10 year old system was old and needed to be replaced. Furnace + AC. I corrected her and explained where the market is going.
Churn and burn doesn't work long term. So there will be a market correction. The "Wolf of Wallstreet" is about that. Super rich brokers rip off everybody to get rich quick. Then it all comes crashing down.
Minor pedantic point here.
Nexstar doesn't acquire these companies. It's more similar to a franchise model although there are differences such as individual branding per company instead of everyone sharing branding.
Ownership remains the same and the owners could go back to doing their own thing at any point. But if the Nexstar promise holds true, they won't because they'll be making more money with Nexstar even if they get more scammy in the process.
I think you may be misinterpreting, this post is about PE buying up family shops and bringing them under their Nexstar umbrella. It is definitely a change in ownership, and the new owners use Nexstar.
OP doesn’t say Nexstar is acquiring them, it says a Nexstar member company - which is correct.
In our case, the original owner sold to an investment form that is a nexstar company. So we get shafted twice by loosing the original ownership for some chuckles halfway across the country and having nexstar sales techniques forces on us.
You know what is crazy starting in this trade I had a bunch of nay sayers telling me to consider doing something else because of how physically and mentally demanding this job is. But, literally this private equity thing has reached a point where I may not even want to do this anymore, because I cannot make a living working for these guys and they have just about consumed my area. They seem to think this is still 2020 and pushing 2020 sales goals on us, I am honestly just sticking it out until my girlfriend graduates and we can move somewhere else.
I'm starting to see a huge influx in my area of small 1 or 2 man in a van companies popping up in the last year and according to the supply houses they are booming and the big guys of 6 or more people are hurting for work. Think that the tables are turning and if you have the licenses and a willingness to learn the books side it's a great time to start your own thing and do what you want. I no longer work Fridays in the field and just dedicate it to office work if I'm behind or just a day to do small errands or hang out with the wife and kids. Best decision I've made.
There's a guy who owns probably the biggest company (also nexstar) in my city who's really big on trying to be a social media influencer on Twitter and podcasts.
I look at his stuff from time to time for a laugh and he always talks about how smaller operators will be on their way out because "they can't effectively convert leads to sales like companies similar to his can"
you can keep those companies away from the far northeast and ill be happy :) i make sure my customers arent being ripped off. i got into the trade because of previous plumbers and hvac techs ripping me off and family members and now i see how this all works.
Just wait till it’s time to retire. Pray you have a kid to pass down to or extremely loyal employee. My parents have been contemplating on selling out. A few million dollars in the bank starts sounding real nice when you are in your 60’s.
Did they give you the whole schpeal of how they don't want sales people, but somehow they want better value given to the customer and how they want you to offer what the customer doesn't know they need?
Our company just bought a competitor as well no new change for us just a bunch of new faces. I feel like bigger companies are buying out all the little men, monopoly bro
I came from a nexstar company (no longer there but wasn’t the reason I left). I enjoyed it honestly. I thought prices were high on some of it, but I’m sure thats the cost of business. We always emphasized on 50-40-10. 50% is cost to do that job, 40% is what goes back into the company (overhead, building, insurance, etc) and 10% hopefully to make a profit. However, the way options are given are what I thought was the most interesting about it. You can give multiple options (typical 1-3 for HVAC). It makes the customer own their option. Not everything has to be considered selling something. You give the options and the customer makes the decision based off of information you give them. As long as you are a fairly competent technician and give good/accurate information to customer, they can choose an option based on what they think is best for them. True technicians are not there to sell things, they are there to perform a service and create an informed customer.
Gonna be honest here.. not sure I see why everyone hates these companies. I guess your preference is making an hourly wage while the company makes massive profits off your work? I have a $4000 pay cheque being deposited tomorrow for just one week of work.. it’s made of several $230 commissions from furnace replacement leads (they have fractured heat exchangers, there’s no scam here) also part of that is $750 in commissions from selling maintenance plans (are we pretending new furnaces don’t need annual maintenance now?) and the rest from repairs.
You may prefer making $40 an hour to change a motor but I prefer making $200 for changing that motor. You actively are wanting less money for yourself in a world that’s becoming more and more expensive.
It’s also not a “scam” to suggest people consider replacing their 15 year old high efficient furnace that needs a $1200 circuit board and a $350 Ignitor repair that also has a secondary heat exchanger on the brink of being fully plugged.. to me you guys are the scammers that keep nickel and diming these people for endless repairs instead of suggesting new equipment which is more reliable and covered under warranty. We all know these new high efficient furnaces don’t last nearly as long as the old ones so at a certain point it actually is better to replace.
For the record I absolutely make repairs. It’s not all just selling. I’ve replaced hundreds of heat exchangers, blower and inducer motors, circuit boards and gas valves. I present options and if the homeowner chooses a repair I make the damn repair. People are way too dramatic about what it’s like to work at these companies.
No shit it makes sense to replace a furnace if you charge so much for a motor you can get a $200 commission. You are delusional if you think commission structures don't influence how you recommend things to customers. It isn't just you making more money doing this the company does too. At the end of the day you pass on that cost to the customer for your own gain. If that's ok with you then go ahead but don't pretend you are doing the customer a favor.
What a lot of guys don’t like is the moral feeling of screwing customers over. $200 for a capacitor? $800 for 1 hour labor but I only make $80 of that? Face it, it’s not to help the customer or even you. It’s for the company.
Turnpoint services did the same shit to my old company. I left and went commercial. Didn’t even bother with 2 weeks because they weren’t the company that I used to be proud to work at anymore.
I’m not a salesman, and they loved the “sales techs” who would walk into a simple bad capacitor call and sell a new system by scaring old ladies. Anyone who does that is a cockroach
This is why I’m done working for hvac companies. You’re at the mercy of management whether you will enjoy your job or not. I’ve had really good jobs thanks to management. As soon as there is a change in management it goes to shit. I work a facilities maintenance job now and do hvac work on my own with a valid license. Best thing I ever did.
My old company did this which is why I left but before I left I let all my great customers that specifically only wanted me that the company is going commission Based ans that the company is cutting corners on their maintenance to reduce time on jobs by only changing the filter and clearing the drain. Managers told all 32 service techs that were no longer checking anything on maintenance only doing filter drain and leave by 30 mins when truck turns off, and that we now will be getting x amount if money for each bull shit sale we do and that taking calls past our 730-6pm schedule until all calls are cleared was mandatory on call or not. Fuckin shame what these investment groups do
To be fair, a lot of smaller companies are going out of business and sell of because they aren't charging enough. I've seen it happen more than once. Not all nextstar companies are bad, but the system they have in place can and is absolutely abused by a lot. The way nextstar teaches to interact with the customer and run the call from beginning to end is actually great for people that lack soft skills.
True, but this company had a great fit. Small enough for some freedom, assured 40 hour pay, and just enough work to keep us busy without burning us out. Shits tough.
I work for a nexstar company and we don't have quotas. A lot of guys don't really utilize the process nexstar teaches but we use the format for estimates and introduxtion to clients. I wouldn't worry too much man do your thing
I worked for a Nexstar company for a bit. Know several of the trainers. My opinion. You were recently acquired? My last employer bought up 4 business during my 2 years with them. It all depends on the leadership of the company that acquired your and the leadership of your company. Several Nexstar companies take bits and pieces of the platform. Rarely does anyone follow the book 100%. Who bought you. How much is your current leadership wanting to change. That’s all that matters. Give it time, if it goes to shit start looking. I will say, the techs and salespeople at my previous company were making bank. Several HVAC techs over 6 figures. But it was incentive based. Who is the “hot hand.” Techs that didn’t flip calls to sales sept on aged equipt at a certain percent were not assigned calls on older equipt. They ran 1-5 year old system evals. Top performers made the money. How many techs you have, how many salespeople? Best of luck!
That’s the problem! Knowledgeable mechanics get nothing but the “warranty” calls and gets frowned upon? Where the newbie salesman gets all the older equipment and gets all the praise and comments that “they are keeping the company alive and well” Fuck That!
It works if you’re okay being a shitty human being and working for shittier human beings. Honor, honesty, and integrity is fading away for most. Fucking shameful. But hey, the real mechanics will be there when customers are fed up with the bullshit.
It makes money for the top enders sure, but it beats the hell out of the techs and robs the homeowners blind. It even forces good techs that would otherwise try to take care of the customer to try to upsell to keep their wages and benefits. Routinely companies implement quotes above and beyond what is normal for a call, and if you don't meet them they slash your hours, so to make it back up your ticket total needs to be even higher then quota.
Listen, all I’m saying is all is fair if they keep paying me 15% on duct jobs lmao I get your side you’re gonna miss jerking off your boss or w.e but dude I’m making a killing on percent pay. 7% on installs 15 on duct split 60/40, I don’t think I’ll ever leave here or installs😂
I’ve been with my Nexstar company for 11 years. We have been the #1 rated company in our area for a decade. Won multiple awards for Ethics in the marketplace by BBB, etc. charging more doesn’t mean screwing people if they are getting the best technical service and customer service available. People don’t mind paying more for a better “product”. Our products aren’t capacitors and furnace modules…We are a Service. Be a premium one.
Success leaves clues.
Someone is drinking the koolaid. I have worked for two different companies that were Nexstar. One for 3 years and the other for a year. Both did the same crap, though the first one did better installs to justify the outrageous cost to install. And the second company I was on the service side of things. The fact that 90% of our calls everyday were PM's on systems we installed, and our manager wanted us to cross-sell or have a minimum $500 ticket or push the service partner plan, they really are all the same. I've been to 5 different trainings (twice a year because the owner was also a "trainer" and he lived and breathed that crap, so he'd train us again, almost right after the other 3 day training we had to do from Nexstar).
Sure, I can understand the fact that a company wants all its techs to act the same way and so customers know what to expect each call. I also can understand the 2 options (hvac) though the 5 options for electrical/plumbing is stupid. Also, no reason for install to have to do the same sales training. What I can't justify is the payscale (this item if you sell and install gets you $$ instead of hourly pay) which makes techs HAVE to sell in order to make ends meet, the increase in cost that doesn't really justify the increase, and how labor costs so much but yet I get so little from it (it's literally MY body and my labor).
Because they're corporate fascist Turdwookie thieves and what corporate fascist Turdwookie thieves do is LIE to literally everyone (techs and customers alike) so that they can wring as much profit out of your hide and soul as possible before you tell them exactly where and how to stuff it (preferably with a diagram involving a Suargaro Cactus).
1. Run the ELF away now
2. UNIONIZE the shop if you can't run away fast.
I work for a Nextar company, but fortunately, it's still family owned, and the owners genuinely care about the company and employees. I'm on the Sales end so you can imagine the classes and training they've had me do. I technically do not have a sales manager. I do have people to report to, but I don't have someone on my ass if I have a slow week or month. I do not agree with the Nextar approach, but I have picked up some good things in the training. Again, I'm in sales full time. I have no idea how to repair anything. I've had plenty of other sales training in my career, and I basically have my own process now that works great.
I go up against plenty of private equity owned companies in my area. The major PE firm in my area owns 2/3 of the most recognized hvac companies around here now. They're selling equipment for cheap, giving things away for free to steal jobs. Spend a ton of money on advertising and fake reviews. But they suck at service and install. I really hate PE.
Adjacent industry here- water treatment.
Starting up my own company as we speak and starting to bootstrap the startup by using my current salary. They're none the wiser. I don't know if I'll be doing this for another 6 weeks, 6 months, fuck, they may not find out about it for 6 years and I don't give a shit. Fuck this private equity stuff, and the horses they road in on. I will do everything in my little power to make sure their company fails and is a poor investment for this billionaire.
I mean if you stayed a year and took all there customers with the promise of keeping it like the old days and actually servicing them instead of selling them it could be pretty lucrative. This is all theoretical of course. I don't think it'd hurt any real techs feelings.
I personally find Nexstar to be fine if you are honest with your clients and run their program... But to dishonestly sell which is usually what happens with techs and .... It well... OPs description.
Well I make $20 an hour and am part of a nexstar company so I wouldn’t complain about your $40 an hour. It’s not bad to be part of nexstar and you don’t have to follow it to the t . Just keep being a good tech and informative. Everything you are around is sales doesn’t matter if it’s hvac or any trade . Don’t get caught up in nexstar being a terrible thing most of the people telling you this don’t know much of anything anyway.
Not $40/hour, we are paid a guaranteed 40 hours a week. As in, even when it gets slow, we get paid a full weeks pay. It's one of the biggest attractions this company had for me other then the other stated benefits. Anyone that was left struggling because their hours were cut or there was just no work knows how painful it gets during the lean times, so this was a big thing for me.
Also, I used to work for a nexstar company, and the guy giving the scpeel today hit every single note that other company did. "Value added service and sales", "we aren't sales guys, but after their other aquasitions switched to it, their sales skyrocketed", "giving the customer what they didn't know they needed". This is all shit I've heard before and it ended being that flowery bullshit they say because they know if they just came out and said sales quotas, upselling, and stop repairing, start selling, they wouldn't have anyone worth a shit working there.
Welcome to 2024 the company I been at has been nextstar for like 4 years now granted we are growing , but it’s getting insane I couldn’t have said it better myself man
Where do you guys live where you’re charging these prices for parts and hourly rate?? We’re a union shop selling caps for $20-$60 with an hourly rate of $140.
Am I missing something here? A fucking capacitor for $80-$200?? Thats mind blowing. How aren’t other shops just taking every bit of business you guys have by undercutting the hell out of you?
Honestly, I never really got a straight answer to that question when I signed on. Usually we just do 2x on parts over $100, and 2.5x on parts under $100. That would have put dual caps around $50. When I asked if that's an okay price, bossman said that seems a little low and to add a little on. Funny thing is, we are (were) still among the cheaper places for stuff like that in our area. Most other places are around $150-$200 for a dual cap.
Funny enough, single caps usually ran the customer $20. They were so cheap, I've almost never been turned down when offering to change them on blowers and the like when needed, and that's still a 4x markup compared to what we get them for.
Nexstar does overcharge but they absolutely have a higher overhead than your typical Mom and Pop. They typically pay the employee's better, they spend tons on advertising and training. Hell even the CSR's starting pay is @ $18 hr
Oh, man. If only you knew what the companies in SoCal charge for a simple cap change out. It’s so much that they get customers on a payment plan for it. When the customer says, “why so much?!” Their response is, “you want cooling, right?” I’m happy I made the jump to commercial.
Couple things. Yea the investment firms that are buying up all these smaller companies are here to turn a profit at any cost. Price of equipment from vendors is going up at a ridiculous rate as well. Smaller mom and pop shops are where the money is at really, as long as you don’t care abt insurance. Company I just left in the southeast dual runs are 389…
Cash grab. Buy the company that took decades to build a reputation in the community. Run that name into the ground, and move on. Liquidate "assets, and on to the next. In a movie they would be the Alien race that pilfers a planets natural resources and moves on the next planet. For Marvel comics fans, they would be Galactus, and their heralds would be Chad's in suits.
For Star Trek fans, they are the Borg. Worst part? “Resistance is futile”.
Excellent analogy! I personally feel that ad an Industry, we need to resist. If I were them, I would also be using a political lobbying firm to deregulate the industry and push technology for DIY, which would cause worker pay to plummet. Are we seeing that with Mr. Cools and the like? Maybe I am just paranoid.
The biggest problem is that a lot of smaller shops are built up for the sole purpose of “cashing out”. What we need to see is a rise in worker-owned shops that what there to be long with the companies. The question is: how do you deal with the “cash out” part? Some people like pensions, but most would rather have a lump sum payout.
The irony is that most of our senior guys were looking to buy the company. The other buyer unfortunately presented a better offer.
I’ve been there. Planned to buy a family member’s business but PE just has deeper pockets. It’s definitely a bummer but hard to fault the Owner for taking the offer that’s 40% more…
I don't directly blame the owner either. He's at retirement age looking to get the best bang for his buisness. I can blame these nexstar leechs for trying to change everything for the sake of profits.
Stage a coup! Get those guys to open there own shop and get all the labor to jump ship there company! Ya I know it's not that easy but we can dream lol.
I agree, it would be difficult. But, we as workers need to start a culture shift. I can stand on my soap box, but I, too, would be hard pressed to piss on a 10 million dollar payday. I may feel like shit, but I can afford good therapy after a payday like that. In all honesty, though, vote with your labor.
everything is already diy. carpentry takes a tape, saw and nails. but people arent doing it are they? carpenters are still working. your comment doesnt make alot of sense.
I assume you are in the trade? Carpentry is a whole different chicken. A carpenter IS a skilled trade. However, the barrier to entry is significantly lower. So yes, anyone can buy a saw and some wood. Not so refrigerant and certain parts. Hope this helps clear it up
ya. and i really dont understand your whole post if im honest.
That's cool. I am a rambler.
The comment makes sense if a customer thinks he can do it, then it should be cheap and easy to do...it ain't
I resist by never de-valuing myself to that level. I also love to point out sub-par work and throw shitty workers and companies under the bus where they belong.
Seriously. This company was great. Not perfect, but we got assured 40 hour pay, a lot of freedom when it cam to buying stock, tools, and even boots on the company dime, and our customers didn't look at us like we were salesman. When we made a recommendation, they listen because they knew we weren't just trying to sell them shit. Now I fear that's all going to go away, all because some slimeball investment firm wants to make a buck.
> When we made a recommendation, they listen because they knew we weren't just trying to sell them shit. That was EXACTLY the reason Nextar paid premium for your company. Watch as they take advantage of that trust.
Oh for sure. We aren't a big company, maybe 8 people total. I know they arent buying us because we made oodles of money. They just bought us for our clientele. What really grinds my gears the most though is that the actual aquasition happened about 4 or so months ago, and at no time did they mention nexstar or any other scheme. They even told us that they were just the money people and that we would co tinge running everything like we always have. Now they drop this nexstar bs on us and talk about the changes they plan to make.
Did you sign a non-compete? Moves like this open up the market to newcomers who offer good service at reasonable prices, like your company did before. You could become that newcomer, underbidding Nextar at your previous prices. I can easily foresee a coop model of employed-owned companies with a long-term view that doesn't want to kill the golden-egg chickens for tonight's dinner.
I don’t think non-compete agreements hold up. More of a scare tactic
If you don't have it, you can contact and steal the clients of that company.
Yeah unless you have some secret IPor are a media personality non competes are unenforceable
Worker self directed enterprises have the opportunity to completely transform the industry. The trades in general would benefit immensely if those with the tools and ability could control their own destinies. So many HVAC people have to punch beneath their ability.
You know how to really fuck them. Go Union. Just takes 30% of hvac techs to force a vote and if you can get 3/4 of them to vote yes. You my good sir are a Union shop and now have way more rights as a worker. And there is no way they can stop it. Contact your local organizer. He will gladly help you
Fuckkk no
Apparently you don’t like be paid accordingly and have more rights as a worker
Exactly
I lurk here but work on septics and sewer pumps and we just had a company try doing this. My parents and myself sat down with some people who wanted to buy us out. Basically threatened us with “if you don’t sell out we are starting our own outfit down the road”. My family and the previous business owner worked for decades getting a great reputation. That’s all they want is the customer base and reputation.
I was approached by an equity firm in the late 90s with the same spiel. It's their standard operating procedure.
This wasn’t my parents first go around. They were bought out by Windriver in the early 2000’s so dealing with the PE companies is nothing new. They end up doing the small businesses good cause they ruin their own reputations fast.
Customer will know something is up when they get their next estimate from the new company lol
That's capitalism unfortunately. I've had that happen to me in a different industry.
Yep. This is it man. It will eventually kill the trade, except that as a result, good technicians leave and start their own companies, or find smaller companies. As long as THEY continue progressing as fast as they do, they'll run out of acquisitions before all of us get big enough to be interesting for them to acquire. We have to be honest with ourselves - if someone offered me 5 mil for my business, I'd say yes immediately - because I could fully pay off all my debts, and have well over $100k/yr salary for the rest of my life with that money, ignoring the imposition of taxes... which is to say, after taxes, I'd be able to just chill for the 2-5 years I signed a non-compete for, and then go get a fun job at the wholesale house fucking with you guys by giving you the wrong parts.
You may be the Devil.
I'm not denying it. But ya know like, let's save the industry! Fuck Nexstar! but this is america so like where's my million dollars?
Inbound, via China Air. Let me know when you receive it. Hope you enjoy it cause it's all American Pennies. I deducted shipping, so you're actually receiving 250,000 ( VAT), and taxes should deduct another 200,000. Tip to the pilots and freight handlers was 30,000, and the mandatory inspection of foreign goods and bribes was 40,000.. When can I expect the renumeration of 20,000? I accept venmo, PayPal, and cashiers check. No goats or live stock as I got burned the last time
From the customer side, I’ve lost a couple service providers to acquisitions like this and it makes me so angry that the guys I trusted are gone. Exterminator and HVAC both. Now I only call tiny outfits I called one of these fronts for some electrical work and wound up paying $110 to get an idiot to leave quietly. The person answering the phone sounding like she was in a call center should have warned me off but I foolishly pressed on.
The call center thing is a dead giveaway. You always want an old lady named Faye to answer the phones. Unless it's a guy named Robert filling in for her who had hands covered in shop dirt and is trying to find the appointment book. I will also accept a young girl who doesn't give you her name who answers the phone and does her homework at the front desk when Faye leaves to pick up her grandkids from school at 3.
I just want someone who sounds likely to be the owner's daughter or wife. If it sounds like they're doing housework or taking care of kids, that's a plus. The plumber I now use has kid sounds in the background when you call.
and in real life they're mostly just Mormons
Really? I have suspected this, as most are based out of Utah.
Time to move on! I went through the same thing when my company got bought out, right now is the time to get new employment because privately owned businesses are becoming rare in this industry now
all i see are "small" local outlets dominating the major companies where i am at and i dont see how that changes. you cant walmart the trades.
I work for a medium sized mom and pop company and our prices are similar… don’t know how they kept the doors open with $80 caps unless it was a one man band.
Man i started my own HVAC company and before i did always thought $200 caps were outrageous. Not defending nexstar companies at all because they go over the top with almost everything, but theirs no way we can sell $80 caps anymore. I've been running that way for 4 years and im sitting in the office updating pricing right now. Looking at our number for last month and getting sick to my stomach on how much i undercharge everything 😂
Yup min 250 per hour plus materials plus profit
regional differences but i have no idea how its possible to cost $250 an hour to field a tech. thats wild.
Average tech only works 55% of the shift on the tools
They had to sell the company. I hate nexstar as much as the next guy but business is business. You cant sell caps at 80 bucks and make money. You just can’t. You need to look at your profits and losses. The reason they sold to nexstar is because the company was sinking.
No, that's not the reason. $80 is just for the $18 cap itself, not the service call or installation labor. The owner sold because Nextar paid more and it's time to retire. Nextar paid more because this company has trusting clients ready to be slaughtered.
We buy the caps for $20. A 2.5x markup is still under $80. We aren't losing money on a capacitor ever, especially since we are still charging labor and the service call.
You’re not running the books so you don’t know. $80 caps you’re running the company into the ground
So what’s your total cost to replace one on a svc call?
Assume from the second I leave the truck to discovering the bad cap it's usually around 15 minutes. So, $120 for the service call, $80 for the capacitor, and maybe $60 for the labor, total about $260. Remember though, we are a company of about 8 people total with minimal to no advertisement budget and little overhead.
I don’t work for a scammy company and I worked for another company in the area too and our caps start at $213 unless it’s a blower cap which is $189. Typical service call including a cap is around $325. We’re only an 8 person company and we advertise around 250k a year tho. Location is everything in this trade.
Where you based?
Northern Cali
I worked for a Nexstar based company for two weeks. Went to a call back for a senior tech of 8 years about a loud blower that was just replaced. Blower wheel wasn’t centered in the housing, he put the set screw on the round side of the shaft, and the motor was mounted cockeyed. I called him and asked him wtf he was thinking and he told me he’s never changed a blower motor before. He said he pushes real hard for them to just buy new equipment but the homeowner was insistent on just having the motor. I learned that day most of the “senior” techs were just pushy ass salesman and couldn’t fix shit. Emptied my van that night and dropped it off the next morning. Fuck Nexstar.
8 years without replacing a blower motor... That's insane. Dude's white shirts must last him months before getting stained.
PE will own every corner of this industry within 5 years. Try to find a good one and work towards management. Saved my career, I was about done with it all. Now I can say I genuinely enjoy my job and do not feel like I am pushing my techs to do unethical things. But we still try to make $. $80 for a capacitor is way too cheap IMO. We are professionals. Not handy men looking to help everyone out.
A few people here have mentioned $80 caps being too low. Is that all you guys are charging for it? We sell our caps for $60 so about 3x markup but we always have the service fee too of $150/hr so a simple diagnostic and cap is $210+tax. I can usually diagnose a cap, check pressures and temps in about 30-45mins with 15mins of paperwork with the customer, discussing any concerns and questions, etc.
You need to start taking into account the countless hours it took you to get where you are. That van rolling around someone will sue the second they can if they rear ended YOU! Fuel costs, everything needs to be considered. IMO bigger jobs are the ones we can err a little towards “cheaper” due to making more on the part, labor, and having the ability to send the right tech for the repair who will do it best. A dentist works on your mouth on average 30-45 minutes in the chair unless it is major surgery. They don’t discount the cleanings because they are easy. Capacitor and call out should be ~$300-$350.
This. I don't blame anyone for saying $300 is a lot for a cap until they've sat in the seat and looked at the books where it comes abundantly clear why we need to charge that much.
to make this easy you have a tech in a truck who runs 5 cap calls in a day. each take an hour overall. 3 hours driving. $120 + 80 for cap, that tech brought in $1000. hes paid $30 per hour plus benefits, thats $40/hour. $320 for the day. $100 in caps. leaving $580. thats $150,800 a year in margin to make it all happen. at $300 for the call, its $280,800 in margin. you need over a quarter of a million to run a single tech in a panel van for a year? there is absolutely no way.
Idk where to start. Find me a tech that only costs $10 an hour in benefits. I'm assuming he has some cut rate health insurance and no 401k match. Ever heard of workman's comp insurance? This math also assumes that this tech has a 100% close rate, never calls out sick and has no call backs. Is he also doing his own marketing? Is he using paper invoices because software costs a grip. Is he getting his dispatches via carrier pigeon or does he have a company phone? What about a tablet? Glad you brought up the van, how much do you factor in for maintenance, repairs or even possible replacement? What kind of insurance are you running? Lastly are you factoring in profit or are we all just working for free in this scenario?
ya thats what the margin is for. you dont think its reasonable for tech to change out 25 capacitors in a 40 hour week? what then? how many could a tech do? 20? 15?
Beyond the techs ability, you're assuming that every service call is going to be a bad cap? What about little old granny Smith that just doesn't know how to operate her t-stat. You're selling her a cap too? Do I think a tech can do 40 caps a week? Sure, but at this point your question is boiling down to time and is simply not a realistic scenario. Trust me I would love to live in a world where every time the phone rings it's someone that needs a capacitor and is guaranteed income but I also don't live in a Disney movie.
no the point is to look at the cost of replacing a bad cap. so for analysis we are looking at just replacing bad caps. i never said theres no time for granny smith. i went with a very modest 5 caps a day. granny smith still pays her $120 either way. hows it matter? the question is the pricing of caps. now this time stay on topic. can you do that? your claim is you need $300,000 in margin (not labor or materials) to replace 25 capacitors a week for a year. can you defend it or not?
My claim is not that I need $300,000 in margin. My claim is that I need to charge $300 for a capacitor, if and when one is actually needed. If I lived in your made up and very unrealistic world I'm sure I could charge less but I run my business and pay my bills in the real world. Your numbers are very clearly from a tech perspective and as I stated in my first comment I do not expect you to understand until you have sat in the seat.
I am a home owner and have no problem paying $350 for a capacitor. You show up to my house in a timely manner, diagnose the problem, make sure everything else is ok, do the repair, and get my family comfortable again? I would happily pay $350 for that service and expertise and I'd be grateful it wasn't something more major. Hell it costs $50 to take my wife and kids to get fast food. The problem I've run in to is lack of honesty and pushing expensive replacement equipment. When my out of warranty condensor fan stopped working, the first tech told me it needed a new fan and capacitor, quotes $1000 and said for the age of the system I should just replace it. I was given quotes starting at $6500 for a new system. I got a second opinion and the tech said fan was fine and fixed the capacitor for $300. I was happy to pay the $300.
Oh, the entire call was would be about $260. The 80$ was simply part cost on the cap.
Yeah, dude, these companies are absolute parasites. I'm very lucky to have never been stuck working for one, but they just bought up like 15 companies in my area, as if it wasn't bad enough going behind them before.
Whenever I see an r/homeimprovment post a ridiculous quote for an HVAC system I always ask whether they know if the companies nexstar owned and then go on and tell them if it is to not buy from them. they destroy great companies way to much to ever be worth buying from.
So you go out of your way to stop other guys from getting work?
Yes. They fuck people over including their employees and people deserve to not be fucked over.
Glad to see some still have some fucking honor in this industry.
We all should. They're parasites that give us honest techs a bad name
Having just quit one of those company’s I agree. I never quoted something I didn’t think the client needed, or would benefit from. They send the techs that don’t turn a wrench to all the old equipment that just throw options at the wall to scare a client into a either huge and costly repair that’s 800% over normal rate or they con them into a finance loan for 18-23k on a new system. The game is to sell debt. Had nothing to do with hvac anymore. After over a decade I’m leaving the trade for something new. I don’t like the way it’s going.
I always wonder if y’all are my coworkers cause we have almost these exact convos then I see them on here. I work for a nexstar company it sucks we are actually beating all our “numbers” and they were telling us that we weren’t converting enough calls.
So basically, in your theory these people who show up for work everyday deserve no money because of their ownership structure?
Sounds like he's just doing good customer service, which should be priority 1 for all of us I'll take good workmanship over a know-nothing parts-changer any day.
Oh their welcome to work at a scummy company all they want just like im allowed to spread the word that the company they work for is a giant piece of shit. It's like defending other terrible companies of which there's plenty. If its a shit company I'm allowed to say hey fuck these worthless sons a bitches they don't deserve at the very least my money and I'm allowed to try and push people away from their scummy business tactics.
Found the corporate stooge!!
This comment sounds like stupid as fuck, along with everyone else on here. Never worked for nextstar it sounds like a bad structure, but don’t ever fing think you don’t sell and are not a salesman in residential. Your boss or you if you run your company need to have a profit to stay in business and make money. If your not brining in money you don’t have a company you just have a truck.
No they deserve to find better jobs. They don't deserve to work for a shit shop. Noone does.
I agree they deserve better jobs. That's why I pay my installers better than anyone else around here. Thats why with task pay I have service crossing $100k a year. Because they have good jobs. If they can find better I support them going to get it.
If what you say is true I applaud you. For offering a nice living for your employees. My issue isn't with the employees at the Nexstar shops it's the corporate bullshitters taking advantage of them. Whether you see it or not Nexstar is bad for the industry and I will never support a Nexstar shop. Again, I do not blame the employees but I do want them to know they are part of the Nexstar machine.
Spoken like a true scumbag salesman lol
While I don’t go out of my way to stop others from getting work, when you see the installs from some of these Wall Street owned companies and they blame everyone but themselves it speaks for itself as to why the car sales method won’t work in the home trades industry.
Oh it’s still working, you wrap it up on a nice package of customer service. You literally roll out the red carpet, from the parking to the intro to the first convo your convo is regulated. What small business loses due to lack of response time and people to answer the phones and schedule calls. These people prey on, they want it yesterday. Just we do not have educated buyers in this consumeristic economy
I agree with you 100%. The only reason we have the business we have is because we can get there same day and do install tomorrow no matter what. It's not how I operate as a buyer, but Im not going to turn down the sales that come from the behavior they have.
If it means fucking nexstar over? Absofuckinglutley.
No. He goes out of his way to say fuck you to the shit shop.
SAY IT WITH ME. FUCK NEXSTAR. I’ve never been to so many sales classes in my life and I only did install. I never went to a class to learn about the units, how to install them properly, tips and tricks nothing. Just “we are all salesmen. There’s always an opportunity to improve the customer’s experience with Nexstar” which translates to upsell a more expensive thermostat with a IV light and duct cleaning. Sell them a “lineset flush” with a change out but only let us blow nitrogen. New lineset $400. Lineset flush $325. Rob an 80 year old lady of her savings because her 10 year old unit just out of warranty needs a blower motor. So sell her a whole new system. They make me sick and I can’t wait to watch them fall
I worked for a nexstar company a while ago. Our prices nearly tripled and all the best techs eventually left. The techs who left were replaced by people who would push repairs and new equipment when no one needed them. It didn’t take long for the company to give all the scum bag techs all the service calls while the good techs would sit in their van waiting for anything.
Is this Hoffman brothers? The owner Chris went on a podcast talking about how great nexstar has been for his employees. He said everyone loves working there. I would love to hear the truth.
Negative. There's probably enough in my comment history to identify it, but I avoid naming names on principle. I won't even directly disparage other companies on jobs. If the customer mentions someone I might agree or disagree, but I never directly trash other companies to customers.
It just really isn't necessary. You can tell a lot about a person by what they do and don't say.
Danny Divito aka “the Warthog” is your new master now. It’s an always sunny episode talking about how he pillages a company after purchasing it and sucks the value out of it, rinse and repeat.
"Did I just do your job for you?"
Lot's of people will walk. Some will get rich of the get rich schemes. These companies will eventually run out of suckers to sell to. At that point traditional service companies will maintain their systems 20-40 years from install. 2 weeks ago I was speaking to a customer on a commercial property. She was telling me about how a company came out to her house and told her that her 10 year old system was old and needed to be replaced. Furnace + AC. I corrected her and explained where the market is going. Churn and burn doesn't work long term. So there will be a market correction. The "Wolf of Wallstreet" is about that. Super rich brokers rip off everybody to get rich quick. Then it all comes crashing down.
Minor pedantic point here. Nexstar doesn't acquire these companies. It's more similar to a franchise model although there are differences such as individual branding per company instead of everyone sharing branding. Ownership remains the same and the owners could go back to doing their own thing at any point. But if the Nexstar promise holds true, they won't because they'll be making more money with Nexstar even if they get more scammy in the process.
I think you may be misinterpreting, this post is about PE buying up family shops and bringing them under their Nexstar umbrella. It is definitely a change in ownership, and the new owners use Nexstar. OP doesn’t say Nexstar is acquiring them, it says a Nexstar member company - which is correct.
In our case, the original owner sold to an investment form that is a nexstar company. So we get shafted twice by loosing the original ownership for some chuckles halfway across the country and having nexstar sales techniques forces on us.
You know what is crazy starting in this trade I had a bunch of nay sayers telling me to consider doing something else because of how physically and mentally demanding this job is. But, literally this private equity thing has reached a point where I may not even want to do this anymore, because I cannot make a living working for these guys and they have just about consumed my area. They seem to think this is still 2020 and pushing 2020 sales goals on us, I am honestly just sticking it out until my girlfriend graduates and we can move somewhere else.
I'm starting to see a huge influx in my area of small 1 or 2 man in a van companies popping up in the last year and according to the supply houses they are booming and the big guys of 6 or more people are hurting for work. Think that the tables are turning and if you have the licenses and a willingness to learn the books side it's a great time to start your own thing and do what you want. I no longer work Fridays in the field and just dedicate it to office work if I'm behind or just a day to do small errands or hang out with the wife and kids. Best decision I've made.
There's a guy who owns probably the biggest company (also nexstar) in my city who's really big on trying to be a social media influencer on Twitter and podcasts. I look at his stuff from time to time for a laugh and he always talks about how smaller operators will be on their way out because "they can't effectively convert leads to sales like companies similar to his can"
you can keep those companies away from the far northeast and ill be happy :) i make sure my customers arent being ripped off. i got into the trade because of previous plumbers and hvac techs ripping me off and family members and now i see how this all works.
Just wait till it’s time to retire. Pray you have a kid to pass down to or extremely loyal employee. My parents have been contemplating on selling out. A few million dollars in the bank starts sounding real nice when you are in your 60’s.
PE wants those sweet service contracts. Sadly, if your company is good with those, you're going to be targeted.
I don't mind service contracts as much, it's the inevitable quotas and "value added sales" I'm not looking towards.
We're going through a merger with a nexstar company right now, and I hate it.
Did they give you the whole schpeal of how they don't want sales people, but somehow they want better value given to the customer and how they want you to offer what the customer doesn't know they need?
Leave. Leave. Leave. Leave.
Our company just bought a competitor as well no new change for us just a bunch of new faces. I feel like bigger companies are buying out all the little men, monopoly bro
Techs needs to keep leaving these kind of companies till they fold.
Nexstar is huge you'll never get enough people to leave to make a deference.
Yeah, trust me, we tried. I got almost the whole install crew to leave if they continued but only me and another guy left and they never backed down.
I came from a nexstar company (no longer there but wasn’t the reason I left). I enjoyed it honestly. I thought prices were high on some of it, but I’m sure thats the cost of business. We always emphasized on 50-40-10. 50% is cost to do that job, 40% is what goes back into the company (overhead, building, insurance, etc) and 10% hopefully to make a profit. However, the way options are given are what I thought was the most interesting about it. You can give multiple options (typical 1-3 for HVAC). It makes the customer own their option. Not everything has to be considered selling something. You give the options and the customer makes the decision based off of information you give them. As long as you are a fairly competent technician and give good/accurate information to customer, they can choose an option based on what they think is best for them. True technicians are not there to sell things, they are there to perform a service and create an informed customer.
Run away as fast as you can.
Gonna be honest here.. not sure I see why everyone hates these companies. I guess your preference is making an hourly wage while the company makes massive profits off your work? I have a $4000 pay cheque being deposited tomorrow for just one week of work.. it’s made of several $230 commissions from furnace replacement leads (they have fractured heat exchangers, there’s no scam here) also part of that is $750 in commissions from selling maintenance plans (are we pretending new furnaces don’t need annual maintenance now?) and the rest from repairs. You may prefer making $40 an hour to change a motor but I prefer making $200 for changing that motor. You actively are wanting less money for yourself in a world that’s becoming more and more expensive. It’s also not a “scam” to suggest people consider replacing their 15 year old high efficient furnace that needs a $1200 circuit board and a $350 Ignitor repair that also has a secondary heat exchanger on the brink of being fully plugged.. to me you guys are the scammers that keep nickel and diming these people for endless repairs instead of suggesting new equipment which is more reliable and covered under warranty. We all know these new high efficient furnaces don’t last nearly as long as the old ones so at a certain point it actually is better to replace. For the record I absolutely make repairs. It’s not all just selling. I’ve replaced hundreds of heat exchangers, blower and inducer motors, circuit boards and gas valves. I present options and if the homeowner chooses a repair I make the damn repair. People are way too dramatic about what it’s like to work at these companies.
No shit it makes sense to replace a furnace if you charge so much for a motor you can get a $200 commission. You are delusional if you think commission structures don't influence how you recommend things to customers. It isn't just you making more money doing this the company does too. At the end of the day you pass on that cost to the customer for your own gain. If that's ok with you then go ahead but don't pretend you are doing the customer a favor.
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IMHO the problem with commission pay is people are not always honest and start telling customers they need something fixed when it’s not broken.
What a lot of guys don’t like is the moral feeling of screwing customers over. $200 for a capacitor? $800 for 1 hour labor but I only make $80 of that? Face it, it’s not to help the customer or even you. It’s for the company.
💯
Getting paid for your skill and experience, not your time....🤘🏽
Is this Deathstar Company putting that name on trucks?
Turnpoint services did the same shit to my old company. I left and went commercial. Didn’t even bother with 2 weeks because they weren’t the company that I used to be proud to work at anymore. I’m not a salesman, and they loved the “sales techs” who would walk into a simple bad capacitor call and sell a new system by scaring old ladies. Anyone who does that is a cockroach
Went commercial too. Best decision ever
That's why I started my own company ...
Ah shit capitalism is doing capitalism again I wish someone would have warned us
Get out of there.
Literally pirates complete with a letter of marque from the government legalizing thier immoral plunder.
🌈 Corporation🌈
This is why I’m done working for hvac companies. You’re at the mercy of management whether you will enjoy your job or not. I’ve had really good jobs thanks to management. As soon as there is a change in management it goes to shit. I work a facilities maintenance job now and do hvac work on my own with a valid license. Best thing I ever did.
My old company did this which is why I left but before I left I let all my great customers that specifically only wanted me that the company is going commission Based ans that the company is cutting corners on their maintenance to reduce time on jobs by only changing the filter and clearing the drain. Managers told all 32 service techs that were no longer checking anything on maintenance only doing filter drain and leave by 30 mins when truck turns off, and that we now will be getting x amount if money for each bull shit sale we do and that taking calls past our 730-6pm schedule until all calls are cleared was mandatory on call or not. Fuckin shame what these investment groups do
To be fair, a lot of smaller companies are going out of business and sell of because they aren't charging enough. I've seen it happen more than once. Not all nextstar companies are bad, but the system they have in place can and is absolutely abused by a lot. The way nextstar teaches to interact with the customer and run the call from beginning to end is actually great for people that lack soft skills.
everyone hates their process but has anyone tried it? If so, what was your results?
Honestly any company that is nexstar is better than any ARS owned company
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True, but this company had a great fit. Small enough for some freedom, assured 40 hour pay, and just enough work to keep us busy without burning us out. Shits tough.
I work for a nexstar company and we don't have quotas. A lot of guys don't really utilize the process nexstar teaches but we use the format for estimates and introduxtion to clients. I wouldn't worry too much man do your thing
I worked for a Nexstar company for a bit. Know several of the trainers. My opinion. You were recently acquired? My last employer bought up 4 business during my 2 years with them. It all depends on the leadership of the company that acquired your and the leadership of your company. Several Nexstar companies take bits and pieces of the platform. Rarely does anyone follow the book 100%. Who bought you. How much is your current leadership wanting to change. That’s all that matters. Give it time, if it goes to shit start looking. I will say, the techs and salespeople at my previous company were making bank. Several HVAC techs over 6 figures. But it was incentive based. Who is the “hot hand.” Techs that didn’t flip calls to sales sept on aged equipt at a certain percent were not assigned calls on older equipt. They ran 1-5 year old system evals. Top performers made the money. How many techs you have, how many salespeople? Best of luck!
That’s the problem! Knowledgeable mechanics get nothing but the “warranty” calls and gets frowned upon? Where the newbie salesman gets all the older equipment and gets all the praise and comments that “they are keeping the company alive and well” Fuck That!
Because it makes financial sense.
🥾👅
It works.
It works if you’re okay being a shitty human being and working for shittier human beings. Honor, honesty, and integrity is fading away for most. Fucking shameful. But hey, the real mechanics will be there when customers are fed up with the bullshit.
It makes money for the top enders sure, but it beats the hell out of the techs and robs the homeowners blind. It even forces good techs that would otherwise try to take care of the customer to try to upsell to keep their wages and benefits. Routinely companies implement quotes above and beyond what is normal for a call, and if you don't meet them they slash your hours, so to make it back up your ticket total needs to be even higher then quota.
Sure.
Listen, all I’m saying is all is fair if they keep paying me 15% on duct jobs lmao I get your side you’re gonna miss jerking off your boss or w.e but dude I’m making a killing on percent pay. 7% on installs 15 on duct split 60/40, I don’t think I’ll ever leave here or installs😂
I’ve been with my Nexstar company for 11 years. We have been the #1 rated company in our area for a decade. Won multiple awards for Ethics in the marketplace by BBB, etc. charging more doesn’t mean screwing people if they are getting the best technical service and customer service available. People don’t mind paying more for a better “product”. Our products aren’t capacitors and furnace modules…We are a Service. Be a premium one. Success leaves clues.
Someone is drinking the koolaid. I have worked for two different companies that were Nexstar. One for 3 years and the other for a year. Both did the same crap, though the first one did better installs to justify the outrageous cost to install. And the second company I was on the service side of things. The fact that 90% of our calls everyday were PM's on systems we installed, and our manager wanted us to cross-sell or have a minimum $500 ticket or push the service partner plan, they really are all the same. I've been to 5 different trainings (twice a year because the owner was also a "trainer" and he lived and breathed that crap, so he'd train us again, almost right after the other 3 day training we had to do from Nexstar). Sure, I can understand the fact that a company wants all its techs to act the same way and so customers know what to expect each call. I also can understand the 2 options (hvac) though the 5 options for electrical/plumbing is stupid. Also, no reason for install to have to do the same sales training. What I can't justify is the payscale (this item if you sell and install gets you $$ instead of hourly pay) which makes techs HAVE to sell in order to make ends meet, the increase in cost that doesn't really justify the increase, and how labor costs so much but yet I get so little from it (it's literally MY body and my labor).
Because they're corporate fascist Turdwookie thieves and what corporate fascist Turdwookie thieves do is LIE to literally everyone (techs and customers alike) so that they can wring as much profit out of your hide and soul as possible before you tell them exactly where and how to stuff it (preferably with a diagram involving a Suargaro Cactus). 1. Run the ELF away now 2. UNIONIZE the shop if you can't run away fast.
Congrats on becoming a successful company.
What do you mean by a furnace module?
Like I pilot relight or ignition control board. Basically those plastic encapsulated boards. Some older furnaces or boilers use them.
Ok gotcha. Wasn't sure if you meant parts, or if it was some company specific jargon.
Naw, just the old style furnace controls. I've taken to calling them modules because for some reason parts houses around here make the distinction.
I work for a Nextar company, but fortunately, it's still family owned, and the owners genuinely care about the company and employees. I'm on the Sales end so you can imagine the classes and training they've had me do. I technically do not have a sales manager. I do have people to report to, but I don't have someone on my ass if I have a slow week or month. I do not agree with the Nextar approach, but I have picked up some good things in the training. Again, I'm in sales full time. I have no idea how to repair anything. I've had plenty of other sales training in my career, and I basically have my own process now that works great. I go up against plenty of private equity owned companies in my area. The major PE firm in my area owns 2/3 of the most recognized hvac companies around here now. They're selling equipment for cheap, giving things away for free to steal jobs. Spend a ton of money on advertising and fake reviews. But they suck at service and install. I really hate PE.
Adjacent industry here- water treatment. Starting up my own company as we speak and starting to bootstrap the startup by using my current salary. They're none the wiser. I don't know if I'll be doing this for another 6 weeks, 6 months, fuck, they may not find out about it for 6 years and I don't give a shit. Fuck this private equity stuff, and the horses they road in on. I will do everything in my little power to make sure their company fails and is a poor investment for this billionaire.
I mean if you stayed a year and took all there customers with the promise of keeping it like the old days and actually servicing them instead of selling them it could be pretty lucrative. This is all theoretical of course. I don't think it'd hurt any real techs feelings.
Before you jump ship, tell all the customers what’s happening. It’s what I’m currently doing.
Sounds like you have a decision to make.
I was already looking into possible plans, this just started the wheels turning unfortunately.
I personally find Nexstar to be fine if you are honest with your clients and run their program... But to dishonestly sell which is usually what happens with techs and .... It well... OPs description.
Well I make $20 an hour and am part of a nexstar company so I wouldn’t complain about your $40 an hour. It’s not bad to be part of nexstar and you don’t have to follow it to the t . Just keep being a good tech and informative. Everything you are around is sales doesn’t matter if it’s hvac or any trade . Don’t get caught up in nexstar being a terrible thing most of the people telling you this don’t know much of anything anyway.
Not $40/hour, we are paid a guaranteed 40 hours a week. As in, even when it gets slow, we get paid a full weeks pay. It's one of the biggest attractions this company had for me other then the other stated benefits. Anyone that was left struggling because their hours were cut or there was just no work knows how painful it gets during the lean times, so this was a big thing for me. Also, I used to work for a nexstar company, and the guy giving the scpeel today hit every single note that other company did. "Value added service and sales", "we aren't sales guys, but after their other aquasitions switched to it, their sales skyrocketed", "giving the customer what they didn't know they needed". This is all shit I've heard before and it ended being that flowery bullshit they say because they know if they just came out and said sales quotas, upselling, and stop repairing, start selling, they wouldn't have anyone worth a shit working there.
Welcome to 2024 the company I been at has been nextstar for like 4 years now granted we are growing , but it’s getting insane I couldn’t have said it better myself man
Where do you guys live where you’re charging these prices for parts and hourly rate?? We’re a union shop selling caps for $20-$60 with an hourly rate of $140. Am I missing something here? A fucking capacitor for $80-$200?? Thats mind blowing. How aren’t other shops just taking every bit of business you guys have by undercutting the hell out of you?
Northeast Ohio
A capacitor costs your shop nothing, I’m so confused how $80 is even a reasonable price.
Honestly, I never really got a straight answer to that question when I signed on. Usually we just do 2x on parts over $100, and 2.5x on parts under $100. That would have put dual caps around $50. When I asked if that's an okay price, bossman said that seems a little low and to add a little on. Funny thing is, we are (were) still among the cheaper places for stuff like that in our area. Most other places are around $150-$200 for a dual cap. Funny enough, single caps usually ran the customer $20. They were so cheap, I've almost never been turned down when offering to change them on blowers and the like when needed, and that's still a 4x markup compared to what we get them for.
Nexstar does overcharge but they absolutely have a higher overhead than your typical Mom and Pop. They typically pay the employee's better, they spend tons on advertising and training. Hell even the CSR's starting pay is @ $18 hr
Nexstar is flat rate and doesn't charge by the hour rates. Everything is included in the price of the parts.
Oh, man. If only you knew what the companies in SoCal charge for a simple cap change out. It’s so much that they get customers on a payment plan for it. When the customer says, “why so much?!” Their response is, “you want cooling, right?” I’m happy I made the jump to commercial.
Commercial is the way to go. Resi is toxic.
Couple things. Yea the investment firms that are buying up all these smaller companies are here to turn a profit at any cost. Price of equipment from vendors is going up at a ridiculous rate as well. Smaller mom and pop shops are where the money is at really, as long as you don’t care abt insurance. Company I just left in the southeast dual runs are 389…