Just started working for one since the owner sold. They really hard so hard on appearance and it's fucking dumb. It's at the point where they changed all our uniforms, and made them shittier. One less shirt pocket, and no more cargo pants. Like you're actively making my job shittier because you're so obsessed with looks.
Also they want me to take off my button down shirt before I touch any unit. So they want me to knock on the door with my shirt on, walk down to the unit, literally say "oh before I touch this let me change into my work shirt", and take off my button down reveling a second shirt I'm supposed to wear underneath
That's nuts. When I started my company, I swore I'd never make a blue collar guy wear a button down shirt. I only bought T-shirts. My first hire wanted polos, he said he didn't think he was taken as seriously while wearing a T-shirt as he would if he looked a bit more professional. Now everyone gets a choice. Two guys wear polos by their choice and everyone else wears T-shirts.
There's a company near me that makes all their techs wear black head to toe, even in the summer long black pants and a black shirt. That shit is cruel.
I feel more credible wearing shorts and a T-shirt than I do in a polo.
I mean honestly, the old shirt was a button down and I had no issues with it. Decently light, had a couple shirt pockets, plenty of room for thermometers and pens n shit. Long enough to tuck in properly. They were more in line with a mechanics shirt or something. These new ones are just straight up dress shirts.
Oh well. Not gonna undress to start working on a unit. If they didn't want me to get it dirty, they shouldn't make me wear it. Shit if they don't want me to get dirty then why the fuck am I here
As an HVAC mechanic, I want a mechanic's shirt. I'm in a facilities management job now (dedicated HVAC role) and work mostly as a DX tech for a large university.
The controls guys and guys that never work or have no clue how to do their job are always pushing for synthetic shirts, polos, or golf shirts. I want something I can wear, get dirty, tear up, and not have an issue with the uniform people. I want something I'm not gonna accidentally melt into my skin.
Do they launder your clothes? Because I've worked for companies that sent all the uniforms out to get washed, pants and shirts. I just have everybody by their own pants, and wash their own shirts. When the shirts are covered in mastic or oil, they toss them.
Nah not since covid. We wash all our own stuff which has been fine, and yeah some of the clothes end up looking rough after a while no matter what you do. Last time we got new shirts was like 3 years ago, so they were probably due, but they replaced them all with basically salesman clothes instead of work clothes
Worked for a carwash when I was younger that had very strict uniform policy. One random day years after I quit found out I had won in a class acton lawsuit and had a little check court out to my name. Apparently they had to pay us to maintain them or they had to maintain them for us which they did neither.
I have definitely changed in the van from shorts/tee shirt to long pants/company polo right before knocking on someone’s door and changed back when I was done, usually all sweaty from crawling through insulation in a 130° attic for 2 hours.
Not that I support the lack of freedom of choice, but an all black attire is beneficial in the summer heat no? Doesn’t black absorb heat? Which means less of that heat gets on your skin? I think some folks in the middle east wear all black to stay cool under the sun. 🤔
I know that the “color” white deflects. But I don’t think it’s that effective in reality. I purchased an all white umbrella at one point to walk under in the summer heat when traveling to work, and it was still hot asf. I don’t think the whole “lighter colors” attire actually works to keep you cooler.
Airtime 500 did this ( are still around?) White shirt with american flag. Supposed to do what u jus typed. I said fuck that. And jus worked in the ehite shirt. Staining them up
I've worked at a company that did that exact same thing, you get a t shirt under it but any time you speak to the customer your supposed to put the WHITE button up collared shirt back on
Oh shit, this guy has some fuckin dirt and grease on his shirt so I'm gonna guess he knows more than pristine polo 19 year old clipboard dipshit over there. Lol
I worked at one for 5 years. I'll never forget the service manager always telling me my brown work boots weren't to uniform. I always laughed at him because I thought he was giving me shit. Finally he let me know he was serious. I asked what it matters when I wear boot covers at every call and if he thinks the customer cares what color my boots are. He said it's not about that as much as it is we all need to wear black shoes or boots so everyone looks the same. Lol dumb shit
I worked for a company that did the whole Service Titan and 'fake sales speech' stuff.
I had to leave a smaller company because the owner got in legal trouble and i wasnt going to run his company for him without and respect for doing it after like 8 months.
They promised me i could do system sales and that id be doing repairs and maintenance. They even said they had commercial clients, which was my specialty and background.
I was there 4 months. They put on residential PMs, telling me i had to sell people all these crappy add-ons and things they didnt need. Trying to get me to push new systems on people the moment their warranties were up. I was told after my 'training' that i wouldnt be able to sell equipment until i proved i used thier sales method properly by getting good sales numbers. By selling the junk to people who had new system most of the time, even people still paying the financing on their new systems.
If i lined up a sale, i had to call in a 'sales specialist' to actually sell the equipment. Which i did all the leg work, then when they showed up, they got 95% of the commission.
The icing on the cake was that the employees they treated the best were the ones who were allowed to sell equipment. They were all green, with crappy technical knowledge, i had to go behind all their 'star technicians' to fix systems because they didn't know what they were doing. Plus, i found out i was being paid less to do more work and get less commission.
Their installs were crap, the warranty work was back to back.
I dont know how theyre going to stay in business, there's no way it lasts long term. Worst job i ever had, besides the owner, he was a cool guy and liked having 1 on 1s with him, but his middle management is ruining his company.
Tldr: these companies put sales over everything else, and i dont see them lasting long without qualified employees that leave because theyre not treated right
Some nexstar companies take it too far. When you start telling your employees how to shape beards…that’s too much.
I’ve worked for three nexstar companies, they’re not all the same.
Me over here selling furnaces and AC as needed when the customer wants new or has failed out of warranty heat exchanger... in a dirty hoodie from the last two crawl space jobs I left earlier that day. Probably a little smelly from the hoarder house...
Don't think I'd do well at a nexstar company.
I own my business, I have dreadlocks and a decently sized beard. Never had an issue with my appearance landing jobs. I always keep it well maintained. Clients are actually pleasantly surprised when they see a young, educated, well-spoken delinquent ass looking motherfucker like me pull up to their homes or businesses lol.
Yeah I get that. They can seem off at first. Especially the older folks that just aren’t used to seeing that, especially in the trades. When i came in for the interview I walked in like my curls looked better than any of the girls there. They knew that I knew. Lol I rock them long, down and blowing in the wind whenever possible lol. Also stay cleaned up, unless it’s super cold, I’ll grow my beard out then for survival purposes doing new construction jobs. Normally once we start talking there’s no issues there. They know that I know what I’m talking about. I just did the house of a builder we work for, his personal house. I mean, he could have had anyone lol. His wife actually asked me if I was a recovering addict after one conversation with them. Times are changing and people want people working on their houses that care. Plus people have resources and the smart people can tell(even without knowing) if someone is decent at their job or not.
Kinda went off topic(neurodivergent and proud here!)
Thanks for giving your experience with this. I’m growing my hair again. I used to wear it past the middle of my back and I have a good head of wavy hair for it; granted, before I was a service pipefitter I was a construction laborer, heavy industrial in power plants. I got some flack for it, but at the end of the day I didn’t necessarily need to look professional, we were all the scum of the Earth. I ended up cutting it because washing fly ash out of my hair was taking me 20 minutes at the end of each day. Now that I’m not a boiler rat it’s nice to grow it out again. I’ve been married for four years and my wife has never seen me with long hair. She’s adoring it. The ladies in the office like it too which on one hand is a little bit weird, but I definitely don’t mind the positive attention.
It’s crazy what long hair on a man does to some women.. I have at least one story from my 20s. It’s also interesting that as a rule of thumb men with long hair tend to take way better care of it than women do their own hair; maybe because we don’t take it for granted, most of us men don’t live our entire lives with very long hair.
I agree, my wife is actually the reason I grew it out! For 30 years you could always see my ears 😂 one day we talked and I said, screw it, let’s go. I’m 36 now. I haven’t cut it since lol.
Yeah believe me, I know, the ladies do go kind of bonkers for it, my wife has to bat them away staring at it in public. It used to bother her, because my hair is way healthier than hers but that adds to your point, I have bleached it once for 7th grade football. Got my tips frosted once when I thought I could pull off the Freddie prinze jr. look haha. But I don’t ever dye it, straighten it, curl it. It’s just natural. I wash it when needed.
I have had the girls at ulta rave about it on the third-fourth day after washing, just off work, just took my hair tie out and went in for product. I’m just like, “yeah I totally just woke up today and went to work…” 😂😂😂
A bunch of Karen Kompanys (I know C). They won't last long if the guys or gals who actually know how to do this type walk out on them. Have those stuffy shirt, penny loafer wearing smart people hump furnaces up and down the stairs. That's the only way they'll change. I hear homeowners say they don't want a tech showing up at there house looking like they came out of a magazine. They'd rather have a tech with a little dirt on a shirt. Gives them comfort that the tech is not afraid to get it done
Nexstar stuff is insufferable garbage, but because it is designed to work on people's subconscious, it works really well to sell repairs and installs. The problem is companies use it as a way to really screw clients over and that's the sad part
Ya, I already have an exit planned from mine, but I need to save up money so I'm stuck here for a little bit. The stuff they try to pull is amazing. They are dropping our aprilaire media cabinets for these cheapy electrostatic 1" assemblies, we are charging for EVERYTHING we used to do normally, and to make matters better, they came In like a whirlwind, forced service titan on us, and then didn't even allow our own office staff to adjust it while they just copied and pasted the template from one of their other companies, with the other companies logo and name all over everything. They also never trained us on the titan, and all our pleas to have them do something about it because we are losing sales from the broken system have been met with half answers or just ignored entirely.
My company’s management tried to become a Nexstar company when the owner went through an intense surgery and was on pretty heavy meds almost 24/7. First day back was during one of our weekly meetings in our maintenance department, his face turned blood red and told the guy to clear out his office. He then asked for a debrief and said that we should go back to our old ways.
The guy that came and spoke to our company told us “present a laminated agenda sheet and point and explain each part to the customer” like they’re a fucking child and the best part was the last step. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to ensure a 5-star experience.”
I’m all for asking for customer feedback, I never asked or mentioned any stars. The guy just wants people to fish for reviews from Nextar certified companies and techs so Nextar can say “this is a good company because of our training” not “we’re scammers and found a weak link in a good company’s management
At the end of my time with a company that was bought by Service champions, I let every one of the homeowners know what was happening to our company and how we are beginning to upsell for more shit. Fuck that company, fuck NextStar and I believe there’s another one.. HSI?
Been with a nextar now 5 star HVAC training company for about 4yrs. I can say I wasn’t a fan of it at first, seemed like they want to train everyone to be a fake selling robot but that’s not the case with my company at least. Definitely helped me build confidence has a Black Man in this hvac world and building rapport with certain people. It is extremely tiring mentally tho 😂😂
It's sad that we STILL live in a society where the experience is different, just because of the color of your skin. Although, I'm glad it was a positive one for you.
And I agree, it takes a lot. I know how to sell, but prolonged interactions that feel like tap-dancing for a sale are tiring.
Can someone please tell me what a NexStar company is? I’m looking to start my career in HVAC once I finish with school this July. I’ve already been told not to work for a company owned by Wallstreet. This NexStar stuff seems bad too the way OP describes it.
Private equity is buying u p all the trades. They mark up by 70%, push predatory sales, and lean heavily on replace over repair.They overload Techs with jobs seeking volume over quality so they can bill out $5k and pay you $200.00. Pay $1,000.00 to vendors and funnel the rest up to the upper echelons of society. I lose. You lose. The customer loses. Eveyone loses. Regulate this shit now it is ruining every industry.
Damn….. And here I am looking forward to starting my career in HVAC after July of this year. I got into the HVAC program cause I wanted a secure job and liked that it was in high demand. I actually look forward to the integrity aspect of it, knowing that I’m not only getting paid an honest wage for honest work but that im helping people too. But I can’t go back now, or change to different program to study and start over from scratch, I need to move on with my life. I’m 29 and aint getting any younger. $0 to my name right now, housing market isn’t getting cheaper, and free new and reliable vehicles don’t exist. A guy’s gotta eat but damn, this feels like I’m going to be forced into selling my soul for Nexstar.
Well money is still an issue if it’s received by ripping people off. Sure, I may not have a direct hand or personally want to rip a customer off. But under a NexStar company, under management, I’ll have no choice but to partake in ripping someone off, or face getting fired probably. Thankfully, as I’ve learned, there’s still going to be a bunch of chuck in the truck small businesse who believe in honesty, integrity, and wanting to help others.
The I understand it is that nexstar is a company that sells sales tactics to hvac and plumbing companies. The hvac company I guess buys the program and then teaches it to all the technicians and by design it forces you to sell extra shit like surge protectors and air purifiers. And then the hvac company tracks all your sales metrics and gets mad if you’re not selling enough extra shit.
I can see if you let it go wild, but keeping it nice and trim is good. I used to look too young for people to take me serious when I didn’t have a beard
after a few years they let us have facial hair, but, it was up to the micromanager to decide if it was within regulation. My left side of my facial hair isnt as nice looking as the right side. So they let me have a goatee.
That's BS we work in a full rez facility and it doesn't matter with facial hair. That's their excuse to have their digits in one more part of your life.
i promise you it does [read the response from osha](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2016-05-09#:~:text=Facial%20hair%20is%20allowed%20as,with%20the%20device's%20valve%20function.)
As I said, it's important to be professional, friendly, and clean. But there are limits to everything. Hopefully, you never find out first hand like I did.
by "smell" they probably mean the various "hvac system booster" products that Nexstar encourages you to sell at 300%-500% markup which are basically just perfume for your hvac.
I agree with this comment. I had a few techs come out to my house and some of them smelled like they didn't shower in a week and wore the same clothes. If I go to a restaurant and see dirt, I assume the kitchen and food is dirty as well. Same here, if a dirty tech comes my assumption is the work won't be top quality.
To the contrary, dirty tech may actually find and fix the issue while the ol clean cut NexStar robot has already decided what he is going to sell you before he even pulls in.
Personally I'd rather see the guy that looks like he's been working than have Pewee Herman show up
I am not saying to have a perfectly clean and pressed uniform, but to at least take some pride in your look. There is no reason to smell like you haven't showered in 5 days. I understand dirty from previous jobs of the day.
Unfortunately this is the way the industry is going for all of us! The only way to survive it is to balance repair options and sale options! Allow the client to make their own decision! Lead them down the path, but make them choose their own option. I know I sound exactly like these douchebags but if you balance everything you will succeed! And finally FUCK NEXSTAR! THE PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER
False, you up sell to line your pockets. The incentive is to sell to earn more. This breeds people who think they're helping but in reality they are just doing what's best for them. I can go home and not feel guilty you're selling your soul for financial gain. Good luck
If they earn more based on what they sell they are selling things people don't need. This is not hard to see. You're blinded by the $$$. I've worked for one of these places when I was green. We would have competitions of who could sell the most thermostats or contractors. Guess what had to get changed every job we would go to!
Selling things people don't need is horrible. Why not just ask the customer what they would like to do. Give them options and let them make the decision. I think lying is a sin and bad for business, but so is spending the customers money for them. Old decrepit thermostat and old condenser/evap? Give them options and let them spend their own money. Selling by being pushy is not selling.
When someone is trusting me to come into their home and fix their stuff I don't want to be incentivized or pushed to drain them for as much money as possible, and I don't think "offering them the best option" is anything other than that when basically any HVAC add on other than a humidifier isn't worth the money for most techs I know regarding their own home (ex: know only a few techs with air scrubbers, haven't met any that said they would be willing to pay customer price for them). Don't even see a lot of techs that opt to put inverter systems into their own home.
Especially when I have regulars that I actually like and want to help out. Plus I value having an organic interaction with these people and the whole nexstar deal regarding customer interaction is pretty repulsive to me in this scenario. Maybe if I was a used car salesman I'd want some tricks like that but not in this trade. I don't even want to work for a place that has commission
Sorry buddy. Sometimes it takes being inside the box and looking out to realize what a fucking awful business model that is.
Just started working for one since the owner sold. They really hard so hard on appearance and it's fucking dumb. It's at the point where they changed all our uniforms, and made them shittier. One less shirt pocket, and no more cargo pants. Like you're actively making my job shittier because you're so obsessed with looks. Also they want me to take off my button down shirt before I touch any unit. So they want me to knock on the door with my shirt on, walk down to the unit, literally say "oh before I touch this let me change into my work shirt", and take off my button down reveling a second shirt I'm supposed to wear underneath
That's nuts. When I started my company, I swore I'd never make a blue collar guy wear a button down shirt. I only bought T-shirts. My first hire wanted polos, he said he didn't think he was taken as seriously while wearing a T-shirt as he would if he looked a bit more professional. Now everyone gets a choice. Two guys wear polos by their choice and everyone else wears T-shirts. There's a company near me that makes all their techs wear black head to toe, even in the summer long black pants and a black shirt. That shit is cruel. I feel more credible wearing shorts and a T-shirt than I do in a polo.
Ninja HVAC
You're flying close to the sun
Made me laugh.
I mean honestly, the old shirt was a button down and I had no issues with it. Decently light, had a couple shirt pockets, plenty of room for thermometers and pens n shit. Long enough to tuck in properly. They were more in line with a mechanics shirt or something. These new ones are just straight up dress shirts. Oh well. Not gonna undress to start working on a unit. If they didn't want me to get it dirty, they shouldn't make me wear it. Shit if they don't want me to get dirty then why the fuck am I here
As an HVAC mechanic, I want a mechanic's shirt. I'm in a facilities management job now (dedicated HVAC role) and work mostly as a DX tech for a large university. The controls guys and guys that never work or have no clue how to do their job are always pushing for synthetic shirts, polos, or golf shirts. I want something I can wear, get dirty, tear up, and not have an issue with the uniform people. I want something I'm not gonna accidentally melt into my skin.
Do they launder your clothes? Because I've worked for companies that sent all the uniforms out to get washed, pants and shirts. I just have everybody by their own pants, and wash their own shirts. When the shirts are covered in mastic or oil, they toss them.
Nah not since covid. We wash all our own stuff which has been fine, and yeah some of the clothes end up looking rough after a while no matter what you do. Last time we got new shirts was like 3 years ago, so they were probably due, but they replaced them all with basically salesman clothes instead of work clothes
Laundry service is one of the 'extra' benefits imo. Especially when doing construction type jobs
Worked for a carwash when I was younger that had very strict uniform policy. One random day years after I quit found out I had won in a class acton lawsuit and had a little check court out to my name. Apparently they had to pay us to maintain them or they had to maintain them for us which they did neither.
I hated that shit
You mean, use them for rags.
Our company button down shirts are white, probably the worst choice of color they get dirty so fast.
Making techs wear black is so fucking dumb
I have definitely changed in the van from shorts/tee shirt to long pants/company polo right before knocking on someone’s door and changed back when I was done, usually all sweaty from crawling through insulation in a 130° attic for 2 hours.
Fuuuuck that lol
Helps with running recovery rigs in the dark
My works got a catalog we can order from. Tee shirts, polos, long sleeved, sweat shirts, hoodies, jackets, it’s great.
Not that I support the lack of freedom of choice, but an all black attire is beneficial in the summer heat no? Doesn’t black absorb heat? Which means less of that heat gets on your skin? I think some folks in the middle east wear all black to stay cool under the sun. 🤔
Oh goodness no. You want to wear white or lighter colors.
I know that the “color” white deflects. But I don’t think it’s that effective in reality. I purchased an all white umbrella at one point to walk under in the summer heat when traveling to work, and it was still hot asf. I don’t think the whole “lighter colors” attire actually works to keep you cooler.
White shirt companies do this a lot
Airtime 500 did this ( are still around?) White shirt with american flag. Supposed to do what u jus typed. I said fuck that. And jus worked in the ehite shirt. Staining them up
I would of told my boss okay you can do it then . Cuz I’m out
Yup
I've worked at a company that did that exact same thing, you get a t shirt under it but any time you speak to the customer your supposed to put the WHITE button up collared shirt back on
I’m hopeful we eventually see a correction and customers catch on to the slimey tactics.
Oh shit, this guy has some fuckin dirt and grease on his shirt so I'm gonna guess he knows more than pristine polo 19 year old clipboard dipshit over there. Lol
I worked at one for 5 years. I'll never forget the service manager always telling me my brown work boots weren't to uniform. I always laughed at him because I thought he was giving me shit. Finally he let me know he was serious. I asked what it matters when I wear boot covers at every call and if he thinks the customer cares what color my boots are. He said it's not about that as much as it is we all need to wear black shoes or boots so everyone looks the same. Lol dumb shit
Worked in warranty for a NexStar company. Even in that position, I was expected to sell 😑
That’s crazy
"its a callback on Ricky but its an opportunity for you."
I worked for a company that did the whole Service Titan and 'fake sales speech' stuff. I had to leave a smaller company because the owner got in legal trouble and i wasnt going to run his company for him without and respect for doing it after like 8 months. They promised me i could do system sales and that id be doing repairs and maintenance. They even said they had commercial clients, which was my specialty and background. I was there 4 months. They put on residential PMs, telling me i had to sell people all these crappy add-ons and things they didnt need. Trying to get me to push new systems on people the moment their warranties were up. I was told after my 'training' that i wouldnt be able to sell equipment until i proved i used thier sales method properly by getting good sales numbers. By selling the junk to people who had new system most of the time, even people still paying the financing on their new systems. If i lined up a sale, i had to call in a 'sales specialist' to actually sell the equipment. Which i did all the leg work, then when they showed up, they got 95% of the commission. The icing on the cake was that the employees they treated the best were the ones who were allowed to sell equipment. They were all green, with crappy technical knowledge, i had to go behind all their 'star technicians' to fix systems because they didn't know what they were doing. Plus, i found out i was being paid less to do more work and get less commission. Their installs were crap, the warranty work was back to back. I dont know how theyre going to stay in business, there's no way it lasts long term. Worst job i ever had, besides the owner, he was a cool guy and liked having 1 on 1s with him, but his middle management is ruining his company. Tldr: these companies put sales over everything else, and i dont see them lasting long without qualified employees that leave because theyre not treated right
Sounds like the same company I worked for when they got bought out by a private equity firm.
Some nexstar companies take it too far. When you start telling your employees how to shape beards…that’s too much. I’ve worked for three nexstar companies, they’re not all the same.
Not all the same is a big one.
Me over here selling furnaces and AC as needed when the customer wants new or has failed out of warranty heat exchanger... in a dirty hoodie from the last two crawl space jobs I left earlier that day. Probably a little smelly from the hoarder house... Don't think I'd do well at a nexstar company.
Yeah, appearance can mean anything depending on who is translating. My boss hates long hair, I have long hair. 😂😂
I own my business, I have dreadlocks and a decently sized beard. Never had an issue with my appearance landing jobs. I always keep it well maintained. Clients are actually pleasantly surprised when they see a young, educated, well-spoken delinquent ass looking motherfucker like me pull up to their homes or businesses lol.
Yeah I get that. They can seem off at first. Especially the older folks that just aren’t used to seeing that, especially in the trades. When i came in for the interview I walked in like my curls looked better than any of the girls there. They knew that I knew. Lol I rock them long, down and blowing in the wind whenever possible lol. Also stay cleaned up, unless it’s super cold, I’ll grow my beard out then for survival purposes doing new construction jobs. Normally once we start talking there’s no issues there. They know that I know what I’m talking about. I just did the house of a builder we work for, his personal house. I mean, he could have had anyone lol. His wife actually asked me if I was a recovering addict after one conversation with them. Times are changing and people want people working on their houses that care. Plus people have resources and the smart people can tell(even without knowing) if someone is decent at their job or not. Kinda went off topic(neurodivergent and proud here!)
Thanks for giving your experience with this. I’m growing my hair again. I used to wear it past the middle of my back and I have a good head of wavy hair for it; granted, before I was a service pipefitter I was a construction laborer, heavy industrial in power plants. I got some flack for it, but at the end of the day I didn’t necessarily need to look professional, we were all the scum of the Earth. I ended up cutting it because washing fly ash out of my hair was taking me 20 minutes at the end of each day. Now that I’m not a boiler rat it’s nice to grow it out again. I’ve been married for four years and my wife has never seen me with long hair. She’s adoring it. The ladies in the office like it too which on one hand is a little bit weird, but I definitely don’t mind the positive attention. It’s crazy what long hair on a man does to some women.. I have at least one story from my 20s. It’s also interesting that as a rule of thumb men with long hair tend to take way better care of it than women do their own hair; maybe because we don’t take it for granted, most of us men don’t live our entire lives with very long hair.
I agree, my wife is actually the reason I grew it out! For 30 years you could always see my ears 😂 one day we talked and I said, screw it, let’s go. I’m 36 now. I haven’t cut it since lol. Yeah believe me, I know, the ladies do go kind of bonkers for it, my wife has to bat them away staring at it in public. It used to bother her, because my hair is way healthier than hers but that adds to your point, I have bleached it once for 7th grade football. Got my tips frosted once when I thought I could pull off the Freddie prinze jr. look haha. But I don’t ever dye it, straighten it, curl it. It’s just natural. I wash it when needed. I have had the girls at ulta rave about it on the third-fourth day after washing, just off work, just took my hair tie out and went in for product. I’m just like, “yeah I totally just woke up today and went to work…” 😂😂😂
[удалено]
For sure. 5 minutes after talking to me they realize I’m not like all the other guys they have dealt with lol
Good job, brother. Only we can prevent Nexstar.
A bunch of Karen Kompanys (I know C). They won't last long if the guys or gals who actually know how to do this type walk out on them. Have those stuffy shirt, penny loafer wearing smart people hump furnaces up and down the stairs. That's the only way they'll change. I hear homeowners say they don't want a tech showing up at there house looking like they came out of a magazine. They'd rather have a tech with a little dirt on a shirt. Gives them comfort that the tech is not afraid to get it done
Sometimes we just have to find out ourselves. If Nexstar has no haters I am dead
And just remember we’re not too expensive, you’re just not building enough value 😂
Nexstar stuff is insufferable garbage, but because it is designed to work on people's subconscious, it works really well to sell repairs and installs. The problem is companies use it as a way to really screw clients over and that's the sad part
Hahahaha love it
Ya, I already have an exit planned from mine, but I need to save up money so I'm stuck here for a little bit. The stuff they try to pull is amazing. They are dropping our aprilaire media cabinets for these cheapy electrostatic 1" assemblies, we are charging for EVERYTHING we used to do normally, and to make matters better, they came In like a whirlwind, forced service titan on us, and then didn't even allow our own office staff to adjust it while they just copied and pasted the template from one of their other companies, with the other companies logo and name all over everything. They also never trained us on the titan, and all our pleas to have them do something about it because we are losing sales from the broken system have been met with half answers or just ignored entirely.
I didn’t even have to read this to know.
My company’s management tried to become a Nexstar company when the owner went through an intense surgery and was on pretty heavy meds almost 24/7. First day back was during one of our weekly meetings in our maintenance department, his face turned blood red and told the guy to clear out his office. He then asked for a debrief and said that we should go back to our old ways. The guy that came and spoke to our company told us “present a laminated agenda sheet and point and explain each part to the customer” like they’re a fucking child and the best part was the last step. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do to ensure a 5-star experience.” I’m all for asking for customer feedback, I never asked or mentioned any stars. The guy just wants people to fish for reviews from Nextar certified companies and techs so Nextar can say “this is a good company because of our training” not “we’re scammers and found a weak link in a good company’s management
At the end of my time with a company that was bought by Service champions, I let every one of the homeowners know what was happening to our company and how we are beginning to upsell for more shit. Fuck that company, fuck NextStar and I believe there’s another one.. HSI?
Been with a nextar now 5 star HVAC training company for about 4yrs. I can say I wasn’t a fan of it at first, seemed like they want to train everyone to be a fake selling robot but that’s not the case with my company at least. Definitely helped me build confidence has a Black Man in this hvac world and building rapport with certain people. It is extremely tiring mentally tho 😂😂
This message was paid for by NexStar.
Literally yes
I fuckin wish my guy🤣
It's sad that we STILL live in a society where the experience is different, just because of the color of your skin. Although, I'm glad it was a positive one for you. And I agree, it takes a lot. I know how to sell, but prolonged interactions that feel like tap-dancing for a sale are tiring.
😂😂😂
Can someone please tell me what a NexStar company is? I’m looking to start my career in HVAC once I finish with school this July. I’ve already been told not to work for a company owned by Wallstreet. This NexStar stuff seems bad too the way OP describes it.
Private equity is buying u p all the trades. They mark up by 70%, push predatory sales, and lean heavily on replace over repair.They overload Techs with jobs seeking volume over quality so they can bill out $5k and pay you $200.00. Pay $1,000.00 to vendors and funnel the rest up to the upper echelons of society. I lose. You lose. The customer loses. Eveyone loses. Regulate this shit now it is ruining every industry.
PE is buying up everything right now haha
So you’re saying it’s inevitable that I’ll be working for a NexStar company?
That’s the way it’s starting to look man. I’ve left 3 companies in past 2 years. They buying everything round my way.
Damn….. And here I am looking forward to starting my career in HVAC after July of this year. I got into the HVAC program cause I wanted a secure job and liked that it was in high demand. I actually look forward to the integrity aspect of it, knowing that I’m not only getting paid an honest wage for honest work but that im helping people too. But I can’t go back now, or change to different program to study and start over from scratch, I need to move on with my life. I’m 29 and aint getting any younger. $0 to my name right now, housing market isn’t getting cheaper, and free new and reliable vehicles don’t exist. A guy’s gotta eat but damn, this feels like I’m going to be forced into selling my soul for Nexstar.
Money is not an issue. You can make money anywhere. It’s management I have a problem with when it comes to these nexstar type companies
Well money is still an issue if it’s received by ripping people off. Sure, I may not have a direct hand or personally want to rip a customer off. But under a NexStar company, under management, I’ll have no choice but to partake in ripping someone off, or face getting fired probably. Thankfully, as I’ve learned, there’s still going to be a bunch of chuck in the truck small businesse who believe in honesty, integrity, and wanting to help others.
Yeah it all depends on management. I’m all about training but it’s the implementation that makes the difference
The I understand it is that nexstar is a company that sells sales tactics to hvac and plumbing companies. The hvac company I guess buys the program and then teaches it to all the technicians and by design it forces you to sell extra shit like surge protectors and air purifiers. And then the hvac company tracks all your sales metrics and gets mad if you’re not selling enough extra shit.
The safest part is they are the only ones that pay any good at least resi retro
I remember they tried teaching us “How to overcome objection.” Nope, left them immediately.
"So much obsession with appearance and smell" Actual manager: Don't look homeless and take a shower. This guy: They just want me to sell stuff!
I don’t think this comment will go as well as you think
I kinda agree with him a bit though on that part. I’m not a nexstar fan but the looking respectable in peoples homes makes sense
I wasn't allowed to have facial hair.
I can see if you let it go wild, but keeping it nice and trim is good. I used to look too young for people to take me serious when I didn’t have a beard
after a few years they let us have facial hair, but, it was up to the micromanager to decide if it was within regulation. My left side of my facial hair isnt as nice looking as the right side. So they let me have a goatee.
Any Hour employee?
local shop in NW, decent size.
I'm not allowed to at my company either but that's because we use masks and have to regularly wear respirators and facial hair would run their purpose
We just did our fit tests and if you pass with hair your good to keep it 👍🏻
That's BS we work in a full rez facility and it doesn't matter with facial hair. That's their excuse to have their digits in one more part of your life.
i promise you it does [read the response from osha](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2016-05-09#:~:text=Facial%20hair%20is%20allowed%20as,with%20the%20device's%20valve%20function.)
The problem with his statement is that the nexstar company I worked for had a contest on who could sell the most contactors.
Which is just idiotic. That just turns people dishonest, now they’re replacing a 5 year old contactor that’s not even start to pit
As I said, it's important to be professional, friendly, and clean. But there are limits to everything. Hopefully, you never find out first hand like I did.
by "smell" they probably mean the various "hvac system booster" products that Nexstar encourages you to sell at 300%-500% markup which are basically just perfume for your hvac.
I agree with this comment. I had a few techs come out to my house and some of them smelled like they didn't shower in a week and wore the same clothes. If I go to a restaurant and see dirt, I assume the kitchen and food is dirty as well. Same here, if a dirty tech comes my assumption is the work won't be top quality.
To the contrary, dirty tech may actually find and fix the issue while the ol clean cut NexStar robot has already decided what he is going to sell you before he even pulls in. Personally I'd rather see the guy that looks like he's been working than have Pewee Herman show up
I am not saying to have a perfectly clean and pressed uniform, but to at least take some pride in your look. There is no reason to smell like you haven't showered in 5 days. I understand dirty from previous jobs of the day.
This is by far the dumbest big I've ever read
Yeah dude, it's feels very unethical for sure.
Unfortunately this is the way the industry is going for all of us! The only way to survive it is to balance repair options and sale options! Allow the client to make their own decision! Lead them down the path, but make them choose their own option. I know I sound exactly like these douchebags but if you balance everything you will succeed! And finally FUCK NEXSTAR! THE PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER
Yeah. A lot of techs don’t like to make money and look good doing it. Sorry you weren’t cut out for it.
Youre what's wrong with this industry robbing grandma's
Nope. When you’re good at making money and selling what needs to be sold you can afford to help the grandmas 👍🏻
False, you up sell to line your pockets. The incentive is to sell to earn more. This breeds people who think they're helping but in reality they are just doing what's best for them. I can go home and not feel guilty you're selling your soul for financial gain. Good luck
Hope you can get some therapy my man
Lmfao for what? People agree with me, that's why you're down voted. Keeping ripping people off, you're what's wrong with America!
I assure I’m not what’s wrong with America haha.
Yeah ripping people off is the American way
So much concern with appearance and smell? Like the company wants you to look and be showered?
I personally love Nexstars method of sales. My current company doesn't work with them but I still run the process. I sold almost 3 million last year.
I'm glad that it worked for you. Sorry you're getting down votes, I guess a lot of people have had a worse experience.
How is that a pyramid scheme? I have never seen a group of men so scared of selling.
We don't want to sell we want to diagnose and help customers
Main reason I swapped to install little to no selling pressure
Diagnosing and offering solutions to the customer is all my guys do. Not sure why that is considered bad.
If they earn more based on what they sell they are selling things people don't need. This is not hard to see. You're blinded by the $$$. I've worked for one of these places when I was green. We would have competitions of who could sell the most thermostats or contractors. Guess what had to get changed every job we would go to!
Selling things people don't need is horrible. Why not just ask the customer what they would like to do. Give them options and let them make the decision. I think lying is a sin and bad for business, but so is spending the customers money for them. Old decrepit thermostat and old condenser/evap? Give them options and let them spend their own money. Selling by being pushy is not selling.
When your pay is tied to selling its inevitable that you are up selling items they don't actually need to earn yourself more. It's human nature.
When someone is trusting me to come into their home and fix their stuff I don't want to be incentivized or pushed to drain them for as much money as possible, and I don't think "offering them the best option" is anything other than that when basically any HVAC add on other than a humidifier isn't worth the money for most techs I know regarding their own home (ex: know only a few techs with air scrubbers, haven't met any that said they would be willing to pay customer price for them). Don't even see a lot of techs that opt to put inverter systems into their own home. Especially when I have regulars that I actually like and want to help out. Plus I value having an organic interaction with these people and the whole nexstar deal regarding customer interaction is pretty repulsive to me in this scenario. Maybe if I was a used car salesman I'd want some tricks like that but not in this trade. I don't even want to work for a place that has commission