Women As Key Decision Makers

Wow! What a shock I had when I read the question that Scott wrote to Sharon Roberts in the March 21, 2005 edition ["Ask Sharon: She Can Handle The Appointment Herself"]. I was thoroughly offended and I am not even his customer. I wondered if he bothered to read her article fromThe News, Jan. 24 edition "Women's Role In Purchasing Decisions" talking about that very subject. Did he assume that the article would not benefit him in some way, therefore not reading it?

Not only as a woman in the HVAC business but as a woman in partnership with my husband building a house, I was unbelievably amazed that salesmen are still asking these kinds of questions. Many large corporations are recognizing the role women have in making decisions on behalf of the family.

It is estimated that women, in the near future, will become the biggest leader in purchasing high-price items such as homes, property, cars, and even HVAC systems. These large corporations are currently teaching as well as training their staff and dealers to recognize that women no longer have a passive roll in decision-making, but rather have an active roll, either having all or part of the major decisions that need to be made for the home.

I will give Scott the benefit of the doubt; maybe he didn't read the article, but come on, wake up; men are not the only decision-makers in the home today.

Pam Chapman
College Place Heating & A/C Inc.
Receptionist
College Place, Wash.

Shrinking The Number Of No Defects Found

First, my compliments to Shawn Lee and Peter Powell on their [respective] articles ["Don't Bury The Compressor Before It's Dead" and "The Condemned Compressor"] in the April 4News. The return of no defect found compressors has been a burden on our industry for years. We at Emerson Climate Technologies estimate this cost to compressor manufacturers, OEMs, wholesalers, and contractors to be no less than $100 million each year.

In 2002, at several industry roundtable meetings with leading contractors, we at Emerson Climate Technologies discussed this topic and some ideas for simple tools to help technicians correctly diagnose the cause of system failures.

The result of these meetings and several iterations of product development has led to the release of Emerson Climate Technologies' Comfort Alert module. It will tell the technician if the compressor is operating correctly and, when there is a system issue, it will lead the technician to a cause of failure by displaying nine different fault codes.

It has been used by several OEM's since its introduction in 2003, and the results are outstanding. In fact, OEM's are seeing as much as a 30-percent reduction in failure rates because the no defect found portion of overall return levels has dropped from 40 percent to 10 percent. [Starting] in 2006, with the transition to 13 SEER, we believe over 500,000 air conditioning systems will be installed with this device each year. We also believe there will be more field replacement opportunities as the next generation of Comfort Alert allows communication with the homeowner's thermostat.

Geoff Godwin
Director of A/C Sales
Emerson Climate Technologies
Sidney, Ohio

Ex-Convicts And Rehabilitation

[Editor's note: This letter is written in response to the letter titled "Ex-Convicts And Residential Work," Feb. 14.]

I would like to know how we are supposed to give a person a chance if no one is willing to do so. These so-called people who want convicts to be rehabilitated aren't helping to do so. They think once someone has broken the law they are useless to society and will go back to prison. [If some convicts do go back to prison] that's because no one will give them a chance.

I am not saying that everyone wants a second chance, but there are quite a few like the two people in Texas who have been field technicians and lost their jobs for something that happened 25 years ago. Politicians should lose their jobs for all the broken promises that never came about, but it seems that people just keep re-electing them.

I am the faculty supervisor at The Refrigeration School Inc. in Phoenix, and we have allowed several ex-convicts to come through our school, depending on the crime. We have not had any problems with them, and they have gone on to graduate and are working in the field. If no one is willing to give them a chance, then why let them out?

Harry Horton
Faculty Supervisor
The Refrigeration School Inc.
Phoenix

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Publication date: 05/09/2005