[addflip]

It's a shame what's happened to my local HVAC contractor. It used to be a great local operation where a real person picked up when you called. But lately, after a private equity group took over, it's all automated calls and foreign call centers. The personal touch is gone and, sadly, their service quality has taken a noticeable hit. It's just not the same anymore.

[bombcar]

I knew some local guys that basically made a living doing that - start an HVAC company, get it working good, sell it to a equity group, they destroy it pretty quickly, everyone quits, then one of the other original guys starts a new HVAC company, gets it working good, sells it ...

[bhewes]

Oil and Gas field services does the same thing and only difference is they buy the company back and then flip it again.

[SN76477]

A few years back I had to run door dash orders to pay the bills. I noticed then that distribution of labor removes a lot of the spirit and purpose behind the work.

No one at the call center is enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done, it is complete detached. I'm sure the laborers are pushed hard to high quotas and have zero time to follow up with customers.

I think we need to back to owning the entire system if we are going to have better services, better profits and satisfied employees.

[hotpotamus]

Easy there comrade, you need to watch that talk about alienation of labor and ownership of the means of production. But it is interesting how a brief trip through the gig economy will start someone talking like Marx even if they (presumably) haven't read him.

[uni_rule]

I think that means we're doing as well socioeconomically as 1800s Prussia.

[thrawa8387336]

Like Marx or the Unabomber

[alistairSH]

The worst "foreign call center" experience I've had lately...

Hotel check-in. Walked in, lady at desk is read a novel, I ask "can I check in?", she directs me to a video-conference kiosk across the room, which is actively in-use by a high-maintenance customer who, in addition to changing her reservation details, can't understand a fairly light Indian accent. 15 minutes of waiting later, this other customer is still going around-and-around with the call center guy (who's being nothing but patient and trying his best with the system provided), the lady at the desk, rolls her eyes, harrumphs, and asks if I want to check-in with her instead.

[d136o]

Which hotel?

[alistairSH]

It was the Quality Inn in Kill Devil Hills, Outer Banks, NC. Typical mediocre beach hotel in that area.