Worked for one & no....

good luck

~CS~

 

Never did it myself but know of three other guys that did and none of them are doing it now.
The warranty work pays nothing and stocking parts is expensive

 

How do you like the class?

I was just talking with the Generac rep today about taking the class. If for nothing else, just to offer certain services to my customers....

 

My brother works for somebody that's a dealer and service provider. My brother and a few of his coworkers took the three day class and they all liked it a lot more than the Briggs class which we all took together. They said the instructors were a lot better, and the actually gave troubleshooting scenarios to work on.
I think the biggest advantage is the pricing. His boss gets such good pricing from generac because of the volume that he buys that he told me it's not worth it for him to promote Briggs...

 

The class I'm in is a bit sloppy like I said. By sloppy I mean the presentation and the teaching level leaves a lot to be desired. The instructor no doubt knows what he's talking about but we often get sidetracked by nonsense stories from the field. Tomorrow were being field tested and I feel in no way am I prepared to fix anything other than a disconnected wire. I definitely have learned a lot the past two days but I don't feel the least bit confident going to a customers house and say replacing either of the two magnetos. Brushes? I don't even know if I could find them!

 

If you ever find yourself buried on a job, feel free to ask me for my personal cell number and i can very simply walk you through any troubleshooting or repair. Dont sweat it, they arent hard to learn.

I get calls quite often from a guy in rhode island i know helping him through repairs.

 

Im a dealer and authorized service. Warranties dont pay off until you have done total break downs of units a few times. Once you know the units in and out with your eyes closed, its much easier to get the repairs done within the flat rate times. As an example, replacing flywheel side crankshaft seal pays 3.5 hours as i recall, plus .5 diagnostic time and $75 travel allowance. I can do it about 2.5 hours now or less simply because ive broke them down enough to know exactly what has to be done and in what order and exactly which tools are needed.

Im not to the point yet, but it would be a much bigger money maker if you were able to keep a good stock of parts on your truck with you so as you go to the calls you are prepared to fix it in one trip.

Quite honestly the best money in it is in yearly maintenance contracts.

As far as warranty paperwork, anybody that tells you its a pain in the butt is full of crap and has never done it. If you have your part numbers it literally takes 5 minutes or less to do a warranty claim on the genserv site.

Depending on your area and how flooded you are for competition, you could do well.

 

I think that's exactly what I needed to hear.

Thank you!

I do have some competition but I'm in a very populated area and I do plan to get the maintenance contracts.

I'm inspired again now :thumbsup:

Let me get back to "Assignment #2" before its too late and I fall asleep here at the desk.

 

I work for cummins and in my area they have started adding dealers for what is called residential light commercial. Not sure of the requirements though


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

You are going to be a bit overwhelmed the first time through. It is a learned skill just like the electrical and you need to get out there and get your hands dirty. The warranty process isn't that big of a deal. It takes a couple of weeks to get paid. You have questions, you pick up the phone and ask. I find they take good care of me. I like it, though the last storm burned me out a bit. Lots of installers, not many of us that work on these things. It can lead to other business. I help out a bunch of other contractors with the warranty end. Its an investment in the beginning and you are sitting with these tubs of parts saying to yourself what the hell am I going to do with all this. You need to work your connections, go to the sales promotions that they put on sometimes and hand out cards to other contractors, talk with the counter guys. Once the word is out, it grows on its own. I have turned away installs to take care of all the repairs lately. You need some tools, good sockets, crows foot wrenches. Love my m-12 ratchet. Extensions are great, about three feet worth. A good battery tester is helpful. Have manuals on hand, using the pc is a pain. You are going to struggle to begin with, but persistence and patience will get you through. You always learning something new. Valve adjustments are key.

 

I'm hearing the battery and valve adjustments are the big two.

We haven't even looked at the valves yet!

I know very little about motors and never worked on cars but I'm still gonna go for it.

Thank you.

 

Get through the test, get out there and get some practical experience.

 

You have to buy Generac promotional items such as brochures which I think is ridicules. Good luck with the customer service from them as well.

 

BS!! At no point have i ever had to buy any promotional item. My outside sales rep drops off brochures at my office once a month and it's entirely free.

Whomever is feeding you this crap should be slapped. The customer service is awesome once you have a technician number under your dealer number.

 

Batteries every three years usually works good. A good annual service usually includes a battery test and cleaning of terminals. I do valves every year. Went out to one today in the rain that the oil changers haven't touched, now runs crappy and made an easy two hour call, now runs great. Valves aren't a big deal. Feeler gauges and the right tools. Can make a big difference.

 

As nrp3 said, the tools are critical. Get a year under your belt and you will know very well how true that is. Keep in mind generac is all metric, so thats all you need. Basically a 7mm, 8mm, 10mm and 13mm will take care of damn near anything. Have a good selection of 10mm sockets and wrenches available. Have lots of extensions. I have a m12 ratchet liek nrp3 does. I also keep standard ratchets, thumb drive ratchets and so on. I have multiple versions of allen wrenches and allen wrench sockets available.

Honestly a 10mm socket and some extensions with a battery impact or ratchet and you can have the entire enclosure off a unit in 5 minutes if need be.

The absolute worst thing on a generac repair is if you have to get inside by the flywheel/magnettos. Those 10mm bolts holding the flywheel cover on around the backside are pain in the balls to get to. Again, its something you will learn to deal with and find easier ways to make happen

 

They treat me well. They have actually done a pretty good job of taking care of the customer when I ask.

The coils are definitely a pain. Fortunately don't have to do that too often. 10mm is definitely a common fastener. A decent 1/4 and 3/8 drive kit from Craftsman or Home Depot is a good start. Allen wrenches and gear wrenches are good too. If you don't have a good true rms meter, you need one. Looking for a good all weather one. The fluke goes funky when it gets wet.

 

And make sure you get one that can do DC amp readings. Test 4 cant be done without it and that test is pretty damn important when a no or low output situation happens

 

Somebody help me here. You put in a generac and you need to go and service them, valves, mags, ect. What is this? Sounds like Wallys Garage junk.

 

How many new car dealerships do you see without repair shops? How many new appliance stores without repair technicians? Ever see a computer store, how about geek squad?

Every single product out there needs to be repaired or tossed out at some point. Because generac needs maintenance and an occasional warranty repair makes them junk? Seriously? Id love to live in your world where every mechanical product can be used with no maintenance forever and it outlives me.

 

I was already looking at some new Fluke stuff, especially the probes for the pin connectors.

DC voltage tester too.

It's quite an investment to get started it seems but hey I do believe AC generators are a big part of the future.

Thanks for everything fellas.

 

If you order the level 1 technician parts kit those probes will be in it, or at least they were in mine.

 

Nothing exists in a vacuum. These and the other brands of standby units need regular maintenance. These have mechanical valves. Kohlers don't. You are there annually, if you are any good, you are checking them out, making the adjustment if needed.

 

They are tight on warranty times. BUT, YOU CAN TALK THEM INTO MORE. we had a small part to be replaced and they literally wanted to pay 10 minutes for the part. I called them up, told them the generator was way behind the house, and down a hill, that I couldn't get the tools out of my truck in 10 minutes. They agreedto payoff 1hr.

 

My Q for aspiring dealers is, how do you compete with Home Despot who's got generac all sewn up?


Do you do installs for folks who bought there? Service work? Maint contracts?

~CS~

 

I fix anyone's regardless of who put it in or where it came from.

 

Amen money is money. That is where you can try to separate yourself from them, customer service. I'd honestly love to sell everyone one from my account but honestly I can't compete with their prices as I don't sell hundreds a month. But when they need service I'll be there.

 

Same here. The money is in installing, maintaining and servicing these units, not in the sales. At least not in this area anyways. I couldnt care less where the unit comes from, whether they buy it from me or a retailer. As a matter fact, Gods honest truth, when they buy from a retailer it saves me a lot of back breaking labor dinking around unloading at my shop, getting it to the site, and then placing it. When they buy from a retailer, that is the customers problem.

As far as the comment that home depot has generac all sewn up. Thats Simply not true. Generac has a deal worked with home depot, lowes, menards, and many, many other retailers to put their product in front of millions of people.

How generac works as far as sales goes is pretty basic. 4 tiers of pricing based on previous years sales. Direct, select, elite, premier. Lowest level to highest level. I have all the pricing for all the levels. Its really not that big of a difference between direct and premier.mnow when you are selling a couple hundred units a year, yes, a few hundred dollars less is a huge amount over the year.

Now, home depot gets premier level pricing, because it goes across all stores. They can sell to any customer at premier level pricing. Now if the customer wants an install with it, then the lead gets passed on to a generac sales and install company. That company can make the sale (at home depots price) and then charge for install. Home depot gets 15% of the entire contract price.

So, to break this down simply, we can compete with home depot on sales and basically match their price because they mark theirs up more than us. But on sales and install together, the installer needs to add in that 15% and thats where we can easily compete and beat.

 

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So, to break this down simply, we can compete with home depot on sales and basically match their price because they mark theirs up more than us. But on sales and install together, the installer needs to add in that 15% and thats where we can easily compete and beat.

Doesn't seem like a lot of profit, considering you'll need to stand behind the product Piette. As well as delivery, set up of a product weighing in @ 500lbs

I guess if one sold enough of them , it'd work out.

Right now we have caravans of poco trucks mitigating our first seasonal ice storm outage. The genny guys (there are dedicated shops here) are all busy, and will be for some time, and yes it's all the maint biz that keeps them rolling

But a lot of it is stupid stuff, can't find the on switch, fuel problems , etc.

Been there, done that 'storm trooper' detail in the past, more than happy to refer it these days

~CS~

 

Mag, did you get through the test oK?

 

No problem. :thumbsup:

I believe they're sending me the certificate and the info to complete the dealer/ service representation. School is good but there's nothing like real time experience.

 

Still fixing the broken stuff left over from the storm. Yes a portion of it was people forgetting to set the units to LP, leaving off the main breaker, etc. Money to be made. Swapped out a dead engine today. Have a rotor/stator later in the week. Mountain of annual services to do. For me installs are over for the year. Have one to complete. Can do portable installs all winter long. Have several of those to do.

 

How much of your business is now generator installs/ service?

I'm hoping to make mine a large percentage of business.

 

Right now its maybe 50/50 due to the storm on Thanksgiving. Mostly service. Turned away three installs because of too much else going on. It'll slow down to annual services and a few repairs. Sold one, but doing it in the spring. She was kind enough to buy one of the two I had in stock. I don't do huge numbers of installs. I have done maybe three this year. Lots of repairs. Repairs have really taken off this year. Word of mouth has been good for that. I need a better plan for digging.

 

Generac SALES AND SERVICE DEALERS search engine comes up with 37 within a 50 mile rad on me

I know a lot of them, i also know it took 'em some time to create their place in the genny market


~CS~

 

Its taken a couple of years for the service part to grow. At least that many if not more around my area. I think I am on the third page somewhere. I don't sweat it. Not likely to become an elite dealer anyway.