I would like to begin by stating that these are my personal opinions and observations concerning my…read moretime spent and experiences working with Leaps and Bounds. Other individuals may have different opinions and experiences, but these are mine.
My tenure at this company was very short lived. I'd been attracted to it after seeing their social media posts and ad campaigns. Employees were prominently pictured on social media, meetings/company breakfasts shown, and happy customers pictured next to their new equipment. I was even included on two social media posts during my short tenure. I discovered, in short order, that the company's social media/advertisement persona was not entirely accurate to it's real life culture, values, and day-to-day operation.
I worked in the company's HVAC installation department, so I can only confidently present my opinions based on my experience with this end of the business in particular. The company does operate HVAC service and plumbing service/installation. I've no experience in those departments.
Leaps and Bounds (L&B), formerly AC Service Pros, has been in operation for approximately 2yrs and has begun rapid expansion of it's business model within the last year. It is my opinion that with that expansion has come rapid and significant decline in quality of workmanship and compliance with the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code (PA UCC). I had observed, reported, and attempted to rectify issues with installation that I believed went against customers' best interests, standard trade practices, and that were, in some cases, blatant violations of PA UCC and EPA 608. Opinions and observations presented in later paragraphs will explain why I have come to this conclusion about the company.
Firstly, I had observed that a decent amount of L&B's installers had less than one year of experience in the HVAC trade. Most began their HVAC career with L&B and had assumed that L&B's company practices, operation, and lack of oversight/back end support were standard within the industry. After all, their only point of comparison was L&B. Certain persons working with and recovering refrigerants also had no EPA 608 certification at any level and were not being directly supervised by an individual who held a certification. Sometimes, certification holders were not even on site. With that said, L&B had some installers with an abundance of experience and proper certifications. However, this would lead to extremely large variations in quality of installs from job to job. Additionally, concerns amoungst more experienced installers regarding job quality, back end support, and logistical support were ever present. The turnover rate for experienced installers was high due to these factors. In fact, the install manager that interviewed and hired me had quit within a week of my hiring.
Call backs and warranty repairs on equipment that was less than one year old was routine for this company, and mainly stemmed from their use of less experienced persons as install technicians. Restricted TXV's and filter dryer replacements were common due to their non-use of nitrogen flow when brazing and excessive use of brazing material, causing excessive build up of contaminates within the lineset. Other common call backs would include supply/return ducts and trunks falling apart due to improper securing methods, system issues due to a plethora of ductwork deficiencies (improper sealing, undersized returns, supplies not receiving enough airflow leaks, ductwork/grilles falling apart or off the wall, etc...), leaks stemming from non-glued PVC fittings or backpitch, system failure caused by improper wiring. One specific issue that I'd like to mention would be a warranty call that I responded to in which the installing technician ran a 10/2 UF wire up the side of the home and wire stapled it across the home's asphalt shingled roof, running it back down the side of the home to the mini split ODU. A run across the basement and along the house's siding was possible and is what I had replaced the previous run with. The roof was obviously compromised and shingled needed to be replaced due to the previous installers negligence.
The company meetings that I had experienced also differed from what had been portrayed on social media. The first meeting I had been in attendance for consisted of one of the owner's, Brandon Carey, all but yelling at everyone in attendance in regards to many of the quality issues and callbacks that I have mentioned in previous paragraphs. Rather than taking responsibility for their role in the issues regarding quality and call backs, by means of using in experienced technicians as leads and providing minimal support/training, installers were singled out in front of the group and threats were made to reduce pay or move to flat rate based pay due to the issues. No solutions like increased training, supervision, or creation of a company wide standard practices booklet were provide
