If you sell commercial HVAC service, you have had this call end on one sentence. The facility manager tells you the rooftop units are still under warranty. Do not argue and do not hang up. Ask what the paperwork actually covers.
Most standard equipment warranties cover the part itself. The building usually still pays the labor, the diagnostic call and the refrigerant. Coverage often depends on maintenance records being kept. And there are usually two deadlines in the document: one to register the equipment after it is installed, and one to file a claim after something fails.
The manager probably does not know any of that, because almost nobody reads a warranty until something breaks. Going through it together is how a call that was about to end turns into a walkthrough.
In short
- A standard warranty generally covers the failed part. Labor, the trip and the refrigerant are usually the building’s.
- Two deadlines sit in most documents: registering the equipment after install, and filing a claim after a failure.
- Ask about the service records. That question opens the walkthrough without telling the manager they are wrong.
What the warranty usually covers
Read the actual document before you say anything with confidence, because terms vary by manufacturer. That said, a standard commercial equipment warranty generally covers the failed component and not much else.
What the building typically still pays for:
- Labor. Someone has to come out, pull the panel, diagnose it and fit the part.
- The diagnostic call itself, whether or not the failure turns out to be covered.
- Refrigerant, which on a larger unit can be the biggest line on the invoice.
- Anything described as consumable or maintenance, such as filters, belts and drive components.
So a covered failure can still produce a bill. That is not a trick question to catch the manager out. It is the thing they will find out the hard way in July if nobody tells them now.
| On a typical failure | Who usually pays | Why it matters on the call |
|---|---|---|
| The failed component | The manufacturer | This is the part the manager means when they say covered |
| The service call to diagnose it | The building | Charged whether or not the failure turns out to be covered |
| Labor to remove and fit the part | The building | On a rooftop unit this is often more than the part is worth |
| Refrigerant | The building | On a larger unit this can be the biggest line on the invoice |
| Filters, belts, drive components | The building | Usually excluded as maintenance items, not failures |
What a covered failure still costs
Take a compressor going down on a rooftop unit. The compressor is the covered part, so the manager is right that the warranty applies.
What the warranty generally does not pay for is the trip out to diagnose it, the labor to recover the refrigerant, pull the old compressor and fit the new one, or the refrigerant that goes back in. On a larger unit those together can come to several times the value of the part itself.
So the invoice still arrives. Walking a manager through that before anything fails is not a sales tactic. It is the difference between a budget conversation now and an argument in July.
The conditions that quietly void it
Two things commonly sit in the document and commonly get missed.
Registration. Many manufacturers require the equipment to be registered within a set window after installation. If the building changed hands, or the installing contractor is gone, nobody may have done it.
Maintenance records. Coverage often depends on the equipment being serviced on schedule, with documentation. A building that has been running the units without a maintenance agreement may have a warranty that no longer applies.
Neither of these is something to use as a gotcha. They are both reasons the manager needs somebody to look at the paperwork, which is you.
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When nobody can find the paperwork
This is the most common situation, and it is an opening rather than a dead end.
If the building changed hands, if the installing contractor is gone, or if the facilities role has turned over since install, the warranty documents may genuinely not exist anywhere on site. The manager is not being evasive. They inherited equipment with no file.
What you can offer is straightforward. Read the data plate on each unit, record the model and serial number, and check the registration and coverage status with the manufacturer directly. Most will tell you what is on file against a serial number.
That gives the building something it did not have, takes you an afternoon, and puts you on the roof with a reason that has nothing to do with selling.
Questions that keep the call going
None of these contradict the manager. They all assume the warranty is real.
- Do you know which manufacturer, and roughly when they went in? Tells you whether registration is even plausible.
- Do you have the paperwork, or would it be with whoever installed them? Often nobody knows, and that is an opening.
- Has anything been serviced on them since? Goes to the maintenance condition without sounding like an audit.
- If one went down tomorrow, who would you call? The most useful question on the list, because the answer is frequently nobody in particular.
What to say, word for word
“That’s good, those should be covered for the part at least. Do you know if anyone’s kept up the service records on them? That’s usually the bit that decides whether a claim goes through. Happy to come take a look at what you’ve got and tell you where you stand, no charge for that.”
Short, agrees with them, and offers something specific.
What to offer next
Not a quote. A visit.
Offer to look at the units and the paperwork and tell them what is actually covered and what is not. Put it in writing afterward: which units, which manufacturer, whether registration appears to have happened, whether there is a service history, and what the building would pay if one failed next month.
That document is worth more to them than a price, and it is the thing that gets forwarded when the maintenance agreement conversation eventually happens.
When the warranty really does have it covered
Sometimes it does. Newer equipment, installed by a contractor who registered it, serviced on schedule, with a labor warranty purchased alongside.
Say so. You lose nothing by confirming a building is in good shape, and you become the contractor who told them the truth when there was nothing in it for you. That is the call they remember when the units come off warranty in two years.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get a meeting with a facility manager?
Call with a reason that is specific to their building rather than a description of your services. The rooftop units, the warranty paperwork, an upcoming inspection. Reasons get routed. Services get a message taken.
Is cold calling still worth it for commercial HVAC?
It still works for this buyer, because facility and operations people are reachable by phone and rarely respond to email from contractors they do not know. What has changed is that it takes consistent volume over months, which is where most contractors run out of time.
Should an HVAC contractor hire a salesperson or outsource appointment setting?
The in-house comparison is not a salary against a retainer. It is salary plus payroll taxes, benefits, software, ramp time and somebody to manage them. Outsourcing trades that for a fixed monthly cost and a faster start. Which is right depends on whether you can keep a salesperson busy and managed.
Keep going
- HVAC lead generation
- The first 30 seconds of a commercial HVAC call
- Which properties are worth a commercial HVAC walkthrough
- What to say when you cold call a facility manager
- When commercial building budgets are actually set
About this article
Jeff Winters is Chief Executive Officer at Abstrakt. Reviewed by Neil Erker, Chief Marketing Officer. Abstrakt sets appointments for commercial HVAC contractors and the wider trades, and the patterns here come from that calling.
Jeff Winters is the CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group, a U.S.-based B2B lead generation and appointment-setting company that books qualified sales meetings for clients across the commercial trades, IT and managed services, manufacturing, and B2B services. He has spent his career building and running outbound sales programs at scale, and he breaks down what actually works in sales and lead generation on Abstrakt's podcast, The Grow Show.
