Well, the temporary fix on the furnace at the condo failed. On Sunday. The tenants called to let us know today. Wednesday. WTF? We had stressed that the service guy's fix might only be temporary, and that it would take a few days to get the new part, but that they were to call us ASAP with any problems so we could get it up and running, even if it's only another temporary fix. I don't get it.
Ted did do the permanent furnace repair himself. Midwest Appliance Parts of Chicago had the piece we needed for $105, and he spent a grand total of 15 minutes swapping it out. AAA Heating and Cooling of Chicago wanted to charge us $685, including labor.
We'll probably do this kind of thing again in the future, i.e., pay for the service call to diagnose the problem (in this case $95) and then buy the necessary parts ourselves. With a savings of nearly five hundred bucks, it was worth a little extra leg work.
But isn't it frustrating when contractors jack up prices to this extent?
5 comments:
"But isn't it frustrating when contractors jack up prices to this extent?"
Yes. An honest repairperson is worth their weight in gold. What I've found is that if you find one, they often can recommend other people in different specialties.
I found my electrician, plumber, and gutter repair people from that kind of referral.
Hi! I enjoy reading your posts and you have a very cool 2 flat!
I had a very dishonest HVAC guy lie to me who wanted to charge me $350 for parts and labor. Luckily for me, I didn't have the cash on hand otherwise I would have been deceived. I asked my brother to look at it and he told me all I needed to do was adjust a lever!!
I like your plan of just paying for the diagnosis and fixing it yourself.
Karen Anne--We usually have good luck with Angie's List; this was one of these rare times we plucked someone from a phone book. We won't be doing that again soon.
Julieta--Thanks for visiting and hurray for your brother! (It sounds like things have been crazy in your neighborhood. The rest of you, go check out Julieta's blog; she's in the same neighborhood as our "dear" governor Rod Blogojevich and has a picture of his lovely bungalow.)
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Hi! I like your post about condo tenants.Thanks for sharing. We also offer Chicago IL Refrigerator Repair at best best prices. Professional & 24X7 reapir services.
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