Air Conditioner Repair Estimate

Back-off, she's mine! :-)

Reply to
<kjpro
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So having the part, stocking the part, etc, costs nothing and should be worth nothing?

$50 an hour? Do you like working for free, below minimum wage, or in some cases pay to work there?

Reply to
<kjpro

I&#39;ve never paid for an estimate. I&#39;m going to spend about $1million in the next 6 or 7 months. Some of the jobs will be let with no estimate, others will be one, some will be three. That decision is based on work we&#39;ve done together in the past. The jobs will not always go to the lowest bidder either, as there are other factors to consider such as the ability to do a job properly, within the time required, etc.

I will pay for engineering of a fire sprinkler system, but once the engineering is done, I may get additional prices for the actual work. I would pay for having the specifications written for a HVAC system also, but then I own that information and may have others bid on it.

Estimating is part of the cost of doing business. We do quotes for free, but we may or may not invest in making you a sample as that can take 2 to 5 man-hours of work. If you are an existing customer, yes, we will. If I don&#39;t know you, then there may be a charge.

With your experience, you can probably walk into a potential customers home and ball park, for example, "$6000 to $7000, are you interested?" and eliminate most of the window shoppers right there. .

If you can charge for estimates and you have all the work you can handle, then that works for you. Great

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Some people confuse a repair estimate with a sales estimate. If I go out and spend time tearing down a piece of equipment, dragging out all manner of tools and test gear to diagnose a problem, it&#39;s not free. The service call charge will be part of the total repair bill if a customer decides to have the equipment repaired. If someone just wants a rough estimate of the cost of new equipment, that&#39;s no problem and can be done at no charge. If someone wants documents, engineering drawings, calculations and an exact contract cost, that is considered by me to be a consulting service and that&#39;s not free. Of course regular customers who spend thousands of dollars a year with me for service get a break and boot licking and groveling, etc.

[8~{} Uncle Monster
Reply to
Uncle Monster

Yes, there is a big difference between the two. I&#39;d not hesitate to pay for some diagnostics so I can then make a repair/&#39;replace decision. But I&#39;m not going to pay for someone to just price out a system. That is sort of like paying a fee to go into a new car showroom.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Baseball

Reply to
Tekkie®

Reply to
bigjim

I think it was reasonable as we don&#39;t know where you live; cost of living, didn&#39;t try to sell unneeded parts, take advantage of you.

I will tell you don&#39;t try to second guess yourself. He fixed it, you paid it, and it is still working (I presume). You can also assume he knows what he&#39;s doing and is honest because he fixed the problem and didn&#39;t charge $400 - $500; which if he wanted to he could have without you even knowing. Keep his number and recommend him to others.

Reply to
Tekkie®

Reply to
bigjim

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