I guess it's not a new thing but in the past 3 weeks I have been almost ripped off by what should be standard home services. Just now I had a GE service guy come out to look at my microwave. The lady that took the appointment told me it would be $89 for the service call plus parts. The guy got here and in 15 minutes found a bad internal fuse. He wanted to charge $89 for the service call, $89 for his time and $8 for the ($0.50) fuse, like $212 total. I could have just bought a new one at Home Depot for $260 and the installation was free! I told him all I would pay was the $89+12 and GTFO. ( I had to install back in the whole myself) I called Abbaccus Plumbing about a disposal since I was an Abbaccus "member" from having some plumbing replaced. The guy wanted to charge me $600 for a new disposal. I went to the computer and showed him Lowes had a good disposal for $160+ $99 install fee. Then he then wanted to charge me $49 for coming out to tell me about the $600. I said no and GTFO. I had Comcast come to swap out my home services. They said nothing about install fees on the phone but when I got my first bill ($432) including $188 for the home security install. I called and complained that I was not informed of the charges before hand and would have gladly just kept the security service I had if I had known and they adjusted it down $88. The other $100 was for a new service box the installer never mentioned he was doing. I guess my lesson is always ask for a total estimate and demand to know of any potential additional fees beforehand. Also, acting like a little b**** and refusing to pay is an effective negotiating technique.
Ah, but didn't you see those charges in the fine print on the back of the form near the bottom right corner of the paper you signed?
A few months ago, I had a guy from Sears come out during the day to fix our dryer because it wasn’t cooling anymore. He was very condescending to my wife on the phone. He called to ask directions to our house (who still asks for directions to get to someone’s house? Ever hear of GPS?) and was rude to her. When he got there, he fixed the dryer, but refused to hook it back up to the vent because he was too fat to fit behind the dryer. He told her “your husband is going to have to hook it back up” and just left. We charged everything on our Chase Freedom card. I disputed the charge saying he didn’t really fix the dryer, which was true – it should have been hooked up and ready to go before he left. Chase reversed the charge and he never responded to any of their inquiries (I knew he wouldn’t) so I was never charged for it.
Yes, the ****ing a-hole reps at comcast never mention installation or shipment fees. last time i had to fight them tooth and nail for trying to charge me $40 for sending a new box. and then my monthly payment was more than the estimate the rep gave me, even though i asked her to repeat the quote WITH tax 4 times.
When I first moved into my house I called Clean As A Whistle to give me an estimate to clean my travertine flooring. They gave me a quote for $6000, which came out to nearly $4 a sq ft. I could have brand new travertine installed for about the same price.
Yeah, Abbaccus is a joke. One of our toilets quit working when I was out of town on business so since they were parked at a neighbors house fixing something she asked them to fix it. $180 for a crappy "new" adjustable flush valve installed like ****. I could have bought this for $20 at Home Depot and installed myself. She's blonde, so I'm kinda used to it.
This is a big reason why I've kept our home warranty service (Old Republic). I rarely have to use them. But when I do, it's been worth it. Just pay for the service call ($70) and the work is covered.
Ive been using Landmark. $60 per call isn't too bad, but sometimes they take their fine time coming out. Took them almost 5 trips to get a simple fridge issue fixed.
It costs the service company a lot of money to roll a truck to your house. To do a house-call for anything less than $100 is probably a money-losing proposition. I don't know why you'd call a repair man to fix a microwave, which are cheap to buy new, or to change a garbage disposal which you can easily do yourself.
Over the past three months I've repaired my washing machine, replaced my garbage disposer, and replaced the condenser fan on my AC unit. I spent about $280 on parts for all three projects. If I had paid someone to do all the repairs the bill would have been $1200-$1600. I watched youtube videos to learn how to fix the washing machine and AC fan, and I already knew how to replace the garbage disposer.
i see we got a bunch of tim the toolman taylors up in here! =) almost had to pay 300 for an AC malfunction. it stopped working after the power went out. when the power came back on, it would only blow hot air. thank the old gods for the google machine!
I'm trying to wrap my mind around a service call for a microwave; like a toaster deposit, or a spatula warranty.
