Unpleasant garage door repairs experience

[JHZR2]

I don't have a problem at all paying $120 - $150 for fully burdened labor. Employing people is expensive.

Me either… if and when they give detailed rationale for the cost.

When an hvac person can’t provide a comprehensive basis of why it costs what it costs… or an electrician chargers thousands of dollars to have three guys out for not even two hours, and doesn’t even pull the permit…. That’s just thievery. But they have you in a corner so they can.

In the HVAC example I bought tools and did my own install. Easy. In the electrical example, I know I’m not qualified to handle mains power on an un-protected line. So I had to pay. Unhappily.

On the contrary… when I go to get auto body work done, they break out the job to the 6 min timeframe and task. When I get repairs, they quote a time to do it and a price on the parts. While the auto body and shop rates are vastly different for no good reason, they are at least open about what they’ll do and how long it will take.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Not sure why people are bringing in replacing a $20 running capacitor for $150 into this discussion. If you don’t like it, change it yourself. That’s how markets work. You have a record breaking summer, lots of ACs stop working, the service calls get more expensive.

OPs situation is different, the guy could not even articulate what he was going to fix. I bet if he did, then OP would either try to negotiate a better price, or pay what the man was asking since he didn’t have too many options to chose from. Beggars cannot be choosers.

What difference does it make if a "service" company can describe what there fixing and then overcharge vs just saying there going to fix it for 550 and overcharge. If you knew what the problem was you likely wouldn't be calling them.

Most homeowners don't know what a run capacitor is or does any more than they know what the travel limits or torque settings on a garage door do - and the point of calling the "expert" is your not supposed to have to know - without getting ripped off because you don't know which is the whole point they were called to begin with.

These companies are no better than a pick pocket on the street - they see an opportunity and steal your money.

 

[oilcandave]

Well..having owned and operated a hvac-plumbing business for 40years I have many stories. The one that gets me is the tech at the parts counter who brags about what he found in the laundry basket and...well....uses it for his pleasure.

The larger the company it seems the more they need to charge. When ya figure the office expenses, paid vacations, truck expenses, could go on and on..a lot of money out. Just to insure the business...most techs in a larger business need to bring at least $600.00 in labor daily to keep their job.

 

[KrisZ]

What difference does it make if a "service" company can describe what there fixing and then overcharge vs just saying there going to fix it for 550 and overcharge. If you knew what the problem was you likely wouldn't be calling them.

Most homeowners don't know what a run capacitor is or does any more than they know what the travel limits or torque settings on a garage door do - and the point of calling the "expert" is your not supposed to have to know - without getting ripped off because you don't know which is the whole point they were called to begin with.

These companies are no better than a pick pocket on the street - they see an opportunity and steal your money.

When I don’t hear specifics, that means the price is more than likely to change, mostly go up rather than down and the issue may not be fixed properly.

When I hear specific issue being identified by the pro and what needs to be done to address it, I have more confidence that the price agreed upon will not change and that the issue will be resolved.

I don’t think I’m alone with this type of thinking.

If you knew what the problem was you likely wouldn't be calling them.

Don’t you think that it goes both ways? If you don’t know what an issue is and how to fix it, how would you know how much it’s “supposed” to cost?

Now, I’m not condoning some of the practices mentioned in this thread, but at the same time I’m not going to pretend that I have some high moral ground where I can dictate what is fair and what is not. Comparing these services and high prices for them to theft is quite a reach IMO. Be careful, you might pull a muscle

 

[parshisa]

What difference does it make if a "service" company can describe what there fixing and then overcharge vs just saying there going to fix it for 550 and overcharge. If you knew what the problem was you likely wouldn't be calling them.

Most homeowners don't know what a run capacitor is or does any more than they know what the travel limits or torque settings on a garage door do - and the point of calling the "expert" is your not supposed to have to know - without getting ripped off because you don't know which is the whole point they were called to begin with.

These companies are no better than a pick pocket on the street - they see an opportunity and steal your money.

There is huge difference. Most importantly, I don't like to be lied to. And there are plenty of occasions where I know what the problem is but working overseas is not really helping with solving maintenance issues at the house.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

2 doors down is an old couple. Their garage wouldn’t open, called out a company. Wanted $1k to put in a new opener. They asked me if it was a rip off. I got their old one working in a few minutes but they already purchased a new one. Took me an hour or 2 to install the new one they gave me $100. Fair enough.