On Sunday, September 21, 2014 10:44:01 PM UTC-4, Melissa wrote:
replying to mikeclancy, Melissa wrote:

mikeclancy wrote:



Hi,

My wife had a plumber come out to hook up a new gas dryer. We have an

old one that broke, so all the lines are in place, it is just a matter

of disconnecting the old one and connnecting the new. No extras, like

hauling away the old dryer. The cost blew me away:

Disconnect dryer: $164.24

Install gas dryer: $282.25

Total: $446.49

This seems absoutely insane to me. I would've done it myself, but

unlike water or electricity, gas scares me. Is this anywhere close to

reasonable, or should I make a stink?

We live in suburban Washington DC, Bethesda MD to be exact, if locality

matters for this sort of thing.

Thanks,

Mike.





Hi Mike,



I am from Silver Spring, MD. I just bought a washer dryer from Sears.

Sears puts out a bid to independent contractors for the install.

Well, yesterday the dryer finally came after a month of waiting. The

contractor demanded an extra $120 for the gas valve install. He refused

to do any further work until a check was written.

This is in addition to the install cost we already paid to Sears. This is

a total ripoff. I called Sears prior to buying the dryer what the

additional

cost of putting in a gas dryer vs electric and Sears said $90. You might

get a good price on a washer and dryer from Sears, but beware of the

contractors. I ended up paying twice for the install: once from Sears

and then from the contractors. Contractors get paid from Sears, but

apparently not enough, so they have to stick it to the customers. Beware

of Quality Kitchens and Appliances.



--


IDK what really happened here, but I don't think it's necessarily fair to blame
the contractor for "sticking it" to the customer. In this case there
was an electric dryer being replaced by gas. IDK
how Sears or anyone could figure out how much it would cost. Did
Sears or the contractor see the job before quoting the $90 extra?
How about if the nearest gas connection is 50 ft from where the
dryer is? Or it's on a second story, while the gas piping is in the
basement, etc? It sounds to me like there is more to the story than
is being told. Like the extra $90 was quoted *if* certain conditions
were present and when the installer got there, they may have found out
extra work was required. Could still be a ripoff, but it's sure not
clear from the facts given.