"trader_4" wrote in message
...

The problem though is the people who do know the cost of the capacitor,
which is inflated 10X+, are going to go nuts. I would have told him
no way I'm paying it. And it's also kind of interesting that he freely
admits he's taking advantage of people's ignorance. Does this guy change
the
prices on the fly? Or does he have all the prices on all the parts
jacked up 10X? If the latter, what would have happened if you needed
3 parts? It would be a $1000 call that should have been $300? Sorry,
but I don't like this guy's business practices. And I'm not swayed by
the fact that he had to drive an hour. How do you know where he was?
He could have been at another customer 15 mins away and/or the next
customer could be 10 mins away. Some customers will be around the
corner, some far away. If he chooses to take the call and serve that
area, then it should be factored in to the min service charge.

This was not just a one man company,but part of a larger company that does
heating and air servicing. They seem to have a standard of 5 levels of
repair charges from what he said and on the billing paper. Each one goes to
a higher price. They list the 5 levels and what is included on the bill but
not the prices. He did what they call a level 2 . That would include the
capacitor, contactor, or transformer. That is the 2 nd lowest charge range.
It would have interisting to see what the breakdown of charges would have
been if he replaced the capacitor and contactor.

He did tell me that the company thinks that they should have a billing
charge of around $ 200 per hour to make the kind of money they should after
expensives.

While talking with him, he told me the area he lived in and I know that is
over an hour to my house, but he probably did not come from home. I asked
him what roads he was comming down so I could give him good directions.

This is one of the things that happens at the worse times. Found out about
the air not working about 9 oclock on a Friday night. Too dark to look at
the outside unit that was not running. No parts places open that I know of
on Saturday. Temperature in the low 90's. Wife complaining about being hot
and did not want to wait 2 days.

One thing about this fellow is that he seemed honest in what he was saying
and not BS ing me.

I do plan on taking his advice and ordering a capacitor and contactor on
line . Should be able to get both shipped to me for less than $ 50. That
way I will be prepaired if it craps out on me again of a Friday night.