On Saturday, December 19, 2015 at 9:55:25 AM UTC-5, Micky wrote:
A case on the people's court TV show was interesting.

It was about repairs to an "antique stove". A nuddke-aged couple
bought a house and the stove came with it. He was wearing a tie and I
think she had on a dress. . I like antique machinery so I was esp.
interested. It turned out the so-called antique was from 1965. For
me that's just a stove, and a pretty modern one, since our firrst gas
stove was from 1945, and other than a timer, I don't see much
difference, between 1945 and now.

But he wanted it changed from natural gas to propane, and apparently
there is only one company in 5 states that concentrated on stuff like
this. (I thought she said 5 states but her webpage only says she
does business in 3 states. I guess both could be true, if there's no
one to do this in the other two states!)

He lives two hours from her shop. She tells him on the phone that
it's $80 / hour travel time (for two people) x 4 hours = 320 dollars
right off the bat, and $90 minimum when she's there, but for some
reason he has doubts AFTER she gets there. Then he keeps saying that
he thought she woudl use a kit, but she didn't. He calls his wife
and she says not to go through with it (though she may not know about
the 410 he already owes). The stove lady tells him, in his words,
that she can't take responsibility for the repair unless she does the
whole thing***, and he says that meant he was scared and forced into
having her do it. ***Well, duh.

I"m not sure what all she did, probably cleaned it, and surely
replaced 3? 5 jets for a 4 burner/1 oven stove. What kit did the guy
want her to use? Something they sell online I think, with jets and a
brush?? And other things she already owns?

She writes up an invoice that totals 800, he signs it and gives her a
check, she uses her phone to take video of the invoice and his check
and of his saying "good job", then she goes back home and straight to
the bank, since they have the same bank, and checks if payment is
good, and by then, 2 hours later, it's already been stopped.

Westchester County has some lower middle-income and middle
middle-income areas, but all in all it's one of the richest counties
in the country. No wonder she's expensive. Get a price before you
let someone come out.

The big mistake was not getting an agreed to price for the conversion
upfront. It's not like it's an unknown problem where the service person
doesn't know what's required. The bill was $800 with $320 of it for
travel time. That leaves $480 for the propane conversion. Unless
something unusual was required, that sounds like a lot of money to me.
The kit he was referring to would likely be from the manufacturer
and might include new orifices, knobs, pressure regulator, hose, etc.
Without knowing what was actually done, what parts were supplied, no
way to know what a fair charge would be. But if you're dumb enough
not to figure it out before, it's easy to get hosed.