"BRAVO52" wrote in message
...
You got it....every major maker of AC units
clearly states that a non licenced person can not bring parts in for
warranty.....gets better......

Sounds like a racket.........but, I guess that's capitalism.

Not really...it is what happens when you have a trade that is regulated at
the federal level.
It is...contrary to popular belief...a tad harder than it looks...

I'm not knocking
the HVAC guys but it seems like a form of price fixing.

How so? Price fixing would be what Goodman does...
If you only knew..
Oh hell..ok...every Goodman distributor has a 3% variance..thats all they
have to work with. If a unit has a wholesale price of $1200, they have only
3% that they can go in either direction to sell it to the licenced
contractor.
The CONTRACTOR can sell it for what he wants.

I know, liability,
quality, blah blah blah.

The blah blah blah is what matters...all units are trash out of the box.

Not gonna rehash what you have heard before.

I know something about it, I'm somewhat close to the
business (step father is). He mostly (not always) makes 100% on a unit
plus
his labor,and is STILL cheaper than most of the competitors!

Then hes a crook..IMO. I have yet to mark up a unit that much...altho, you
DO need to keep in mind that most everything you buy in the retail sector
has been marked up that much, or more.
I have one unit...that IMHO is the greatest thing to hit the market in
years...really...but the wholesale price alone puts it so far out of the
reach of most that I cant mark it up at all and sleep well.



I say DIY!

IF and thats *IF* you know the CORRECT way to do it, or you will regret it.


You
just need to realize all the limitations to the job.

Agreed.

Yes, in the long run it
MIGHT cost you more, however, the satisfaction of knowing you did it
yourself
is awesome.

Agreed, and I can tell you..if you hack one in, it WILL cost you more.
Look...I make no appologies for my labor rate. None. When we find one that
was screwed from the start, and its repaired, I can promise you its gonna
cost more.
Also what people fail to realize is that the better companies WILL charge
more, and they WILL be around in a couple of years to continue
service....its gotten to the point that the average man simply does not have
a clue what it takes to keep an operation running..its much more than most
expect.