As I mentioned earlier, our heater was out in the basement. I’d had nightmares of being told I had to come up with eight grand the week before Christmas to replace the whole unit, so I’d put off calling. Finally, yesterday I’d had enough. I knew we had enough cash to at least get it checked out so I looked up “Nashville HVAC” on the Internet and came across Donelson Air. I’d used them once before and they even had a “special offer” coupon. $49 for a System Check.
I called them, asked the man on the phone if the coupon was valid for diagnosing the problem and he said “yes, it should be.” An hour later a very nice young man was here. An hour after that he had diagnosed our problem*, repaired it and had the heat billowing through my office in a comforting, tropical way.
The only problem was that they refused to honour the coupon. Apparently the $49 System Check is for them to check when there’s nothing wrong. If there’s something wrong it’s technically a “Diagnostic Fee” and that costs $79. Now in the grand scheme of things, thirty dollars isn’t the end of the world, but it’s still galling.
*We had a bad Condensate Pump. It removes the water from your system while it operates, and if it goes bad a safety switch is tripped which stops the HVAC unit from running and getting too wet. The whole thing including the, ahem, Diagnostic Fee, was $443.00.
I’m glad you’re back to blogging, though.
Wished I’d known. These guys have been awesome on the phone, even telling me there was no reason for a visit, and how to solve the problem. They struck me as honest.
http://www.kuhnac.com/
Does this not fall under “Bait and Switch”?
I never use any company that advertises on TV. Because TV costs a lot of money and to me, that means they make a lot of money.
I have also discovered in the many years of home ownership that anything that goes wrong with a heat/air system will cost $400. The very first day I owned a home, I had to repair a system and it cost $400. And I’ve had to repair my current home’s heat twice. $400 each time. I think that’s a magic number for them. They’ve decided as a group that it’s the highest figure people are willing to pay for comfort without putting up a huge fight.
I use Joe Claud. Love those guys. Even though they charge me $400 for every repair.
As a hvac tech, i dont think that the the avg. home owner knows how much money it takes for a larg service company to be able to what they do, from paying top techs to dispatching to even small inventory. Just think how much you pay your doctor you see for 3 min. and the guy that did your taxes or even that 40 dollar t- shirt that cost 50 cents to make. I do not work for donelson but I avg. 70 to 80 hours away from my family to keep yours comfortable. So if you think 400 dollars is high for a repair plus part, how much would you charge?