How much money are you willing to pay for a heating repair?

How much money are you willing to pay for heating repair?

Sometimes we come across stories that even we have a hard time believing that other HVAC contractors do! Imagine paying two and three times the amount for a furnace repair than you should! The thought makes most homeowners sick to their stomachs.

We had a customer who called us. He has a magic pack heating system (many high rise condos and apartments in Chicago have this as the main source of heating and cooling). In the fall, I had went on a service call there and was told how the another Chicagoland HVAC contractor charges this customer $634 for a part that only costs $89 (and that’s with a 30% markup!). If you add in a service charge of $79.00 (which is about average), labor (this particular part takes about 1.5 hours to put in, so you would be paying about $150), and the part ($89), the total cost should be $318. I cannot justify why this other company charged him $634!

The worst part of this story is that the part the technician put on was wrong. Yes, you heard me correct. The heating system with the new part worked for about a day and then failed again. This time when it failed, it broke several other parts. $900 later, the homeowner finally had a working heating system fixed the correct way.

I did ask the homeowner why he called us instead of the other HVAC contractor who came out and did the original work. On top of overcharging the customer and doing poor work, they wouldn’t come back out for at least 2 weeks!!! Now, that is unacceptable.

In Chicago (or wherever you live), you may find a wide variety of furnace repair contractors to choose from. First, there are the high priced furnace repair contractors. Next, there are the big box furnace repair contractor that saturates the market with advertising, catchy slogans, and salesmen just around the corner when their service technicians tells you that you need a new furnace or heating system. Our personal favorites are the out of work unemployable guy that can’t find a job, buys a truck, buys some advertising, and calls themselves a heating contractor. The homeowners who try and save a couple of dollars using these guys usually end up paying more, because we need to come out and fix their mistakes! Lastly, you have the small Chicago and Cook County licensed hvac contractors servicing the Chicagoland area zip codes (we cover everything from 60622 to 60642 and many more zip code areas in the areas). This is what Around The Town Heating and Cooling is, and we are proud to serve our customers.