How to Avoid Getting Ripped-Off

     Have you ever wondered how heating & air companies determine what to charge you for repairs?  The great majority of companies use flat rate pricing.  Flat rate pricing takes an average cost of a repair and applies it to every job.  Let’s say you need a new condenser fan motor, this usually may take one hour of labor to complete.  On some jobs it may take two hours due to the motor shaft being rusted and very difficult to remove.  Flat rate simply averages the time it will take and charges accordingly.  This allows the customer to be told a price up front before any work is done and allows them to approve or decline the repair.  The old way was to charge a price for the motor and tell the customer that they would be billed a labor charge that would be determined by how long it took to complete the repair.  If you had a slow technician you paid more, a fast, experienced technician would result in a lower bill.  We use flat rate and while there are pros and cons, I think it’s the fairest way to charge for services.

Rip-Off Charges

     It’s not how you are being charged that determines if you are getting taken advantage off, it’s how the company pays their Technicians.

Company A:  They pay their Technicians an hourly rate to complete repairs.  Regardless of what repairs the Technician makes during the day, he will make the same amount of money at the end of the day.

Company B:  They pay their Technician a low hourly rate and supplement their pay according to how many parts they can change, and how much they charge the customer.  Basically, they get paid a commission whenever they sale parts to the customer.

     Although there is no way to say for certain, I would say the great majority of Heating & Air Companies pay their technicians commissions to make repairs.  This system works great as long as you know that every technician you employ is completely HONEST!   I find it interesting that every year we go to multiple calls where a homeowner has been told by another company that they need a major component of their system replaced, only to find that a wire is loose or another small part is defective.

     We do not pay our Technician any commission to replace parts or add Freon to a customer’s system.  They get paid an hourly rate.  I’m not saying that we don’t make mistakes or that every company that pays their technicians commission is a rip-off.  I do know that if I hired a company to come to my home I would not want the Technician to be paid by which parts he was going to replace that day.