A heating technician came to my house today to clean my hot-water boiler which heats the house in winter. The job took about 90 minutes, and I watched him work and we conversed. There came a point in the conversation where I pointed at the control box and told him that it had failed a few years earlier and I had to get a heating technician to replace it. He then told me that if the company he works for had replaced it, it would have cost me $950. I was incredulous. I told him that when I had it replaced, it cost me $90. The technician reiterated that their charge would have been $950 unless I purchased one of their service plans, in which case the device would have cost me $650.
"That's completely unreasonable!" I said. "As I just said, I paid ninety dollars for a new one, and the man who sold it to me made money on it. Nine hundred dollars is a rip-off." But the service guy stuck to his guns and insisted their price was really $950. He also told me I probably couldn't buy one because I'm not a contractor.
After the technician left, I went to my PC and looked up the part number for the control box. Amazon has them in stock and will sell me one for $85. Free shipping. They don't mention anything about my having to be a contractor. Frankly, I don't think you have to be a contractor to work on your own house. Be that as it may, I'm considering ordering one to have on hand in case the control unit suddenly fails during a cold winter and leaves my house without heat. They're very east to swap out. Just a few screws to remove, replace the unit, tighten the screws, and it's ready to go. It takes about a minute.
Imagine: a thousand dollars for a relay box that Amazon will sell you for eighty-five dollars! That is just incredible. Actually, the word chutzpah comes to mind. If you're not familiar with the Hebrew word chutzpah, it means a lot of nerve, a lot of audacity. The classic definition of chutzpa is, of course, this: Chutzpa is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."
But the technician appeared to do an okay job. He vacuumed soot and ashes from inside the unit, replaced the oil nozzle and the inline oil filter, He spent ninety minutes servicing the boiler, for the low, low price of $472. I'm supposed to have the heating system serviced every year, but maybe I'll go two years and then look for someone else to service it. In fact, I might talk to the local gas company about replacing the oil-fired boiler with a gas-fired boiler. Energy cost would be lower and maintenance would probably be lower. Two can play this game.
1 comment:
Unbelievable! You really have to have the money in order to do this kind of work. This amount is a lot of of money in my country and I think will be difficult to pay for it. However, it is something that you have to do once in a while. I think that there are companies and people that take advantage of others. I hope at least you are happy with what he did. Maybe next time you can do it yourself using your skills. Thank you for sharing this experience today.
TA
Post a Comment