Plan B Forum

Heating system packed in. I suspected the fan, because the furnace was heating, just not getting hot air into the ducts and around the house. I called the guy who put in a new AC for us earlier this year.

He comes around: yup, you need a new fan motor. Tomorrow. Next day his tech arrived with new fan, puts it in, with 2 hours labor per the worksheet.

Amazon will sell me the fan motor for $128 (I got the part number off the old one) and with Prime I will have it in a day.. Total bill was $835.

I understand markups; I understand rush work. I also understand that they have me over a barrel (it's December and 35 degrees outside at night) but it seems a tad pricey to me.

When I was in the consulting business, my company had a multiplier for most government work of 2.7 to 3.2, depending. I.e., they would bill me out at my hourly salary times the multiplier. This was all agreed with the feds and state govts and took care of office space, health premiums, keeping the lights on and profit/fee etc.

That does seem a bit high for 2 hours labor

Ok, figure 100 an hour for labor (I honestly don't know what the going rate is there) so that's 200 right there. Plus generous markup to about 250 for the fan. Is the other 400 bucks based on an elevated fee for rush service? Is the labor charge actually much higher than I posited? Might be worth asking the guy, especially since you have a prior relationship with him (and was the fan not part of the install from earlier this year?)

I don't begrudge anyone in the service industry a profit, but if they are gouging then that's ain't right.

Yeah $4-500 seems to be the reasonable range (still expensive tho)

eddieq wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:39 pm

Ok, figure 100 an hour for labor (I honestly don't know what the going rate is there) so that's 200 right there. Plus generous markup to about 250 for the fan. Is the other 400 bucks based on an elevated fee for rush service? Is the labor charge actually much higher than I posited? Might be worth asking the guy, especially since you have a prior relationship with him (and was the fan not part of the install from earlier this year?)

I don't begrudge anyone in the service industry a profit, but if they are gouging then that's ain't right.

Yes; based on my knowledge of the part price $500 would have been my estimate. I agree - no problem with a profit but . . .

I have half a mind to give a Yelp! review and mention the price. I agreed to it before I found out the price of the part. Caveat emptor, I suppose.

$80 an hour labor seems to be the going rate around here i would guess double the Amazon price unless that seller found some that fell off a truck.

You got reamed for about twice what you should have paid.

I will do it for five hundred.