Bill for fireplace repair!!!

[SavvyLady]

My pilot light on my gas fireplace would turn on then go off, husband looked at it and knew it was the thermocouple, the part that ignites the flame..husband was going to change it but thought since we're dealing with gas that we should call a licensed technician...now here is were the problem starts..just to come to the house to give his diagnosis was $139.00( a young boy shows probably younger than my fireplace.My fireplace is 20 yrs old, and I never had a problem with it)..after an hr he tells me it's the thermocouple!! He goes out to his truck comes back in and tells me it will cost $270, I said I guess that's not bad thinking that's the total with the $139.00!!! No, he says that's separate!! $462.00 with tax..I would never have paid for this had I know, but they have you by the b---- since I already had to pay the $139.00 and if I called someone else I would have to pay them to come to give their diagnosis!! So,I was stuck between a rock and a hard place...I had checked on the Internet and The piece is between $10.00-$20.00..I was really upset and asked the boy to write down on the bill how much the part was and how much they charge per hour to install it..he said he doesn't do that he just calls his boss and tells him what the problem is and the boss gives him a price!! I called the company, I sent e-mails and got a reply we'll look into it..this a local company and have been pretty good in the past but this is ridiculous!!oh yeah, then the boy says if you had a service package it would have been free! He starts explaining this $150 a year maintenance package!! I said, "I've had this fireplace for 20 years and never once had it repaired, so if I would have taken your maintenance pkg I would be out $3,000!!!!Im still really ticked off and this happened a few weeks ago!!! Thanks for listening!!

[CrazyQT]

I'm sorry this happened. It is so frustrating when consumers are overcharged for services. I get the service call fee, that seems pretty standard but to inflate a part cost THAT much is ridiculous.

[seylz_gurl]

you expect a bit of a markup on parts but that is ridiculous. had someone from gas company safety ours a few years ago and DH knew more about it than service tech.

[Ciel]

Treat hubby to a nice hot drink for making the right part call and let him know the fireplace is his to fix until it gets replaced. The bill is a shocker.

Last year, my brother ordered a stove contact board from US as it was much cheaper than placing order through Cdn distributor. He did the repair himself because during the summer the oven was MIA but with fall approaching, I knew Mom was not going to use the BBQ much longer to bake her bread loaves. So he reluctantly got onto the task after some research and calling on my part then he found the better US price.

Given that in Ontario, trades have to pay a fee to a College of Trades on top of any other renewable professional fees, those parts prices probably are covering storage/service vehicle use/person on site/plus office staff+utilties/markup & any customs/delivery/foreign exchange amounts.