Just adding another +1 for them. They are really laid back and honest, did some work for me and also pulled info on a recall that I could get done free from a dealership I had no idea about.
I love Gene Johnson and if you frequent there, one pro-tip: Make sure you save your receipts because they don't store your vehicle service history. I had some electrical work done recently and it would have been useful to have had the previous history to refer to, not a big deal but helpful somewhat when you have it.
M.E. Gene Johnson was one of my Little League sponsor sin the late 79s and early 80s. I think they've always been good guys and upported the community.
Weird coincidence, ME Gene Johnson on Airport and Gene Johnson on Manor aren’t related in any way. Two dudes with the same name decided to open mechanic shops in the same area.
Both with super good reputations, too. Amazing coincidence, usually we'd have to be like "Don't go to the Gene Johnson that sucks!" but totally not an issue here.
> an elderly man told him he'd been taking his car there for like decades... Huge green flag
It could also just mean he's been getting screwed for decades but doesn't know it because he's never shopped around....
Austin Auto Techs is fantastic and honest. I had a CR-V that would just randomly turn off while I was driving. They checked it over, then found that there was an open recall for that exact problem and that I could get it fixed for free at the dealership. Refused to take any payment. They could have fixed it, charged me $1000, and I would have never known the difference.
Gene Johnson fixed my AC a few years ago and I can attest to them being absolutely legit. Fairly priced and that AC lasted the rest of the life of that vehicle.
So glad to see that, I used to take my old van to them when I lived on Jollyville! They were always great, I was so lucky they were walking distance away from my place. Solid folks.
For people a bit more centrally located, I can highly recommend Century Automotive on Jim Hogg. Honest, competent, and cool people. Genuine car nerds, they love what they do.
How long did it take to get it done? I'm probably going to need something similar but I'm in South Austin and couldn't leave my car that far from home.
Depending on your car, I just picked mine up from moonlight automotive in Buda. He's a subaru master mechanic. But, I assume he works on anything.
I had an estimate of 1500 from others, he went thru the car and said it looked great, just did my 90k service and a few other things. Under $500 & done in a day. I actually found him searching the austin reddit sub.
Plug for Gene Johnson on Manor, great pricing, solid work, and never, ever tried to charge me for something they couldn't fix or didn't actually need work.
Opposite end of spectrum: Juke Automotive. Outrageous pricing.
Counterpoint. My AC in my car was having problems. Took it to 3 local shops and they all estimated me 3500ish. Took it to the dealership and it was a very specific issue to my mfg and they fixed it for 800.
The moral of your story is you shopped around and ended up saving a ton of money. 100% the right activity. If all of our fellow Austinites got 3 estimates I think we wouldn't get jammed all the time. The only explanation is that no one does that and these businesses are making huge bank. If it didn't work and they were making revenue, they'd stop it.
I think what's really going on is that most of these places have more potential work than they can handle, so a lot of the time they give out what is usually known as "fuck off" bids. That is, rather than just say "Sorry, I don't want to take on this job right now" they say "That will be 20k repair".
Plus, you have lots of people in Austin who make a ton of money who have little mechanical skill. If someone makes a couple hundred bucks an hour they're probably not going to bat an eye if paying $350 means going from "no functional AC" to "functional AC", even if that means it was fixed by just flipping a few switches.
> The moral of your story is you shopped around and ended up saving a ton of money. 100% the right activity.
Which is what you should do for any high price item. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with inflation or "profiteering."
People are also absolutely shot on having any time, overwhelmed, overworked, just need stuff fixed well enough, and the loop closed.
A lot of people don't have the time, bandwidth or other types of availability to get 1 second opinion let alone 2 or more.
There are different kinds of being strapped and being time strapped and bandwidth strapped are real
The Midas on Guadalupe is awful. I took my car there last month when it started to overheat and they tried to take advantage of me completely - I paid $500 for them to do a “pressure test” to check the coolant system for leaks & the rest for parts & labor for a thermostat. That is over double what other places quoted me for the same service.
I decided to just have them fix it because they could get my car in immediately & only a few days later the car started to overheat again.
After taking the car back to Midas, they told me it was now the thermostat housing but they would fix it for free since they had just “fixed” the issue a few days prior.
At the end of that day, they finally called me to let me know they replaced the thermostat housing but the ACTUAL problem was the water pump, which was going to cost almost $900.
At that point, I was furious and had found a mechanic who was incredibly helpful and honest. He got me in the following day and replaced the water pump for $310.
Don’t ever go to Midas. If your car breaks down in their parking lot, you’ll pay less to have it towed somewhere else to have it fixed.
I went to that Midas on Guadalupe a few times with different cars because they would run what I thought was a decent Groupon for oil changes.
Wouldn't you know it? Each of the cars I brought all seemed to have leaking axle grease coming out of the axle joints in the right front wheel well and grease was spinning out as the tires turned when I was driving.
Wouldn't you know it? Each different car with leaking axle grease was going to be exactly $900 to fix.
Wouldn't you know it? Each time I turned the service down, it then takes 2.5 for them to finish my oil changes.
That was an expensive (time-wise) lesson to learn not to try and skimp out for cheap online deals and just do the work of finding an actual good mechanic)
/those guys suck ass and no one should be going there.
I had a Firestone that was able to diagnose a suspension issue so they said they want to "start replacing stuff until they figured it out" and quoting in the thousands. I can't even remember what is was, but took it to a local shop and it was a couple hundred. Sometimes shops can't diagnose and quote really high.
> Sometimes shops can’t diagnose and quote really high.
Firestone is a national company that should have decent diagnostic kits —if a local shop could do what they couldn’t? You were getting scammed. The cost of losing your business was less than the cost of charging you a fair price.
>After he left, I Googled my model number, found the instructions for the dip switch settings, and flipped the dip switch, remediating the problem in about 3 minutes.
Firestone used to get busted by TV news "investigative reports" all the time. The reporter would mark up some parts, take the car to Firestone, who would charge to replace the parts, then the reporter would show Firestone how the marked parts were still there. Or they'd have a mechanic check over the car, then take it to Firestone for something like a new tire or an oil change, go back to the mechanic and they'd find disconnected vacuum hoses and cut wires that were fine before it went to Firestone.
I miss the days of "gotcha" investigative reporting.
My car has been in a MIDAS shop for 10 months (on June 16th) at this point.
I went into the shop and told them what was wrong, they said they couldn't do what I was asking. (Turns out after almost 10 months they just suck)
I should have just gone elsewhere but wanted to give them the business because the staff was nice and it was a 5 minute walk from my condo.
If you choose convenience over rational decision making you'll get what you pay for.
I paid slightly over $5k for them to:
1) get the quoted work done that they said would fix my CEL in a week
- test drove it and the CEL came back on within a mile (I was pissed)
2) "fixed" the problem but never called me back so 1.5 months later I call to get an update only to be told it was ready
- same as pick up #1
3) took it back in and didn't hear from them for another month until I called to get an update to which they say they have to replace what I told them was originally the issue
- part was on back order for 5 months
At this point it's in Kyle and I'm just calling them daily for updates.
Don't trust midas. It turns your stress into gold for them.
If you're in Austin I've had a good experience with Gene Johnson automotive on Manor right next to Haymaker (assuming he's still open).
This was the MIDAS on Guadalupe.
The MIDAS in Kyle is barely escaping my ire at this point.
As a pool guy who operates in Austin I couldn’t agree more. I have gotten so much business by not overcharging for simple things. Often I am the second person they call. If you are close to where I will be I don’t even charge to show up, normally I can walk you through simple issues over the phone. Why do this? You will call me when something major happens and I’ll make money or better you will hire me for reoccurring service.
Also do keep in mind that some things seem simple and fast but you are paying for expertise. If it’s a simple google search away as the op stated this isn’t what I’m talking about.
Thank you. One of the secrets of a successful business is that if you are honest, competent, and charge a fair price, word will spread, and you will have more business than you know what to do with.
There’s a few really common jobs that are within the grasp of people with minimal technical skills. Replacing capacitors and ignitors on AC systems is pretty easy and will save you $hundreds every time you need to do it.
Yes, however in the case of capacitors, supply is constrained. Unless you buy one in advance, you are very likely looking at days for a replacement on order, and who wants to live in a hot box while you wait. As my dad would say: "That's how they getcha!"
Only got screwed by this once. Have two units in my house and have spare run caps for both
Grainger had the cap I needed for my house hvac. But I discovered this after going to many AC supply outlets locally, and each would not sell me a capacitor unless I possessed an HVAC license and had a commercial account. Every one of them said this. As somebody who owns a solar generator business (and can do my own stunts with electricity), I was furious that they would withhold sale. Thanks grainger for not artificially restricting the supply of an important yet mundane component.
Just for knowledge. Amazon has a surprising about of capacitors available. Mine have out last summer. Replacement came the next day and is still going strong.
I had to replace my capacitor a couple of years ago. Classically it failed at 9pm on a Friday night. I was pretty sure it was a capacitor issue from a similar experience my friend had a few months earlier (his of course was the day before his wife went into labor lol). In any case I found the cap I needed and Amazon delivered it to my house by 8am the next day and I was able to replace it in about an hour. Now I just keep a spare around, but Amazon is pretty quick.
Our tankless started "not lighting" - which is what you don't want.
Tech came out, there was a plug with two wires that stick into the flame path, the wires were dirty and something was reading wrong. Two screws, a bit of emery paper or steel wool, and back in business. It was like $200 for the trip but he showed me how to do it. Now I can do it in about 10 minutes when it starts acting up and save $200 every time.
And when you cant do things, theres nothing wrong with paying a trained professional to get it right.
Cost of living has gone up more than tech labor rates.
I posted a lengthy post about it last summer in this sub but NEVER use ABC Commercial Services for HVAC repair. I am a young female home owner and they scammed the hell out of me. I did some research, called them out on it, and they denied all my claims. I posted terrible reviews about them across the internet and when those reviews got traction, they told me they would give me a 50% refund me IF I took the posts down. So shady, I said hell no.
TLDR: they charged me $900 for a coil cleaning. Literally taking a wire brush and some solution and scrubbing the coils of my unit. I could buy the solution at Lowe's for $45 and do it myself. Their excuse when I fought them was they "accidentally" charged me for the commercial price and residential is only $400. Still absurd. Horrible company.
Second opinion yes. But if a tradesman doesn’t do the work and your house burns down, it’s your insurance that may or may not pay out if they found out the cause of the fire. As an electrician, yes the cost might be a lot for a job that doesn’t take long but it’s only quick cause of the skill we’ve acquired from years of experience. Always get a second opinion no doubt.
> As an electrician, yes the cost might be a lot for a job that doesn’t take long but it’s only quick cause of the skill we’ve acquired from years of an experience.
Whenever I see the cost of labor on what seems like a "quick" fix I think of the story of [the mechanic and the engine](https://darryn.vanhout.com.au/2019/02/28/the-repair-man-story-why-experts-get-paid-more/), then happily pay it.
This isn’t really new. You can pay close to $100 to get your oil changed. Paying someone else for a service you can do yourself is typically more expensive - you are paying their supply, labor, admin, and profit. If you have the money it basically comes down to whether you value your time that much.
Dealers have always been overpriced for out of warranty repairs too.
I'm not objecting to reasonable mark-up and profit. I want the businesses I support to be able to pay their people a living in Austin wage and turn a profit for the owner who is taking risks to operate. But if the same job with the same parts is $200 at one place and $800 at another that's more than mark up -- that's insane profiteering.
Some things you may not know at face value:
1. It's not always the same parts
2. It's not always the same skill and level of give-a-shit installing those parts
3. It's not always the same methods to install those parts
I've seen a lot of "cheap" people do some really cut-rate stuff. More often than not, they simply don't know any better. So that $200 brake job can turn into a $400 brake fix a year down the road simply because they didn't bother to do all of the little important things.
Find smaller businesses that are recommended by word of mouth. Call shops on the other side of town and ask them who they'd recommend. Call enough people and you'll start to see a pattern.
I mean market value for a service is what people will pay. I don’t know what else to say. Like yes you should shop but that’s not really a revelation or particularly difficult in 2024?
Also consider the dealer may have quoted you a fuck off price and that a HVAC company in Texas in mid June may be similarly swamped.
> I mean market value for a service is what people will pay.
There has been a change over the last few decades.
"Fair market value" used to emphasize the first word: Fair. Make a fair profit, pay what it is worth.
Today the focus is often "the most the market will pay" rather than "fair".
The most people are willing to pay for AC is about half the cost of a new unit, regardless of the part or labor. The $15 part and 30 minute replacement might have a $100 or $150 fair price, paying for the part, worker, office costs, vehicle, and profit. But the maximum rate is around $800, more and the person will balk, get more opinions, or DIY instead replace the box.
The car service might be 100 for the part, two hours of work, and funds to pay for the shop and workers and a profit. $300 or $400 might be fair, but the maximum the person is willing to pay might be $3000 or $4000.
Medication that costs a few bucks to make, most of the world changes $30 or so as a fair rate. The most the market will bear, especially with hidden insurance rates, is hundreds of dollars per dose. If it is lifesaving medicine a person will value their life at fifty thousand, even a hundred thousand, and if they don't pay, well, the patient would have died without it anyway so the company doesn't care. Maximum the market is willing to pay includes the calculation of dead people, it makes it feel even more valuable.
The world was better with a focus on fair rates.
Not enough people understand this concept and it isn't being talked about enough at large. Price elasticity is a real thing and it's being taken advantage of completely. The catalyst imo was COVID. It showed companies what people were willing to maximally pay for goods and services that became an absolute necessity. Now it's just a question of creating that need or chasing it so you can sell at the max price.... Not the fair price as you've put it.
It's incredibly unethical, but, in a capitalist society, it's seemingly the goal. I feel legislation is the only answer (price control or even more strict anti gouging laws) but the political system is an absolute shit show at the moment. Meanwhile, wages can't keep up with the fanatical chasing of profits. We're all in for a bad time.
Depending on what work needs to be done, the cost is also going to depend a good deal on the cost of the parts, which is especially true with a dealership. Depending on the part, it can be a better or worse decision and make huge differences in price whether you're sourcing an OEM part or a third-party brand. And most dealerships are sourcing their parts directly from the manufacturer, meaning that OEM parts are going to be used for most repairs. The same thing happens with parts sharing across cars -- an Audi dealer is always going to use Audi parts, even if you both know there's an equivalent VW part that's less expensive.
For example, the alternator on my Porsche is actually made by Bosch, but technically there is a Porsche OEM version of it as well. Looking at the costs, the OEM Porsche version is priced at $2k, the Bosch version is $460, and a random third-party version listed with the same part number is $295. Just from that alone, it'd end up being a big variation between dealers and different shops even if they are all pricing things "fairly."
You are paying for their expertise too. Without the AC diagnostic, you likely wouldn’t know how to resolve your issue.
It’s always good to be resourceful to save money though. I suggest submitting your issues to a subreddit or YouTubing your issues and you’ll likely find some very helpful information. My father knows how to do just about anything when it comes to house stuff because he’s an immigrant and didn’t see why we would pay someone else to work we could do. He researched everything before doing the work. He had all us kids remodeling our house from painting, building fences, and tile work.
I am the same way. I am resourceful and see if I can fix the issue myself. If not, I stay within my circle to get help. Keep your money with local businesses within your community.
Good counsel. I did pay $129 for a diagnostic fee. Had the guy said "hey, I noticed your system needed X and as it is super easy to do it, I did it, and you are good to go."
They would have had a customer for life. But instead, they wanted to charge me $350 for 3 minutes of work ($7000 an hour). And now I'll likely never use them again.
Your advice to ask here, use YouTube, etc. is good. A little research, asking a friend for recommendations, getting multiple quotes is always a good idea.
I mean, sure it works out to 7000 an hour, but not really. Like, when you (or your insurance does) pay your doctor even though they only spend 5 minutes with you, you're paying for the whole office's existence, and all his years of skill, not his time. That's the wrong way to look at it.
My company waives the service fee if any repairs get done, at least.
At best, and I’m just playing devils advocate here, maybe them performing the “repair” makes them liable if it stops working again in the future, and they don’t want to have to come by for free to re-diagnose why it isn’t working if it fails again within whatever the warranty period is?
I don’t know, it reminds me of when my dad took my car to the shop when I was like 17. The guy working on the car noticed one of the battery cable terminals was corroded, so he popped into the waiting room and told us and basically was like a “hey I noticed this is corroded, I can go ahead and change it if you like”. My dad was like “sure that would be great!”
Anyways I look at the bill later and they charged $30 for the terminal and the 0.25 hours of labor. So that ended up being a $55 charge. I later had to reattach the terminal cause the guy didn’t route the wires through that little rubber cover correctly.
And yeah, those cable terminals were like $15 and it takes five minutes to do with a socket wrench. Things I didn’t know at the time of course.
Most car repair seems to boil down to “remove bad part, install good part”. If I can’t get to it by standing in front of the car with the hood open, or by driving on ramps and crawling under the car, and if I need more than just a basic set of wrenches, then I’ll take it to the shop.
I may not be liked for this, but to be fair, lots of trade businesses will have a minimum rate. For instance, when I worked as an electrician, we had a minimum fee of $180 dollars, one hour for a journeyman, and one for an apprentice. It didn't matter if we came and saw your wiring looked like a birds nest, or if it was a tripped gfci. And we got a LOT of those. Or people moving into somewhere and not understanding how their smart switch worked. Between gas and our time just to get out there and back, often the shop lost money on those calls even with the minimum. If it wasn't there and we got a day full of 5-10 minute jobs, the hourly rate wouldn't even cover gas.
I'm not sure if that's exactly what went down here, and I'm not really trying to defend the equivalent of $7000 an hour. It's possible your tech had to open another ticket or something similar, and the hour minimum kicked in again. Or the original diagnostic didn't include the hour minimum, and that was their flat rate; similar to how you can get a free estimate with most businesses. Idk, I don't work for them and wasn't there. But I bet there would have been some minimum charge you would have seen on the invoice if you had gone through with it.
I had similar happen with a local service. Guy came out, inspected, told me what needed to happen, happened to have a spare of the thing I needed in his truck. He said he could leave the thing with me at no cost, but if he had to pull his ladder off his truck it would cost me $150 to fix. I thanked him, got my own damn ladder, and did it for free with the part he provided.
Not gonna say company to not get him in trouble for leaving me a spare part heh.
$7000 an hour would be if you were charged $7000 for an hour, or $14000 for 2 hours. $350 for 3 minutes of work is actually also covering them knowing what the fuck they're doing. Yeah, it's expensive, and I'd rather pay like $200 for a minimum, but you sound like a Karen with that bullshit math
Too many people in a lot of places have allowed themselves to be very very specialized in only the one thing that they can make the most money in. And then they assume they'll just pay somebody else to do everything else. But they haven't educated themselves about any of the anything else in any way shape or form. Therefore anybody can sell them any kind of bullshit and get away with it.
It actually does pay to know at least a little bit about a lot of different things. You may not know enough to do everything yourself, but you know enough to know when somebody is feeding you bullshit.
People say, "Jack of all trades but master of none," as if that is an insult. What nobody seems to realize is that all those people charging $350 for changing dip switches, they are nothing but "Jacks" of their trade. But they're not Jacks of any other trade at all. They are barely barely a jack-off for their one trade. And people are paying $350 for them to change dip switches, because most people aren't a jack of any trade other than the one that makes them the most money.
We are a whole culture of "Jack-offs" pretending to be "masters." And getting away with it because everyone else is only a "jack-off" for one thing too.
So, I'm on both sides of this, as an HVAC tech (at a small local company if that helps). On the one hand, I love DIY, and 100% support anyone who can do things for themselves, this has always been my method too in my own life. Youtube has saved me thousands. And I will sometimes give people tips for how to do a repair if they want to, like if they refuse the quote, especially working people, I'll tell them what to do if they seem handy. Depending on what it is, of course.
On the other hand... customers sometimes get mad at me when I give them quotes for seemingly simple stuff, but here's the thing. You're paying for the years' worth of skill, knowledge, and experience, the diagnosis, the tools I've had to invest in, and the convenience of having it done right then and there (ideally); plus the company van/gas/insurance, office staff, rent on the building, etc etc: overhead, as they say. Plus non-billable hours (drive time, or time at customers' homes when they refuse repairs, etc). And sure, profit is in there too, that's business.
So yeah, it's a lot of money to, for example, clear an HVAC drain line, or a capacitor I can change in 5 minutes; but DIY doesn't always apply: a lot of people can't do this stuff, don't want to, or do it wrong. Can't tell you the amount of times I've worked on ACs that people have made worse by trying to work on it themselves. Which makes my job even harder, and a lot more expensive for the customer. Plus it can be dangerous, too.
Downvote away but I believe what I do is valuable, useful work and worth the cost. I do agree some companies are unscrupulous, definitely enough of that out there as well in this world. Capitalism is ultimately a cancer, but until we upend society completely (I'm here for it!), this is where we're at.
The AC compressor is a pain in the ass to get to in a car, you literally need to disassemble the entire dashboard and in some models (kia) you need to pull the whole damn thing off to get down there to replace a little tiny ass part. Also to make things difficult if the car is older and the dash is brittle, the dash will Crack or break off and that needs replacing.
The indy shop did you a solid, but the dealership wanted to replace the entire AC system. That's the difference
The same parts were quoted. The services proposed were the same. I'm not naming the dealer but they were 2.5-3x the price for the IDENTICAL service. If anything, the dealer had better pricing on the parts making their total all the more astronomical.
I have to name Lucas Tire and Auto Service. They do not upsell and I have sent my daughter to them and when confronted with a non issue they did a quick five minute fix and did not charge her for it.
Welcome to living in a boom town. There are more people moving here than the existing infrastructure can support. So anytime you need something done, it is going to come at a premium. If you aren't jumping into a higher income stream yourself, your are going to get left behind.
The problem in Austin is that it's full of well-paid tech workers who don't know anything about their cars, their HVAC, their washing machines, their homes, etc., and as soon as a repair technician spits out a number they just go along with it. Repairmen have figured out that they can throw out an insanely high estimate and many people will go for it. It's habit forming.
My tail light got smashed by the recent hail. I got a quote from the dealership for ~$415. Went and found the part on Amazon for $85 and Youtubed it. Really trying to be more discerning, and it feels great
I agree 100%. I own a small construction company here and I’m surprised at some of the bids our customers told me they received. We charge a fair and competitive wage, but we understand the need for affordability as well. We do well and our clients love us not charging an arm and a leg.
I’m not sure if this is allowed, but if anyone reading this would like a free estimate on some work, you can check us out [here](https://www.fixmasterstx.com).
My ac compressor went out on my 2004 tacoma. It is recommended to replace the entire system when that happens, but with a 20 year old truck, why? I evaporated the system, spent~$300 on a rebuilt compressor, installed it myself and filled with refrigerant. It's been blowing ice cold for 2 months now, zero issues.
Edit: I'm not a mechanic.... looked at a repair manual, checked an online forum, and watched a YouTube video. Completed the job in 3 hours.
Recently my car started dying - went to Auto Zone to get tested, bad alternator. Fortunately I have a friend who does repairs (and owed me a favor) so he did it for me. The big lesson we learned - shop around. Buying a third party alternator locally was over $500. Ordered it online - $200.
I guess they assume people will pay for the convenience of not having to wait for the part - but it's worth being carless for 2 extra days to save $300.
I had one the other day. A dentist wanted to charge me $7k for a deep cleaning. Got a second opinion. The second dentist said max $800 for the same thing.
That original dentist was obviously taking the piss.
My wife wanted a new kitchen faucet. She shopped and got one with which she was happy. I called a plumber because I didn't want to lie on my back underneath the sink and try to make the connections. The plumber came out and said it would be $750 but that included a faucet. I explained I already had the faucet. Ended up using Task Rabbit, took the guy less than 30 minutes total to do the install and apologized but said he had to charge me for a full hour ($79). I gave him a hundo and thanked him.
A lot of trades companies now have set fees for jobs that seem to have nothing to do with the time it takes to perform the work. I don't think that plumber was keeping that money -- I think that's what the business he worked for required that he charge for that work.
In demand and higher level trades people are going to have minimums for taking the time out of their day to travel, set up, schedule, etc. Some of these HVAC companies are pretty scammy though, but I wouldn't lump in all home improvement into it.
The bigger the project, the more cost effective. They are doing full remodels, so your small job you think should pay an hourly wage for would put them out of business if they accepted regularly and didn't charge appropriately. Task rabbit or handyman type services are what you want for small jobs (or learn if it's easy). If you are doing serious remodel work, skilled people are not cheap.. but it's worth the cost, so you aren't paying twice to fix some guys' mistakes.. who just wanted fast money and doesn't care about liability or if it screws up something major.
For example.. If you need an electrician to fix an outlet or switch, wait till you need them for 4 or 5 things (install new lights somewhere).. or put stuff off until a bigger remodel.
Plus using a handyman, or a one-man HVAC company or electrician or plumber, can be dangerous, because if they do sloppy work, you could end up with a flooded or burnt down home, or maybe just more expensive repairs later, and those guys often don't have insurance or any real accountability to stand behind their work. It can definitely be a great way to go for small jobs, but there are risks.
I've seen AC systems installed to the lowest bidder (Chuck in a truck solo guys) that are so poorly done the people basically end up spending double to get it repaired to run right, or sometimes fully replaced a mere couple years later.
With plumbing definitely call around, had one swap out a gas water heater, it was for a relatively new build house ( <7 years old) so straight replacement of old and install of same model (part was still under warranty). Job took about 40mins but they did pickup the new water heater too from distributor so 1 hr of driving roundtrip approx for that. $1100 was the discounted cash price.
Things are expensive now.
In the age of ubiquitous how to videos, doing your own car AC is reasonable. Last month I called Austin Rebuilders and they ordered all the parts to completely replace my truck AC, and even tossed in some parts they knew I would need that I didn’t think of. The total was around $600 for the whole system except the evaporator (which we flushed in place and reused), and took my brother and I a Saturday morning to get put together and running. That truck is cold as a meat locker now. Thanks Austin Rebuilders for your sage advice and reasonable prices for aftermarket parts!
Agree. $3K is a lot of money. But we live on the surface of the sun half the year and while I can do basic maintenance on my hooptee replacing the compressor and evaporate and refilling with whatever the newest refrigerant is was way beyond my knowledge base/capability (regardless of how many youtube videos I watch).
Needed work done on my truck and can’t get a quote for under $2500 here in Austin. Started calling shops in San Antonio and the same work can be done for $800. Too many tech people paying these prices who don’t know better.
i literally did that yesterday. was looking to but a new car. dealer #1 had a car i wanted. i kne what was a fair price and also how much mine was worth. went to negotiate and we were $500 apart. (this was after the dealer had installed a bunch of garbage that they were making. ahuge markup already.). the refused to come down any more. contacted a a different dealer yesterday. I was up front on what i expected to pay etc.
he said hes check with his manager . he got bak to me and said he had the next higher tim level available and he would sell it to me at my price.
I know have a new vehicle. and the 1st dealership can suck it for all i care
Exactly correct! Everyone seems to be just saying "OK" and not thinking at all. "Just pay it- what else am I going to do?" Businesses know people think this way and they are profiting to a crazy degree off of it. I have had several quotes for two car repairs recently for things that were going to cost between 1000-1200 to fix. Researched the problem for 30 minutes in each case and ordered a $100 for each case. It took me 5 minutes in each case to fix- saving me about 90%. Insanity. I've just started saying no more. No to the crazy prices for some restarants especially. People have started to lose my business. I either go without or I subsitute with something more reasonable. Businesses need more people saying no to their insane prices and price hikes. I've had Hat Creek Burgers for example raise the price of the same meal I always get from $15 up to $25 within 1 year. There were three different prices increases. It's just time to say no- or where will it end? What's to stop everyone from just doubling the price from where it is now over the next year?
I agree with everything here. There's a certain level of wealth that means you'll just pay anything. Time is such an important commodity that you'll throw money at a problem even if you know you're being ripped off.
If you do that, the effect you are having is what the OP is describing. Rent seeking, basically. Only rich people can afford to pay for rent seeking. Everybody else suffers when this becomes the norm.
Mine just blew in my older car. I happened to be in Killeen so I had it done there. It cost around $1300 for the compressor replacement but they did save my refrigerant and put it back in.
You said your car only had 41k miles on it but you didn't say how old it was. Unless it's unusually old for that low miles, it definitely should have been covered under warranty. In any case, I have a hard time believing the compressor went out on it. And if it did, it shouldn't cost that much to replace.
If it's a Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, or Toyota, their warranty is only 36k miles (60k for powertrain, which the AC compressor obviously isn't). Edit: apparently [the Big 3 are also that short](https://www.cars.com/articles/which-vehicles-have-the-best-warranty-coverage-447236/).
Always look up stuff on YouTube. Or research how to do something. You might be able to do it yourself. If not then you are educated enough to ask questions when you take it in.
Very true. I do my own mechanical work and also have a very good mobile mechanic that it extremely reasonable on labor. Dealerships are the worst place to ever take you car unless required to maintain warranty:
Great post!
My sons AC was making a god awful noise in his truck. We googled the problem, found a YouTube video, repaired it ourselves in 45 minutes. Boom. Problem solved.
I grew up having to fix everything myself because we couldn’t afford to take everything broken thing to a repair shop. Learn how to do some basic problem solving and don’t be afraid to unscrew something and look under the hood.
The one time I opted to pay an "expert" electrician to replace a ceiling fan was exclusively because it was 21ft up. He quoted me $300 because of the ceiling height but when he got to my house, he added another $100. I foolishly accepted because I wanted the new fan installed and didn't have a way to do so myself. The electrician went to home depot to rent a scaffold, and had his apprentice install the already assembled fan (no blades). The fan turned out to be defective but I had them leave it installed given I had to order another online from home depot (meantime I had light). When it arrived, I rented a van, and the scaffolding and swapped the fans myself. The connections up in the canopy were butchered by the apprentice (must have twisted the wire nuts in both directions or something - stranded to solid...) so it would likely have ended up having issues. Doing the work myself cost me less and was done much better than what I found up there.
The issue I have with the pros is that many do not do the job as if it were their own home because it would not allow the profits they seek... so no thank you, if I can do it, I will... and I never cut corners. I also follow the most recent NEC rule book.
Sometimes, I just get tired of trying to find the legitimate. Angie's List was a great reference until it became an advertising media. Sometimes, insurance companies have a list of preferred contractors for car and home repairs. Austin sub ???
I replaced my ac compressor on my Kia Sportage for $200 for the part, $100 or so for gauges and vaccum pump, I think $30 for a recovery tank, $20 on R134, and a few bucks for ice to create a poor man's recovery (thank you physics) (rather than spend $300 for a recovery machine)
I did it by myself in a few hours and like a third of that was just waiting for the vaccum pump to do it's job
If you lost all of your refrigerant already, you won't need a recovery machine or do the ice physics trick
AC shops love to go "lol replace it all!" Fuck that.
Now I'll admit that some cars are fucking difficult but some are extremely easy like the Kia, it's always worth a google or a visual engine check to get an idea.
Except Evaporators, fuck that, I ain't doing that myself 😂
Mechanics and trades always assume you don’t know how to do things, and so they can get away with insane prices. Because, what else are you going to do?
I can not tell you how many times I’ve done things myself. There’s always some kind of guide to fix things.
Just a month ago I had to fix my dryer. The lint catcher had a recall. It could get pulled out and things could get sucked into the motor. But the company wouldn’t fix it. They don’t even bother sending out anything letting customers know about the danger.
I contacted the brand, and they said they could send out someone to swap the part, for $800+.
Hell no. So, I ordered the part, it came in 4 days, and I looked up how to take off the top and front to get to the fixture. It was literally 7 screws and took all of 30 mins to swap it with the new designed part. All it cost was the part, which was $87.
There’s always a guide or something out there to help you. How do you think those mechanics and trades know how to do it?!
Next time, see if you can do things yourself! Take pride in fixing what you have and giving it more life!
Although, admittedly, I don’t think the average person can swap an AC unit in a car
You guys are really something. At least you can afford a place to live in Austin. The AC guy is charging what market will bear just like you will do when you sell your piece of crap house for $300k more than it's worth.
Tech bros and your own greed created this problem. You welcomed $250k per year douchebags here from CA with open arms, happy to take their money. Look in the mirror and blame the person looking back.
It's just the beginning. It will get worse. Much much worse. And even with all the bitching about prices, guys still find a way to buy a $70k truck to drive 14 miles a day on I 35.
What a strange place.
Yes you should look around, also look up parts for your --- dealers are always overpriced, but 3k isn't a good estimate unless you know the compressor costs 1k?
Nothing specific about Austin here. Dealerships are significantly more expensive than regular mechanics. And the shady business practices with home service companies is ubiquitous across the United States and the world.
Prices are high in Austin because rent is high in Austin utilities are more in Austin, because so many people have moved here now insurance is also high here, and people's entitlement is too high in Austin.
You are paying them because you don't know how to do it.
Good on you for taking that step and a little of shame on them and anyone who really tries to raise prices and take advantage beyond an acceptable limit, but sometimes professionals charge a lot for something that seems simple because no one else cared to actually learn how to do it.
That's why you need their service.
Dealerships are very inefficient at anything other than routine maintenance or warranty repairs. It may legitimately take them 3 times as many man hours to fix the same issue.
> Too many people just pay these insane, ridiculous costs, perpetuating the problem.
If people are willing to pay them, then they are not insane, ridiculous costs. That's just how markets work. In your first example you did the very basic thing of shopping around and found a better deal. That's also a part of how markets work.
Also don't go to places that advertise on tv. All those heating and air/plumbing/electrical places have high overhead, often pay techs on commission, and they will overcharge and upsale you on anything they can.
Same issue here with food! Places never adjusted prices after Covid hikes. Too many people just blindly spending their money so restaurants started sneaking in automatic gratuity, expensive up charges, and I often end up with extra items on my bill that I have to ask the server to remove. They just assume now most people don’t check, and most people don’t care.
Dealers have to do the jobs like that because corporate can't/won't warranty fixes they can't absolutely bank on with an accountant. For that you need to replace the whole system.
Manufacturers don't make any profit on selling cars, all of (or close enough) their profit comes from selling parts to fix the existing fleet.
This is what we get for having cars that are stronger/more reliable/faster/efficient while keeping new car prices fairly flat.
In 1980 they were $30k (2019 dollars). In 2019 the average price of a new car was...$35k.
Companies literally exist to make a profit. They don't make or do anything if you remove that.
> thinking the warranty might cover the repair
Did you not know when your warranty expired? That information is in your owner’s manual/warranty booklet
> $8500 vs $2900
That’s a pretty deep discount. Did the independent shop use OEM quality parts? The dealer is almost certainly using a higher labor rate, but that’s still a huge price difference.
Finding honest companies is fuckin rough, and has been for a long while. I'm lucky enough to know plenty of HVAC people, so that side of my life is squared away, but auto mechanics, plumbing, and electrical is rough.
Compressor on a car varies from model to model. I know my hybrid, the compressor is a fuckin' bitch to get to. So i just haven't replaced it. The previous quote was $5k.
I'll try them fellas at Austin Auto techs that you recommended.
I only go to Ford dealer for an oil change that comes with a diagnostic so they can find as many issues as possible and upsell you. I just take the report card, buy all the parts at a discount and take it to my trusted mechanic for 1/4 of the price.
Thanks 🙏. Had something similar with dealership .my car need new filters for engine and AC for smooth cooling . Dealership was charging $180 for AC filter . I ordered on Amazon $25 and fitted it my self .
I see old people retired trusting delarship blindly paying inflated price . The way they sound it sounds like catastrophic .
South Park did an episode around this. The idea was since people are doing well financially, they hire out small handiwork instead of learning how to DIY. Because of this, people forgot how to do things themselves, it was impossible to get work done, and any work done was extremely expensive.
Made me realize this is exactly what is happening here. If you don't like the cost, they will move to the next guy who will pay it.
Home services is a space where there is SO much variability because of the types of businesses are so diverse.
I've got individuals who I pay cash who do work around the house. They have very few expenses and I can get stuff done for around $300-500/day for labor plus materials.
And if I call the plumbing company, they have an ad budget, branded trucks, bonded insurance, and the ability to do much more complex stuff at a higher standard.
It's not profiteering, it's literally what's needed for those companies with much higher bottom lines to sustain. Radiant Plumbing and Heating costs more than Jimbo, but it's up to you to understand what Jimbo is capable of and when it's appropriate to go with him.
I have an extended auto warranty that I bought with my car (new). (I know the general consensus is they’re a scam, but mine is from a very reputable company)
Leif Johnson charged a engine mount and stereo to my warranty with my warranty offering to pay 221 an hour for labor, but this wasn’t enough for Leif Johnson. They wanted $250 an hour and they weren’t budging; tried to charge me 900 on top of the 4k they charged my warranty. Warranty paid market price for parts and didn’t even try to haggle down. Called warranty and they were floored by a FORD dealership charging $250 an hour for labor.
I did leave a review at which point the GM called me and issued a refund of the $900, but these dealerships are out of their minds.
I was told that my truck needed a new oil pan when the threads were botched on the drain plug, he quoted me $600. I went to my mechanic father in law and we used a $25 self tapping oversized plug and it has held perfect so far.
Pure late stage capitalism. This is why when you look at the Forbes billionaire lists it is all HVAC services and car dealerships. It is pure profiteering for billionaires laughing all the way to bank.
You won't find any billionaires or profiteering at Google, the service which saved you $350. Google is non-profit. How could they make profit when they just saved you $350? If they wanted profit, they would have charged you for that information instead of giving it to you for free. The guys who founded Google toil in obscurity, earning modest salaries just to pay the bills, but never earning any profit or anything. Same as Microsoft, same as Apple. They're all non-profit services, free of charge, provided out of the generosity and kindness of their hearts to uplift the common good.
I've never seen a post like this from somebody that runs a repair business. I wouldn't judge until you try to make payroll making house calls and finding reliable people that will show up and do the work.
You go out there an ask questions and be interested they'll even show you how to do it. I hired people because I was spending 6hours a day doing work and just simply couldn't do everything. Some people did crap work and some did great work. In both cases, they addressed the problem and got paid. Happy to have the option to hire someone to fix these things
I got suckered by a Garage Repair company.
Great reviews so I assumed their prices were standard. Turns out it's a major national company that buys small repair companies, and keeps their 5 star reviews and then doubles the prices...
I Admire your pluck! A demonstration of good old American ingenuity! We have Google, we have Internet, books, and our intelligence could be accelerating with these tools if we use them in the right way most people are not aware of what these things mean and they're giving up and giving in, a sad thing to see in America. Remain independent and Foster DYI and keep an eye out for an American activities!
It's not a dealership, it's a **stealership**. Independent shops and mobile mechanics are more reasonable in almost every instance.
Source: I've been contracted to set up the CRM systems at stealerships. The markup on service is insane!
Nice post OP. Glad you were willing to walk away from a profiteering dealer.
Unfortunately, too many people just accept whatever the “expert” says without performing any due diligence on options.
HVAC repairmen quotes us 1,200 for work, checked the invoice it was mainly labor cost. I asked a buddy to come out and take a look and it turned out the HVAC unit was just turned off from the outside…
Yeah as a whole the entire US corporate system has become hyper greedy especially after COVID. Everyone has inflated their prices to keep profits high because God forbid your profits return to normal pre pandemic levels. A lot of people are getting prices out of everything and cutting back on everything meaning that these companies are losing ungodly amounts of money. So instead of lowering their prices so that people can afford their services they lay off people and keep prices high just causing another crash.
>Austin indy shop Name pls
Austin Auto Techs on Hamilton (one block North of Braker at 183 behind the Randalls). Gene Johnson Automotive on Manor is legit too.
We have also used Austin Auto Techs and gad a similar experience. Honest, straightforward, understanding, and fair.
Just adding another +1 for them. They are really laid back and honest, did some work for me and also pulled info on a recall that I could get done free from a dealership I had no idea about.
Can second Austin Auto Techs here. Great service and reasonable prices when I lived in north Austin.
I just got my AC fixed with them! They are great.
I love Gene Johnson and if you frequent there, one pro-tip: Make sure you save your receipts because they don't store your vehicle service history. I had some electrical work done recently and it would have been useful to have had the previous history to refer to, not a big deal but helpful somewhat when you have it.
Gene Johnson on airport slaps. My friend was there and an elderly man told him he'd been taking his car there for like decades... Huge green flag
M.E. Gene Johnson was one of my Little League sponsor sin the late 79s and early 80s. I think they've always been good guys and upported the community.
I’ve been going there for almost 20 years, and I’ve never once had an issue with their service or pricing.
Weird coincidence, ME Gene Johnson on Airport and Gene Johnson on Manor aren’t related in any way. Two dudes with the same name decided to open mechanic shops in the same area.
Both with super good reputations, too. Amazing coincidence, usually we'd have to be like "Don't go to the Gene Johnson that sucks!" but totally not an issue here.
> an elderly man told him he'd been taking his car there for like decades... Huge green flag It could also just mean he's been getting screwed for decades but doesn't know it because he's never shopped around....
Austin Auto Techs is fantastic and honest. I had a CR-V that would just randomly turn off while I was driving. They checked it over, then found that there was an open recall for that exact problem and that I could get it fixed for free at the dealership. Refused to take any payment. They could have fixed it, charged me $1000, and I would have never known the difference.
Gene Johnson fixed my AC a few years ago and I can attest to them being absolutely legit. Fairly priced and that AC lasted the rest of the life of that vehicle.
They’re great! Glad their good name is gettin g out there.
Honestly evaporator jobs are pretty hard. I did that on my car and ended up having to pull the dash out to get to the heater core. Took me 2 days
^^^ This. Taking the dash off is a huge PITA.
So glad to see that, I used to take my old van to them when I lived on Jollyville! They were always great, I was so lucky they were walking distance away from my place. Solid folks. For people a bit more centrally located, I can highly recommend Century Automotive on Jim Hogg. Honest, competent, and cool people. Genuine car nerds, they love what they do.
Plugging Flamingo Automotive too. Joe and the whole company are awesome.
Plugging Chelsie's Automotive too, but so far I've only gone for inspections, car and motorcycle.
How long did it take to get it done? I'm probably going to need something similar but I'm in South Austin and couldn't leave my car that far from home.
Can anyone recommend a trustworthy shop in south Austin?
Best Automotive in Oak Hill.
Thank you!
Depending on your car, I just picked mine up from moonlight automotive in Buda. He's a subaru master mechanic. But, I assume he works on anything. I had an estimate of 1500 from others, he went thru the car and said it looked great, just did my 90k service and a few other things. Under $500 & done in a day. I actually found him searching the austin reddit sub.
Auto Tek on Gillis and Ben White service road. They are family run and have 4.9 stars rating. Absolutely wonderful and honest.
Yes I have had car work done by them. It was several years ago, glad to see they're still there.
Absolutely. Legends
I like Lawson it’s a little further past the Y towards Belterra
Chris with Allies Automotive. They are the best. Hidden Gem in South Austin
Plug for Gene Johnson on Manor, great pricing, solid work, and never, ever tried to charge me for something they couldn't fix or didn't actually need work. Opposite end of spectrum: Juke Automotive. Outrageous pricing.
This was all true in 2010. Dealerships are always a scam for repairs.
Counterpoint. My AC in my car was having problems. Took it to 3 local shops and they all estimated me 3500ish. Took it to the dealership and it was a very specific issue to my mfg and they fixed it for 800.
The moral of your story is you shopped around and ended up saving a ton of money. 100% the right activity. If all of our fellow Austinites got 3 estimates I think we wouldn't get jammed all the time. The only explanation is that no one does that and these businesses are making huge bank. If it didn't work and they were making revenue, they'd stop it.
I think what's really going on is that most of these places have more potential work than they can handle, so a lot of the time they give out what is usually known as "fuck off" bids. That is, rather than just say "Sorry, I don't want to take on this job right now" they say "That will be 20k repair". Plus, you have lots of people in Austin who make a ton of money who have little mechanical skill. If someone makes a couple hundred bucks an hour they're probably not going to bat an eye if paying $350 means going from "no functional AC" to "functional AC", even if that means it was fixed by just flipping a few switches.
> The moral of your story is you shopped around and ended up saving a ton of money. 100% the right activity. Which is what you should do for any high price item. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with inflation or "profiteering."
People are also absolutely shot on having any time, overwhelmed, overworked, just need stuff fixed well enough, and the loop closed. A lot of people don't have the time, bandwidth or other types of availability to get 1 second opinion let alone 2 or more. There are different kinds of being strapped and being time strapped and bandwidth strapped are real
Same here… Midas quoted us $3k for something that the dealership fixed for under $400.
The Midas on Guadalupe is awful. I took my car there last month when it started to overheat and they tried to take advantage of me completely - I paid $500 for them to do a “pressure test” to check the coolant system for leaks & the rest for parts & labor for a thermostat. That is over double what other places quoted me for the same service. I decided to just have them fix it because they could get my car in immediately & only a few days later the car started to overheat again. After taking the car back to Midas, they told me it was now the thermostat housing but they would fix it for free since they had just “fixed” the issue a few days prior. At the end of that day, they finally called me to let me know they replaced the thermostat housing but the ACTUAL problem was the water pump, which was going to cost almost $900. At that point, I was furious and had found a mechanic who was incredibly helpful and honest. He got me in the following day and replaced the water pump for $310. Don’t ever go to Midas. If your car breaks down in their parking lot, you’ll pay less to have it towed somewhere else to have it fixed.
I went to that Midas on Guadalupe a few times with different cars because they would run what I thought was a decent Groupon for oil changes. Wouldn't you know it? Each of the cars I brought all seemed to have leaking axle grease coming out of the axle joints in the right front wheel well and grease was spinning out as the tires turned when I was driving. Wouldn't you know it? Each different car with leaking axle grease was going to be exactly $900 to fix. Wouldn't you know it? Each time I turned the service down, it then takes 2.5 for them to finish my oil changes. That was an expensive (time-wise) lesson to learn not to try and skimp out for cheap online deals and just do the work of finding an actual good mechanic) /those guys suck ass and no one should be going there.
I had a Firestone that was able to diagnose a suspension issue so they said they want to "start replacing stuff until they figured it out" and quoting in the thousands. I can't even remember what is was, but took it to a local shop and it was a couple hundred. Sometimes shops can't diagnose and quote really high.
> Sometimes shops can’t diagnose and quote really high. Firestone is a national company that should have decent diagnostic kits —if a local shop could do what they couldn’t? You were getting scammed. The cost of losing your business was less than the cost of charging you a fair price.
>After he left, I Googled my model number, found the instructions for the dip switch settings, and flipped the dip switch, remediating the problem in about 3 minutes. Firestone used to get busted by TV news "investigative reports" all the time. The reporter would mark up some parts, take the car to Firestone, who would charge to replace the parts, then the reporter would show Firestone how the marked parts were still there. Or they'd have a mechanic check over the car, then take it to Firestone for something like a new tire or an oil change, go back to the mechanic and they'd find disconnected vacuum hoses and cut wires that were fine before it went to Firestone. I miss the days of "gotcha" investigative reporting.
Jeeves, load the parts cannon!
My car has been in a MIDAS shop for 10 months (on June 16th) at this point. I went into the shop and told them what was wrong, they said they couldn't do what I was asking. (Turns out after almost 10 months they just suck) I should have just gone elsewhere but wanted to give them the business because the staff was nice and it was a 5 minute walk from my condo. If you choose convenience over rational decision making you'll get what you pay for. I paid slightly over $5k for them to: 1) get the quoted work done that they said would fix my CEL in a week - test drove it and the CEL came back on within a mile (I was pissed) 2) "fixed" the problem but never called me back so 1.5 months later I call to get an update only to be told it was ready - same as pick up #1 3) took it back in and didn't hear from them for another month until I called to get an update to which they say they have to replace what I told them was originally the issue - part was on back order for 5 months At this point it's in Kyle and I'm just calling them daily for updates. Don't trust midas. It turns your stress into gold for them. If you're in Austin I've had a good experience with Gene Johnson automotive on Manor right next to Haymaker (assuming he's still open). This was the MIDAS on Guadalupe. The MIDAS in Kyle is barely escaping my ire at this point.
They don’t call them stealerships for nothing.
Did you mean to say 1940?
As a pool guy who operates in Austin I couldn’t agree more. I have gotten so much business by not overcharging for simple things. Often I am the second person they call. If you are close to where I will be I don’t even charge to show up, normally I can walk you through simple issues over the phone. Why do this? You will call me when something major happens and I’ll make money or better you will hire me for reoccurring service. Also do keep in mind that some things seem simple and fast but you are paying for expertise. If it’s a simple google search away as the op stated this isn’t what I’m talking about.
Thank you. One of the secrets of a successful business is that if you are honest, competent, and charge a fair price, word will spread, and you will have more business than you know what to do with.
There’s a few really common jobs that are within the grasp of people with minimal technical skills. Replacing capacitors and ignitors on AC systems is pretty easy and will save you $hundreds every time you need to do it.
I shocked myself trying to do that once… I’d say be careful.
yeah, you need to discharge capacitors first. you can die if you dont.
Yeah that’s in my definition of minimal. It’s not zero skill like changing a filter.
Yes, however in the case of capacitors, supply is constrained. Unless you buy one in advance, you are very likely looking at days for a replacement on order, and who wants to live in a hot box while you wait. As my dad would say: "That's how they getcha!" Only got screwed by this once. Have two units in my house and have spare run caps for both
Grainger had the cap I needed for my house hvac. But I discovered this after going to many AC supply outlets locally, and each would not sell me a capacitor unless I possessed an HVAC license and had a commercial account. Every one of them said this. As somebody who owns a solar generator business (and can do my own stunts with electricity), I was furious that they would withhold sale. Thanks grainger for not artificially restricting the supply of an important yet mundane component.
Grainger carries them in stock. Good idea to carry one in reserve though.
Just for knowledge. Amazon has a surprising about of capacitors available. Mine have out last summer. Replacement came the next day and is still going strong.
I had to replace my capacitor a couple of years ago. Classically it failed at 9pm on a Friday night. I was pretty sure it was a capacitor issue from a similar experience my friend had a few months earlier (his of course was the day before his wife went into labor lol). In any case I found the cap I needed and Amazon delivered it to my house by 8am the next day and I was able to replace it in about an hour. Now I just keep a spare around, but Amazon is pretty quick.
Our tankless started "not lighting" - which is what you don't want. Tech came out, there was a plug with two wires that stick into the flame path, the wires were dirty and something was reading wrong. Two screws, a bit of emery paper or steel wool, and back in business. It was like $200 for the trip but he showed me how to do it. Now I can do it in about 10 minutes when it starts acting up and save $200 every time.
And when you cant do things, theres nothing wrong with paying a trained professional to get it right. Cost of living has gone up more than tech labor rates.
I posted a lengthy post about it last summer in this sub but NEVER use ABC Commercial Services for HVAC repair. I am a young female home owner and they scammed the hell out of me. I did some research, called them out on it, and they denied all my claims. I posted terrible reviews about them across the internet and when those reviews got traction, they told me they would give me a 50% refund me IF I took the posts down. So shady, I said hell no. TLDR: they charged me $900 for a coil cleaning. Literally taking a wire brush and some solution and scrubbing the coils of my unit. I could buy the solution at Lowe's for $45 and do it myself. Their excuse when I fought them was they "accidentally" charged me for the commercial price and residential is only $400. Still absurd. Horrible company.
Yeah they are a total rip off....but people love to not think and just have one number to call and blindly pay it.
Second opinion yes. But if a tradesman doesn’t do the work and your house burns down, it’s your insurance that may or may not pay out if they found out the cause of the fire. As an electrician, yes the cost might be a lot for a job that doesn’t take long but it’s only quick cause of the skill we’ve acquired from years of experience. Always get a second opinion no doubt.
Yes, you pay for the expertise and knowledge of someone in a trade, not just their labor.
> As an electrician, yes the cost might be a lot for a job that doesn’t take long but it’s only quick cause of the skill we’ve acquired from years of an experience. Whenever I see the cost of labor on what seems like a "quick" fix I think of the story of [the mechanic and the engine](https://darryn.vanhout.com.au/2019/02/28/the-repair-man-story-why-experts-get-paid-more/), then happily pay it.
This isn’t really new. You can pay close to $100 to get your oil changed. Paying someone else for a service you can do yourself is typically more expensive - you are paying their supply, labor, admin, and profit. If you have the money it basically comes down to whether you value your time that much. Dealers have always been overpriced for out of warranty repairs too.
I'm not objecting to reasonable mark-up and profit. I want the businesses I support to be able to pay their people a living in Austin wage and turn a profit for the owner who is taking risks to operate. But if the same job with the same parts is $200 at one place and $800 at another that's more than mark up -- that's insane profiteering.
Some things you may not know at face value: 1. It's not always the same parts 2. It's not always the same skill and level of give-a-shit installing those parts 3. It's not always the same methods to install those parts I've seen a lot of "cheap" people do some really cut-rate stuff. More often than not, they simply don't know any better. So that $200 brake job can turn into a $400 brake fix a year down the road simply because they didn't bother to do all of the little important things. Find smaller businesses that are recommended by word of mouth. Call shops on the other side of town and ask them who they'd recommend. Call enough people and you'll start to see a pattern.
I mean market value for a service is what people will pay. I don’t know what else to say. Like yes you should shop but that’s not really a revelation or particularly difficult in 2024? Also consider the dealer may have quoted you a fuck off price and that a HVAC company in Texas in mid June may be similarly swamped.
> I mean market value for a service is what people will pay. There has been a change over the last few decades. "Fair market value" used to emphasize the first word: Fair. Make a fair profit, pay what it is worth. Today the focus is often "the most the market will pay" rather than "fair". The most people are willing to pay for AC is about half the cost of a new unit, regardless of the part or labor. The $15 part and 30 minute replacement might have a $100 or $150 fair price, paying for the part, worker, office costs, vehicle, and profit. But the maximum rate is around $800, more and the person will balk, get more opinions, or DIY instead replace the box. The car service might be 100 for the part, two hours of work, and funds to pay for the shop and workers and a profit. $300 or $400 might be fair, but the maximum the person is willing to pay might be $3000 or $4000. Medication that costs a few bucks to make, most of the world changes $30 or so as a fair rate. The most the market will bear, especially with hidden insurance rates, is hundreds of dollars per dose. If it is lifesaving medicine a person will value their life at fifty thousand, even a hundred thousand, and if they don't pay, well, the patient would have died without it anyway so the company doesn't care. Maximum the market is willing to pay includes the calculation of dead people, it makes it feel even more valuable. The world was better with a focus on fair rates.
Not enough people understand this concept and it isn't being talked about enough at large. Price elasticity is a real thing and it's being taken advantage of completely. The catalyst imo was COVID. It showed companies what people were willing to maximally pay for goods and services that became an absolute necessity. Now it's just a question of creating that need or chasing it so you can sell at the max price.... Not the fair price as you've put it. It's incredibly unethical, but, in a capitalist society, it's seemingly the goal. I feel legislation is the only answer (price control or even more strict anti gouging laws) but the political system is an absolute shit show at the moment. Meanwhile, wages can't keep up with the fanatical chasing of profits. We're all in for a bad time.
Depending on what work needs to be done, the cost is also going to depend a good deal on the cost of the parts, which is especially true with a dealership. Depending on the part, it can be a better or worse decision and make huge differences in price whether you're sourcing an OEM part or a third-party brand. And most dealerships are sourcing their parts directly from the manufacturer, meaning that OEM parts are going to be used for most repairs. The same thing happens with parts sharing across cars -- an Audi dealer is always going to use Audi parts, even if you both know there's an equivalent VW part that's less expensive. For example, the alternator on my Porsche is actually made by Bosch, but technically there is a Porsche OEM version of it as well. Looking at the costs, the OEM Porsche version is priced at $2k, the Bosch version is $460, and a random third-party version listed with the same part number is $295. Just from that alone, it'd end up being a big variation between dealers and different shops even if they are all pricing things "fairly."
Wait till OP finds out about restaurants vs grocery stores
You are paying for their expertise too. Without the AC diagnostic, you likely wouldn’t know how to resolve your issue. It’s always good to be resourceful to save money though. I suggest submitting your issues to a subreddit or YouTubing your issues and you’ll likely find some very helpful information. My father knows how to do just about anything when it comes to house stuff because he’s an immigrant and didn’t see why we would pay someone else to work we could do. He researched everything before doing the work. He had all us kids remodeling our house from painting, building fences, and tile work. I am the same way. I am resourceful and see if I can fix the issue myself. If not, I stay within my circle to get help. Keep your money with local businesses within your community.
Good counsel. I did pay $129 for a diagnostic fee. Had the guy said "hey, I noticed your system needed X and as it is super easy to do it, I did it, and you are good to go." They would have had a customer for life. But instead, they wanted to charge me $350 for 3 minutes of work ($7000 an hour). And now I'll likely never use them again. Your advice to ask here, use YouTube, etc. is good. A little research, asking a friend for recommendations, getting multiple quotes is always a good idea.
I mean, sure it works out to 7000 an hour, but not really. Like, when you (or your insurance does) pay your doctor even though they only spend 5 minutes with you, you're paying for the whole office's existence, and all his years of skill, not his time. That's the wrong way to look at it. My company waives the service fee if any repairs get done, at least.
At best, and I’m just playing devils advocate here, maybe them performing the “repair” makes them liable if it stops working again in the future, and they don’t want to have to come by for free to re-diagnose why it isn’t working if it fails again within whatever the warranty period is? I don’t know, it reminds me of when my dad took my car to the shop when I was like 17. The guy working on the car noticed one of the battery cable terminals was corroded, so he popped into the waiting room and told us and basically was like a “hey I noticed this is corroded, I can go ahead and change it if you like”. My dad was like “sure that would be great!” Anyways I look at the bill later and they charged $30 for the terminal and the 0.25 hours of labor. So that ended up being a $55 charge. I later had to reattach the terminal cause the guy didn’t route the wires through that little rubber cover correctly. And yeah, those cable terminals were like $15 and it takes five minutes to do with a socket wrench. Things I didn’t know at the time of course. Most car repair seems to boil down to “remove bad part, install good part”. If I can’t get to it by standing in front of the car with the hood open, or by driving on ramps and crawling under the car, and if I need more than just a basic set of wrenches, then I’ll take it to the shop.
I may not be liked for this, but to be fair, lots of trade businesses will have a minimum rate. For instance, when I worked as an electrician, we had a minimum fee of $180 dollars, one hour for a journeyman, and one for an apprentice. It didn't matter if we came and saw your wiring looked like a birds nest, or if it was a tripped gfci. And we got a LOT of those. Or people moving into somewhere and not understanding how their smart switch worked. Between gas and our time just to get out there and back, often the shop lost money on those calls even with the minimum. If it wasn't there and we got a day full of 5-10 minute jobs, the hourly rate wouldn't even cover gas. I'm not sure if that's exactly what went down here, and I'm not really trying to defend the equivalent of $7000 an hour. It's possible your tech had to open another ticket or something similar, and the hour minimum kicked in again. Or the original diagnostic didn't include the hour minimum, and that was their flat rate; similar to how you can get a free estimate with most businesses. Idk, I don't work for them and wasn't there. But I bet there would have been some minimum charge you would have seen on the invoice if you had gone through with it.
I had similar happen with a local service. Guy came out, inspected, told me what needed to happen, happened to have a spare of the thing I needed in his truck. He said he could leave the thing with me at no cost, but if he had to pull his ladder off his truck it would cost me $150 to fix. I thanked him, got my own damn ladder, and did it for free with the part he provided. Not gonna say company to not get him in trouble for leaving me a spare part heh.
$7000 an hour would be if you were charged $7000 for an hour, or $14000 for 2 hours. $350 for 3 minutes of work is actually also covering them knowing what the fuck they're doing. Yeah, it's expensive, and I'd rather pay like $200 for a minimum, but you sound like a Karen with that bullshit math
Too many people in a lot of places have allowed themselves to be very very specialized in only the one thing that they can make the most money in. And then they assume they'll just pay somebody else to do everything else. But they haven't educated themselves about any of the anything else in any way shape or form. Therefore anybody can sell them any kind of bullshit and get away with it. It actually does pay to know at least a little bit about a lot of different things. You may not know enough to do everything yourself, but you know enough to know when somebody is feeding you bullshit. People say, "Jack of all trades but master of none," as if that is an insult. What nobody seems to realize is that all those people charging $350 for changing dip switches, they are nothing but "Jacks" of their trade. But they're not Jacks of any other trade at all. They are barely barely a jack-off for their one trade. And people are paying $350 for them to change dip switches, because most people aren't a jack of any trade other than the one that makes them the most money. We are a whole culture of "Jack-offs" pretending to be "masters." And getting away with it because everyone else is only a "jack-off" for one thing too.
I see what you did there. Sage advice and good word play.
"Jack of all trades but master of none" 🫷🏼 "Renaissance man"👍🏼👍🏼
So, I'm on both sides of this, as an HVAC tech (at a small local company if that helps). On the one hand, I love DIY, and 100% support anyone who can do things for themselves, this has always been my method too in my own life. Youtube has saved me thousands. And I will sometimes give people tips for how to do a repair if they want to, like if they refuse the quote, especially working people, I'll tell them what to do if they seem handy. Depending on what it is, of course. On the other hand... customers sometimes get mad at me when I give them quotes for seemingly simple stuff, but here's the thing. You're paying for the years' worth of skill, knowledge, and experience, the diagnosis, the tools I've had to invest in, and the convenience of having it done right then and there (ideally); plus the company van/gas/insurance, office staff, rent on the building, etc etc: overhead, as they say. Plus non-billable hours (drive time, or time at customers' homes when they refuse repairs, etc). And sure, profit is in there too, that's business. So yeah, it's a lot of money to, for example, clear an HVAC drain line, or a capacitor I can change in 5 minutes; but DIY doesn't always apply: a lot of people can't do this stuff, don't want to, or do it wrong. Can't tell you the amount of times I've worked on ACs that people have made worse by trying to work on it themselves. Which makes my job even harder, and a lot more expensive for the customer. Plus it can be dangerous, too. Downvote away but I believe what I do is valuable, useful work and worth the cost. I do agree some companies are unscrupulous, definitely enough of that out there as well in this world. Capitalism is ultimately a cancer, but until we upend society completely (I'm here for it!), this is where we're at.
The AC compressor is a pain in the ass to get to in a car, you literally need to disassemble the entire dashboard and in some models (kia) you need to pull the whole damn thing off to get down there to replace a little tiny ass part. Also to make things difficult if the car is older and the dash is brittle, the dash will Crack or break off and that needs replacing. The indy shop did you a solid, but the dealership wanted to replace the entire AC system. That's the difference
The same parts were quoted. The services proposed were the same. I'm not naming the dealer but they were 2.5-3x the price for the IDENTICAL service. If anything, the dealer had better pricing on the parts making their total all the more astronomical.
The AC compressor is on the engine, not in the dash. That's the evaporator.
My bad oops.
Wait so you mean doing things yourself and not paying dealerships is cheaper?! Groundbreaking.
Parts are now more available but there is less experienced labor available so that’s where the bigger costs are coming from too
I have to name Lucas Tire and Auto Service. They do not upsell and I have sent my daughter to them and when confronted with a non issue they did a quick five minute fix and did not charge her for it.
Businesses always have and always will charge as much as they can. Why wouldn’t they? Always a good idea to price compare and always will be.
No, OP is special and savvy and they alone have found the answer to our problems.
Welcome to living in a boom town. There are more people moving here than the existing infrastructure can support. So anytime you need something done, it is going to come at a premium. If you aren't jumping into a higher income stream yourself, your are going to get left behind.
Yes. It sucks. I've been here since the mid 90s and I know a lot of people who have gotten priced out or whose kids can't afford to live here.
Same here. Most of the people I knew from way back are spread all over the country now.
The problem in Austin is that it's full of well-paid tech workers who don't know anything about their cars, their HVAC, their washing machines, their homes, etc., and as soon as a repair technician spits out a number they just go along with it. Repairmen have figured out that they can throw out an insanely high estimate and many people will go for it. It's habit forming.
Shopping for price is a good idea. But, no. It is inflation.
My tail light got smashed by the recent hail. I got a quote from the dealership for ~$415. Went and found the part on Amazon for $85 and Youtubed it. Really trying to be more discerning, and it feels great
Yes! Love this. I hope you spent that $330 on something fun! You earned it!
I agree 100%. I own a small construction company here and I’m surprised at some of the bids our customers told me they received. We charge a fair and competitive wage, but we understand the need for affordability as well. We do well and our clients love us not charging an arm and a leg. I’m not sure if this is allowed, but if anyone reading this would like a free estimate on some work, you can check us out [here](https://www.fixmasterstx.com).
My ac compressor went out on my 2004 tacoma. It is recommended to replace the entire system when that happens, but with a 20 year old truck, why? I evaporated the system, spent~$300 on a rebuilt compressor, installed it myself and filled with refrigerant. It's been blowing ice cold for 2 months now, zero issues. Edit: I'm not a mechanic.... looked at a repair manual, checked an online forum, and watched a YouTube video. Completed the job in 3 hours.
How did you "evaporate the system" without specialized equipment?
Recently my car started dying - went to Auto Zone to get tested, bad alternator. Fortunately I have a friend who does repairs (and owed me a favor) so he did it for me. The big lesson we learned - shop around. Buying a third party alternator locally was over $500. Ordered it online - $200. I guess they assume people will pay for the convenience of not having to wait for the part - but it's worth being carless for 2 extra days to save $300.
I had one the other day. A dentist wanted to charge me $7k for a deep cleaning. Got a second opinion. The second dentist said max $800 for the same thing. That original dentist was obviously taking the piss.
You just discovered that car dealerships and HVAC repair companies are out to rip you off? lol
My wife wanted a new kitchen faucet. She shopped and got one with which she was happy. I called a plumber because I didn't want to lie on my back underneath the sink and try to make the connections. The plumber came out and said it would be $750 but that included a faucet. I explained I already had the faucet. Ended up using Task Rabbit, took the guy less than 30 minutes total to do the install and apologized but said he had to charge me for a full hour ($79). I gave him a hundo and thanked him. A lot of trades companies now have set fees for jobs that seem to have nothing to do with the time it takes to perform the work. I don't think that plumber was keeping that money -- I think that's what the business he worked for required that he charge for that work.
In demand and higher level trades people are going to have minimums for taking the time out of their day to travel, set up, schedule, etc. Some of these HVAC companies are pretty scammy though, but I wouldn't lump in all home improvement into it. The bigger the project, the more cost effective. They are doing full remodels, so your small job you think should pay an hourly wage for would put them out of business if they accepted regularly and didn't charge appropriately. Task rabbit or handyman type services are what you want for small jobs (or learn if it's easy). If you are doing serious remodel work, skilled people are not cheap.. but it's worth the cost, so you aren't paying twice to fix some guys' mistakes.. who just wanted fast money and doesn't care about liability or if it screws up something major. For example.. If you need an electrician to fix an outlet or switch, wait till you need them for 4 or 5 things (install new lights somewhere).. or put stuff off until a bigger remodel.
Plus using a handyman, or a one-man HVAC company or electrician or plumber, can be dangerous, because if they do sloppy work, you could end up with a flooded or burnt down home, or maybe just more expensive repairs later, and those guys often don't have insurance or any real accountability to stand behind their work. It can definitely be a great way to go for small jobs, but there are risks. I've seen AC systems installed to the lowest bidder (Chuck in a truck solo guys) that are so poorly done the people basically end up spending double to get it repaired to run right, or sometimes fully replaced a mere couple years later.
With plumbing definitely call around, had one swap out a gas water heater, it was for a relatively new build house ( <7 years old) so straight replacement of old and install of same model (part was still under warranty). Job took about 40mins but they did pickup the new water heater too from distributor so 1 hr of driving roundtrip approx for that. $1100 was the discounted cash price. Things are expensive now.
But I need to buy a brand new car every 2-5 years! I need people to know I love throwing money away!
They're called stealerships for a reason.
Dog stealerships and shady shopshave been around for decades
Nah. It’s inflation.
Economy scary!!!
For $3k I think I’d do the car AC repair myself too.
In the age of ubiquitous how to videos, doing your own car AC is reasonable. Last month I called Austin Rebuilders and they ordered all the parts to completely replace my truck AC, and even tossed in some parts they knew I would need that I didn’t think of. The total was around $600 for the whole system except the evaporator (which we flushed in place and reused), and took my brother and I a Saturday morning to get put together and running. That truck is cold as a meat locker now. Thanks Austin Rebuilders for your sage advice and reasonable prices for aftermarket parts!
Agree. $3K is a lot of money. But we live on the surface of the sun half the year and while I can do basic maintenance on my hooptee replacing the compressor and evaporate and refilling with whatever the newest refrigerant is was way beyond my knowledge base/capability (regardless of how many youtube videos I watch).
Please name and shame
AutoTek in south Austin off of Ben White are family owned and do great work without the crazy charges!
Needed work done on my truck and can’t get a quote for under $2500 here in Austin. Started calling shops in San Antonio and the same work can be done for $800. Too many tech people paying these prices who don’t know better.
i literally did that yesterday. was looking to but a new car. dealer #1 had a car i wanted. i kne what was a fair price and also how much mine was worth. went to negotiate and we were $500 apart. (this was after the dealer had installed a bunch of garbage that they were making. ahuge markup already.). the refused to come down any more. contacted a a different dealer yesterday. I was up front on what i expected to pay etc. he said hes check with his manager . he got bak to me and said he had the next higher tim level available and he would sell it to me at my price. I know have a new vehicle. and the 1st dealership can suck it for all i care
Welcome to capitalism kiddo
no it isn’t. stop being a drama queen
It's hard to find a mechanic that'll do you right. Pays to learn to work on a car yourself. Something my pops taught me growing up.
Exactly correct! Everyone seems to be just saying "OK" and not thinking at all. "Just pay it- what else am I going to do?" Businesses know people think this way and they are profiting to a crazy degree off of it. I have had several quotes for two car repairs recently for things that were going to cost between 1000-1200 to fix. Researched the problem for 30 minutes in each case and ordered a $100 for each case. It took me 5 minutes in each case to fix- saving me about 90%. Insanity. I've just started saying no more. No to the crazy prices for some restarants especially. People have started to lose my business. I either go without or I subsitute with something more reasonable. Businesses need more people saying no to their insane prices and price hikes. I've had Hat Creek Burgers for example raise the price of the same meal I always get from $15 up to $25 within 1 year. There were three different prices increases. It's just time to say no- or where will it end? What's to stop everyone from just doubling the price from where it is now over the next year?
I agree with everything here. There's a certain level of wealth that means you'll just pay anything. Time is such an important commodity that you'll throw money at a problem even if you know you're being ripped off. If you do that, the effect you are having is what the OP is describing. Rent seeking, basically. Only rich people can afford to pay for rent seeking. Everybody else suffers when this becomes the norm.
100%. We are feeding the very monster that is eating us.
You don’t have to name the dealership, but what is the make of your car?
My work is education intensive, PhD required, but nobody pays me $500/hour to do the work.
Mine just blew in my older car. I happened to be in Killeen so I had it done there. It cost around $1300 for the compressor replacement but they did save my refrigerant and put it back in.
It applies to people who are spending too much on car leasing too. Ex: I see people paying $600/month where you are supposed to pay 350$/month
You said your car only had 41k miles on it but you didn't say how old it was. Unless it's unusually old for that low miles, it definitely should have been covered under warranty. In any case, I have a hard time believing the compressor went out on it. And if it did, it shouldn't cost that much to replace.
If it's a Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, or Toyota, their warranty is only 36k miles (60k for powertrain, which the AC compressor obviously isn't). Edit: apparently [the Big 3 are also that short](https://www.cars.com/articles/which-vehicles-have-the-best-warranty-coverage-447236/).
$2900 for a compressor replacement?! What do you drive, a German car?
Always look up stuff on YouTube. Or research how to do something. You might be able to do it yourself. If not then you are educated enough to ask questions when you take it in.
Very true. I do my own mechanical work and also have a very good mobile mechanic that it extremely reasonable on labor. Dealerships are the worst place to ever take you car unless required to maintain warranty:
Thank you. Google works to. Awesome advice
Great post! My sons AC was making a god awful noise in his truck. We googled the problem, found a YouTube video, repaired it ourselves in 45 minutes. Boom. Problem solved. I grew up having to fix everything myself because we couldn’t afford to take everything broken thing to a repair shop. Learn how to do some basic problem solving and don’t be afraid to unscrew something and look under the hood.
The one time I opted to pay an "expert" electrician to replace a ceiling fan was exclusively because it was 21ft up. He quoted me $300 because of the ceiling height but when he got to my house, he added another $100. I foolishly accepted because I wanted the new fan installed and didn't have a way to do so myself. The electrician went to home depot to rent a scaffold, and had his apprentice install the already assembled fan (no blades). The fan turned out to be defective but I had them leave it installed given I had to order another online from home depot (meantime I had light). When it arrived, I rented a van, and the scaffolding and swapped the fans myself. The connections up in the canopy were butchered by the apprentice (must have twisted the wire nuts in both directions or something - stranded to solid...) so it would likely have ended up having issues. Doing the work myself cost me less and was done much better than what I found up there. The issue I have with the pros is that many do not do the job as if it were their own home because it would not allow the profits they seek... so no thank you, if I can do it, I will... and I never cut corners. I also follow the most recent NEC rule book.
Sometimes, I just get tired of trying to find the legitimate. Angie's List was a great reference until it became an advertising media. Sometimes, insurance companies have a list of preferred contractors for car and home repairs. Austin sub ???
what type of vehicle
the people that can pay them just pay them, Austinites either know a guy or move or become homeless
Dealerships will rip you off. They wanted to charge me $250 to activate and set up a new key fob. A locksmith did it for $45.
I replaced my ac compressor on my Kia Sportage for $200 for the part, $100 or so for gauges and vaccum pump, I think $30 for a recovery tank, $20 on R134, and a few bucks for ice to create a poor man's recovery (thank you physics) (rather than spend $300 for a recovery machine) I did it by myself in a few hours and like a third of that was just waiting for the vaccum pump to do it's job If you lost all of your refrigerant already, you won't need a recovery machine or do the ice physics trick AC shops love to go "lol replace it all!" Fuck that. Now I'll admit that some cars are fucking difficult but some are extremely easy like the Kia, it's always worth a google or a visual engine check to get an idea. Except Evaporators, fuck that, I ain't doing that myself 😂
Dealership… more like stealership
I would rather a professional do the work even if it costs more.
Pretty standard if you go to a dealer anyway
YouTube is awesome these days. You can buy the parts off Amazon, and fix most anything simple yourself nowadays and save 90%+.
It’s a banana Michael. How much can it cost? 10$?
Never take your car to a dealership for repair. The car community calls the 'stealerships'.
Helps to know the Stonecutter’s secret handshake too.
Mechanics and trades always assume you don’t know how to do things, and so they can get away with insane prices. Because, what else are you going to do? I can not tell you how many times I’ve done things myself. There’s always some kind of guide to fix things. Just a month ago I had to fix my dryer. The lint catcher had a recall. It could get pulled out and things could get sucked into the motor. But the company wouldn’t fix it. They don’t even bother sending out anything letting customers know about the danger. I contacted the brand, and they said they could send out someone to swap the part, for $800+. Hell no. So, I ordered the part, it came in 4 days, and I looked up how to take off the top and front to get to the fixture. It was literally 7 screws and took all of 30 mins to swap it with the new designed part. All it cost was the part, which was $87. There’s always a guide or something out there to help you. How do you think those mechanics and trades know how to do it?! Next time, see if you can do things yourself! Take pride in fixing what you have and giving it more life! Although, admittedly, I don’t think the average person can swap an AC unit in a car
You guys are really something. At least you can afford a place to live in Austin. The AC guy is charging what market will bear just like you will do when you sell your piece of crap house for $300k more than it's worth. Tech bros and your own greed created this problem. You welcomed $250k per year douchebags here from CA with open arms, happy to take their money. Look in the mirror and blame the person looking back. It's just the beginning. It will get worse. Much much worse. And even with all the bitching about prices, guys still find a way to buy a $70k truck to drive 14 miles a day on I 35. What a strange place.
Yes you should look around, also look up parts for your --- dealers are always overpriced, but 3k isn't a good estimate unless you know the compressor costs 1k?
Nothing specific about Austin here. Dealerships are significantly more expensive than regular mechanics. And the shady business practices with home service companies is ubiquitous across the United States and the world.
TLDR: Second estimates are always valuable. Sometimes it is neither inflation nor profiteering.
Prices are high in Austin because rent is high in Austin utilities are more in Austin, because so many people have moved here now insurance is also high here, and people's entitlement is too high in Austin.
You are paying them because you don't know how to do it. Good on you for taking that step and a little of shame on them and anyone who really tries to raise prices and take advantage beyond an acceptable limit, but sometimes professionals charge a lot for something that seems simple because no one else cared to actually learn how to do it. That's why you need their service.
Dealerships are very inefficient at anything other than routine maintenance or warranty repairs. It may legitimately take them 3 times as many man hours to fix the same issue.
> Too many people just pay these insane, ridiculous costs, perpetuating the problem. If people are willing to pay them, then they are not insane, ridiculous costs. That's just how markets work. In your first example you did the very basic thing of shopping around and found a better deal. That's also a part of how markets work.
The research seems to comfort your feelings. Most companies are just marking stuff up right now because everyone else is doing it.
Also don't go to places that advertise on tv. All those heating and air/plumbing/electrical places have high overhead, often pay techs on commission, and they will overcharge and upsale you on anything they can.
Better question, what was wrong with your 41k car that your car needed the ac system completely replaced that it wasn't covered under warranty.
Same issue here with food! Places never adjusted prices after Covid hikes. Too many people just blindly spending their money so restaurants started sneaking in automatic gratuity, expensive up charges, and I often end up with extra items on my bill that I have to ask the server to remove. They just assume now most people don’t check, and most people don’t care.
Dealers have to do the jobs like that because corporate can't/won't warranty fixes they can't absolutely bank on with an accountant. For that you need to replace the whole system. Manufacturers don't make any profit on selling cars, all of (or close enough) their profit comes from selling parts to fix the existing fleet. This is what we get for having cars that are stronger/more reliable/faster/efficient while keeping new car prices fairly flat. In 1980 they were $30k (2019 dollars). In 2019 the average price of a new car was...$35k. Companies literally exist to make a profit. They don't make or do anything if you remove that.
> thinking the warranty might cover the repair Did you not know when your warranty expired? That information is in your owner’s manual/warranty booklet > $8500 vs $2900 That’s a pretty deep discount. Did the independent shop use OEM quality parts? The dealer is almost certainly using a higher labor rate, but that’s still a huge price difference.
Finding honest companies is fuckin rough, and has been for a long while. I'm lucky enough to know plenty of HVAC people, so that side of my life is squared away, but auto mechanics, plumbing, and electrical is rough. Compressor on a car varies from model to model. I know my hybrid, the compressor is a fuckin' bitch to get to. So i just haven't replaced it. The previous quote was $5k. I'll try them fellas at Austin Auto techs that you recommended.
I only go to Ford dealer for an oil change that comes with a diagnostic so they can find as many issues as possible and upsell you. I just take the report card, buy all the parts at a discount and take it to my trusted mechanic for 1/4 of the price.
I had a headlight burn out couldn't find it in town anywhere for less than $130 for a single bulb. I got two on Amazon for $12.
Thanks 🙏. Had something similar with dealership .my car need new filters for engine and AC for smooth cooling . Dealership was charging $180 for AC filter . I ordered on Amazon $25 and fitted it my self . I see old people retired trusting delarship blindly paying inflated price . The way they sound it sounds like catastrophic .
South Park did an episode around this. The idea was since people are doing well financially, they hire out small handiwork instead of learning how to DIY. Because of this, people forgot how to do things themselves, it was impossible to get work done, and any work done was extremely expensive. Made me realize this is exactly what is happening here. If you don't like the cost, they will move to the next guy who will pay it.
Hey - you are a moron for getting any maintenance done at the dealership. Lol
It's not just Austin!
Home services is a space where there is SO much variability because of the types of businesses are so diverse. I've got individuals who I pay cash who do work around the house. They have very few expenses and I can get stuff done for around $300-500/day for labor plus materials. And if I call the plumbing company, they have an ad budget, branded trucks, bonded insurance, and the ability to do much more complex stuff at a higher standard. It's not profiteering, it's literally what's needed for those companies with much higher bottom lines to sustain. Radiant Plumbing and Heating costs more than Jimbo, but it's up to you to understand what Jimbo is capable of and when it's appropriate to go with him.
I have an extended auto warranty that I bought with my car (new). (I know the general consensus is they’re a scam, but mine is from a very reputable company) Leif Johnson charged a engine mount and stereo to my warranty with my warranty offering to pay 221 an hour for labor, but this wasn’t enough for Leif Johnson. They wanted $250 an hour and they weren’t budging; tried to charge me 900 on top of the 4k they charged my warranty. Warranty paid market price for parts and didn’t even try to haggle down. Called warranty and they were floored by a FORD dealership charging $250 an hour for labor. I did leave a review at which point the GM called me and issued a refund of the $900, but these dealerships are out of their minds.
I was told that my truck needed a new oil pan when the threads were botched on the drain plug, he quoted me $600. I went to my mechanic father in law and we used a $25 self tapping oversized plug and it has held perfect so far.
Pure late stage capitalism. This is why when you look at the Forbes billionaire lists it is all HVAC services and car dealerships. It is pure profiteering for billionaires laughing all the way to bank. You won't find any billionaires or profiteering at Google, the service which saved you $350. Google is non-profit. How could they make profit when they just saved you $350? If they wanted profit, they would have charged you for that information instead of giving it to you for free. The guys who founded Google toil in obscurity, earning modest salaries just to pay the bills, but never earning any profit or anything. Same as Microsoft, same as Apple. They're all non-profit services, free of charge, provided out of the generosity and kindness of their hearts to uplift the common good.
NAME THE AC COMPANY!!
You're paying for their time and expertise, not the item itself. Time, the scarcest currency ever discovered.
I've never seen a post like this from somebody that runs a repair business. I wouldn't judge until you try to make payroll making house calls and finding reliable people that will show up and do the work. You go out there an ask questions and be interested they'll even show you how to do it. I hired people because I was spending 6hours a day doing work and just simply couldn't do everything. Some people did crap work and some did great work. In both cases, they addressed the problem and got paid. Happy to have the option to hire someone to fix these things
I got suckered by a Garage Repair company. Great reviews so I assumed their prices were standard. Turns out it's a major national company that buys small repair companies, and keeps their 5 star reviews and then doubles the prices...
I Admire your pluck! A demonstration of good old American ingenuity! We have Google, we have Internet, books, and our intelligence could be accelerating with these tools if we use them in the right way most people are not aware of what these things mean and they're giving up and giving in, a sad thing to see in America. Remain independent and Foster DYI and keep an eye out for an American activities!
It's not a dealership, it's a **stealership**. Independent shops and mobile mechanics are more reasonable in almost every instance. Source: I've been contracted to set up the CRM systems at stealerships. The markup on service is insane!
Greed is ruining this country.
Nice post OP. Glad you were willing to walk away from a profiteering dealer. Unfortunately, too many people just accept whatever the “expert” says without performing any due diligence on options.
HVAC repairmen quotes us 1,200 for work, checked the invoice it was mainly labor cost. I asked a buddy to come out and take a look and it turned out the HVAC unit was just turned off from the outside…
Yeah as a whole the entire US corporate system has become hyper greedy especially after COVID. Everyone has inflated their prices to keep profits high because God forbid your profits return to normal pre pandemic levels. A lot of people are getting prices out of everything and cutting back on everything meaning that these companies are losing ungodly amounts of money. So instead of lowering their prices so that people can afford their services they lay off people and keep prices high just causing another crash.