“My Handyman Could Have Done It Cheaper”: Sometimes We Break Up With Customers
Every once in a while, a customer and an HVAC company discover something important:
We are not right for each other.
That’s okay.
Klein Cooling isn’t the right HVAC company for everyone. And, as it turns out, every homeowner isn’t necessarily the right customer for Klein Cooling.
This is the story of one of those times.
We’ve changed or omitted identifying details because the point isn’t to embarrass anybody. The point is to talk about something that comes up constantly in the HVAC business:
What exactly are you paying for when you hire an HVAC company to fix your air conditioner?
Because sometimes the answer involves a $100 part.
And sometimes the repair costs $500.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
Let’s run the call.
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“My A/C Isn’t Working”
The original complaint was pretty straightforward:
The air conditioner wasn’t working.
The homeowner didn’t call us and say:
“Hello, I’d like to purchase one Honeywell T6 thermostat, please.”
That would have been a very different transaction.
She called because her HVAC system wasn’t working and she needed someone to figure out why.
So we did what we’re supposed to do.
We troubleshot the system.
The diagnostic path led us to the thermostat.
We tested it.
We determined that the thermostat had failed.
And we recommended replacing it.
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How Did We Know the Thermostat Was Bad?
This is an important question.
Actually, we think it’s one of the most important questions a homeowner can ask an HVAC technician:
“How do you know it’s bad?”
A thermostat isn’t bad simply because the screen is blank.
It isn’t bad because the air conditioner isn’t running.
And it isn’t bad because replacing the thermostat is an easy thing to try.
Other problems can make a thermostat appear to be the culprit.
Depending on the equipment and symptoms, we may need to verify things such as:
- Proper control voltage
- The thermostat’s call for cooling
- Outputs from the thermostat
- Low-voltage wiring
- Float switches and other safeties
- Whether the equipment responds when the appropriate call is made
- Whether the thermostat is actually sending the signal the equipment needs to operate
The exact diagnostic procedure depends on the system.
But the philosophy doesn’t:
Test it. Prove it. Then recommend it.
No parts cannon.
In this case, our testing led us to a failed thermostat.
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The Repair Was About $500
We recommended replacing the failed thermostat with a Honeywell T6.
The repair price was approximately $500.
The homeowner knew the price.
The homeowner approved the price.
We installed the thermostat.
We configured it.
We tested the equipment.
The air conditioner returned to operation.
Problem solved.
For approximately three weeks.
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Three Weeks Later…
The homeowner contacted us again.
The A/C wasn’t working.
Again.
And this is where things got interesting.
This time, the thermostat wasn’t the problem.
The blower motor had failed.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t entirely surprising.
During our previous work at the home, we had already discussed concerns with the system.
A larger HVAC system had been installed without adequately accommodating the home’s existing smaller duct system.
That’s a problem.
Air-conditioning equipment doesn’t particularly care how many tons are printed on the side of the condenser.
It still needs to move the proper amount of air.
Put larger equipment on ductwork that can’t adequately handle the required airflow and components can end up operating under conditions they weren’t designed to tolerate forever.
One of the components we were concerned about was the blower.
Now it had failed.
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“I Guess It Wasn’t the Thermostat.”
Actually…
It was.
The system had operated for approximately three weeks after the thermostat replacement.
The thermostat failure had been diagnosed.
The thermostat had been replaced.
The system returned to operation.
Now, three weeks later, a different component had failed.
This brings us to a surprisingly important HVAC concept:
Your Air Conditioner Is Allowed to Break Twice
We regret to inform you that your air conditioner is under no legal obligation to wait a reasonable amount of time between breakdowns.
We checked.
Apparently there’s no 30-day cooling-off period between failures.
Your capacitor can fail in June.
Your blower motor can fail in July.
Your drain can clog in August.
And if your air conditioner is particularly motivated, it can accomplish all three before Labor Day.
A second failure doesn’t automatically mean the first diagnosis was wrong.
But that doesn’t mean we should automatically assume the failures are unrelated either.
If we were recently at your house and the system stops working again, we need to determine:
What failed this time?
Is it related to the previous problem?
Did our repair fail?
Was our original diagnosis wrong?
Or did something completely different happen?
There’s only one good way to answer those questions.
You already know what’s coming.
Test it.
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“But That’s a $100 Thermostat.”
Now we get to the bigger disagreement.
The homeowner looked up the thermostat.
And sure enough:
You can buy a Honeywell T6 for considerably less than $500.
Correct.
The Honeywell T6 itself was not a $500 thermostat.
But the homeowner didn’t purchase a thermostat from Klein Cooling.
She purchased an HVAC repair.
There’s a difference.
You didn’t call because you had a thermostat sitting on your kitchen counter and needed someone to screw it to the wall.
You called because:
Your air conditioner wasn’t working.
When you hire a licensed HVAC contractor to solve that problem, you’re not simply paying for whatever part eventually comes out of the truck.
You’re paying for someone to:
- Respond to the service call
- Troubleshoot the equipment
- Determine why it isn’t operating
- Rule out other potential causes
- Recommend the appropriate repair
- Give you the price before performing it
- Supply the component
- Install it properly
- Configure it
- Test the equipment afterward
- Warranty the repair
- Accept responsibility for the work
The thermostat happened to be the component required to complete that repair.
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“My Handyman Could Have Done It Cheaper.”
Maybe.
But there’s a small problem with that.
Your handyman isn’t licensed to troubleshoot your air-conditioning system.
Florida regulates air-conditioning contracting, including the servicing and repair of HVAC systems and associated controls.
See Florida Statute § 489.105.
We realize citing Florida Statutes in an article about a Honeywell T6 is completely unhinged.
But you brought up the handyman.
Anyway…
There’s also a much simpler distinction.
You didn’t need someone who knew how to mount a thermostat.
You needed someone who could answer:
“Why isn’t my air conditioner working?”
Could someone physically install a thermostat for less money?
Of course.
That’s not particularly remarkable.
The important question is:
How did we determine that the thermostat needed to be replaced in the first place?
Diagnosis has value.
Knowing which part not to replace has value too.
That’s why we test.
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“Can You Give Me a Parts and Labor Breakdown?”
This question came approximately three weeks after the repair.
The original invoice also had not yet been paid.
So now we had arrived at one of our favorite subjects:
Flat-rate pricing.
Klein Cooling doesn’t price residential HVAC repairs by handing the homeowner an invoice that says:
Honeywell T6: $100-ish
Kevin touched it: $400-ish
That’s not how our pricing works.
We use upfront, flat-rate repair pricing.
We determine what we need to charge to perform a repair properly while covering the costs of operating a legitimate HVAC company and making a fair and reasonable profit.
Then we tell you the price.
Before we do the work.
You can approve it.
You can decline it.
You can get another quote.
You can get a second opinion.
You can call your cousin who “does A/C.”
Please don’t call your unlicensed cousin who “does A/C.”
Florida Statute § 489.105 has already made one appearance in this article.
Nobody wants a sequel.
The important part is:
You know the price before we perform the repair.
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So What Are You Actually Paying For?
The truck that arrives at your house costs money.
The technician driving it costs money.
Insurance costs money.
Licensing costs money.
Training costs money.
Tools cost money.
Software costs money.
Inventory costs money.
Warranty work costs money.
Answering the phone costs money.
Running a legitimate HVAC company costs money.
And yes:
The company needs to make a profit.
We’re not embarrassed about that.
A company that doesn’t make money eventually becomes a company that doesn’t answer the phone.
Our goal isn’t to charge as much as we think we can get away with.
Our goal also isn’t to perform repairs for the wholesale cost of the component.
Our prices are based on what we need to charge to:
Perform the work properly.
Pay our people properly.
Stand behind our repairs.
Keep the lights on.
Make a fair and reasonable profit.
And still provide a fair price to the homeowner.
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No Gated-Community Tax
Our repair prices aren’t determined by the value of your house.
They aren’t determined by your ZIP code.
They aren’t determined by the vehicle sitting in your driveway.
And they aren’t determined by whether we had to stop at a guard gate before getting to your house.
The same repair under the same circumstances gets the same price.
Same repair. Same circumstances. Same price.
There’s no gated-community tax.
We don’t think that’s particularly radical.
We think that’s how pricing should work.
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But Transparency Works Both Ways
A homeowner has every right to question a repair.
Actually, we encourage it.
Ask us what we found.
Ask us what we tested.
Ask us what the readings mean.
And please ask:
“How do you know?”
You should understand why we’re recommending a repair.
You should know what it costs before we perform it.
And you have every right to say:
No.
But Klein Cooling also gets to decide whether a customer relationship is working.
In this case, the homeowner wasn’t satisfied.
She didn’t believe our repair represented fair value.
She questioned whether the original diagnosis had been correct because another component failed three weeks later.
We clearly weren’t meeting her expectations.
And eventually we realized something:
We’re probably not the right HVAC company for her.
That’s okay.
Not every breakup needs a villain.
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Sometimes the Decision Is Easier
Not every customer breakup requires this much analysis.
We once had an intoxicated customer threaten to beat up one of our technicians.
Maybe it was even warranted.
We don’t know. We weren’t there.
Either way, threatening to beat up the HVAC technician is generally where we draw the line.
There was no lengthy meeting of the Klein Cooling Customer Retention Committee.
No focus group.
No exit interview.
We politely declined all future service.
You can disagree with us.
You can decline a repair.
You can tell us our price is ridiculous.
You can get a second opinion.
You can even tell us your handyman could have done it cheaper.
But you cannot threaten our employees.
We want our people to enjoy coming to work.
More importantly:
We want them to go home safely.
Sometimes a homeowner and a contractor simply aren’t a good fit.
And sometimes the decision is considerably easier.
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Sorry, Mrs. Homeowner
Back to our thermostat.
At this point, it was pretty clear the homeowner wasn’t satisfied with the service Klein Cooling provided.
And that’s okay.
We don’t want a customer who genuinely believes they were treated unfairly to feel trapped doing business with us.
So we’ll make this one easy.
We’ll refund the service call.
And the Honeywell T6?
Keep it.
Consider it a parting gift.
We genuinely hope you find an HVAC company that’s a better fit for what you’re looking for.
We’ll go help homeowners who are a better fit for the way we operate.
No hard feelings.
No dramatic breakup.
No changing the locks.
Just two parties agreeing:
This probably isn’t working.
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The Bottom Line
A $500 HVAC repair involving a $100 thermostat isn’t automatically a $400 labor charge.
The component is only one part of the service.
The better questions are:
Was the system diagnosed correctly?
Can the technician show you how they know?
Did you know the repair price before approving it?
Was the repair performed properly?
Did the system operate afterward?
Does the company stand behind its work?
Those are the questions we think homeowners should ask.
You don’t have to blindly trust your HVAC contractor.
We should be able to show you.
And if you don’t like our diagnosis, our process, our price, or the way we operate, you don’t have to hire us.
That’s part of being an informed homeowner.
And occasionally saying:
“Sorry, Mrs. Homeowner. We’re probably not the right company for you.”
is part of running Klein Cooling.