Second opinions
Bring the quote. We say it is fair about half the time.
$135, the same as any diagnostic, refunded in full if you end up having us do the work. It is now about a fifth of everything this shop does, which was not the plan and is the clearest evidence we have that the salaried thing is working.
(316) 555-0157The salaried thing, in three questions
- What does salaried actually mean here?
- Every technician is paid an hourly wage and overtime. There is no commission, no spiff from a manufacturer, no bonus tied to what a truck sells in a week, and no leaderboard in the shop. The person in your basement earns exactly the same whether they replace a $185 capacitor or sell you a $12,000 system.
- Why does that matter?
- Because the pay structure is the incentive, and in this trade the incentive is usually commission. A technician on 8% of the sale is not lying to you when they recommend replacement — they are looking at the same furnace through a different pair of glasses, and they cannot help it. Removing the glasses is cheaper than trying to be virtuous in front of them.
- What does it cost you?
- About fourteen percent on replacement revenue against what we did in 2018, and two technicians who left for shops that pay commission. We think it is the reason we get the second-opinion calls, and second opinions are now a fifth of the work.
What we look at
Whether the diagnosis is right
Most of the time it is. A quote being expensive and a quote being wrong are different problems and only one of them is a reason to walk away.
Whether the scope matches the fault
This is where the disagreements are. A control board replaced because a flame sensor is dirty is the commonest one we see, and it is a $600 answer to a $90 problem.
Whether the equipment is sized
A replacement quote that does not mention a load calculation is a quote where somebody read the sticker on the old furnace. About a third of the systems in this town are oversized because of exactly that.
Whether the price is normal here
We will tell you where it sits against what we charge. Sometimes it is under us, and we say so, and people find that more convincing than anything else on this page.
We will not tell you who quoted you
You can bring a quote with a company name on it and we will not say a word about the company. Wichita is not a big town and half of these people trained with my father. We will talk about the furnace.