Ruptured expansion tank

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

I just received a call from a new customer who had his expansion tank fail. It's an old system with the tank in the attic. He called the company that normally services his boiler to come and fix it which they did and then sent him this bill:

$150 - Initial service call; found x-tank burst in attic

$250 - Met techician on site; re-checked pressures and scope of repairs.

$300 - Disconnected pipe and plugged riser.

$1,120 - Installed new x-tank and fill valve.

$650 - Filled system and found tridicator leaking; replace tridicator.

$750 - Filled system and found air vent on radiator leaking; replaced 7 air vents and installed relief valve.

$300 - Filled boiler, bleed radiators, start gas burners and check safeties.

That's a total of $3,520. He called me wanting to know if it was a fair price. What would you tell him?

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hot_rod

I wouldn't

touch that with a ten foot pole. Certainly not without hearing both sides. Typically that homeowner will call "company A" and say Alan told me the price was wrong! Then you're in the middle!

hot rod

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

Normally,

I wouldn't either, but I went out and looked at the job. It was pretty straightforward as far as capping the old line and re-fitting the boiler with some new devices. There are always some other problems that crop up when you're wrenching on old piping (bad tridicator, leaking air vents, etc.) and you've got to charge for those. But I felt as though he was charged too much.

I told the owner that he should call the contractor back and get a breakdown of labor and materials. I also think he should dispute some of the hours, especially for a supervisor to come out to tell the mechanic what to do. The mechanic should be a qualified journeyman and shouldn't need to be told.

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kk_2

I certainly hope you guys aren't going to try to defend a company that is so obviously trying to rip off (to put it mildly) a customer.

If the customer was a jerk and this was just "payback" they'd be better off declining the job - it would do less damage to their reputation.

Terry

i agree

totally agree on that.
can you say the word "fleece"

was the initial install as costly? $350,000.00 +/- ?



Terry

kk_2

How can there be a "both sides"? If the customer was a jerk and this was "payback", they'd be much better off just walking away from the job as it would do less damage to their reputation.

This sort of rip-off makes all of the reputable guys who are trying to make an honest living look bad too.