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My furnace died in January and finding a repair guy was a nightmare...
Our old furnace finally gave out on the coldest night of the year, like it knew exactly when to mess with us. I called around to three places in Toledo and one guy quoted me $900 just for a diagnostic visit. Ended up finding a solo HVAC guy named Dave who fixed it for $350 and even showed me how to clean the flame sensor.
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the_lucas2d ago
Dave the solo guy came out to my place in Cleveland last February when my pilot light kept going out at 2am. He charged me $200 to replace a thermocouple and spent 20 minutes showing me how to check it myself. A big company wanted $600 just to roll a truck out. The best part was he told me to call him direct next time and skip the booking system. I think these one-man shops are the only ones left who actually give a damn about doing the job right instead of pushing parts on you.
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coleman.hannah2d agoMost Upvoted
Yeah I read something about this in a home repair newsletter a while back. The big companies have these dispatch fees and minimum charges that are just insane, and they try to upsell you on everything. @the_lucas your story reminds me of what they said - those solo guys can actually afford to charge less because they don't have to pay for a whole office and a fleet of trucks. Dave sounds like a real standup guy for showing you how to fix it yourself too. That kind of knowledge sharing is worth way more than the $200 you paid, especially when the next time it happens you can handle it in 5 minutes. I bet half the stuff people call repairmen for is just simple fixes like that.
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