$350 replace AC start capacitor high priced?

[KO Stradivarius]

Originally Posted by john3232

You're not paying the AC tech, plumber, electrician for the 45 min. they spend fixing the problem. You’re paying for their 25 years of experience.

Yeah, I called out a tree specialist a few years ago because I had some defoliation occurring on a couple trees. He immediately knew how to solve the issue and drilled about 6-7 holes into the 2 trees and tapped in some insecticide inserts into the holes. We talked for a bit more, he gave me some literature and further instructions, and then he charged me $450 for about 30-45 minutes of time.

When I remarked that it was a pretty steep price to charge he said I was paying for his 45 yrs of experience. What could I say? At that point it's too late anyway, and if he's correct in his assessment then at least you have avoided the risk of "trial and error" by somebody else with less experience.

[chiluvr1228]

My capacitor died this weekend. My son, who is not an a/c person but is pretty smart, not only diagnosed the problem but searched for hours (this was a Sunday) until he found a new one and he replaced it in less than 5 minutes. Looked it all up online. Cost me $15.

The last time I had to replace the capacitor, an a/c tech told me I needed a whole new unit, despite the fact that mine is 3 years old. He quoted me $10K!

[TimAZ]

Originally Posted by john3232

You're not paying the AC tech, plumber, electrician for the 45 min. they spend fixing the problem. You’re paying for their 25 years of experience.

When a company sends out a young puke who screws everything up and they still bill $150 for the service call, do we get a refund for providing on-the-job training? I didn’t think so…