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I actually already have a few from Harbor Freight. Plus I have STL files to actually 3d print rails for it as well...
Home Improvement
- Thread starter Picasso3
- Start date
See if any of the bros in the woodworking thread are near your dad? Good equipment can always find a home.
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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Khane
Got something right about marriage
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The compressor in my central A/C unit blew 2 weeks ago. It was under warranty. I was charged $1500 in labor to have it fixed. It took 1 technician 2.5 hours to do it. There are some other costs associated other than labor like recharging the refrigerant but that's essentially $500/hr.
Now here's the problem. I called 6 different companies after I got the original quote. Multiple times. Only 3 got back to me. 1, is so flush with work that they literally only work on American Standard units, I don't have an American Standard. The other 2 refused to give me over the phone quotes based on the detailed, written quote I already had. They have to see the unit themselves. One of them wanted to charge me $150 just to come out and look, the other wanted $240.
So what's the point of this story? When it's going to cost you multiple hundreds of dollars just to shop for the best service and most people wont even call you back, how the fuck are you supposed to ever be able to shop out work you need done in these arenas?
Send your kids to trade school, they'll be making more money than attorneys if they have any work ethic at all.
Now here's the problem. I called 6 different companies after I got the original quote. Multiple times. Only 3 got back to me. 1, is so flush with work that they literally only work on American Standard units, I don't have an American Standard. The other 2 refused to give me over the phone quotes based on the detailed, written quote I already had. They have to see the unit themselves. One of them wanted to charge me $150 just to come out and look, the other wanted $240.
So what's the point of this story? When it's going to cost you multiple hundreds of dollars just to shop for the best service and most people wont even call you back, how the fuck are you supposed to ever be able to shop out work you need done in these arenas?
Send your kids to trade school, they'll be making more money than attorneys if they have any work ethic at all.
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This is exactly my experience with plumbers and electricians. I had an emergency irrigation break that I didn't have the bandwidth to fix myself. The MOST affordable of the three guys who gave me quotes charged $120/hr to dig holes plus a flat fee for the fix.
Speaking of irrigation....
Hoooly o'fuck did I jinx myself here. What a fucking day.
Weather is hot and brother-in-law came over with my niece to swim. I was showing him the pool fill upgrade and he says, "Is it supposed to gush water out of the ground over there?" I see a geyser coming up not anywhere close to the valve I installed. Fuck!
Fast forward several hours of painstaking digging through tree roots. I discovered several things: 1) Root growth had cracked the PVC pool fill line. 2) The break was low enough that my pool was draining out through it into a planter bed. Note water pooling in first pic. This explains why I've been having to fill the damn thing so much. 3) Previous owners of the house had neglected maintenance to the point where there was an entire landscaping drain that had been buried under four inches of dirt. I've been in this house a year and I had no idea it was there. WTF!
The entire thing was riddled with roots like this 2.5'' diameter motherfucker.
Which had completely encased the offending pipe.
Resulting in this, about two feet down:
Finally got everything resolved after three, yes THREE, Home Depot trips. At this stage in the day I'm fucking exhausted from digging in 95 degree heat, totally dehydrated and hypoglycemic. Go to HD to get PVC fittings. Return home. Discover that some fucker mixed 1/2'' fittings in the box of 3/4''. Don't have the right fittings for the job. Return to HD. Discover that I forgot my wallet. Return home. Can't find wallet. Realize that it was in my car all along under the seat. Profuse expletives. Return to HD for third trip. Finish stupid job 9 hours after starting.
Buy a home, they said! You can maintain it just the way you want it!
FML.
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Denamian
Night Janitor
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I make friends with tradesmen whenever I can. Plenty of non tech savvy ones so I can exchange computer and general tech work for discounts on their services. Doing work for one guy sometimes ends up with him referring others to me, so I build up a list of people in various trades. If I don't know someone who does what I need, I usually can find someone who can point me in the right direction at the very least.
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Khane
Got something right about marriage
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I do have a fair amount of friends/contacts in the trades.
Two problems with using friends/acquaintances.
1) They don't prioritize scheduling for you because right out of the gate it's a "Well, I'm basically doing him a favor so I'll get to it when I can" situation
2) Hiring friends is a great way to lose friends
If you can make good contacts that actually respond and prioritize scheduling for you that's a great situation. Make sure to never fuck that up heh.
These guys make so much money now they don't even care about moonlighting after hours for some quick, extra cash.
Two problems with using friends/acquaintances.
1) They don't prioritize scheduling for you because right out of the gate it's a "Well, I'm basically doing him a favor so I'll get to it when I can" situation
2) Hiring friends is a great way to lose friends
If you can make good contacts that actually respond and prioritize scheduling for you that's a great situation. Make sure to never fuck that up heh.
These guys make so much money now they don't even care about moonlighting after hours for some quick, extra cash.
That isn't a bad price. understand that there is also travel time to pick up that part, turn it back in for credit and warranty paperwork. probably comes out to $250/hr which is a healthy number.
I don't work with anyone elses diagnosis. Many people are retarded. If you called me up and wanted me to give a price on compressor replacement I would have to come to your house, confirm the the compressor is indeed dead, check warranty status and availability etc. Nobody is doing that for free.
If you know a younger person who is handy, get them into a union. After a 5 yr apprenticeship and passing a test it's $40+ an hour plus excellent benefits.
There is an electrician near me that doesnt even answer the phone. Voicemail says they are only doing work for clients they have done business with in the past 10 years and they are booked 6 months out.
ALSO it is extremely expensive to run any skilled trades company. A previous employer with about 12 employees had their health insurance cost increase from 5 to 8k per month.
I run my own side/LLC and my operating costs are $6-700 /mo and that doesnt cover paying for gas, truck repair or maintenance or paying myself.
ALSO it is extremely expensive to run any skilled trades company. A previous employer with about 12 employees had their health insurance cost increase from 5 to 8k per month.
I run my own side/LLC and my operating costs are $6-700 /mo and that doesnt cover paying for gas, truck repair or maintenance or paying myself.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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That's fine if you aren't also charging $150+ just to drive to my goddamn house. If you are charging then you should be willing to give me a rough estimate based on the previously quoted work over the phone. I'm not asking for anyone to commit an actual quote, I'm asking for you to say "Based on that quote this is what I would charge, but I still need to see the unit myself before committing to pricing". That way I have a basis of comparison.
The problem is when you have an unwillingness to have a candid conversation with customers and combine that with ridiculous service appointment charges you're just being greedy and practicing business in bad faith. But when literally everyone does it, customers have no choice and it makes it way easier for the really nefarious types to essentially scam people.
If I drive my truck, my tools and my brain to your house I'm charging you money. Nobody will do this for free.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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Correct, not anymore. And all I'm asking for is to be reasonable about that price ($150 is not reasonable) and to show a little good will by taking the 5 minutes on the phone to actually participate in the customer experience.
That kind of good will goes a long way and customers can't even get that much anymore. Instead they get attitudes like yours. "My truck, my tools and my brain" is literally the cost of doing business but you act like it's an humanitarian undertaking. As does everyone else today. And so you all think you deserve it when simply put, you're all just in on the scam together and customers have no better options.
$150 for a diagnostic visit is ridiculous, especially when they refuse to even talk to me otherwise. 1 visit an hour over a normal 40 hour week comes out to roughly $300k a year. Without ever doing any actual work. Obviously nobody is doing that many calls but it puts into perspective how idiotic some asshole electrician or plumber acting like that barely covers costs actually is.
fris
Vyemm Raider
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I've probably told the story before here. One time I wanted to replace the ceiling fan in my living room, which is a two-story vaulted ceiling. I've replaced ceiling fans and other rooms, but none of them were this high. I called a local company and asked for a quote, they said they wouldn't be able to without seeing it first. I thought that was kind of weird but blew it off. They charged me $45 to come look and said it would be applied to the services if I decided to go with them. They walked in and within 3 minutes were able to give me a full estimate. I wanted to know the full price before I paid someone because the ladder required was going to be over $400. If the service was less, I would have gone with the service. But if it was more I might as well get a ladder that I might use once or twice again in my life. I was so pissed but the $45 had me on the hook. Seems like a common business practice with onsite service.
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Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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I've been on that side of things, so I understand what is going on.
If a contractor is booked solid, why would they pull a guy off a scheduled/active job to go to your house for free? They could have just told you they were booked and hung up, but at least they're giving you the option.
If a company has dedicated service guys or estimators, that might be all they do. How are they supposed to cover that labor cost if they don't charge to show up? People will say "they should cover that labor cost from future work" but let's be honest here...if your A/C is out, how likely is it that you'll be willing to wait 6 weeks with no A/C while they work through their backlog just because they showed up to give you an estimate for free? They know the odds are good that you're just gathering quotes on the front end, there's no guarantee you'll even choose them, and no one is going to just go around giving away free quotes unless they're fucking desperate.
Places I've worked have told me, in no uncertain terms, that I am not to give ballpark numbers under any circumstances. It doesn't matter if it's binding or not.
I once told someone I thought it would be "just a motor" at Cost X, based on what I was hearing from him over the phone, and when we actually got there it was way worse than what the guy had thought and ended up being 3 or 4 times the cost I had told him (as a nonbinding ballpark number). I never should have listened to that guy. He bitched an absolute shit-fit with the company FOR MONTHS, and I had to fucking hear about it from management every time he called.
It also doesn't matter what someone else has told you or quoted you. That could be from your buddy, some shady guy working under the table for cash, or it could even be completely wrong based on a fuckup on that guys end.
I would never use someone else's quote to base anything of mine on. Holy shit. There's way too many tards out there in the trades. I'd rather chew glass.
The only way I'd do what you're asking is if you were a friend of mine, that I'd be willing to eat some cost for and lose a few bucks on.
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Siliconemelons
Avatar of War Slayer
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My capacitor died - during that fiasco i made friends and became the “i.t. Guy” for them somehow… It’s good to have friends in the trades. Also good to have a place to go that will sell you any supply and part for ac stuff.
The biggest issue with swapping compressors is the soldering and then recharging of the system.
If you can sweat joint copper - know how to do a vac pump and the pressure balance tools… do basic wiring, you can put in almost any home AC unit.
The biggest issue with swapping compressors is the soldering and then recharging of the system.
If you can sweat joint copper - know how to do a vac pump and the pressure balance tools… do basic wiring, you can put in almost any home AC unit.
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Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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My favorite is when people say things like "it would be super easy for you and take only minutes". Sure might. But why would I do something that is super easy and most likely I would get a super low amount for when I could do something and make real money?
A lot of the shops I do work for people come in and say that a lot as well. Reason they don't deal with the general public. It might be super easy, but guy has to stop his work, then do the work you want after getting set up for it, and then get paid pennies on the dollar compared to what he was doing when he stopped.
A lot of the shops I do work for people come in and say that a lot as well. Reason they don't deal with the general public. It might be super easy, but guy has to stop his work, then do the work you want after getting set up for it, and then get paid pennies on the dollar compared to what he was doing when he stopped.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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Yea, everyone does this... now. Everyone treats every customer like they are potentially a pain in the ass because "oof that one time". This is not the way things used to be, and the only reason it is now, is because so few young people are going into these jobs over the last ~30 years.
You're not really responding to what I wrote, I never said to do estimates for free (even though as recently as 10-15 years ago I never had to pay these stupid service visit/estimate fees). And all I hear, when techs/contractors/tradesmen say stuff like this is "I can afford to be a shithead to customers, so I will be".
The reality is, the rest of us realize that this is going to happen whenever we need work done, these days, and is only going to get worse until more young people start entering these fields. It's pure market forces at work, but its frustrating enough that I need to vent. It's bad enough that if even one company had taken the time to do that I'd be a customer for life. 5 star review and I would have told everyone I know to use that company. And none of that matters, because nobody needs that at the moment so they don't really care. They have to turn work away as it is.
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