Palum
what Suineg set it to
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.
I don't mind paying for diagnostics but for a quote it's retarded. Like you can't give me a rough idea to install a new kitchen faucet or add a sub panel next to the main or a price per sq foot to install new carpet? Lowe's and HD can tell me how much that is.