I subscribe to Silver service plan. As I continued to hear the rattling noise from the heating system for more than a week, I scheduled a service call. The technician came and just glanced at the heating system. The first words he spoke were “Alright, today we may have to charge you couple of hundred bucks!”.

He went back to the truck and came back with some parts. Then he told me that it would cost $311.00 !!!. Couple of hundred increased to $311 in 5 minutes!. He worked on the issue for 40 minutes. He replaced the feeder valve and two float air vents. I was there with the technician throughout and I have retained the package boxes for those parts that he replaced, with me.

I later checked the prices for those parts, the prices are as follows:

feeder valve: $46.00
Float type air vents: $8 each – 2 numbers.

Total cost for parts: $62.

Labor for 40 minutes of work : $311 – $62 = $249 !!!

It is shocking to know that their technician charged me more than $250 / hour !.