For years, Centex Mechanical has been our go-to for heating and air conditioning, and has been 5-star in our book. Recent management changes within the family passing down to the next generation have made their pricing structure go from "favorable/what you would expect" to greedy, high-margin, looking for "the cream" new customers with no regard to long-term customers who have given their business for many years. For example, during my spring checkup last week, the surge-protector outside on the compressor had gone out. Instead of just honoring the warranty and giving the usual 15% loyalty discount, we were presented with 5 options for replacing this item, ranging from about $300 to over $1400. The option conditions were ridiculous. Customers are neither stupid nor willing to fall for such tactics. The part replacement took about 20 minutes, so the "bottom" option I chose was still almost $300 even after the part warranty reduction. Their annual spring & fall checkup that was $199/year now has options up to nearly $500/year, with definitely not that much value-added to each choice. They are NOT grandfathering their loyal customers with the 15% discount, and are limiting the value of the new 10% discount. A younger generation of family has taken over and seems to think that there are enough new customers who will fall for this to offset any old-timers who leave. We may stay another year or so since they just installed another complete new system recently and there are already warranty issues, but we are definitely looking around for a company with old-fashioned values of their customers as reflected in their service and pricing. We have also found this exact same paradigm with our Bastrop-based family-owned plumbing company recently, so it will become critical for those of us on fixed income to search out the few remaining local "Mom & Pop" businesses that operate with some degree of valuing their customer base as their greatest asset.
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