$956 for a $88 part and less than an hour labor!
I had Russo Bros. & Co. come out for service for intermittent heat and they charged a $150 diagnostic fee. It was a warm day and the technician was time constrained and their opinion was there was no issue but assured me if there was any issue, Russo Bros. & Co. would come back and waive the diagnostic fee.
Shortest version, it was a warm month and it is a area of the house not used every day, about a month later we turned on the heat and it didn’t work so I called Russo Bros. & Co.. They were not very pleasant about informing me I’d need to pay another diagnostic fee, even though I agreed if I didn’t have them do any work I’d pay it. Even though they answer the phone “it’s a great day at Russo Brothers”, they were mean-spirited and argumentative about collecting their fee.
Russo Bros. & Co. sent a Service Manager who apologized and said they would waive the diagnostic fee, it was a misunderstanding and requested I take down a yelp review. They replaced a circulator pump.
What prompted the re-review for prospective customers is that they charged me $956 for the circulator. The circulator pump has a list price of $157 and sells on amazon for $88. https://amzn.to/2S8lN8I
My system has individual shut-offs for each pump, plenty of space to work and the Service Manager was in my basement less than an hour.
For those interested, a search for “cost to replace circulator pump on boiler” on Angie’s list a full repair including labor ranges between $200 and $550, this was the highest range I could find, and their assumptions even use same Taco-brand pump.
https://bit.ly/2T58dmB
https://bit.ly/2LsU1RE
I understood I was paying a premium with Russo Bros. & Co, but as other reviews note I believe they gouged me on price, in my specific case and giving them the benefit of the doubt, they overcharged me more than 42%. And by the way, there was a Better Business Bureau complaint about their diagnostic fee.
I’ll never use them again.
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