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Review content:
In brief-- quick service, but dishonest. I believe he charged on a 'sliding scale' based on my perceived ability to pay, took advantage of the fact that I appeared to be single and female, and that I was suffering from laryngitis, so could not adequately discuss/protest.'
Having owned my home for several years and had significant work done on it, I have never written a negative review for a contractor. In this case, it would be remiss of me not to.
The details...
Our heater gave out one morning, and I had my husband contact George while I waited at home for the repairman. I agreed to the $79 diagnostic fee, and he did come within a couple of hours as requested. He was able to diagnose a faulty capacitor within a few minutes, told me that it was my lucky day that it wasn't my heater, and immediately had me sign the invoice, agreeing to pay $150 for the part and installation. I was suffering from laryngitis at the time, so couldn't inquire as to why it was so expensive when he pulled the small part out of his van and quickly installed it. In all, it took less than half an hour.
After my husband got home, we looked into the cost of capacitors for my particular furnace unit, and it appeared that it retailed easily under $20. Paying $150 for the part + labor seemed rather excessive, so I contacted George about it. We exchanged several emails, in which he was rather insulting and belittling. He strongly implied that there was a surcharge for having such quick service (if I had been told that upfront, I would have declined his services and waited a few more hours for another company). ""Tell your husband I saved his dear sweet wife from a case of walking pnuemonia."" He kept pressing us to give him what we thought was a fair price. He finally revealed that there is a $65 'standard charge' to get a part, even if it was pulled out of his van (the fact that my capacitor was in stock reveals how common a failure point it is).
I was a bit dumbfounded by his last email to me. ""It's in your nature to haggle for a price, and you don't feel good about a sale unless you get some kind of discount or price reduction. Read the last sentence as: you don't feel good about a transaction unless you're gouging the service provider."" And then he suggested that we meet somewhere to discuss further.
I don't feel great about writing a negative review on someone trying to make a living, but at the same time, I wish I had read such a review before we contacted him. Instead, I was taken in by all the positive reviews. This was altogether an awful experience.
Btw, I was unable to post this review on ServiceMagic. Not only do they limit reviews to an unreasonably short character length, they filter out reviews that they find 'offensive,' hence severely misrepresenting the quality of their contractors. Never again, ServiceMagic.
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