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Jim, it's tough for guys like you and I. The customer often has no idea how much labor and materials go into the job. As you know, the labor is very often 4x or so the materials cost.
When you have small companies like ours, when I am the guy on the job, it's much easier. We can't expect our guys to work for nothing. That's where it gets tricky.
I hate it when you do all you can and still lose a customer.
I was doing 3-4 calls a day for a property management company, the standard combustion blower motor was around $130, I ran into a Carrier high-end furnace the COST on the combustion blower motor was $375.00. The you had to take the gas valve off, all the piping and the burners out to change it. New tenant, the gas company wouldn't turn on the water heater because of some flex gas line rubbing. I had to fix that also.
As a result of that one job, I lost the account. I took pictures, explained, did no good, at that point, they lost confidence.
If I had it to do over, I would eat the whole job except the standard $130.00
Part of the business. The next guy will run into the same scenario eventually.
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