Is my HVAC repair quote fair?
Contractors often provide wildly varying estimates, with quotes sometimes ranging from $15,000 to $45,000. Even when parts are covered under warranty, it is difficult to know if extra costs should already be included in the replacement price. This threat of inflated pricing exhausts people and forces them to seek outside expert opinions before approving an all-in cost.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Getting additional quotes from other contractors
- 2Calling the contractor to verify and clarify itemized charges
- 3Asking online communities for regional price comparisons
- 4Getting multiple quotes to gauge local market rates
- 5Asking neighbors for contractor recommendations
- 6Discarding extreme high bids and focusing on middle quotes while checking permits and load calculations
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm inclined to trust this company as I've had good experiences with them in the past, but wanted to get some expert opinion on whether $5600 all-in seems reasonable here.”source ↗
“Given that the parts are under warranty I was wondering if some of these costs should be already included in the coil replacement cost (the $2065)”source ↗
“I am, but I'm tired of dealing with crappy contractors giving out bullshit inflated quotes. So far I've got quotes from 15k to 45k.”source ↗