Recently, I called a large heating cooling company to service a ducted heater and diagnose a heating problem for my Mother. My Mother informed me the technician carried out some work and could not resolve the heating problem that required a part that they did not have in stock. My mother received a phone call from the service department the following day that the part, a new thermostat, will cost $350 plus labour. My poor 82 year old Mother called me in a panic and I rang the service department the following day to follow up. The original thermostat was the very old style with just a slider and 2-wires from the heater.
That night I researched all I could about my Mother's heater being a very old Brivis Wombat 92 pre-electronics model. How can a simple thermostat cost $350, plus another $150 to install? My analysis of the thermostat was that it was just a simple switch and bridging the wires was enough to test it rather than installing a new one. More research and I found a Heater Controller Technician in Frankston who gave me a 101 lesson in heating controllers and all things that I could try in resolving the issue.
Armed with a bit of knowledge I rang the heating company and queried the expensive thermostat and that a cheaper thermostats would be adequate, and the service person was trying tell me there would be compatibility issues blah blah - not so according to my Frankston Tech. But the most annoying thing to be told was that if this did not rectify the problem, then they would have to look at replacing the controller. My alarms bell rang very loudly as this was an admission that they had no idea what the problem was, and were willing to throw parts at the problem till it worked.
The potential cost for servicing and diagnosing a ducted heater is as follows
Initial service and diagnosis- $250
New thermostat- $350
Labour to install- $150
This would be $750 and no guarantee that it would resolve the issue.
I found a manual online and studied the mechanism of the heater and was able to conclude that it was not the thermostat with my tests. I rang another HVAC tech to look at the heater problem. His diagnosis was the thermostat and controller are working perfectly. There was an overheating issue shutting down the furnace. A few tweaks and all is working perfectly for a cost of $85.
My Mother could have spent thousands of dollars trying to repair her aging heater or thousands on a new system to cut her loses when attempted repairs become too expensive compared to buying a new unit.
Either way I feel there is some kind of injustice to the whole scenario. The customer is paying a premium for someone "guessing" what might be the issue and could potentially change every part for a new one till the heater works and take no responsibility for all the failed attempts and the cost of parts and labour. Or maybe this is just their business structure of scaring the customer with excessive repair costs to submit them to purchasing a brand new heating unit from them.
I complained to the large company. Their attempt to justify the incompetence was cut short with my anger at them for ripping off my Mother. A prompt refund arranged.
So it's a rhetorical question as it appears you got a refund