Free Furnace? Free Service Call? Sound to good to be true?
March 16, 2017
We have all received those inserts in the mail or seen them online that always sound really amazing, but once that initial WOW feeling goes away we think how can they do that. They will tell us somewhere why they can do this when no one else can and make us think maybe it is possible? Unfortunately the bad news is if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.
"Free Furnace with the purchase of an air conditioner and installation"
We have quoted a lot of job's and never told anyone we are giving them a free furnace or air conditioner, but when comparing apples to apples we always come out better priced than when someone tells them they are giving them a free furnace or air conditioner. I am typically always asked afterwards how’s that possible if you didn't give me it for free.
In those ad's there are always some type of restrictions or something you need to do to take advantage to the free item. Like the ad above to get the free furnace you have to purchase an air conditioner and have them both installed. Still sounds like it should be a good deal. What if though mark the furnace at zero and then mark up the other items up to accommodate make up the difference of what I would normally sell the furnace for. It shows that you are getting a FREE furnace, but in reality you paid for it just under a different item.
"Free Service call with the repair"
The other question we hear a lot when people call is the do you offer a free service call. We are a business and to continue to be in business and pay our employees we do have to charge for items. We try to be as fair as possible and one of the reasons we have stayed away from flat rate pricing. With that being said when looking at the "Free Service Call" there are a few things you need to know:
First you have to do the repair and normally there is some sort of dollar figure attached that the repair has to exceed to get the free service call.
Second if you decline the repair you have to pay for the service call.
Third majority of the companies use a flat rate price structure. What that means is all repairs are created equal no matter how different they will be. Someone somewhere said this repair will take 2 hours and 30 minutes to do and will cost X amount of dollars. What happens though if it only takes one hour? Well you are still paying for the entire 2.5 hours as that is what the book says.
Numerous times with us using are standard time and material structure we almost always come out a lot cheaper for the same repair another company was giving that free service call away.
Free is not always free so make sure you do your homework before making any decision.