“All I want is a price range on this standard job. Is it really that hard to just give me an estimate over the phone?“
It happens at the most inconvenient time, during an emergency or in the middle of harsh weather conditions. You’re in a rush to find a home service company, so you call your local shop, hoping to find all of the answers and ending up with hardly any. Many home improvement companies don’t give cost estimates over the phone without seeing the scope of work in person. At Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning, we practice this method of not giving phone estimates, not because we don’t want to be helpful, but because we choose to operate according to certain morals and ethics.
Truly, there’s so much that goes into giving a quote, so we asked a few of our service managers to simplify the answer for us. Here are the 4 main reasons why Radiant and, many other businesses alike, don’t give ball park phone estimates.
The Importance of In-Person Assessments
The Guessing Game – We aren’t able to determine the cause of an issue by hearing an explanation over the phone. Typically customers who call in for service aren’t licensed plumbers, so when they try to explain their issue, they usually aren’t seeing the entire scope of work. Furthermore, some customers aren’t aware that one symptom could potentially mean multiple issues.
A Picture Actually Says Very Little – Some customers offer to email us a photo of their plumbing or A/C issue in hopes that the 2D image will give us a better idea. Unfortunately, our technicians are unable to see through the walls and fixtures in your home, which is why we make sure they’re equipped with the correct tools to help them diagnose the issue once they are on site.
Every Home is Different – No home is created the same. The land, layout, and structure of every home is completely different and can mean the difference between a simple repair and having to cut out pieces of your walls. In addition, the scope of work also depends on your unit type, source of power (gas or electric), access to unit and other technical factors. Unfortunately, home service fixes aren’t universal across all models and brands of units.
- Russian Roulette Billing – It’s a little unethical to give a wide range of pricing without truly knowing the cost. The last thing any customer wants is to be given a starting price that could potentially increase by hundreds of dollars once the technician is on site. More than a few times, our technicians have arrived at a job only to find out that they’ll be needing more or a different type of material to fix the issue.
We understand how valuable it is to know ahead of time how much you’ll be spending on having your A/C, heating, or plumbing issue repaired before committing to a service. No one wants to go into any financial situation blindly. However, getting the diagnosis correct the first time is the best way to ensure that your issue is fixed to 100% accuracy.
Choose Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning
Not to mention, when you choose Radiant Plumbing & Air Conditioning, our 5-star technicians will not only assess your A/C, heating, or plumbing issue in person, but they will hold their accurate quoted price for 30 days! Definitely enough time for you to make a well-informed decision! All it takes is a free day in your calendar and one request to schedule an appointment.
