Any Advice For an Excessive HVAC Invoice

[Heidi Dunn]

Hi All, My tenant called at 10 pm on Jan. 1st to let me know that the furnace (natural gas boiler) was constantly cycling on and off and the temp was dropping in the home.  I instructed him to contact the local HVAC company for after hours service.  I knew it was going to be expensive!  The tenant informed me the next day that the HVAC company called right back and within an hour the tech showed up.  He was there for a total of 50 minutes and replaced a Pressure Switch.  The tech informed my tenant the pressure switch was about $50 - $60.  

The invoice came yesterday and the bill is $488.  The breakdown is a 2 hour service call at $420 and $63.99 for the part.

I'm grateful for the service, but this seems so excessive.  My tenant timed the guy and he was there for less than one hour.  My question is, what would you do?  Pay it, and be grateful my tenant had heat on a cold holiday, after having the power out for two days over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (we had a really bad winter storm and a huge area was without power for several days), or call the company and try to negotiate the cost down a bit, because the tech was not there for two hours (their shop is 10 minutes away), while trying to maintain a good working relationship with them?

Also, would you have handled this whole situation differently?  I'm a newbie landlord and appreciate your feedback!

[Heidi Dunn]

Originally posted by @Jassem A.:

You could call and ask if they can discount it since it was only 1 hour. Pay it either way and then find a less expensive hvac company to work with.

Another poster suggested they have a minimum, which I did not think about.  In any event, I'll be calling around to see what different places charge and see about the availability of service contracts.  I would certainly like to stay on good terms with them, since we live in a rural area and there are not too many different companies to choose from.  Thanks for responding.