All Forum Posts by: Ross Bernard

It is the burden of the applicant to provide evidence to clear this up. It is not your burden to investigate further, unless you choose to make it your burden.

This all reminds me of an episode of American Greed. Two women owned a small hardware store and signed a contract with the federal government. The women quickly realized that the government was automatically approving their bills. The women proceeded to charge tens of thousands of dollars for shipping on a part that cost less than $10. They took tens of millions in shipping premiums over the years until the government caught on. By the logic that several of you seem to follow, they did nothing wrong. The federal government felt different. The two were charged with fraud and given lengthy prison sentences. Greed knows no bounds, and neither does people's justification of it. 

Winston, it is a very high price. The board originally sold for $120 before it was deemed 'obsolete' by Honeywell. I bought the obsolete board just to rule out variables, but the replacement model from Honeywell would have been about $120. I found this out after installing it. So that would make it a markup of $580, or nearly 500%. But I guess that's fair, right contractors?

1. Let me clear a few things up, and then I'm done with this topic. He did not have the part in stock, he would have had to order it just as I did. HVAC is not Ruth's, it is not Walmart. Those are not at all comparable business models, so those analogies fail. I went to my mechanic the other day to get my oil changed. I got a quote on getting brake pads changed while I was there. He wanted to charge $130 for the pads plus $230 for labor. I looked online for the part and guess how much it cost? $130. But how can he possibly stay in business?! He charges for labor...Not sure why this is such a foreign concept to some of you. Sounds like we have a lot of contractors responding to this. If you want to charge people into oblivion for parts, go ahead. If you think that's honest business, we disagree.

Alexander, I would have paid him had he asked. I paid for his services twice in the past. He said the price of the board was $700. That is being dishonest; the board costs $380. If he had said, the board costs $380, installation and everything else costs $405, that would be honest. Same total, one way of breaking it down is dishonest. 

Kent here is the difference in your analogy: I don't have access to Walmart's suppliers. If Walmart sells a shirt for $10, and Target sells the same one next door for $5...

Craig, a dentist has spent a little more time and money on his education than an HVAC technician. And if you are confident in your abilities, as a layman, to perform your own dental work by all means go ahead.

Aaron, just FYI 100+380+150 = 630, not 680. If he needs to charge an additional $320 on top of parts and labor for a 15 minute job to stay in business, he is not making good decisions and his business doesn't deserve to survive. And if another contractor quoted the same price, his business also does not deserve to survive.  No seething anger here.

Aaron, all that does not add up to $405. Sorry. If you want to pay exorbitant prices for contractors, go ahead. But if you are going to resort to name-calling, please stay off the BP forums. 

 The money to be made is for his labor. A small premium payed for parts is not unreasonable. Charging double what something costs elsewhere is unreasonable. He charges $85/hour in labor. So he would make $405/hr. That's better than nearly all physicians make. Unreasonable.