ModernMuscleCars.net - Modern Muscle Cars Archive - Sears can suck my left nut....

Pages: 1

Sears can suck my left nut....
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: rodslinger

A little background info. Atlanta Gas can suck my right nut first....

It all starts with the high cost of natural gas. And this got me to thinking. Since I'm in the middle of remodeling the house I might as well throw in a new efficient heat pump and be done with gas completely. The current system is 15 years old and the evaporator coil is located such that the cover can't be removed for cleaning. Also, the gas is only used for heat and hot water and the $40 summer gas bill is pissing me off since $35 of that is just the base charges. And my winter bills have been about $150 a month.

And before you start the "well I'm paying $400 a month" rant you need to know I'm not even living in the house while remodeling it. The heat is set on something like 50 degrees and the hot water heater is at its lowest setting. I can't imagine what the bill would be if I were living in it. I take maybe one shower here a week if I get really dirty while working here.

So here is where Sears comes into play. I'm a lazy ass and decided just to let someone else do the install. I figured Sears would be a good target as I could take advantage of 0% interest on my Sears account and have a large company to sue if they screw something up. So the guy comes out, looks at the condensing unit and tells me I need a 2.5 ton system. Never bothered to actually SIZE the system. Check the square footage, type of windows, etc... All the stuff you need to know how much real BTU's per hour I need.

So now it comes down to pricing. I've alerady priced systems for self install and had a good idea of what I felt was fair for someone else to do it including labor. They throw out $4300 which I feel is a bit higher than the norm. Well a lot higher actually. (I've been paying a guy $2500 for complete installs on other houses I've been working on. That's for the entire system, ducting AND labor.) Then he tells me labor will range from $1500 to $2000... WTF are they smoking. About $6000 installed for a 2.5 ton system that would wholesale for about $1200 and take about 3 hours to swap.... Ducting is good, locatoin is clean and clear. Nothing more than swapping the boxes, connecting and charging.....

No thanks Sears. Looks like I'll be doing it myself.

Anyone else have any good stories about someone trying to screw you over?

Posted by: skeezix

I would but I think I'd wear my fingertips out telling you.

Posted by: LS1JAY

Kinda like getting Home Depot to do your roof. They hire another roofer to do the job (Roofing contractors can fill out their application and if you're chosen you can work under them) and pay double of the cost for your average roof. I gave a bid of $3,500 for a small roof a while back and the homeowner showed me the Home Depot estimate for over $8,000! Home Depot gets the same amount the roofer gets and they never even see the job!

Posted by: Giz

I have installed furnaces ,ac and heat pumps for sears once they send me to look at a job (it's already sold but they don't even know if it will fit ) i won't bid against them but I could do the same job with better equipment (theirs is ICP a builder model made by Heil which is owned by Carrier) and still be 30% less but it is like buyina a car they may all have 4 tires but aren't the same . my new heat pump and I am a dealer (wholesale) is as follows
3 ton dual fuel heat pump
furnace $1320
outdoor unit $2018
indoor coil $ 374
TXV $ 66
thermostat $ 224

now this is the top of the line stuff that I put in my office as a working display but you can see how easy it is to get above $1200

Giz

Back to the Forums