$29 Tune-up Legit or a sales pitch?

Is a $29 tune-up a “good deal”?

Only if you like to be sold with a lot of high pressure. What do I mean? 

Think about it. With the inflation we have experienced over the past few years, it is not practical for a qualified, experienced technician to do a tune up for $29. It only works if the tech is able to upsell something. 

For example: A good technician is paid about $45 per hour. The additional costs (burden) of an employee (payroll taxes, health insurance, SSI etc.) is about 35% which means the tech alone costs about $61 per hour. If a typical tune-up takes about 2 hours including drive time that’s $122 just for the tech.  The cost to drive a service van is about $1 per mile (no they don’t get good gas mileage, and tires etc. are expensive). If the average distance both directions for a call is 15 miles then the cost of the vehicle is $15. 

Without including anything for advertising, a dispatcher to answer the call etc. the bare minimum cost for a tune-up is $137. 

The only way a company can do a tune up for $29 which means a loss of $108 on each call, is for there to be a lot of pressure to sell a new furnace, or “find” something wrong that can be repaired. 

The whole point of a tune-up is to maintain the equipment and find issues that are coming up so they can be taken care of on a planned basis not an emergency. 

Finding problems can be a good thing but only if it is legitimate. 

If there is a great deal of pressure applied to the tech, to apply to the homeowner, that is no fun for anyone!

So next time you are tempted to respond to an offer that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Pay for a good tune up! You will be better off in the short and long run, unless you like to play defense with a high pressure salesman disguised as a repair technician.