Here is my 72 year old Mother that lives alone, experience with Thompson. She called them and told them she believed her AC unit was not cooling and later that day they sent out a serviceman. My mother said he was on time and very polite. The service man replaced a dual capacitor including parts and labor for $371.00 plus an electrical contacter including parts and labor for $371.00. Total for replacing the two parts was $742.00.He was at her residents for less than two hours. I have the old parts and can easily find them online for $25.00 each making the two parts worth around $50.00.
These parts are located inches from each other and are mounted with two screws and only have a few wires to terminate. I understand that companies markup parts, so let?s say they markup the two parts 100% which I would think would be on the higher end. Now the $50.00 in parts is now $100.00 in parts for company profit. They also have a $69.00 service charge. Here is how the Standard Rate reads on the service ticket. $69.00 Evaluation Fee + $371.00 parts and labor for contactor + $371.00 parts and labor for capacitor = $811.00.
If I subtract the $100.00 for the parts comes to $711.00.Then divide that $711.00 by the two hours the service man was at the house, Thompson charged her $355.50 PER HOUR. He actually worked on those two parts less than two hours because they also sold her a ?Thompson Club Membership? they also performed a cleaning and inspection for an additional $89.00. She ended up paying them $900.00 for the service call. After this being said, it?s interesting to subtract the possible $100 in parts from the $900 in charges, which obviously gives you $800. Divide the $800 by the two hours of labor and Thompson rate is $400 PER HOUR. Who in this world earns an hourly wage of $400 an hour?
This ?Club Membership? includes things such as a Whole House Plumbing and Tune Up that includes Faucet Aerators and Dye Tablets. I guess they check the faucet aerators for mineral deposits and then tell 72 year old widow how important it is to resolve the newly found problem. I hope they would give a ?club member? a break and only charge her the $355.00 per hour rate to clean this.
The next day I stopped into Thompson World Headquarters on N. Commence Ave in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Service Manager I needed to talk to that day was not in the office at this time. I was able to express my concerns with a very nice and professional employee. She told me that hourly rates are set on national averages and I would be contacted by someone tomorrow regarding my concerns. I was indeed contacted the next day and ask what my concerns were. I asked for a refund for ?Thompson Club Membership? and was informed they return the $89.00 as soon as possible. That leaves the total charges for this service call at $811.00 charging around $355 per hour. Thompson offered no more information or explanation of their charges.
I refuse to beg and grovel for some type of a refund even though I feel that they took advantage of my elderly mother. My mother agreed and signed for the charges and she will pay them- Thompson offered no restitution, so I can only assume Thompson stands behind their rates and service charges. As you can probably guess her AC unit stopped working doing a summer hot streak when going without AC is difficult for anyone at any age.
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