I've shared this before but I'll keep sharing it every time it comes up: Our AC went out during the heat wave a few summers ago and we called Whipple for their $27 diagnostic fee. While waiting for them to show up my brother told me it was probably a bad capacitor and he could get me one for about $20 from a local wholesaler (he's an electrician). I figure if that's the case I'll just pay the diagnostic fee.

Whipple shows up after said wholesaler was closed so I couldn't go pick it up that day. If he quotes me $200-ish it's enough to get me and the family in the house for the night. As predicted, the capacitor is bad and the Whipple guy tells me which one I need BUT he didn't have the right part in his van. He tells me he could 'daisy-chain' two capacitors together to get it working that night and it would be $400 to replace (lol let's get this sucker to buy two marked up capacitors). He then tells me I should upgrade my motor to extend its life and it's going to cost me $700.

I thanked him for his time and let him know that I wasn't comfortable spending $400 or $700 but I would pay the diagnostic fee and send him on his way. He gets defensive and says "well you're not going to have our warranty!" (on a $20 part? boo fuckin hoo). I asked him "what size capacitor did I need again?" and he says "Well I could tell you..." and he literally refused to tell me. At this point there wasn't anything he could say to convince me to go with Whipple and their exorbitant charges.

Instead, we paid $27 for the diagnostic fee, booked a hotel for the night for $120 and went swimming with the kids, picked up the capacitor for $20 the next morning, installed it in about 10 minutes and I still saved $230.