What the $80 Diagnostic Actually Buys You

A diagnostic fee is worth explaining, because the phrase covers very different things at different companies.

Ours is flat, it is $80, and it is credited toward the repair if you go ahead. It is not a call-out charge with the real work priced separately afterwards.

What is included

A technician comes to the house at a scheduled time. They identify the fault, not the symptom, and they tell you what it will cost to fix before anything is ordered.

That means measuring rather than guessing. On a column refrigerator with a warm fresh food section, a frosted evaporator, a stuck damper and a cracked fan blade produce an identical complaint at the door and three different invoices. On a dishwasher with a long cycle, we measure the incoming water temperature before condemning a heating element.

On a hood that pulls poorly, we check the duct and the exterior damper before we recommend a motor, because in Jacksonville the termination is the fault more often than the blower is.

The written estimate

You get the estimate in writing before any part is ordered or fitted. Not a verbal number, and not a range that firms up later.

If the estimate arrives and you decide against the repair, the $80 stands and nothing else is charged. That is the whole point of a flat fee. You are buying a straight answer, and a straight answer has value even when the answer is no.

When we tell you not to repair it

We do this more than people expect.

A column past fifteen years that has already had one compressor is usually not worth a second sealed-system repair. A control board that has failed twice behind a shared circuit will fail a third time unless the circuit is fixed first. An induction cooktop with cracked glass needs a surface, not a repair.

Saying so costs us the job and keeps the relationship. We would rather have the second call than the first invoice.

What it does not include

The $80 covers diagnosis. It does not cover parts, and it does not cover the labour of the repair itself — those appear on the written estimate.

It also does not cover work that is not ours to do. We do not rewire circuits, alter cabinetry or modify exterior duct terminations. Where a fault traces back to the installation, we document it clearly so the right trade can act on it.

Warranty

Labour carries 90 days. Parts carry 365 days. Parts are genuine OEM.

Sealed-system work is performed by technicians holding EPA Section 608 certification, which that work legally requires.

What helps before we arrive

Three things make the visit shorter and the diagnosis better.

Note when the behaviour changed, and whether it followed a storm. Duval County sees roughly 68 thunderstorm days a year, and a fault dated to a storm points straight at the supply and the board.

Tell us if ventilation runs to a remote or attic blower. The failure and the controls sit in different places, and it changes what we bring.

Tell us roughly when the kitchen was built. A 1920s Riverside retrofit and a 2005 Deerwood build fail in different ways, and we plan access differently for each.

Booking

Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday 9am to 4pm. Scheduled appointments only — we do not run a 24-hour or emergency line, and we would rather say that plainly than take a call we cannot serve well.