Our garage door opener failed after twenty years of faithful service. I thought I was calling a local garage door company but somehow wound up with a national scam company, Run Local Garage Door Co, although I never saw that printed anywhere. I signed up for a $29 service call. They said the guy would provide a written estimate prior to completing any work. The guy showed up in a junky dented truck with "Plumber" decals removed. He diagnosed a stripped gear in about 20 seconds and said it would take him 10 minutes to replace the little nylon gear. I figured that the $5 part along with labor might be $75, and he never gave the estimate.
He promptly completed the job and took about 10 minutes to produce a $225 bill. I refused to pay (a new opener from Sears is $150). We argued, he had the company call me from the corporate headquarters to negotiate (I offered $100, he countered $175, I hung up) and then the HQ guy suggested that they would remove the nylon gear and leave. I immediately agreed. He then pushed for the $29 service fee that I had agreed to but I also refused to pay that. He took out the gear and left.
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