One of the springs went out on our garage door(Wayne Dalton). I decided to call a certified repair center to have it fixed. It was about 4:30 pm when the door failed. I got in touch with an after hours repairman at about 5:30pm. He told me that the normal labor charge was $110 but the after hours labor charge was $175. I asked him if he had time to repair it that day and he told me that he was right around the corner from our locatoin on a call and could be there in less than 10 minutes. He asked me what year the door was installed and whether it was a 2 car garage or a 1 car garage. It is a 2 car garage installed in 2004. I told him that I would speak with my wife to see if she really needed to have it repaired that evening or if she could wait until the following week (it was Thursday). I hung up, discussed it with my wife, and she decided she wanted it fixed that night. I call back the repairman and tell him she wants it done that evening so we would like him to come by. He promptly arrived. He came in, looked at the door and said he didn't have the spring, that will be $175 for the visit. He said we could call in and get on the regular schedule to have it fixed. I figured it sounded strange that he knew the specifics on the door ahead of time, knew we only wanted him to come by if the door was going to get fixed and then came by anyway to charge us the after hours fee. In these types of cases, I figure the guy is only following protocol and that I would call the company the next day to discuss it. Thinking about it later, I became quite irritated with the fact that he came by after I told him our neighborhood (Centex homes all installed by Wayne Dalton in 2004) and the specifics on the garage.
The next day I called the company and spoke with the person who answered the phone. He sounded very sympathetic to my case, after listening to the story above. He said he would speak with the person authorized to make a decision on this and describe everything to this person that I had told to him. Soon, the other person (Jake I believe) came on the phone. He told me that he didn't need to hear the story again, he had completely filled him in. He then said that they offer no assurance that the door will be fixed during an after hours call and that the $175 fee would have to stand. He also mentioned that the fee would be applied toward the next visit's labor charges. He was not rude, just speaking very matter of fact. He then asked me if I would like to be put on the schedule. I told him not at that time. He sounded a little surprised when I told him this, but I felt that with the way the story unfolded, they should have repaired the door for the regular hours labor fee. He told me that we also received an extra service when the repariman helped me manually open the garage door. I had done this in the past on my own and it sounded strange that he would try to tell me that this also was a part of the $175 service.
I decided to go with someone else, Ronnie of Powers Garage Door (919-528-4148). He came by, was very friendly and helpful and detailed what was need to repair the door springs and why. I googled the information he gave me and what I found completely agreed with what he told me. The springs are rated for about 10,000 cycles, equating to about 10 years of service. Both springs will give out at about the same time(usually within a month), requiring two services if they are not replaced at the same time. Wayne Dalton was reccomending(and provided an estimate for) replacing one spring, which would have resulted in another large labor cost and pricier parts fee if I had gone with them. I had Ronnie replace both springs at the same time.
I am glad I decided to call Powers Garage Door and eat the $175 that Wayne Dalton charged me, to get the job done right.
A side note, I have several friends in one of the local police departments. I had lunch with them the Friday that I spoke with Jake at Wayne Dalton. They advized me that I should have not paid the after hours repair fee since I had completely discussed the specifics of the repair needed with the repairman, and then he came by unprepared to make the fixes that he was aware needed to be done. They said a judge would never have ruled against me given the specifics of this case. read more
