What a visit costs

The flat diagnostic

$129 covers the visit and the diagnosis: getting to the appliance, pulling it where it needs pulling, measuring what needs measuring, and telling you what is actually wrong. It is the same figure for a cooktop igniter and for a built-in refrigerator that has to come out of its cabinet, and it does not change with distance inside the 40-mile radius.

Flat diagnostic fee, credited toward the repair when you approve the work. If you decide not to go ahead, the $129 is what you have spent, and you keep the diagnosis in writing — including the part numbers — whether you use us for the repair or not.

What happens between the diagnosis and the invoice

You get a written estimate before any part is ordered or any labour is billed. The estimate names the part, the price of the part and the labour to fit it, as separate lines. There is no bracket, no "from", and no allowance we can fill in later.

Parts are genuine OEM. That is a cost decision as much as a quality one: an aftermarket board or igniter is the most common reason a repair returns inside a year, and a repair that returns is one we have to stand behind twice.

Why we do not publish a repair price list

Because we would have to invent it. The same complaint — an oven that will not hold temperature — resolves to a drifted sensor on one visit and a relay on the control board on the next, and those are not comparable jobs. A published table would either be so wide it told you nothing, or so narrow it was wrong. Ballast Point Appliance quotes after measuring, which is the only point at which the number can be honest.

What is not billed

• No charge for a second visit to fit a part we ordered from our own diagnosis.
• No mileage or fuel surcharge inside the service radius.
• No after-hours rate, because there are no after-hours appointments.
• No fee for telling you on the phone that the appliance is not one we work on.

If the repair is not worth doing

Sometimes it is not, and a built-in with a failed sealed system in its third decade is the usual case. We will say so in the estimate rather than quote the work and let you decide against it after the fact. The diagnosis you have paid for is still yours, and it is the document to hand a replacement installer.