Total Equipment Care

Absolutely terrible experience! Read the exchange below:
I paid $309 for them to come out and tell me that i needed to spend $1300 more to repair a fryer that cost 1000. All it was ... a hex screw that had fallen out!!! The owner is all over the place and she really does not have a clue !

She wrote:
Good morning, Mike. I have read your text, looked at the picture, pulled your invoice and reviewed your quote.

First, the initial charge was not $350.00, it was $309.45 which ...
Second, being that the initial call was for the fryer possibly being installed wrong, that was the first focus of the technician. It was noted on the invoice that he had never seen a unit shoot flames like that before. Gas valves and regulators are the common cause of flame issues and as it had never been used before and was thought to be installed incorrectly, it was an obvious assumption that the valve and regulator were damaged.

Third, we were out to do the diagnosis on January 22, 2026. We have not heard anything from you since then. There is no way of knowing if that "cap" fell off after we were there or not, or if it was removed by someone else diagnosing the unit. There is also no way of knowing if replacing that cap actually fixed the issue, or if our initial diagnosis was incorrect. ...

Fourth, you did not like our quote and did not approve it. No harm was done. We charge to diagnose equipment. It is up to the customer to decide whether or not to take our recommendation. You stated last night that you have spent the last three months looking for a lower quote until you decided to handle things on your own. I am curious about what other technicians told you the issue was and why they did not catch this cap issue?

We did our due diligence, and the charges were justified and reasonable. The invoice was signed at the time of service that the work was completed to satisfaction. Therefore, I will not be refunding your $309.45.

My Response: Hi Lisa,

I strongly disagree with your assessment, and quite frankly, your response reinforces the exact concerns I had about your service.

Let’s be clear:

The technician was not on site for 1.25 hours. He was there for roughly 45 minutes, and only a fraction of that time was spent evaluating the second issue. Representing that as a longer, more involved service is simply inaccurate.

More importantly, your entire defense hinges on assumptions rather than proper diagnosis. What a customer reports and assumes, should never override a technician’s responsibility to accurately assess the equipment based on professional expertise. Instead, your technician jumped to conclusions about valves and regulators—an assessment that was completely wrong.

The actual issue was a loose cap—a basic, visible problem that I identified myself once I decided to just have a look myself. That alone demonstrates a clear lack of thoroughness in your inspection.

You then quoted $1,300 to repair a problem that required nothing more than securing a loose component. That is not a reasonable misdiagnosis—that is a complete failure to properly evaluate the equipment and you seem to be unwilling to take any responsibility, or accept the fact that what I paid for was a diagnosis which proved to be completely wrong.

Your claim that “there is no way of knowing” when the issue occurred does not hold weight. The fact remains:

You stated that you “did your due diligence.” The fact that I was able to identify the issue myself in minutes proves otherwise.

Charging $309.45 for an incorrect diagnosis and no meaningful work is not justified....

Mike

Her response: I do not appreciate threats. I will not be refunding this money. It has been over three months since we heard anything from you. You have no proof that our diagnosis was wrong or that this cap was the issue. We are going to have to agree to disagree. You obviously do not like our company, which is fine and have the choice to not work with us again.

Best around

Over priced for service provided