It depends on what the coverage was on the initial thermostat. Say the thermostat has a 5 year warranty (from manufacturer) this warranty only covers the thermostat, does not cover labor.

If you have an invoice that breaks down warranty coverage from parts coverage / labor coverage and the term of each only then.

Some companies (like home warranty companies as an example) only warranty labor for 30 days. This 'term' on labor can vary widely.

I warranty my labor for a year in most instances.

( In addition to this is that the warranty of the part comes from the person who 'bought it'... so just because you have an invoice from 'abc' contractor with 'xyz' warranty coverage does not necessarily mean it will be covered by another contractor. )

Realize an HVAC company (most of them) are building a business of loyal customers, those that jump from one company to the next are more of a liability than an 'actual' customer.

I service the Katy, Tx area.

It depends what labor warranty you were given at the time of the installation. Is this an HVAC contractor, an electrician, or a handyman who installs thermostats?

I could understand one trip charge, but a second trip charge because he has to drive back to the store to buy another is a bit much. A Honeywell T6 sells for $58 on Amazon. He basically wants the money to buy another thermostat, and be paid to install it again.

I am skeptical the original thermostat is faulty. I think he has wired and/or programmed it incorrectly. He probably doesn't have the 2 heat mode set up properly. In the summer you are only using the 1 cool mode which probably the default setting. Makes sure you thoroughly test it before he leaves the house.

Thanks Austin Air Companie and Mike_Home! It is indeed an HVAC contractor. I too am skeptical at this point about the thermostat being faulty. I think we will do a little more investigating to verify this point first.

It doesn't hurt to investigate further. Thermostats do fail prematurely and in various ways.

I had a couple just this year that were off 3 to 4 degrees, with no way to offset the reading.

However, I am not your 'normal' run of the mill HVAC contractor. My customer was not charged for the new thermostats. (not even a service fee)

I no longer carry the brand that had the problem. With that said, these things are investigated on my end. Because just as much a thermostat could fail prematurely, the problem could also be due to user error or an equipment related failure of some kind.

Thermostats don't fail that often, but they do fail and for a variety of reasons.

I think the second service call charge is unreasonable. If this is a large service oriented company, they should have a spare thermostat in their service truck. If this is a small shop, they should be more concerned with keeping their long term customers rather than soaking them.

A small shop should be sending out the same person who installed the thermostat so if there is an install issue, he would be familiar with the decisions made at initial install. Not expecting the person to remember details but a good service person will have developed an approach to issues and will follow similar steps at each call. At the least, he would be able to call the previous tech and confer about the issues. The dispatcher should have caught this was a first need heat for heat on new thermostat issue and written the pertinent info on the work order.

If I did not do or witness the initial install, I would not be blaming the equipment until I took the thermostat down and checked all the wires and switch settings. Then, if it is a genuine product failure, I would be contrite for selling them a product that failed and not charge them three service calls for my choosing a poor quality product. A truly top notch service oriented contractor would have added that name to his reminder list of past customers to check in with after the first cold snap and would not have waited for the customer to call him.

CoolAir (PRO) said:

It happened to me too and i ended up paying 250 $. The cost of labor and their visit exceeded the cost of the part. What to do.

You are in the HVAC repair business and you have to hire someone to install a thermostat?

Yes, Lyndee Lee, I too think the service call charges, particularly two of them simply because he didn't happen to have it on his truck, is excessive. If this issue occurred a year out or so, or maybe at least after one winter, I wouldn't mind so much. But I do think it is crazy to be expected to pay labor install on a part the HVAC tech thinks is faulty in less than six months. I do really think it is poor customer goodwill. I would not even have a problem waiting for him to replace it, if necessary, when he happens to be in the area on another call. As mentioned above, I could have had a really nice thermostat installed for what this $58 one is costing. LOL! My husband did contact Honeywell directly and was given some instructions as to what some of the programming should be set to. Honeywell also indicated that the HVAC company should be taking the labor charges up with the distributor of the product. Again, I don't know that that is accurate either. At this point it's been two full days since he stopped by and we have not heard nothing but crickets from the HVAC company. I guess he will be getting a call tomorrow and we shall see where we go from here, I'm just curious to see what transpires at this point.

But again, I greatly appreciate everyone's thoughts and input.

Any reputable HVAC company should provide a year's labor warranty on any installation/service/repairs that they do. Sounds like you got a schlocky company. There should be no charge for the return trip as it was THEIR fault they don't carry spare parts/replacement parts that they routinely install. Call the company owner and complain.

I agree totally sktn77a. I do believe the tech that was here a few days ago and deemed the thermostat to be faulty is in the fact owner. I also suspect that he has already sensed our opposition to having to pay for a reinstall, which is probably why we have yet to hear back from him. I had done my research prior to utilizing this company back in June and had higher expectations of their service.

Many years ago, my house had a boiler and I needed to have the sight glass replaced. I talked with a boiler company and told them what needed done so they could bring the necessary materials. The guy brought one but he broke it trying to install it and then charged me for the time it took to return to the shop to pick up a second one. That added about $60 to the charge and I didn't comment, just paid the bill. I did not think I should pay for his arrogance in thinking he was good enough not to bring extra materials. But, I was relatively young and was not comfortable with confrontation and negotiation.

Twenty years or so later, the sight glass needed to be replaced again. I bought a package of six tubes on the internet and went to a science store and bought a glass tubing cutter. By that time, I had met up with a very talented fellow who performed or supervised all the work on the house. This guy was careful and successfully cut and installed the new one without breaking. The total cost was about a third the amount I paid for the professional and we left the remaining five pieces for the next owner.

The first company got a few hundred dollars from a one time customer. The second person has received many thousands of dollars and has worked with me for over a decade on multiple different properties. He has a customer for life and I have someone to call no matter what problem occurs. The two of us have a common complaint...good customer service is hard to find