This is What you get for going with the cheapest company.

Are you really getting the best deal when you choose a company that gives you the lowest bid for Preventive Maintenance (PM) service??

Reality is we all have similar operating costs, so if a company is offering a deal that is well below the norm, then they have no choice but to:

  1. Make up the difference elsewhere in form of exaggerated or unnecessary repair costs.
  2. Cut corners on the PM service – better known as wipe-and-go service where instead of performing an actual PM the tech just shows up to wipe a few machines down and write up all the issues and send you a repair quote the next day, therefore giving you reactive service when you think you’re paying for a PROACTIVE PM service.

Case in point:

This customer had a semi-annual PM contract for $150 – they have 9 pcs of cardio and 7 weight machines.  At a minimum they should have been on a quarterly plan for 3 hrs per visit.

Here is the competitor’s quote that even says on the quote “they’ll beat anyone’s price by AT LEAST 10%”  giving you the impression of being the super low price leader.

The customer finally called us because according to them this competitor was out 4 times to repair the same machine with no success while they kept sending the customer more repair /parts quotes for the same noise issue.

We offered to diagnose at no charge and found out the customer was being quoted on parts she didn’t need at prices almost 50% higher than factory’s Suggested Retail Price, and to add salt to injury, they quoted the customer 3 hours for a 1 hr job.   Total bill: double the actual cost.  This is how you make up the difference on a $50 a visit Wipe-N-Go Preventive Maintenance contract!!!!

Here is their quote vs. ours:

Service QuotesService Quotes

To avoid this scam:

  1. Make sure you read the fine print on the service contract and if it is NOT spelled out, ask the vendor what you will be charged for parts (MSRP? Vendors SRP?, any discounts?, etc…).  And what will be the labor rate for unscheduled visits, and make sure its all in writing.
  2. Do your homework – just because the quote says your part is $XXX amount, call the factory and shop the part to verify you’re not getting stiffed.
  3. If the repair quote seems high, it probably is, so call a competitor to get a second opinion. Even if costs you a service call for the quote, the savings maybe well worth the small fee like in this case and it will keep your vendor honest and on his toes.

Bottom-line: if you’re shopping for PM service, the average piece of cardio machine takes about 20 minutes to open up and service, so do the math.  If you get a quote for $100 to PM 10 machines that takes more than 3 hrs – unless the contractor is working for $5 an hour, you’re about to get scammed.

If this has happened to you, call us, we’ll be happy to help.