Do I need to pay for what the repairman broke?

My furnace needed a new solenoid shut off valve. When I got home my son told me that the repair man broke a board and went to get one. He hasn't return and I doubt he will be back before Monday. I don't know how much an electronic board will cost, but the valve was $250. Temps at night are in the 30s. We are not going to be comfortable this weekend. So who pays for what he broke?
Thank you
SDE

I own a service repair shop although not HVAC but if I break something I always pay for it no question about it. It is the cost of doing business fairly.

Yes...we don't do repairs but my mistakes are my nickel. You screw it up and I have to fix it, your nickel.

When I worked as a mechanic breakage was on us unless it was not our fault. Sometimes rusted hardware has to be broken or cut to get something apart. That is unless you wanted to pay the extra time for us to get the original out to be reused. All other items what we were responsible for we repaired at no cost to the customer.

Rick

If he broke it. He pays for it and should have it repaired ASAP. That is the way I always operated.

They will have some excuse why it's not there fault.More than likely blame the furnace,outdated part,factory defect, out of warranty,etc,etc,etc.

Same as the other guys.I break it,I 'eat' it.

Bingo.

Dean

No question that he should cover the part he broke. Back when I was a commission mechanic if we broke something, we the mechanic (not the shop) paid for it. The one really stupid mistake I made one time cost me a set of tires, one fender, and two wheels for a customer's boat trailer. Yep, I forgot to torque the lug nuts after changing out a bad spindle. I couldn't match up the old out dated tire and wheel size, so I just bought him a new set. Replaced his old rusty wheels and odd tires with new chrome wheels and a new set of radials. He left happy and came back again when he needed more work done. Worth it to me to keep a customer coming back. It only takes one really mad customer to cost you allot of work down the road making something like this look pretty small.

Greg

Like others have said, unless it's a situation where an old part needs to come off, and breaking it is less costly than trying to get it off due to corrosion, or whatever, the way it works for me is I break it, I eat it.

If I break it by accident, I buy. If it is something that broke because it had to come off and was in bad shape, the customer buys and I have probably already warned them of the possibility. When I was still wrenching for someone else, the company bought. The company was turning the most profit from my labor. I quit a place because they were going to start charging me if there was an accident. Charging the mechanic is not legal in most states.

Only way I can see that happening is it busted while removing the solenoid wires. If that's what happened it's your baby.

Depends on the guy or company I guess. Personally,If it's s new seal or something like that I mess up installing it comes from my pocket.
But if its age hardened hoses and a load of problems, like I have with a tractor now that had to come apart to fix it , and now it's all showing leaks, because the rubber lines won't seal again. Thats customer parts and I'm not paying just because I'm supposed to feel sorry the guy had no budget to do it in the first place. Some of those parts are getting expensive and I can't afford to work for free, to keep a customer many days.
I have a small box of scrap parts in my shop from this job that cost $4000 to replace, Glad that's not my screw up and fixing it! Just wish i new who the last guy that fixed it was who Filled the trans press lube system with silicone gasket destroying it with lack of lubrication in 1400 hrs!.
Regards Robert

I have had very few instances where I called out someone to do something on my property. However seems that every time I do they break/tear up something while fixing what I wanted fixed.

None have offered nor have I insisted figuring that if they screwed up what they did, in fixing it they would screw up something else.

Second reason is that if you hacked them off by insisting, they would not do a repair to suit you....read between the lines on that.

I do realize that in some instances the breakage is accidental in that the person was not aware of something that could be broken in the repair process. So there is an element of accidental damage here and I can overlook some of that.

One instance of accidental was the breaking of a 12" square ceramic tile at the front door when the 250# or so carpet layer came in with a room sized roll of carpet on his shoulder. I realize that one assumes that the floor is to walk on and should support the weight. Well in this case the foundation was pier and beam and wasn't adequate. I accept blame for that since I built the house.

Second was deliberate. Hired some "guys" from a local rag sheet advertisement to level my house. After they had gone and I had paid them cash, I looked under the house and most of my termite shields had been discarded and termites are a huge problem down here. I do business with brick and mortar stores now.

So, I just do it myself or do without, but as in the two instances, somethings you can't do yourself nor without.

My 2c,
Mark

Double bingo. lol