It is a common practice in the industry not to break down the quote into labor and equipment. What you are seeing is very common.

There is no excuse however not to list the model numbers of each equipment and all the services which will provided during the installation. Services may include replacing line sets, removing old equipment, warranty coverage, etc.

Tell the contractor you want a detailed quote. If one is not provided you should continue looking for contractors.

Seatime:

Suggest that you ask the quoting dealers for the model numbers of the equipment they are quoting. Should not be a problem if dealing with a reputable company.

Unless somthing has changed I'm not aware of any major HVAC manufacturer who will warrant equipment purchased over the internet...so your Goodman internet quote has no warranty. Are you willing to take a chance that the equipment will not require an expensive repair during what would have been it's warranty period, i.e., self insure?

Installer needs to have some money in the quote for call backs after initial set up if required versus tailight warranty...when you see their tailights leaving the warranty ends!

Quite frankly without knowing the exact details of the quote you mentioned it doesn't seem to be out of line for a 4 ton 16 SEER heatpump from American Standard.

"a shell game for sure that needs regulating" Spoken like a true Democrat!

More regulation is a sure-fire way to make things more expensive.

Price is given for an entire installation to avoid the hassle and time involved in a line-by-line bidding war between contractors.

SR

the price of 6800 for american standard 4 ton complete system installed is well with in standard. price does vary from location to location. the price is regulated by the free market of you getting many estimates..... you do not list the prices of the other 2 estimates you got. are they same brand? did they list model numbers? if not it is time for some more estimates from the front of the yellow pages not the back.

" actually I don't have an inkling what's going on". At least you are honest about the situation that is a start. Now let me break it down for you.
Lets say you buy that 2500.00 unit off of the internet, are you going to install it? When you bought your car did it come unassembled in a box? No- it was put together at a factory by pros, When you bought the cAr did you ask the car salesman how much was the workers hourly wage? Did you even ask the salesman how much his commission was? When you get a quote from a professional hvac installer it is non of your business how much he or his employees make per hour or per job. You have no idea what the cost of running an hvac business is do you> I have an Idea why don't you buy a Goodman off the internet and Pay a mexican ten bucks an hour from the home depot corner to install it and see how much you save. The bottom line here is that hvac companys are in buisiness to make a PROFIT not to give you a rock bottom price so you feel like you are not being conned. Do yourself a favor and leave the hvac to the pros and quite acting like the internet is your information superhighway because even highways have accidents.

The quality of the installation is at least as important as the brand, and more important in many cases.

The best equipment and a poor installation will be a nightmare.

Less expensive components and a first class install can give very good performance.

Skilled quality labor is not inexpensive.

Skilled quality labor is not expensive? If that is the case then they are not that skilled. Maybe for some cheapskate boss labor would not be expensive but get job done right will cost.

Hey heatseeker do you ever have anyting good to say or anything thats in english? The man Brickeyee said Skilled labor is not INexpensive. Guess you have a problem reading as well as writing!

I misread that one, anyways, Nice try on the insults Patptown. I guess I should just cosign the internet purchase by the homeowner. then when their bad install results in premature failure they can blame it on goodman. Do you understand that English?

There are far to many customers that shop solely by price, and hen complain about everything.

I had a customer that solicited a bid for a house heat pump replacement with a 50+ page specification.

It was deposited immediately in the trash can with no response.

I do not need or want customers like that.

They are probably complaining somewhere that they sent out ten or twenty requests (it was so large it required extra postage) and only got one or two answers (if any).

My personal experience with a well known dealer in our area is that the company lets their installers share in the profits and there are a wide variety of them with most trying to profit by charging rediculous prices for stuff that in most cases I really did not need. My daughter needed service on her new heat pump and from a different dealer got what sounded like a fair quote, but when she got back to that company they wouldn't honor the quote. I agree that in our area at least the business is full of fast profit sellers.

I have been in here for a few years approximately. I have seen time after time as most in here often story after story of people going with the cheapest install that pays for it each and every month to their utilities because they got just what they paid for. Decent equipment is a must with good 'numbers' actual operating specs not just seer and heer and a knowledgeable technician. I had a builders grade system in a new home and the system was unmatched and horrible and the duct system was worse and it is still cheaper to operate my mid grade 15.5 seer quality install after 3 rate increases than it was my original system.

Proceed carefully because sometimes the dollars you save in this process can make a noticeable amount of money fall out of your pocket each and every month for the rest of the time you live there unless you pay someone else to fix it right which is more $$. Sometimes people go looking for the jam up price and get the jam up job in more ways than one. Dont be afraid to pay a little extra to that person that YOU feel comfortable with and who does what you ask.

Everyone in here is very helpful and I am sure if you throw some numbers up for specs someone will help give you some advice.

The only thing that needs more regulation in this country is the people trying to regulate everything.

The only thing that needs more regulation in this country is the people trying to regulate everything.

amen to that!!