GDS Garage Door Services I should have skipped 13 years of college and became a garage door repairperson Denver Colorado

My garage door broke hideously half way between open and closed, and we could not pull it up or down. This was a Saturday morning. We called GDS (the only company that answered the phone) and they agreed to come out later in the afternoon, something we greatly appreciated.

John came out and told us what we could already see: our door was broken and needed to be replaced. Here's where things got costly. In order to repair it so that it would go up or down, he wanted $299. He claimed that the regular price was $399. Of course that would be just a short term solution, since the garage door and opener would need to be replaced. I balked at the price, and he told me that $149 was the lowest he could go. That would be for a repair with absolutely no warranty of any kind, something designed just to get me to tomorrow. He told me he would be surprised if it still functioned the next day.

By now it was 4:30 on a Saturday, I felt held over a barrel. Normally I would have did some price comparing for another company willing to charge a reasonable fee, but in this case I could not get my cars out of the garage and had to go to work the next day, so I had no choice. I had to pay the $149.

Literally 10 minutes later, John finished the repair so the garage can go up and down. Originally I had planned to buy the new door from him, but with the unreasonableness of the charge for this short repair, I would not use this company again. I did not expect the repair to be free. Having been in a service industry myself at one time I well understand that there is a cost associated with sending a technician to a customer's house that goes beyond the time they are actually there. He was at my house for about 45 minutes total (much of that writing an estimate for the garage door replacement), so I expected some reasonable cost. However, the cost seems excessive and opportunistic. I have a Ph.D. and my own business and don't make as much money per hour as this!!! It just seems like a huge amount of money to pay for a short service call and a bandaid solution with no warranty.

Note that I do appreciate the company's responsiveness and their help getting me out of a difficult jam. I just wish that they would have priced their services in a way that motivated me to want to call them again and didn't make me feel like they were totally taking advantage of my desperation.