Steve B...I agree, who wants to buy double labor charges @ 7/800$ a
pop??
 thx again... Mel

                         
                 
                                                                       
                                                                         

I've found that if you do the job right the first time, that is clean out
all
the lines and such, that the rebuilds last well beyond their free
replacement
warranty period.

I think the problem is one of perception.  Remans are generally used by
DIYers and used car dealers and such who just replace it and fill it and
hope the thing holds together long enough to sell it.  As a result they
almost
always blow up rapidly.  So the popular perception is that the reman units
are crap, when the real problem is that people that do crap AC work
always buy rebuilds, and the professionals that do good AC work are
charging so much money (due to the labor involved) that an extra $100
on the bill is a drop in the bucket.

In any case if the OP is having a shop do it, he's going to have to be
looking at the warranty period the shop gives for the entire job, not the
warranty on the compressor.

Ted

Mel I figured you wouldn't be doing it yourself.  The advice I was giving
was intended to assist in negotiating.

All shops put a markup on parts, but some shops put a fair markup on
parts, and other shops put a gouging markup on parts.  You should
know what the retail prices are of any large ticket parts going into
a repair on your vehicle before you sign off on an estimate.  If the
markup on the parts that the shop puts down on the estimate is in the
gouging category, and you display to them that you are aware of current
street prices of the parts, you may find that suddenly they become very
flexible on the parts cost.

The other thing to keep in mind is most garages have ongoing relationships
with parts suppliers and as a result, aren't paying retail on the stuff to
begin with.  So for a compressor that you pay $450 retail on if you
buy it over the counter at NAPA, the garage is probably paying NAPA
$410 for it or even lower.

While I generally try to avoid having to pay a garage to do work, every
once in a while I have to.  Such as recently when I was 20 miles from home
on the other side of a very congested set of highways, and the alternator
V-belt broke.  The repair place charged $20 for the belt
and a half hour labor the total bill was $60.  (the belt that broke was
the outside belt and would have taken a mechanic about 5 minutes to
change)  The belt was $20 MSRP, but retail over the counter cost is
about $6.  The garage probably bought it for $5 so I got stuck with
a 400% markup on this, plus paying 30 minutes to a tech where 20
of it he was probably sitting on his a.s taking a smoke break.  But I
can't complain since I should have been paying closer attention to the
belt condition.  And for a $60 bill it's not worth arguing over.

Your daughter is operating under 2 handicaps here.  First she's a
woman, and I don't give a crap about what anyone says about equality,
women get screwed over by repairs more.  Simple fact.  It is
probably the perception by garages that woman are more easily
lied to, I don't know.  But we all have seen it and there's no point
in arguing.

Secondly and more importantly, she is trying to get a system fixed
that is non critical, it isn't a requirement for running the vehicle.  Any
garage knows right off the bat that with AC work, if someone wants
to spend the money to fix it, they obviously aren't living hand-to-mouth.
It isn't after all like the vehicle isn't running and is needed to get to
and
from work.  Not only that, the mpg hit taken by rolling down the
windows vs running the AC is not that big, quite likely at most a
couple bucks a tank of gas.  So your looking at most likely years
of time before the repair cost is paid for by the fuel savings.  Fixing
AC is thus almost purely a convenience/comfort thing for the driver, like
fixing a broken cupholder, and the only people who can afford to do
it are the people who have enough money so that the garage can
get away with charging what the market will bear.  Garages aren't stupid
and know all of this.

Ted