It's a balance, they might not know exactly what the job would entail until they send someone to look, and labour could double the price if it's something ridiculous.

However, they absolutely should be able to give a ballpark, and it drives me up the wall, especially when I've given enough details for them to do so.
I hate it.
If you won't even tell me how many zeroes your service is going to cost, there is an absurdly high change you're going to be wasting your engineer's time doing a visit.

"How much for a 12000 BTU on the ground floor with electrical already run?"
"Well sir, we can't give an accurate number yet, as we need to send someone out"
"Not even a ballpark?" "I'm afraid not sir"

Which led me to investigating what I could do myself...Turns out, they now make self-install units for about £600.
Or Costco sell a better brand one including fitting for £1500.

[–] Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Which is really all I want, minimum it'll be 1500 bucks, maybe up to 3000 on the higher end.

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Three different HVAC companies wanted to charge me 5k plus for a second compressor to cool my second floor. I bought a $500 u-shape window unit from Amazon and have kept it perfect for 2 years now. Some of these hvac folks are on fucking drugs I swear

[–] Fosheze@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Unless you're just talking about a minisplit or something $5k is remarkably cheap for a full AC install. Theres a big difference between throwing a window unit in and having an actual AC unit installed. You can't just slap a second compressor on an existing condenser. It would need a second condenser or an upgrade and second circuit run for your existing one, plus running refrigerant pipes, likely running new wiring, ventilation, controls, refeigerant costs and system tuning. A window AC unit isn't even in the same ballpark as far as price goes.