Appliance repair bundles and pricing tiers

What to take away

This article covers business operations only and is general business information, not legal, tax, electrical, gas, or refrigerant advice. Appliance repair licensing and technical rules vary by province, state, and municipality, so confirm what applies to you before you sell a package.

Four tiers most shops can sell

A bundle is a named scope with one price. The name tells the customer what they get; the scope tells your technician what to do. When those two drift apart, you have sold a promise you cannot cost.

Tier 1: diagnostic visit. One appliance, one visit, one decision. The customer pays a diagnostic fee covering travel and the first 30 minutes of inspection, then approves a quoted repair price before work starts. Credit that fee against the repair when the customer authorizes work within 30 days.

National chains typically charge $79 to $129 for that visit as of 2026. Sears Home Services and Mr. Appliance both quote a flat trip fee up front and price the repair after the technician sees the unit. Most callers want this tier.

Tier 2: standard repair. Labor for one authorized repair on one appliance, parts extra. The quote names the part and the labor before the customer approves.

Tier 3: multi-appliance maintenance. Two to four appliances at one address in a single trip. The draw is one travel charge instead of several. Price it as a base visit plus a per-appliance add-on, and cap the count so the technician is not on site for four hours.

On a bundled visit, the second appliance typically adds $40 to $75 rather than a full trip fee. Franchise networks such as Mr. Appliance quote each unit inside the same visit.

Sell the same visit as an annual plan when the customer wants prevention. It cleans, tests, and checks the appliances a household relies on most: washer, dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, billed monthly or once a year.

Plans of this shape typically sell for $129 to $299 a year, or about $12 to $25 a month. It fills slow weeks and puts your technician in the home before something fails.

Parts retailers RepairClinic, AppliancePartsPros and PartSelect publish free repair videos and retail parts prices. Those lists give you a fast check on what an annual visit should cost.

A fourth tier, the landlord portfolio agreement, fits landlords and small building managers. It is a per-unit annual price with a set response window, typically $99 to $199 per unit a year. Sell it only if you can hold that window in winter. Add after-hours dispatch only when you reserve a technician for it.

What each tier should include and exclude

Every tier needs the same three exclusions in writing: sealed-system work, gas appliance connection or repair, and anything requiring a licensed electrician. Name the authority in your terms.

Pricing the tiers without guessing

Do not copy another shop's prices. Build each tier from your own numbers, using variables you fill in.

Check the result against posted market rates: diagnostic visits typically run $79 to $129, home warranty service call fees typically land between $75 and $125, and maintenance plans typically sell for $129 to $299 a year as of 2026.

For the diagnostic tier, the floor is:

diagnostic fee = (technician hourly wage x burden factor x average visit hours) + vehicle cost per call + dispatch overhead

Burden factor covers payroll taxes, workers' compensation, and benefits. Vehicle cost per call is your monthly vehicle cost divided by calls per month. If the diagnostic fee lands below that sum, every visit loses money before parts.

For the multi-appliance tier, add a per-appliance charge that covers the extra labor only, since travel is already paid once. Typical add-ons land between $40 and $75.

For the maintenance plan, divide your annual visit cost by the number of plan customers you expect, then add the margin you want.

For the landlord portfolio agreement, price per unit and check the total against your winter capacity before you sign.

Parts markup sits on top of labor in every tier. Wholesale cost to retail markup typically runs 40% to 100%. Set a percentage you can defend and list it in the quote.

Five things move the final number: local labor rates, drive time between calls, appliance type, gas versus electric connections, and whether the part rides on the van. Built-in refrigerators and wall ovens sit at the top of the range.

Recurring plans need billing that renews itself. ServiceTitan quotes custom pricing, Jobber plans start near $39 a month, and Housecall Pro plans start near $79 a month as of 2026. All three bill plan fees and flag renewal dates.

Example: a two-van shop menu

A two-van shop charges $99 for a diagnostic inside a 25 mile radius. A sealed-system refrigerator repair is quoted at $385 to $520 in labor, parts extra, with the second visit scheduled once the part arrives. The customer sees both numbers before approving. Of 60 monthly diagnostics, 58 percent convert to paid work.

Technical limits that decide what you can sell

Refrigerant handling in the United States requires Section 608 certification under EPA rules, and state rules sit on top of the federal ones. In Ontario, gas work falls to the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) and must be done by a licensed gas fitter.

High-voltage boards and lockout and tagout work belong to trained staff with suitable protective equipment. Sell only what the crew can legally finish. Your technicians can diagnose; they cannot cross that line.

Where the bundles go wrong

The first failure is a package name that sounds like a guarantee. "Total care plan" tells a customer everything is covered. If your terms exclude sealed systems, the customer hears that on the worst day.

Home warranty tiers show how a name hides limits. American Home Shield's ShieldSilver covers home systems. ShieldGold adds kitchen and laundry appliances. ShieldPlatinum adds roof leaks, pool equipment and guest units. The cheapest name is not the appliance plan.

The second failure is unprotected emergency capacity. If you sell same-day service, hold technicians back for it. Frontdoor sells on-demand video help through its app, which needs no spare vans. An in-home same-day promise does, and advertising it without the capacity breaks the promise in the week you need it most.

The third is scope creep inside a fixed price. A multi-appliance visit where the fourth appliance is a built-in refrigerator with a sealed system is not the same job as four countertop units. Cap the tier and quote the rest.

The fourth is a plan that only sells in the slow season and then floods your spring calendar. Watch plan renewal dates and spread them across the year.

What to check every month

Pull four numbers per tier: units sold, average revenue per unit, direct cost per unit, and gross margin. A tier with high volume and thin margin is a capacity drain. A tier with strong margin and no volume is a pricing problem or a marketing problem, and the quote count tells you which.

Also track callback rate by tier. A maintenance plan that generates return visits eats its own margin. Track revenue per booked hour too, because a bundle that fills the calendar with low-value hours is not growth.

Set a floor, for example 35% gross margin per tier, and reprice or retire anything under it for two quarters.

For the wider menu, the services that carry the best margin are worth comparing against your tier results each quarter.

Pilot one package at a time

Run one new package for 60 days or 25 completed jobs, whichever comes first. Expand it only if authorization conversion holds above 55 percent and callbacks stay under 5 percent. Document the decision, name an owner, decide what you will measure, and set a review date before the pilot starts.

Audit the menu the same way. A missing piece identifies the next question to research, and the answer says whether that gap needs a package, a referral, or nothing at all.

Warranty and disclosure duties

Warranty terms should cover workmanship for 90 days, pass the manufacturer parts warranty through to the customer, and name the exclusions and the remedy in writing.

If you offer a written warranty on parts or workmanship, federal law sets disclosure rules for consumer products. The FTC guide to federal warranty law explains what a written warranty must state and when a service contract falls under the same rules.

The FTC appliances industry page collects the federal resources on warranties, service contracts, advertising, and energy labeling that apply to businesses selling or servicing appliances.

States add their own service-contract registration rules, and plans sold by HomeServe, American Home Shield and Cinch are written to clear them. Check what your state requires before you print a plan name.

This is where a bundle name becomes a legal document. If the name implies coverage, the terms have to say what is covered, for how long, and who pays for the trip.

Common questions

Should the diagnostic fee be waived if the customer approves the repair?

Waiving it is a discount, not a bundle. Some chains apply the trip fee to the repair when the customer approves the work, and they price the repair to absorb it.

If you waive the fee, raise the repair price to cover the visit. Otherwise the diagnostic is free for every customer who says yes and full price for every customer who says no. Decide which behavior you want and price for it.

How many appliances should one visit cover?

Cap it at four, and cap it by type. Four small appliances in one kitchen is a short visit. A built-in refrigerator, a gas range, and a wall oven is a different day. Put the cap in the package terms so the dispatcher is not negotiating it on the phone.

Can a maintenance plan include gas appliance checks?

Only if the person doing the work holds the required gas certification for your jurisdiction. In Ontario that means a TSSA-licensed gas fitter. Otherwise the plan covers cleaning, testing, and visual inspection, and refers gas work to a licensed fitter. Write that into the plan description.

What if a bundle sells well but loses money?

Raise the price or cut the scope, and do it before the next renewal cycle. Check the direct cost per unit first: labor hours, parts, and vehicle cost. If the cost is right and the price is wrong, fix the price. If the cost is wrong, the scope is the problem.