Short answer
Yes — there is a diagnostic charge for the visit and for finding the actual fault, and we tell you what it is on the phone before you book. There is no travel surcharge on top of it anywhere inside our 50-mile radius.
What the diagnostic charge pays for
It pays for the drive, the time, and the diagnosis itself — which is the part that has real value. Working out that a dryer is not heating because of a failed thermal cutoff rather than a heating element is what stops you buying the wrong part twice.
It is not a booking fee or a deposit. It covers a technician arriving with a stocked van and telling you what is genuinely wrong with your machine.
No travel surcharge, anywhere in the radius
Someone in Maquoketa pays the same as someone across the street from our Rock Island shop. We group jobs into runs in each direction so the drive stays off your invoice rather than being passed to you as a zone fee.
This is deliberate. Plenty of shops quietly price rural addresses out, which is exactly why people forty miles from a city end up waiting a fortnight for anyone at all.
What happens next
Once we know the fault we quote the repair. You decide. If you go ahead, we get on with it — usually on that same visit. If you decide not to, you have paid for a clear answer and a written record of what is wrong, which is worth having whether you repair, replace or sell the machine.
Still not sure how this applies to your machine? Call and ask — we would rather answer a question over the phone than have you guess. We cover Rock Island, the Quad Cities and every community within 50 miles.
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