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Your flyer says $79 for a furnace tune-up, and the homeowner’s invoice says $143. In six US states, an ad with hidden fees like that now breaks the law. The $143 has to be the price you advertise.
The extra $64 is a $49 trip charge and a $15 fuel and environmental fee, both added to every visit. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia now ban hidden fees in advertised prices when the ad is aimed at homeowners. The price you advertise must include every fee the customer has to pay to get the service. Sales tax can stay outside it. A trip charge you add to every visit can’t.
None of these laws caps what you charge. They control which number goes first, so the price on the flyer is the price on the invoice.
Which hidden fees have to move into the advertised price
The laws use slightly different words, but they draw the same line. A fee is mandatory if the customer must pay it to get the service, or can’t reasonably avoid it. Minnesota adds fees a reasonable person would expect to be included. Mandatory fees go in the headline price. Fees the customer chooses, or triggers later by their own conduct, don’t have to.
No statute names trip charges, dispatch fees or fuel surcharges. But if you add the fee to every service call, the customer can’t get the service without paying it, so it meets the definition. The same goes for a “shop supplies” or “environmental” fee charged on every job. California’s Attorney General says a business can’t leave out mandatory charges that pay its own costs, such as rent or staff benefits.
A few things can stay outside the advertised price:
- Sales tax and other taxes a government imposes on the transaction.
- Optional extras the customer picks, such as a filter upgrade or a second system checked on the same visit.
- Repairs you find and quote separately, which the customer then decides whether to approve.
- A card fee, but only where the customer can avoid it by paying another way. Our guide to credit card surcharge rules covers the separate state limits on those.
Two practices don’t fix a fee that should be in the price. Listing it in small print below the price doesn’t, and neither does disclosing it before the customer pays. The California Attorney General’s hidden fees guidance answers “No” to both. Calling a fee “environmental” doesn’t make it a government charge, either. Massachusetts bans telling customers a fee is required by law when it isn’t.
The six states with an all-in price law
California, Massachusetts and Virginia protect homeowners buying for personal or household use, not commercial accounts. The Colorado, Connecticut and Minnesota laws don’t limit themselves that way in the text, so treat commercial ads with the same care there.
| State | In force since | What the advertised price must do | If the price depends on the job |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | July 1, 2024 | Include all mandatory fees | No special route; the Attorney General says wait to show a price until you know it |
| Colorado | January 1, 2026 | Show the total as one number, more prominent than any other price | Disclose the factors, any mandatory fees, and that the price may vary |
| Connecticut | July 1, 2026 | Exclude no fee the customer is required to pay | A fee that varies with location can come later, if the ad says it exists |
| Massachusetts | September 2, 2025 | Show the Total Price first, more prominent than any other price | A lowest price is allowed only if customers can actually get it |
| Minnesota | January 1, 2025 | Include all mandatory fees or surcharges | Disclose the factors, any mandatory fees, and that the cost may vary |
| Virginia | July 1, 2025 | Show the total price, including mandatory fees | Disclose the factors, any mandatory fees, and that the cost may vary |
When the price depends on the job, or on the drive
The variable-price routes in Colorado, Minnesota and Virginia suit a repair whose scope you can’t know until you look. They don’t hide a flat trip charge, because each one still requires you to disclose any mandatory fees. Connecticut’s statute, section 42-536, is narrower. A trip fee that varies by distance can be left out of the advertised amount only if the ad says the fee exists. A flat fee on every call has to be in the price.
In Massachusetts, the Attorney General’s regulation, 940 CMR 38.00, also requires the Total Price before you ask for a customer’s personal details. That catches online booking forms that ask for a name and address before showing the full price. In each state, hidden fees in an ad count as a deceptive or unfair practice under its consumer protection law. In California, Massachusetts and Connecticut, public enforcers can seek civil penalties of thousands of dollars per violation.
There’s no federal rule doing this job for home services. The Federal Trade Commission’s fee rule covers only live-event tickets and short-term lodging.
Taking the hidden fees out of the $79 tune-up ad
Before: “Furnace tune-up, just $79!* *Plus $49 trip charge and $15 fuel/environmental fee. Tax extra.”
After: “Furnace tune-up, $143. Includes the visit, travel and a full safety check. Sales tax added where it applies. Any repairs we find are quoted before we start, and you decide.”
Both versions are illustrative, and the $143 is the same money. You can still itemize it inside the total, for example “includes $49 travel,” as long as $143 is the most prominent number. If you keep a named fee, its label has to describe what the money actually pays for. The simplest fix is to fold the fuel fee into the price and drop the label.
What about “tune-ups from $79”? It only works if a customer can really book the $79 service with no added mandatory fee, the genuine lowest price Massachusetts accepts. None of the six laws approves “from” wording by name. If every visit carries the trip charge, “from $79” still leaves out a mandatory fee.
Rewriting the service-call quote
The same rule applies to the price you give on the phone or on a quote, because offering a price counts as well as advertising one.
Before (illustrative): “Diagnostic service call $49, credited toward any repair you approve today. Plus dispatch fee $39 and fuel surcharge $9. Repair estimate: replace inducer motor, $385.”
Every diagnostic visit carries the dispatch and fuel fees, so the visit’s real price is $97. The credit toward the repair is a discount, and all six laws let you charge less than the advertised price. The repair price has to be all-in too.
After: “Diagnostic visit, $97, including travel. Inducer motor replacement, $385 total, parts and labor included. If you approve the repair today, we credit your $97 visit, so you pay $385 in all. Sales tax added where it applies.”
The homeowner pays exactly what you said on the phone, and no hidden fees turn up on the invoice. If your plans renew automatically, our guide to automatic renewal laws covers the separate rules for the sign-up. For setting the numbers themselves, start with what you need to recover per call in our HVAC rates and plumber rates guides.
ONE NUMBER, START TO FINISH
Quote the price the customer will actually pay.
All-in pricing works best when the quote and the invoice come from the same place. SendWork lets you build a quote with the visit, travel and repair in one total, and send it from the driveway.
