do i charge for second visit

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Hello,

I installed 2 ceiling fans with light kits last week. Tested them and it worked fine. FYI: one of the light bulbs in the box was broke.

Customer called two days later and said one of the fans stopped working but lights still do. I came back and tested fan and switch. Determined its a bad fan. She knew of bad bulb broken in box during day of install. I said perhaps the fan was dropped and now it just kicked. Took fan down and she returned it to store and got new one.

Should I charge to install new fan as it was defective?

Thanks.
 

hurk27

Senior Member
Hello,

I installed 2 ceiling fans with light kits last week. Tested them and it worked fine. FYI: one of the light bulbs in the box was broke.

Customer called two days later and said one of the fans stopped working but lights still do. I came back and tested fan and switch. Determined its a bad fan. She knew of bad bulb broken in box during day of install. I said perhaps the fan was dropped and now it just kicked. Took fan down and she returned it to store and got new one.

Should I charge to install new fan as it was defective?

Thanks.

One of the reasons we do markup on materials we supply is to cover our labor for stuff just as this, I have this spelled out on all my invoices and bids, it simply states:
Any alteration or deviations from the above contract will require a written and signed authorization and will be billed on a time and material bases above and beyond the original estimate.
Material supplied by others will not be covered by any warranty expressed or implied, including labor that will not be covered under manufacture warranty.

But if this wasn't stated in the beginning, it would just be better to take the fall and hope you get more work from them, you could be nice and try to explain the above but, any static, I would just let it go.
 

rodneee

Senior Member
Hello,

I installed 2 ceiling fans with light kits last week. Tested them and it worked fine. FYI: one of the light bulbs in the box was broke.

Customer called two days later and said one of the fans stopped working but lights still do. I came back and tested fan and switch. Determined its a bad fan. She knew of bad bulb broken in box during day of install. I said perhaps the fan was dropped and now it just kicked. Took fan down and she returned it to store and got new one.

Should I charge to install new fan as it was defective?

Thanks.

this happens all the time...we always charge but at a special "sympathy" rate...
 

Mulrooney

Member
If you provided the fan it's not the customers fault. If they provided it you have to decide whats more important. A satisfied customer or your profit. You can't win em all.
 

satcom

Senior Member
If you supplied the fan, then you would not charge for the call back, but if you don't charge for call back on a customer supplied equipment, you take the loss, the reason we supply and mark up material, to cover all the job costs including call backs.
 

drbond24

Senior Member
If you provided the fan it's not the customers fault. If they provided it you have to decide whats more important. A satisfied customer or your profit. You can't win em all.

Just a vote from a hypothetical customer here. :) If I were the customer you were talking about, the above quote is what I would think. If you provided the fan, you'd better fix it for nothing. If I provided the fan (i.e. bought it at Home Depot before you got there) then I could see you charging me, but if you want me to stay happy it wouldn't be much. :D

Having said that, if your customer provided the fan I think you would be fully justified in charging normally for replacing it. After all, you are installing a fan in both cases. I just don't think it is the way to win friends.
 

nakulak

Senior Member
explain to the customer that you charge more for supplying fixtures just for this reason, and you are sorry but you will have to charge for a service call, but then add that you are giving her a break in the price.
 

satcom

Senior Member
explain to the customer that you charge more for supplying fixtures just for this reason, and you are sorry but you will have to charge for a service call, but then add that you are giving her a break in the price.

We would try to schedule that call back on some of our open slots, if the OP discovers after making the call that something he did caused the fan to fail, he should not charge the customer.
 

Rewire

Senior Member
If I supply the fan I will not charge a second call to replace defective fan that is what a warranty implies.

If customer supplys the fan and my installation was not the cause of the failure then I charge for a second call.
 

mxslick

Senior Member
Location
SE Idaho
If I supply the fan I will not charge a second call to replace defective fan that is what a warranty implies.

If customer supplys the fan and my installation was not the cause of the failure then I charge for a second call.

Same here.

I have been known to make exceptions for my better customers though.
 

220/221

Senior Member
Location
AZ
I don't understand the question??

Of course you charge. And you are going to charge again to rehang it. What is a valid reason not to charge? Sympathy? lol. Everybody has problems and everybody must deal with treir own problems.

If you want to work free, move to AZ and I'll keep you busy.
 

glene77is

Senior Member
Location
Memphis, TN
Guys,

Same here. Exceptions happen, but not so often that I worry about them.

One really nice old man ran short of money, and I accepted what he had,
plus my special request of 25 tortillas con carne e tomato e verde.

Also, he had called at 12:00 midnight, saying his wife had been shocked.
I tested the condition, and got shocked also ! What a surprise!

So, I make exceptions, once in a while.
It has not come back to haunt me.
 

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
I don't understand the question??

Of course you charge. And you are going to charge again to rehang it. What is a valid reason not to charge? Sympathy? lol. Everybody has problems and everybody must deal with treir own problems.

If you want to work free, move to AZ and I'll keep you busy.

Yeah exactly. If they bitch just ask them how often they go to work for free. :roll:

I had the same scenario that the OP has. Believe it or not Lowes agreed to reimburse my customer for my charge. Whether they ever did or not I don't know but I got paid. As I should have.

Charge them for sure and charge the full rate.
 

satcom

Senior Member
Rod,

I like your term "Sympathy" rate !!! :)

Can I use it ?
or do you have a copyright/registration ?

What sympathy rates, do you get from your vendors, and bill collectors? fat chance the IRS is going to give you a sympathy, rate, more like a jail cell, and a pile of penalties, It must be nice to live in a dream world, but it must be really a shock when you have to come back to the real world.
 
Hello Eveyone.

Thanks for all the input. They supplied the fan. I installed the new one today and it works fine. They have other work for me to do, so they say. I want to charge to cover my time as I had to come the second time to diagnose it was the fan (free) The 3rd time was for the reinstall. I'll probably suck it up and hope they move forward on the other stuff.

Sincerely,
Static
 

electricmanscott

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
Hello Eveyone.

Thanks for all the input. They supplied the fan. I installed the new one today and it works fine. They have other work for me to do, so they say. I want to charge to cover my time as I had to come the second time to diagnose it was the fan (free) The 3rd time was for the reinstall. I'll probably suck it up and hope they move forward on the other stuff.

Sincerely,
Static

Which would make you a bigger sucker, NOT charging them for your time or falling for the oldest one in the book. Hmmmm :grin:
 

satcom

Senior Member
Which would make you a bigger sucker, NOT charging them for your time or falling for the oldest one in the book. Hmmmm :grin:


The old, I have more work for you line!

I tell them, here is the invoice for the work I just completed, and when you get ready to do that more work you have, just give me a call.
 
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