Overwired panel

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Cow said:
That seems a little extreme. If you charged me 6 hours to label a panel, that'd be the last job you ever did for me.

What's a service change take based on your scale, 24 hrs?
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you're probably right, I was thinking of some messes I've seen on old houses where circuits skip around, some stuff buried in the wall or abandoned but still hot, etc.

I quoted a service call at $75 yesterday (20 minute drive from shop) and the man hung up on me, maybe I am too high?
 
readydave8 said:
you're probably right, I was thinking of some messes I've seen on old houses where circuits skip around, some stuff buried in the wall or abandoned but still hot, etc.

I quoted a service call at $75 yesterday (20 minute drive from shop) and the man hung up on me, maybe I am too high?
Click to expand...

You probably did not want to work for this person anyway. They would rather let someone throw $300.00 of parts at something guessing what was the cause of the problem and only charging $20 an hour (or even less) instead of paying a professional that knows what they are doing what they are worth. In the end they may find that all that was really needed was a $20.00 part, and the $20/hr guy has spent 5 hours trying to figure it out. Now he is up to $400 and you would have been $95.
 
readydave8 said:
you're probably right, I was thinking of some messes I've seen on old houses where circuits skip around, some stuff buried in the wall or abandoned but still hot, etc.

I quoted a service call at $75 yesterday (20 minute drive from shop) and the man hung up on me, maybe I am too high?
Click to expand...

Definitely not to high for a service call. If he calls back, and he may, tell him his price just went up, and you have a 4 hour minimum just special for him.
 
kwired said:
You probably did not want to work for this person anyway. They would rather let someone throw $300.00 of parts at something guessing what was the cause of the problem and only charging $20 an hour (or even less) instead of paying a professional that knows what they are doing what they are worth. In the end they may find that all that was really needed was a $20.00 part, and the $20/hr guy has spent 5 hours trying to figure it out. Now he is up to $400 and you would have been $95.
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I get batches of this crap at one time. Person expects to pay you nothing for tracing & analyzing because you didn't nail anything up, add anything or remove anything. I try not to charge for looking at a simple problem & quoting a fix, but I should charge something for my trip regardless. $25 would cover my gas & a few minutes of time, maybe $50 for next towns over. I can't keep coming home with nothing & not get the job either because they can't afford it, or they figure out from watching me how they can do it themselves. I've seen variations of that.
 
Cow said:
That seems a little extreme. If you charged me 6 hours to label a panel, that'd be the last job you ever did for me.

What's a service change take based on your scale, 24 hrs?
Click to expand...


I've seen panels where 6 hours would barely allow tracing half the ckts. Was asked to quote some fixes and labeling in a horse barn with an old 200A panel about the middle. Nearly every ckt came out the top, in several bundles of cloth type NM, up near ceiling & webbing out in all directions. Bundles had been painted over many times. Many hit a j box & webbed out again. Few boxes had less than 4 cables in & out. Dozens of lights inside, a good number outside, on walls, poles, etc. Various types of heaters, pumps, etc. in hidden nooks & crannies. Some still in use, some abandoned, still with live feeds.
 
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