Another "what would you charge?"

[JES2727]

Yesterday evening I was at a potential customer's house looking at his project. He's a friend of another good customer of mine. While I'm there another friend who lives nearby calls him up and asks to speak to me. He's got a problem with some receps not working. As it turns out, I've been to this guys house before. He's also a friend of my other customer. He had a problem with his bathroom exhaust fan a year or two ago and I stopped by and helped him out. I don't recall how it worked out, but something tells me I didn't treat it as a regular service call. I think maybe I had to make two trips, because they had bought the wrong part, but I only charged them for one visit. I'm not sure...
Anyway, last night I stop by on my way home from his friend's house to see about the loss of power to his receps. He was glad to see me and treated me like an old friend, even though he wasn't home on my previous visits and we'd never met. The day before, a painter had plugged a pressure washer in to the garage receptacle and the power went out. They had already checked all the breakers and they were fine, but the outdoor receps were also not working. So I spent about 10 minutes looking for the GFI receptacle that feeds all the other ones. I found it in a closet in the basement, reset it, and all was good. He was happy. He points out some other work he's thinking about doing. Then he says "What do I owe you?" "Ohh, 50 bucks" I say. I was in the neighborhood anyway, it was right on my way home, and I was only there about 20 minutes. I thought it was a heck of a good price. He didn't seem to think so.
I suppose I could have just done it for free, as a courtesy. But if i had it to do over again I think I'd still charge him 50 bucks. I'm wondering what some of you guys would charge in a situation like this - a quick and easy impromptu service call to a friend of a good customer....

 

[ultramegabob]

50 bucks is a good deal, let him call someone else next time and see what his bill is...

 

[Bobhook149]

A fix is a fix. Were i work we try to take it easy on them if it is a simple fix and not a long drive out there. People forget, this is what we do for a living. Time is money. HE should be happy you only charged $50 IMO

 

[satcom]

I don.t know what part of Jersey your in, but in this part of Jersey most of the guys get 139 to 159 for a service call, and that is to show up and give the customer a price, when your in business you need to drop the friend, thing and replace it with I love my family, this is how you make your living, It's not a hobby or part time thing.

 

[jaylectricity]

You should have added some words to your answer to the question.

My minimum charge is $75, but since I was in the neighborhood, $50.

Or you could have charged him $25 over the phone to tell him to look at every receptacle in his house to find a GFI.

 

[Jerseydaze]

You should have added some words to your answer to the question.

My minimum charge is $75, but since I was in the neighborhood, $50.

Or you could have charged him $25 over the phone to tell him to look at every receptacle in his house to find a GFI.

yeah ive learned the same thing in my 2 years in business people have no clue what stuff costs so when you give them a beak you have to point it out.

 

[jaylectricity]

yeah ive learned the same thing in my 2 years in business people have no clue what stuff costs so when you give them a beak you have to point it out.

I had a lady customer who was really cheap. She needed to know how much anything would cost before she did it, and at least 40% of the time decided not to do something because it was too expensive (anything over $50 at times).

One day I arrived at her house and was able to fix whatever problem she had. When I told her it would be $75 she wasn't happy. Mostly because I had worked for her for $50 a year before that and I hadn't been there an hour. I told her if she had anything else for me I would work on it until that hour was up (about 10 minutes). I also told her that I was stupid before and that now I was paying my taxes. She is a judge in district court, and I was working on her summer home at the beach.

She begrudgingly paid me.

The next time she called me she was having a problem and she had called another guy who was cheaper to fix it. He couldn't do the job at the price he quoted her. She ended up calling me back and I fixed her problem for $95. I hope she learned her lesson. Plus, I was already in town and I went to the beach when I was done with her.

 

[jmsbrush]

I don.t know what part of Jersey your in, but in this part of Jersey most of the guys get 139 to 159 for a service call, and that is to show up and give the customer a price, when your in business you need to drop the friend, thing and replace it with I love my family, this is how you make your living, It's not a hobby or part time thing.

Satcom you hit the nail on the head.
Here's some more tips. ALWAYS be Consistent. Then You will never have this problem again.

Everybody pays the same price, whatever that might be. Have a system and implement it and never break from it. Never! No matter what kind of story they tell you. No matter how sad it is. For one you never know if they are telling you the truth. 2 It has nothing to do with you running a successful EC business.

 

[celtic]

He was glad to see me and treated me like an old friend, even though he wasn't home on my previous visits and we'd never met.


I found it in a closet in the basement, reset it, and all was good. He was happy.


He points out some other work he's thinking about doing.


Then he says "What do I owe you?" "Ohh, 50 bucks" I say.

I thought it was a heck of a good price. He didn't seem to think so.

Sounds like the ol' promise of more work malarkey....with a twist ~ is this guy a salesman by any chance?

 

[LarryFine]

I thought it was a heck of a good price. He didn't seem to think so.

You could always say, "Oh, you're right. My usual service call is $150 for the first hour. How would you like to pay?"

If you had asked for the $50 up front, he'd have jumped on it. It's always different after the work is done.

Don't sweat it. Don't take his complaining to heart. Better that he doesn't expect charity work in the future.

It was a bargain. I bet he knows that inside. In the future, pretend it never happened. From now on, full price.

 

[LarryFine]

Sounds like the ol' promise of more work malarkey....

I've probably heard that one a thousand times over the years. I always respond with "I tell you what; I'll give you a break on the second one."

I had a customer who hit me with that, and he understood and happily agreed. He was the only one who called me back, and he got that break.

 

[quogueelectric]

Dont sweat a second of guilt over it he was lucky he had a well trained HONEST guy working on this. I have seen guys take days of searching and still never find the problem until I got there. You could have sold him a new homerun with a song and a dance and some razzle dazzle for 500 bucks. He should be kissing your boots right now. Tell his friend that you are not doing this for practice anymore.

 

[JES2727]

Dont sweat a second of guilt over it ....

I'm not feeling the least bit guilty. I'm just looking for some perspective on how others would have handled it. I think the general consensus is that I was too easy on him.

 

[G0049]

Well, you could have told him that you were charging him $10 to reset the GFCI (which he could have done himself) and $40 for knowing what to look for (which he obviously couldn't do himself).

 

[iMuse97]

Everybody wants to be friends with the Electrician, the Plumber, and the HVAC guy. Friends are overrated.

 

[growler]

Anyway, last night I stop by on my way home from his friend's house to see about the loss of power to his receps. He was glad to see me and treated me like an old friend, even though he wasn't home on my previous visits and we'd never met.

Did you schedule a service call at this guy's house or did you not? If you just drop by the homeowner may think it's just a friendly visit but when you schedule a service call they know it's business and expect to pay for service.

When you take a call from a customer it's very important to establish what they want. Do they just want some free advice or do they want to schedule a service call and get professional help? When a customer schedules a service call there is no reason to tell them you are in the neighborhood and how easy it was for you to get there. There is no reason to run in and try to find the problem in 5 minutes. They are paying a minimum charge so it's handled like every other service call. For one thing I would have replaced that GFCI and written up a bill with a warranty. Now the guy thinks he has gotten something tangible and not just the reset button pushed.

When people think that you will drop by and repair items for a few bucks in cash they consider you more of a side worker than a buisness. These are not customers that you want.

There is no reason to give a customer a hard luck story about all your expenses because they don't care about that, just tell them your minimum charge to do a service call and the price of materials used. If they call a second time there is never a reason to haggle about price because they know that you are a business to start with and know there is nothing for free.

 

[Power Tech]

Everybody wants to be friends with the Electrician, the Plumber, and the HVAC guy. Friends are overrated.

And can be used against you in a time of war.

 

[Power Tech]

I don.t know what part of Jersey your in, but in this part of Jersey most of the guys get 139 to 159 for a service call, and that is to show up and give the customer a price, when your in business you need to drop the friend, thing and replace it with I love my family, this is how you make your living, It's not a hobby or part time thing.

The other day a GC says: Randy is such a great guy, I hate to charge him.

I thought...Randy is a great guy cause he keeps his checkbook in the truck and pays like a slot machine.

 

[LarryFine]

Friends are overrated.

You know my friends?

 

[MrMilbank]

my friends who get special treatment are mechanics, carpenters, roofers. so when they get my work for free i get theirs, until it becomes major or emergency related. we all agreed that this would keep things even. aside from that. a friend who calls me for work gets the regular price but ill spend more time checking extra stuff while im there. and help them move furniture ect. maybe sit down and have some iced tea too.