five minute service call for $XXX

[K8MHZ]

I used to do this too if the customer was close and quick. Sometimes for a regular customer who spent a lot with us. Sometimes for a person living in poverty.

I sometimes do it now but I call the boss and clear it with him first. He & I are usually on the same page with such issues.

OTOH, if I have to go a long way or put off other work, we have to charge something.

Worst complaint I had recently on billing was this. At one house, a helper & I had to troubleshoot about 6 receptacles. A few were simple, 1 burned out & killed next ones, etc. A couple were fed from somewhere totally illogical & we both went to crawlspace to track them out. 1 receptacle was also close to falling out of the wall. We blanked the box off and moved recept over a foot. Customer had been happy when we left house with all fixed. When he got the bill, he called my on my cell, complaining that we should have done the work in a different order, I should have been fixing and had helper in crawl space the whole time, etc. I just told him that every job is different and we have to play them by ear. Told him I didn't enjoy crawling & avoided it whenever possible but sometimes easier when 2 people crawl and sort out wiring. I had not been impressed by him to start with. He was a school assistant principal. It was near Halloween & he came to the door dressed as a pirate. He'd been at school & took a few hours to come home for the service call. My father was a school principal who wouldn't have thought of dressing up for Halloween. None of his teachers would have thought of doing it either. He would have sent them home to change if they had.

You don't like the way he does his job, and he didn't like the way you did yours. I'd call it even!

 

[growler]

My father was a school principal who wouldn't have thought of dressing up for Halloween. None of his teachers would have thought of doing it either. He would have sent them home to change if they had.

Almost 50 years ago one of my friends was a teacher that got into trouble for having longer than acceptable sideburns and had to trim them or get fired.

Things have changed since then. :happyyes: A few years latter and he had long hair and a full beard.

 

[brantmacga]

I did a “1/hr” service call for $920 Friday. Quoted the job weeks ago. Customer was pissed.

Job was taking down a falling metal-halide fixture from a 100’ interstate sign as ordered by the fire department. I took all 4 of them down per customer request.

$500 went to the boom truck. 3/hrs to go pickup the basket for the boom truck, setup the truck, then haul the basket back. 1/hr on-site, so 4/hrs total (two guys plus the boom truck operator).

Explained all this when I quoted it. Hotel owner still thinks I should’ve only charged for an hour. They’ll probably never call back, and probably say I’m a crook, but I won’t lose sleep.


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[JFletcher]

I did a “1/hr” service call for $920 Friday. Quoted the job weeks ago. Customer was pissed.

Job was taking down a falling metal-halide fixture from a 100’ interstate sign as ordered by the fire department. I took all 4 of them down per customer request.

$500 went to the boom truck. 3/hrs to go pickup the basket for the boom truck, setup the truck, then haul the basket back. 1/hr on-site, so 4/hrs total (two guys plus the boom truck operator).

Explained all this when I quoted it. Hotel owner still thinks I should’ve only charged for an hour. They’ll probably never call back, and probably say I’m a crook, but I won’t lose sleep.


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A 300 Winchester magnum with a good scope and steady hand would have taken those off in a minute... Although the remaining $900 would probably not cover bail LOL.

A hotel owner thinking you are a crook? Irony. Pot..kettle..black.

Highest I've been in the bucket truck was maybe 35 ft... Don't think I could do a hundred feet

 

[growler]

I did a “1/hr” service call for $920 Friday. Quoted the job weeks ago. Customer was pissed.

Job was taking down a falling metal-halide fixture from a 100’ interstate sign as ordered by the fire department. I took all 4 of them down per customer request.

$500 went to the boom truck. 3/hrs to go pickup the basket for the boom truck, setup the truck, then haul the basket back. 1/hr on-site, so 4/hrs total (two guys plus the boom truck operator).

Explained all this when I quoted it. Hotel owner still thinks I should’ve only charged for an hour. They’ll probably never call back, and probably say I’m a crook, but I won’t lose sleep.

I don't understand the logic that some people use.

You quoted the job weeks in advance. This gave plenty of time for them to look around for a better price (and they probably did).

If you only charged for an hour then who would they expect to pay for the boom truck.

Even if they had a boom truck and an operator there on the job I still wouldn't charge for 1 hour if I'm the one going up in the bucket. If I have to give a job quote it's never less than 4 hours. I don't know how long it will really take ( the truck could have a flat tire and be delayed getting there).

 

[ptonsparky]

We just priced looking at some HS ball field lighting. We rent that kind of equipment and it was $700 +or- to get it up here for a day, plus $$'s for Tom. 1500 watt MH ballasts are not stocked in this area so if they are the problem we would have to do it again in a week or two. The coach thought he could try having the players eat more carrots first.

 

[Coppersmith]

I did a “1/hr” service call for $920 Friday. Quoted the job weeks ago. Customer was pissed.

Job was taking down a falling metal-halide fixture from a 100’ interstate sign as ordered by the fire department. I took all 4 of them down per customer request.

$500 went to the boom truck. 3/hrs to go pickup the basket for the boom truck, setup the truck, then haul the basket back. 1/hr on-site, so 4/hrs total (two guys plus the boom truck operator).

Explained all this when I quoted it. Hotel owner still thinks I should’ve only charged for an hour. They’ll probably never call back, and probably say I’m a crook, but I won’t lose sleep.

What? You didn't just wave your magic wand and have a free boom truck appear? Maybe you should have just flown up there with the jetpack your supposed to carry in the service truck.

 

[brantmacga]

A 300 Winchester magnum with a good scope and steady hand would have taken those off in a minute...

I wish I’d taken a pic of it; it was a 10’ section of steel tubing that broke away with the fixture on the end, and it was hanging by a single conductor from 12/2 UF.

Highest I've been in the bucket truck was maybe 35 ft... Don't think I could do a hundred feet

150’ is the tallest sign we service. I don’t mind it, but there’s only a couple of guys that are willing to go up with me. It’s only tough when the wind is high.

Here’s a 100’ sign I took down recently and converted to LED; it took about a day just to get it down because the wind was so bad it was whipping the crane boom around. It’s risky doing it in the air trying to get the sign faces off, so we put it on the ground.

Funny story about this particular sign pictured, is that about 2’ above the ground, one of the eye bolts broke and it came crashing down shattering all of the acrylic. Luckily it did not bend the frame. But we found that the eye bolt that broke away had an aluminum support plate that cracked, so the bolt stripped right through; the other side was steel, as it should have been. McDonald’s Insurance covered it as that was in no way our fault. I had a new steel plate made for it and installed the new sign faces for them. Just glad it didn’t break higher in the air.


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[brantmacga]

Found more pics of that one after we stood it back up and fixed it ...

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[JFletcher]

Good pics... I see you have your Quality Control inspector out there (the cat).

 

[GoldDigger]

Good pics... I see you have your Quality Control inspector out there (the cat).

The really unusual jobs all require a cat scan to diagnose.

 

[kwired]

A 300 Winchester magnum with a good scope and steady hand would have taken those off in a minute... Although the remaining $900 would probably not cover bail LOL.

A hotel owner thinking you are a crook? Irony. Pot..kettle..black.

Highest I've been in the bucket truck was maybe 35 ft... Don't think I could do a hundred feet

Maybe one needs to stay at hotel, check in at 10:00 PM check out at 6:00AM and tell them you should only have to pay for 1/3 of a day's rate, after all you were only there for a third of a day:happyyes:

I don't understand the logic that some people use.

You quoted the job weeks in advance. This gave plenty of time for them to look around for a better price (and they probably did).

If you only charged for an hour then who would they expect to pay for the boom truck.

Even if they had a boom truck and an operator there on the job I still wouldn't charge for 1 hour if I'm the one going up in the bucket. If I have to give a job quote it's never less than 4 hours. I don't know how long it will really take ( the truck could have a flat tire and be delayed getting there).

He did charge for a 1 hour job, it just happened to be at a higher rate then most other jobs he does I probably wouldn't penalize customer for something like a flat tire, at least not directly, you need to have some overhead built into what you charge to cover those kind of things you just can't control. If you blew the transmission on your truck on your way to a service call you certainly wouldn't itemize the transmission repair on the bill to your customer, I hope.

Good pics... I see you have your Quality Control inspector out there (the cat).

That is the guy that can get into tight spaces to do certain tasks others can't.

 

[growler]

I probably wouldn't penalize customer for something like a flat tire, at least not directly, you need to have some overhead built into what you charge to cover those kind of things you just can't control. If you blew the transmission on your truck on your way to a service call you certainly wouldn't itemize the transmission repair on the bill to your customer, I hope.

I never said that a customer should be penalized for things like flat tires or transmission repairs. I said that I never quote a job at one hour even if I think it may be possible to do a job in that time limit.

If the customer wants a quote/firm price then they can expect that a little extra is added to cover the possibility that something will not work out as well as planned. If they want to pay for the actual time it takes to do the job it can be done as T&M.

Only once in my life time do I remember a tire going flat on a rented bucket truck so it's not likely but there are a thousand other things that can happen that you would not expect. The cost of the tire repair was on the rental company ( took over 2 hours for repair). It got dark and we were on overtime and the job went slower than expected. This cost was on the EC.

 

[kwired]

I never said that a customer should be penalized for things like flat tires or transmission repairs. I said that I never quote a job at one hour even if I think it may be possible to do a job in that time limit.

If the customer wants a quote/firm price then they can expect that a little extra is added to cover the possibility that something will not work out as well as planned. If they want to pay for the actual time it takes to do the job it can be done as T&M.

Only once in my life time do I remember a tire going flat on a rented bucket truck so it's not likely but there are a thousand other things that can happen that you would not expect. The cost of the tire repair was on the rental company ( took over 2 hours for repair). It got dark and we were on overtime and the job went slower than expected. This cost was on the EC.

I understand, with equipment like that - especially if you are renting or even subcontracting it you are probably paying for at least half day even if you only actually spend 5 minutes on your job site with it.

 

[gadfly56]

I understand, with equipment like that - especially if you are renting or even subcontracting it you are probably paying for at least half day even if you only actually spend 5 minutes on your job site with it.

When my last company rented lifts, it was a three-part deal: drop off charge, rental, pickup charge. Using a lift for a single day was very expensive.