Free Service Calls?

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aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
In the past couple of weeks I've received calls like the following:

Lady calls and says her dryer isn't working. The appliance guys came out and replaced the dryer element but it still didn't work. They told her that she now doesn't have the correct voltage at the outlet and would need to call an electrician. She said they still charged her for replacing the dryer element. I suspect there wasn't anything wrong with the dryer to begin with.

I tell her there will be a service call fee for us to come out and look at it and then we will give her a price for the repairs.

Don't you give free estimates; she asks?

I tell her there's a service call fee to come out and then we'll give an estimate for the repairs.

She tells me nevermind she's allready got some other contractors coming out to give her a free estimate and they're not charging her anything to come out.



The next call I get the guy tells me he plugged something into his dining room outlet and now it doesn't work.

I go through the same routine as the previous call and tell him we can be there in about an hour.

He tells me he already has someone else coming out later that afternoon to look at it.
I ask him who it is and find out it's a typical ESI type company, with the fully stocked box van fully wrapped. So I ask him how much their dispatch fee is to come out. He tells me they're not charging him anything to come out and when they get there they'll give him a price upfront before doing any work and the price won't change.

I know this company used to charge dispatch fees of $49 to $59. Now it seems they're not charging anything. I dread the thought of running out and giving a free estimate to compete against several other contractors just to fix one outlet but it makes me wonder if even the ESI type companies are doing this if I'm going to have to do it as well.

Lately it's been getting more difficult charging a dispatch fee to come out and provide an estimate. We've had people tells us we're crazy and hang up on the call taker when she mentions a dispatch fee. Now it seems that many contractors are not charging anything to go out and give an estimate to fix one outlet. I'm getting more and more of these type of calls. People are getting several estimates to repair one outlet that's not working. That seems crazy to me.

Contractors must be getting pretty desperate around here.
 
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SEO

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
We got a call yesterday from a lady telling us that she was on a limited budget and asked if we could do a small project for $100.00 (crawling around in an attic of a finished garage find a circuit and fishing in a GFIC receptacle) when we told her that we couldn't do it for that price she asked if we knew any retired electricians. What do people think?:-?
 

ivsenroute

Senior Member
Location
Florida
This will always be the case. I too recently had an email inquiry asking me if I charge for estimates. I replied that I do charge for estimates and will deduct the cost of the estimate from the contract if hired.

Think I ever heard back?

Think I give a crap?
 

emahler

Senior Member
they think what generations of electrical contractors before us have taught them to think....that we aren't worthy of a professional wage and that we shouldn't expect to be paid for our services....
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
they think what generations of electrical contractors before us have taught them to think....that we aren't worthy of a professional wage and that we shouldn't expect to be paid for our services....

on the left coast, anyway.... there is a huge labor force that does not
charge very much, does not speak very much of the english language,
does not have licenses for anything except driving a car, and sometimes
not even that.

and they will do any work you want done. cheaper than you will do it for.
will the work be done in a safe manner? maybe. will it be done with
some craftsmanship? maybe not. will the customer care. nope.

if they gave a poop, they wouldn't be getting that guy in the first place.

i watched a hvac contractor putting a attic mounted forced air unit in the
attic of a house ***CUT*** three sets of roof trusses out of the way
because it was easier. structural elements. there was 8' of roof without
any structural triangulation for strength, in earthquake country.

when the homeowner screamed like a mashed cat, they sent another guy
back, who still didn't speak english, to nail some 2x4's in place. a bandaid,
without structural strength to speak of.

then, they mounted the compressor backwards, with the service door
facing the wall of the house, 6" away from the stucco.

all of this got turned down by the inspector. then the homeowner got
someone else to finish the work, screaming lawsuit all the while.

many people simply don't have any money, if they do have money,
they are cheap, which is why they have money, cause they don't spend any.
they don't know the difference between good work and hacked work,
and wouldn't care if told.

you'll usually know in the first 5 minutes if you've snagged one of those.
if you stay and play with them after you know, don't expect us to feel
sorry for your poor, abused butt. :D:D

the job of poor, abused doormat is a volunteer position.
 

satcom

Senior Member
they think what generations of electrical contractors before us have taught them to think....that we aren't worthy of a professional wage and that we shouldn't expect to be paid for our services....

Sad but true,


I had to laugh Quote: "lady telling us that she was on a limited budget and asked if we could do a small project for $100.00" We had one lady in town that tried that with everyone she called for work, when she passed her estate was worth millions, the people that are really in need usually pay and don't complain. Welcome to life.
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
You know I can somewhat see people wanting and getting free estimates for larger projects like wiring a basement but for one outlet that's not working?

I wouldn't think there would be any contractors willing to go out for free to give such an estimate but apparently there are.

Installed a 240volt 20amp outlet for a wood planer on friday. The guy and his wife are both doctors and it's a million + dollar home. The panel was in the basement and the planer is out in the garage. The guy was too cheap to have me run a circuit out to the garage. Instead he wanted the outlet installed below the panel. He said he would just buy an extension cord and run it from the basemnt up the stairs, through the kitchen, down the hallway and out to the garage when he wanted to use the planer.

Another option was to install the outlet below an outdoor subpanel he had and run the extension cord outside over to the garage when he wanted to use the planer. He didn't like that option because it was going to cost a little more to install an outdoor outlet.

Then to top it off he was griping about how much it was going to cost to buy an extension cord.
 

charlietuna

Senior Member
When i first started out and wasn't busy, if i had a call close by i wouldn't mind a free estimate here or there--these guys that advertise "free estimates" know how to get around it and still make money! In their troubleshooting they create a problem large enough to cover their time! Also, i always balanced out just how much a "free" call can return--if it sounded like reseting a breaker,forget it! If it was a "fire job" that was another. I had a guy call and begged me to come out--it was a bad area of town! I felt sorry for him and went. His wife refused to wash clothes because she kept getting shocked on the washing machine. He was taking his clothes to a laundrymat for two weeks, since he thought the repair costs would be out of his reach!! He went to his credit union and took a $1500.00loan to cover the cost of my service call. I fixed the problem and didn't charge him!! Had another want me to add a dedicated circuit for a wall a/c unit in a bedroom. When i was looking where to install the outlet i moved the drapes and there was already one there!!!
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
About a year ago a woman called and wanted an estimate to disconnect power to a hot tub she was getting rid of. I told her the dispatch fee over the phone and she accepted it and I booked the call.

When I got there she told me she allready had two other electricians come out and told me what their price was for the work. She told me this before I even quoted a price so I thought I would quote a price just a bit lower than what they quoted so I wouldn't be leaving with just the dispatch fee.

She still didn't like the price and told me she wasn't going to pay that much just to have a hot tub disconnected. When I tried to collect the dispatch fee she threw a fit and told me none of the other electricians charged a dispatch fee to come out. She refused to pay the dispatch fee even though she had signed paperwork agreeing to pay it before I provided her with the estimate.
 

emahler

Senior Member
on the left coast, anyway.... there is a huge labor force that does not
charge very much, does not speak very much of the english language,
does not have licenses for anything except driving a car, and sometimes
not even that.

and they will do any work you want done. cheaper than you will do it for.
will the work be done in a safe manner? maybe. will it be done with
some craftsmanship? maybe not. will the customer care. nope.

if they gave a poop, they wouldn't be getting that guy in the first place.

i watched a hvac contractor putting a attic mounted forced air unit in the
attic of a house ***CUT*** three sets of roof trusses out of the way
because it was easier. structural elements. there was 8' of roof without
any structural triangulation for strength, in earthquake country.

when the homeowner screamed like a mashed cat, they sent another guy
back, who still didn't speak english, to nail some 2x4's in place. a bandaid,
without structural strength to speak of.

then, they mounted the compressor backwards, with the service door
facing the wall of the house, 6" away from the stucco.

all of this got turned down by the inspector. then the homeowner got
someone else to finish the work, screaming lawsuit all the while.

many people simply don't have any money, if they do have money,
they are cheap, which is why they have money, cause they don't spend any.
they don't know the difference between good work and hacked work,
and wouldn't care if told.

you'll usually know in the first 5 minutes if you've snagged one of those.
if you stay and play with them after you know, don't expect us to feel
sorry for your poor, abused butt. :D:D

the job of poor, abused doormat is a volunteer position.

again, we as an industry have trained them to not respect us...now we find ourselves dealing/competing with guys like this every day in certain markets....

do you think these same customers would hire their counterparts to perform surgery? or to represent them at trial? or to sell them their house? or handle their mortgage?

no....but the trades have already told these people..."oh, we're only blue collar workers who don't deserve respect"....
 

emahler

Senior Member
When i first started out and wasn't busy, if i had a call close by i wouldn't mind a free estimate here or there--these guys that advertise "free estimates" know how to get around it and still make money! In their troubleshooting they create a problem large enough to cover their time! Also, i always balanced out just how much a "free" call can return--if it sounded like reseting a breaker,forget it! If it was a "fire job" that was another. I had a guy call and begged me to come out--it was a bad area of town! I felt sorry for him and went. His wife refused to wash clothes because she kept getting shocked on the washing machine. He was taking his clothes to a laundrymat for two weeks, since he thought the repair costs would be out of his reach!! He went to his credit union and took a $1500.00loan to cover the cost of my service call. I fixed the problem and didn't charge him!! Had another want me to add a dedicated circuit for a wall a/c unit in a bedroom. When i was looking where to install the outlet i moved the drapes and there was already one there!!!

so, you agree with working for free?
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
My Grandfather started a TV repair company. Often times he would go out and it would be something simple like the antenna cable was pulled loose from the tv or the tv wasn't plugged into the outlet or it was just a blown fuse. My Grandfather wouldn't charge anything for these simple fixes except maybe a small amount for the fuse but nothing for his time. Needless to say he wasn't in the TV repair business for very long.

Free estimates and free repairs can't really be free if you're going to make a profit and stay in business. It simply means that your other customers are going to have to pay for the freebies you gave to someone else.

To make a profit and stay in business your customers have to pay for all of your expenses and then some. If you give something to a customer for free that's an expense and means that another customer will need to pay for that expense if your going to stay in business.
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
Contractors that have "FREE ESTIMATES" in there advertising should really have "We Give Free Estimates To Everyone That Doesn't Buy From Us" because that's what it really means. :)
 

aline

Senior Member
Location
Utah
Occaisonally I get call like this:

My husband just finished wiring our basement and we would like someone to come out and look at the wiring before we cover it up with sheetrock.

I tell her we charge a fee to come out and inspect wiring.

She responds with "Don't you give free estimates".

I respond with "What would you like a free estimate on".

She responds with "Surely there must be something wrong with the wiring that you can give us a free estimate on".

I respond with "Well if there is something wrong with the wiring we will give you a free estimate for making the repairs but we're still going to charge for the inspection".

I also inform her that we would need to pull a permit to have the city inspect the wiring as well if she hasn't allready pulled a permit which is required by the city. I tell her if she's pulled a permit for finishing her basement like she's supposed to do the city will inspect not only the wiring but everthing else for cost of the permit.

People don't want to pull permits and get the city involved.
 

SEO

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Very true. If they have a fire and the insurance investigator doesn't find a permit for the work performed it may not be covered. A permit is a cheap insurance payment.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
It seems simple to me. If you go out to look at the dryer the chances are pretty good you will get the job. Normally you can almost guess the problem with a dryer. I would explain that there are usually 2 or 3 things that can cause this but generally it's a bad breaker-- this will cost $xxxxx.00.

Many times people call for an estimate and I will give a ballpark number over the phone if it is a fairly simply job. I explain that going out to look at it cost me more than it may be worth. If you can get there soon , they want you there-- at least around here.
 

steelersman

Senior Member
Location
Lake Ridge, VA
on the left coast, anyway.... there is a huge labor force that does not
charge very much, does not speak very much of the english language,
does not have licenses for anything except driving a car, and sometimes
not even that.

and they will do any work you want done. cheaper than you will do it for.
will the work be done in a safe manner? maybe. will it be done with
some craftsmanship? maybe not. will the customer care. nope.

Here on the right coast in the DC metro area, we have the same exact situation. It might even be more of a problem here.
 

macmikeman

Senior Member
Aline, this is how I figured out how to deal with it. Number one is no leaving the shop without the fee paid already, except a few times when this call comes from somebody on the ride back to the shop from another job, and no more than a few blocks out of the way. I call that advertising more or less, cause truth be told at least 50 % of those turn out pretty good. Secondly any dispatch call I do go on, I really turn on my headlights and look for all possible revenue/ extra work I can get out of each call, since service requests to my office are so random. In other words, keeping busy with the good jobs, later's gators to the ones who don't want to pay for dispatch.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
Any of you ever been in a fender-bender? What's the first thing your insurance agent tells you?.......go out and get two or three estimates.

Ever pay for any of those estimates? No. Now think of the body shops... they have people traipsing in all day long getting estimates, and they know darn well that less that 1/3 of them will ever become a customer.

They simply have put the cost of doing all those free estimates into the cost of the jobs they do get.
 
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