peter d
Senior Member
- Location
- New England
Yes, I understand that, but my point was that if EC's weren't so unified in one skill they all seem to share - lowballing and undercutting- we'd be a lot better off.
How much do you charge for a service call
- Thread starter jmsbrush
- Start date
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Yes, I understand that, but my point was that if EC's weren't so unified in one skill they all seem to share - lowballing and undercutting- we'd be a lot better off.
bradleyelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- forest hill, md
would you get 3 estimates for a $500. job?
dexterg
Member
- Location
- New Braunfels, TX
San Antonio area / $80 hr
carlos cainas
Member
- Location
- Tampa
doyle electric in tampa comercial only,50 service call and 79hr
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
How do you know it's a $500 job, without getting estimates?
bradleyelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- forest hill, md
I have a basic idea of the value of something and call someone that has some creditablity through associations. $500. is not worth waisting a lot of my time as a HO on.
bradleyelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- forest hill, md
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
very few calls that i would not do the work one that i did pass on was two mobil hohes somehow joined together with to seperate panels that looked like some one had tried to swap
receps broken light fixtures missing panel covers gone wire stapled across the ceiling. Walls torn out.
Called me because kithen receps would not work,walk in looked around walked out no bill.
LawnGuyLandSparky
Senior Member
With so many ECs competing for a finite supply of work, isn't the competition driving prices down the natural, expected result?
PetrosA
Senior Member
- Location
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania
In this area I'd say that not many companies do a lot of service work on a regular basis. By service I mean the little old lady with the pantry light that doesn't work, or a breaker that keeps tripping, or emergency service stuff (just today, the meter for a 6 bay rental garage was mistakenly booted by the POCO and the door opener stopped working - had to get it back online any way possible ASAP since POCO can't get a crew back till April 7 at the earliest...).
The company I work for has done service work forever - or at least the past 95 years, including in-shop lamp and appliance repair. Back in the 80s, I pretty much spent all day every day doing service calls or jobbing in the meantime. Nowadays people don't seem to want to call an electrician if they think they might be able to fix it themselves (thanks DIY box stores...) so it's a tough market, but it's still out there. Emergency service call charge I think is about $90 plus time over first 1/2 hour onsite (locally), plus materials; regular service calls (scheduled) are billed shop-to-shop or shop-to-next call at $65/hr.
The company I work for has done service work forever - or at least the past 95 years, including in-shop lamp and appliance repair. Back in the 80s, I pretty much spent all day every day doing service calls or jobbing in the meantime. Nowadays people don't seem to want to call an electrician if they think they might be able to fix it themselves (thanks DIY box stores...) so it's a tough market, but it's still out there. Emergency service call charge I think is about $90 plus time over first 1/2 hour onsite (locally), plus materials; regular service calls (scheduled) are billed shop-to-shop or shop-to-next call at $65/hr.
RonPecinaJr
Senior Member
- Location
- Rahway, NJ
Yes, I am that guy, or soon to be that guy. And I plan on focusing my business on service work, residential and commercial. So I do appreciate the discussion.
EC's are not selling corn or cotton, they supply a service, and they have to adjust their pricing to the cost of operating the business, pricing is going up not down, due to increased cost of operating, everything from insurance to supplies, and in slow times, even asset accounts have to be maintained, and this is for every size business, from one man shop, to the small corporation.
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
All nonsense.
LawnGuyLandSparky
Senior Member
That's awesome. Thanks
It's all about one's own perspective, isn't it?
You're right.
You should never adjust your pricing according to what it costs you to opperate your business.
You should just adjust your pricing according to whatever everyone else is charging.
That's the only thing that really matters.
Yep, and if I choose to live in squalor and default on all my bills, then I can work for free and make people really happy.
Or I could collect a paycheck and bitch about how cheap my boss is.
You're right.
You should never adjust your pricing according to what it costs you to opperate your business.
You should just adjust your pricing according to whatever everyone else is charging.
That's the only thing that really matters.
Now that's the spirit. Poverty for one, poverty for all. Let's all strive for the loewst common denominator. Who's with me?
Whenever I invest in anything, whether it's stocks or in a business, my primary goal is to reduce my return on the invesment as much as possible.
Why would I want to try to get the maximum return on my investments?
The customer wants the best return on their investment and I need to help them acheive that no matter what it costs me.
With happy customers you'll always have work so who cares if it's profitable or not.
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