How much is emergency service worth?

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J

JES2727

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Today I got a call right before noon. The caller had lost power to his entire house. POCO had been there and told him that his main breaker was the problem and there was nothing they could do. I was in the middle of a project so I told him I could be there around 4 o'clock. He was not satisfied with this, he was concerned that if I had to buy parts it would be too late in the day, the supply houses would be closed, and he would be another night without power. "OK, let me re-arrange some things, I'll be there as soon as I can." I was there by 2. Just like he said, the main breaker had failed and would not reset. It was a Crouse-Hinds 100 amp panel, half filled up with mini's. I did not have a replacement breaker on my truck, so I told him I would take the bad one with me to match it up at the supply house. Then he starts with the "how much....". I tell him $90 an hour plus the breaker, might be 2 hours total by the time I get back and get the new breaker installed. He thinks this is too much. "What if you can't find the new breaker? What if you have to come back tomorrow? What if , what if...." Then he asks me how much to change the whole panel??(!) He doesn't want this to happen again and he just happened to pick up a 100A Homeline panel at Home Depot earlier in the day! It's 2:30 already, and that could take 1/2 a day before it's all wrapped up. I tell him it might cost him $500. He's really unhappy now. He doesn't want to pay by the hour, he just wants a price for the job. I explain to him that if I have to quote a price I have to consider the unexpected, and the price will be higher. $250 to change the main breaker, $500 to change the panel. "Can't you be more reasonable?" he asks me. "I am being reasonable" I say. He tells me he used to own restaurants and his electricians would charge him $50 an hour. He offers me $250 to change his panel. At this point I say "I'm sorry, sir, I can't help you. I have to go". I put his faulty main breaker back in it's spot, pack up my tools and drive away, while he watches me from his hot, dark house.
Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. Was I being unreasonable? Was I charging too much? Personally, I think the guy was just the most ridiculous a**hole I've ever encountered. but I sure would like other opinions. (please)

John
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

Well John,

I have to say that you did the right thing. If you were banging him over the head for a grand or two since he was sitting in the dark I would say that you were being unethical. But given the situation and the prices that you quoted I'd say the guy was either really cheap, a fool or both.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

I don't have much patience with "grinders" like this either. I would have done (in fact, have done) the exact same thing. Your prices were more than fair, and he was just being a {certain religion} about it.

**message edited to remove inflamatory remark about a certain religion.

[ August 22, 2005, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: mdshunk ]
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

I think your offer of $500 for the panel replacement was extremely reasonable.
The guy was jerk. Whatever the price he would have been beating you up for something when it was done. Good move getting out of there. Too bad you had to make the trip. Sometimes these types come through on the phone loud & clear.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

Did you get your minimum service call charge? The best thing you can have in a case like this is a high minimum. You should get paid two hours for your time ( I'm sure your spent at least two hours & some not so cheap fuel ). If you allow the customer to window shop ( for free ) this kind of thing can happen. I can tell from your prices that you are not trying to take advantage but there is no reason to let the customer take advantage either. Set a good minimum charge that is due when you show up, gets rid of the price shoppers. Better luck next time.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

I would have handled it the same way. Your price was reasonable. If he was such a cheap person he could have took down the info off the panel and breaker, went to a supply house and purchased what he needed. Then once you arrived you could have changed it and been gone in minimal time.

No he would rather buy a new panel, plus pay you even more time to install a whole panel...makes lots of sense to me.

Hopefully he is sitting in the dark right now thinking about the money he just saved!
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

I think your offer of $500 for the panel replacement was extremely reasonable.

In my area they charge almost the same as a service upgrade, changing a panel, requires upgrading the grounding, and bonding, and don't forget the two ground rods, we also need an inspection for panel changes.
The Hacks do these changes, without upgrading grounding, and no permit, or inspection and they get anywhere from $800 up usually cash.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

"If he was such a cheap person he could have took down the info off the panel and breaker, went to a supply house and purchased what he needed. "

In fact, he had gone to the supply house first. The guy at the counter gave him my number, because he didn't have the breaker in stock. When I called him up to ask him about it he said he might be able to substitute a Bryant. This is when I decided to bring the breaker with me to find a match. But the customer was convinced that I would be driving around until tomorrow morning looking for a breaker and charging him $90 an hour the whole time. Meanwhile, the customer had also called Crouse-Hinds to find a local distributor and had called him as well. He was waiting on a return call from him, and that supply house is about an hour away. I don't know what he was expecting me to do. Drive an hour each way and not charge him for the time??

Thanks growler for the advice about the minimum service call charge. You're right, I should have told the guy over the phone that I need $90 just to show up. That's what I'll do from now on, except maybe I'll set my minimum at $150.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

We charge 4 hours minimum to drop what we are doing to respond to an emergency, its non-negotiable.

This is in addition to mileage and truck charges.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

Cheap A** customer...Did you drive past later to see if the lights were on?
Good for you. Better to loose this one, probably would have written the check for $250 and said he'll send you the rest!
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

$65.00 per hour for all hours before 3:30 PM, after 3:30 it goes up to $97.50. Minimum time is 1 hour and minimum drive time is 30 minutes, billed. For emergency calls there is a $65.00 dollar truck charge and the customer pays actual drive time (normally we charge time from shop, usually 30 minutes, sometimes 1 hour. On emergency we charge actual time, if I'm 2 hours away, the customer pays for it.)

BTW, if you can do a panel swap for $500, your a better man than I. :) :)
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

One more thought on this. While prices very by area, I think $500 is a VERY cheap price for any panel change when it's done by a licensed EC. This is given the fact that you are going to have to get a permit and bring up to code any grounding, bonding or other issues that exist.

By the way, I have a policy that I tell customers up front. If we roll on an emergency service call, there is a minimum charge and that applies once we arrive. If you don't want us to do the work, you still owe us once we arrive! I don't get my gas for nothing and I have to pay my people too.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

Just remember," the value of emergency work diminishes as soon as said operation is completed." This gem was authored by someone else, but it does sort of stick in the mind. Have em sign as soon as you arrive, or better yet use the portable charge card swipe machine upon arrival.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

emergency call------------as soon as i get it --the caller's time starts--period! the time it takes to shut down another customer's work is the responsibility of the emergency customer calling and i will tell them that before hanging up. my travel time and the time it will take me to set back up on my original customer's job will also be included on the emergency caller's bill. this is only fare to my customers and if they do not understand that---i don't want them as a customer!
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

You guy's are all correct. I am on the customer end in the industrial area. But I would never expect a contractor to not charge me for an emergency situation. When I call with something like that I try to be very specific and explain either equipment is down and I need them right away or it can wait till they finish what they are on and someone is available.

I try to do the same with my home and using licensed electricians or plumber's, even though you would classify me into the hack category and try to do the little work myself. But I would never do service upgrades, or panel change outs. I know my limits. Anyway, I would expect though you to be up front with me when I call and tell me your minimum for just showing up on an emergency call.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

I agree. Since all comments posted so far have essentially agreed that you did the right thing, I don't have to clarify about who I am agreeing with. ;)

To all the above, let me add one thing. If I were the customer that you left, in order to go to this "emergency" job, then I would want some type of compensation for my trouble. You are going to finish my job later than promised, for no fault of mine. If you see the other customer as a higher priority, that is your call. But it will not make me happy. What compensation would I expect? Depends on the job you are doing for me. If you come back and finish before dinner time, that is one thing. If you leave me in the dark for an extra night, that is something else. If it was a four day job that is now a five day job, that is also something else. But I think a "price break" on the order of one hour's worth of labor would be a minimum. I also think I should not pay extra because of the extra time you had to take to get my job done. Finally, I think any such "price break" or other compensation should be paid for by the "emergency customer." Would that seem unreasonable, from the perspective of the first customer?
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

Charlie, it is my opinion that you should never leave a paying customer to go on a service call if it will inconvenience the home or business owner in any way. If the customer is going to be left in the dark you should not leave unless your own house is on fire. There are normally enough contractors in an area to handle a single emergency. If you can't make the call you can give out the phone numbers of other contractors. I hate these people that advertise 4 hr. service and don't show up until the next day after promising promp service. It's better to give good service to the customers that you already have than go chasing after new dead beats. If you were to have more work than you can handle there is nothing wrong with calling the competition to see if they can take care of some of the calls.
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

emergeny call------------- some degree of common sense and prioritymust be considered. i have never had a customer complain about leaving his work to go on an emergency call. i always explain the situation before leaving and explain the situation and the fact that we will return as soon as possible and this same urgency would be applied to his business or operation if he needed emergency work. we were called on a major bus duct explosion emergency while in the middle of a tenant space buildout which was about one weeks work. i hired another contractor to complete the tenant space so we could totally concentrate on the bus duct repair. there was extra costs in the tenant buildout which i built into the bus duct repair. i've really never had any complaints..........
 
Re: How much is emergency service worth?

You're right, charlie b, about leaving one job for another. But in this case it was not an issue. I just needed to get to a good stopping point and close up some ceiling tiles. There have been other times, for instance just a couple of weeks ago, when I had promised completion by the end of the day. I got an emergency call from someone and could not find anyone to cover it for me, so I turned it down.
 
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