service call charge

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donselectric

Senior Member
Location
nh
hi
i went to a call at a restaurant for no lites and outlet dead
so i find the bad breaker and separate the three loads of the loose screw
and put each on a new breaker....
spent more time bsn.... how much would you charge.....

thanks
 
donselectric said:
hi
i went to a call at a restaurant for no lites and outlet dead
so i find the bad breaker and separate the three loads of the loose screw
and put each on a new breaker....
spent more time bsn.... how much would you charge.....

thanks
Click to expand...

if it's bolt in qo gfi the breakers are 150 bucks!,,,,my point is you haven't given nearly enough info. And fake cussing is still cussing.
 
Like McClary said, we need more info... What time of day was it, normal business hours or after hours? How far did you have to drive? Did you supply the breakers or were there spares in the panel?
 
I have a minimum service call charge of $139 plus material and tax (assuming it's less than an hour). This is for normal working hours. Sometimes, if it's a simple five minute fix, I'll cut the charge in half, but it depends on the customer.
 
I did a few service calls for a local chain. The way I got the business though was through a contractor.

I would do the work, I would go to the contractor to get paid and he would bill the corporation.

He told me that you had to be a vendor to do business with that restaurant. I've heard some stories about how much info you need to give the corporation in order to submit an invoice.

I tried to charge what I thought the job was worth...many times it was a 10 minute visit on my way to something else. Let's say I charged $75 for my visit. The contractor paid me my $75 in cash and then billed them a couple hundred bucks.

It's kind of weird how different the pricing is between resi vs commercial work. On one hand, you might be doing less work for the money...on the other hand, you're helping a business continue to make money...and for that you should get your share.
 
Like everyone else, you didn't give enough info for me to really tell. How much time was involved? Did you have a lot of drive time?

I will say that a buddy of mine does mostly new commercial, and very little service work. His service calls are $15 per hour cheaper than ours. Do you do a lot of service work?

If you are friendly enough to stand around and chat, I would assume that this is a regular customer. Charging them for a lot of chit/chat may not set well with a customer that you want to try and keep.
 
I never understood these types of threads... Prices are different all over the US.

3 days ago, I charged $150 to go reset a tripped GFCI, now, how does that help you? Prices are high here, and you dont even tell us what state you are in.

SO my answer: charge $150.

~Matt
 
gee, i thought it was a simple ?.... cussing ???
stablok breakers, i was on the road just finishing another call.
was in mass.. 11 am and sunny....and free coffee and eats if i wanted....:)
12 min from home...if i were home.

thanks
 
one hour min charge @ your normal rate plus material and 20% mark up. I dont accept free food on service calls, the customer has to realize that I am in business to make money just like they are. If you didnt fix thier problem quickly, they would be losing money in sales and possibly lose return business from irritated customers. Remember, they are paying you for knowledge not necessarily labor....
 
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TOOL_5150 said:
I never understood these types of threads... Prices are different all over the US.

3 days ago, I charged $150 to go reset a tripped GFCI, now, how does that help you? Prices are high here, and you dont even tell us what state you are in.

SO my answer: charge $150.

~Matt
Click to expand...

That is true until you use a national company for a standard, then services prices are pretty much the same, with some expections for large cities where they may be higher, and depressed areas where they can be much lower.
 
jaylectricity said:
He told me that you had to be a vendor to do business with that restaurant. I've heard some stories about how much info you need to give the corporation in order to submit an invoice.

I tried to charge what I thought the job was worth...many times it was a 10 minute visit on my way to something else. Let's say I charged $75 for my visit. The contractor paid me my $75 in cash and then billed them a couple hundred bucks.
Click to expand...


Jay you are wasting your time doing things this way. Yes you will have to be a vendor to bill the corporate office. If you are doing the electrical work you are the vendor you just haven't bothered to set them up as an account.

You are going to need to know how to do this and after the first time it gets a lot easier. The first thing you do is call the corporate office for this restaurant chain and ask to speak to the accounts payable department. They will tell you everything you need to do to get set up as a vendor.
It may be as simple as sending them a copy of your license, insurance and tax information. All I have ever had to send is insurance and tax information I guess they just assume that my license is good because I couldn't get insurance without it. Open a commercial account at the bank and run all business transactions through this account and stop dealing with these little cash payments.

There are certain things that you will want to know. One thing is their pay schedule. If you submit an invoice then how long before you get paid. Then you will want to know just how much a restaurant manager can authorize without approval from the home office. This is often a limited amount or nothing at all. Next you will need to know if a purchase order number is needed before submitting an invoice. Some do and some don't . Make sure that you give each invoice an invoice number for tracking purposes. Make sure that you get the name and number of a contact person to deal with at accounts payable and then you can call up and deal with real people. Where is my money?

Once you are set up as a vendor they may want you to do service calls at businesses that you wouldn't even think this corporation even has anything to do with. They will never know about you unless you let them know you are out there. It's your license and your insurance so it should be your money and not a contractor with a cheap employee.
 
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donselectric said:
hi
i went to a call at a restaurant for no lites and outlet dead
so i find the bad breaker and separate the three loads of the loose screw
and put each on a new breaker....
spent more time bsn.... how much would you charge.....

thanks
Click to expand...

Well it's not going to be less than $200.00. It sounds like a minimum service call charge at commercial rate plus materials. If I have to bill there is an Admin. charge for waiting to be paid and extra paperwork. If they cut a check at the restaurant then that part is not added. If it's not over ten miles there wouldn't be a travel charge. How much did these breakers cost? There is the cost of the breakers plus mark up.

Whatever ever you do you should establish some sort of service call rate and stick to it. Never haggle with customers on an individual basis make sure that they know your rates are your rates and there is no haggling. They may not call you back ever again but the one's that do will pay with no problems. That's what you are looking for.
 
donselectric said:
hi
i went to a call at a restaurant for no lites and outlet dead
so i find the bad breaker and separate the three loads of the loose screw
and put each on a new breaker....
spent more time bsn.... how much would you charge.....

thanks
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I get the service but I'll guess you mean there was a bad breaker with three conductors. You replaced the bad breaker and added two more breakers to separate the loads.

If this was the call and it was quick and easy I'd be around $300 minimum. I'd also be getting an autograph on a contract before I started the repair. If you completed the repair w/o a contract and are checking online for the price to invoice, you missed the boat IMHO.
 
growler said:
Jay you are wasting your time doing things this way. Yes you will have to be a vendor to bill the corporate office. If you are doing the electrical work you are the vendor you just haven't bothered to set them up as an account.

You are going to need to know how to do this and after the first time it gets a lot easier. The first thing you do is call the corporate office for this restaurant chain and ask to speak to the accounts payable department. They will tell you everything you need to do to get set up as a vendor.
It may be as simple as sending them a copy of your license, insurance and tax information. All I have ever had to send is insurance and tax information I guess they just assume that my license is good because I couldn't get insurance without it. Open a commercial account at the bank and run all business transactions through this account and stop dealing with these little cash payments.

There are certain things that you will want to know. One thing is their pay schedule. If you submit an invoice then how long before you get paid. Then you will want to know just how much a restaurant manager can authorize without approval from the home office. This is often a limited amount or nothing at all. Next you will need to know if a purchase order number is needed before submitting an invoice. Some do and some don't . Make sure that you give each invoice an invoice number for tracking purposes. Make sure that you get the name and number of a contact person to deal with at accounts payable and then you can call up and deal with real people. Where is my money?

Once you are set up as a vendor they may want you to do service calls at businesses that you wouldn't even think this corporation even has anything to do with. They will never know about you unless you let them know you are out there. It's your license and your insurance so it should be your money and not a contractor with a cheap employee.
Click to expand...

I nominate this for best post of the year. :)
.
.
 
growler said:
Jay you are wasting your time doing things this way. Yes you will have to be a vendor to bill the corporate office. If you are doing the electrical work you are the vendor you just haven't bothered to set them up as an account.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right. I think I'll just start calling all of the places in my area. Thanks for the advice.
 
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