Service call $$$

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goldstar

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I'm a capitalist as most of us are and I'm all for making $$$ when I can. But sometimes this can get out of hand.

Yesterday, while replacing a defective light fixture at a friends house (who just so happens to live in a wealthy community) she asked my opinion about a bill she received from a plumber. She scheduled an appointment (not an emergency) to have a plumber come to her house and repair a leak in a pipe inside a basement wall. She was charged $ 60.00 for the service call PLUS $ 90.00 per HALF HOUR for each of the 2 helpers that were sent to the job to do the work. Three hours later and $ 1140.00 plus parts the job was done. Not bad for a few hours work.

Did I go wrong somewhere in life ??? I think I'll become a plumber and retire at the end of next year !!!
 
Re: Service call $$$

How's that saying go? "Most plumbers never made that much when they were Doctors either". ;)

Roger
 
Re: Service call $$$

I called a local plumbing/rooter company out to snake out my main line. I wanted them to pull the commode and run their snake out as far as they could. They told me it would be better to try their 6' toilet auger first. I said sure. They said that will be $325. I said, "no thanks, get off my property". I could buy my own gold-plated toilet-auger for $325! I did pay him for a service call. Ouch! Oh, and $325 was their "club" price. I had to join their plumbing club before I could get that special discount. They do everything on a flat rate, but it's discounted if you're in their "club". They have a fancy binder with all the flat-rate pricing. If I'd wanted them to run the toilet-auger and it failed, they would have snaked my main line and replaced my commode for a flat rate of about $1200 plus tax (plus the $325 auger attempt). I feel sorry for any little old ladies that get taken in by these thieves! At least they are up-front with their price gouging. This is America, the home of capitalism. I just worry about them taking advantage of somebody who doesn't know about competitive pricing. I'm used to a main line snake job in the $100+ range.

PS: I bought a $20 deluxe auger and it did the trick in a jiffy.

[ November 04, 2003, 05:10 PM: Message edited by: awwt ]
 
Re: Service call $$$

Our company,me in particular, does plumbing as well as electrical. I usually charge a higher rate ($30 an hour) for plumbing if it involves dwv,septic pumps etc.

Arc blasts or electrocution ain't good,but neither is Hepatitis or Aids or any of the other stuff possible in a sewer system. :p

Russell
 
Re: Service call $$$

Russell, very good point.

Roger
 
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Goldstar if I call someone to my castle, to fix a leak in my alligator filled moat and they give me an hourly rate and I agree to it, and the job gets done in a timely and pro. manner what is the problem, on the other hand if there are hidden charges that I was not told about, now we have a problem, that is why when someone calls me and requests my services I make sure my rates and how I will apply these as well as to how many men it will take to do the job, are clear to the costumer, this eliminates a lot of, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE BILL FOR YOUR SERVICES IS $$$$$$$, YOU SAID IT WAS $ PER HOUR :mad: !
 
Re: Service call $$$

WOW- I sometimes feel bad about charging my $40.00 service fee ($40.00 for the first hour and $20.00 thereafter.) for my service call's. But my BOSS(the wife) keeps reminding me they pay me or someone else.
 
Re: Service call $$$

It's not just the plumbers that are putting the screws to people:

I'm here in Jersey, my mother lives in Virginia. She wanted some electrical work done, figured she'd just get a contractor to come out instead of waiting for me to come back through that region.

Dead simple stuff: Disconnect disused fan control switch in bathroom, replace with receptacle.
Replace broken 3-way switch for hall light.

"Electrician" shows up, pokes around for three hours (three hours!) and can't figure out how to do any of this work, and then wants $300 for his time! No way this guy was even a sparky, unless he was just incredibly dishonest and playing dumb to try and extort money.

There are a lot of shysters in the trades: It's easy to tell homeowners that something is a nine-hundred dollar job when the homeowner has absolutely no idea what's involved.

-John
 
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There's never a problem with the amount of money you charge to do work as long as it's known up front. It's charging that amount of money for a mechanic to do the work but sending helpers to do the same job. I don't care what area of the world you work in.......it's tough to sell a helper's work at $ 180.00 per hour.

In the case that I cited the customer should not have had this company do the plumbing work. She should have shopped around and found another company. But, in her defense, she believed she was getting a (one) mechanic to come out and do the work. Instead the company sends out 2 helpers and charges $ 90.00 per half hour for each one.

In my opinion, they got this one job and received their "pound of flesh". But the amount of ill will this generates will get them less and not more work in this area.

[ November 06, 2003, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: goldstar ]
 
Re: Service call $$$

John, sadly that's not on uncommon occurrence. I'm aware of a few companies in my area that go out of their way to hire guys who have minimal qualifications, because their bumbling about will run up hours.

Sad isn't it?
 
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It can't be that easy :) If bumbling employees were the key to creating wealth we'd all be billionaires! Good help is hard to find, and even the best have their shortcomings. My opinion is that the key to wealth is competant business management. Any bumbling employee(s) I ever had or worked with were a distraction & a liability.
 
Re: Service call $$$

IMO, There are very few GOOD service electricians, especially residential electricians. In our area the residential electricians generally make less than the commercial electricians, but the contractors charge more. A residential electricians should be able to do service changes, install wiring without making a mess and most importantly trouble shoot wiring errors, shorts and multiple three ways/four ways where the home owner tried to install a dimmer. What I learned as a residential electrician has made be a better electrician in all aspects of the trade.

My commercial rates run from $65.00-$120.00 depending on who I send an electrician, generator tech, battery tech, test tech, IR tech or a specialist tech, no hidden cost and a 3 hour minimum on emergency calls, overtime rates vary accordingly. We do charge rental for certain pieces of test equipment as part of the job, but our test equipment cost $100,000's and requires calibration and repair. The residential contractors in our area generally charge $80.00 for the for first 30 minutes and the same for each hour there after, some have a minimum some don’t.
I do work for several residential contractors and they can’t believe that we charge as little as we do for a union electrician, with additional skills.

Having said that homeowners need their hands held more than commercial customers, residential customers call for pricing and some do a lot of shopping for a better number.
 
Re: Service call $$$

THE DEAL IS PLUMBERS HAVE ALWAYS STUCK TOGRTHER AND CHARGED THE PROPER FEE FOR THEIR SERVICES. EVERYBODY AND THEIR BROTHER IS A ELECTRICIAN. EVEN FIREMAN DO ELECTRIC WORK ON THE SIDE. THATS WHY WE HAVE TROUBLE CHARGING WHAT WERE ACTUALLY WORTH. THE PUBLIC HAS TO BE EDUCATED WHEN SOMEONE WALKS IN THEIR DOOR THEY NEED TO ASK FOR A LICENSE AND PROOF OF INSURANCE.
 
Re: Service call $$$

By a-1 elc. EVERYBODY AND THEIR BROTHER IS A ELECTRICIAN. EVEN FIREMAN DO ELECTRIC WORK ON THE SIDE. THATS WHY WE HAVE TROUBLE CHARGING WHAT WERE ACTUALLY WORTH. THE PUBLIC HAS TO BE EDUCATED WHEN SOMEONE WALKS IN THEIR DOOR THEY NEED TO ASK FOR A LICENSE AND PROOF OF INSURANCE.
Click to expand...
Excellent point a-1, couldn't have said it better myself. Another problem is these side job guys , as you stated, that will do the job for chump change just to put a dollar in their pocket, most have no license and of course no insurance, how can we compete with these guys! :mad:
 
Re: Service call $$$

Jro you sound like your here in NW Indiana. We call them garage electricans as most work out of their garages and drive a pickup. We had one case where we did a bid on a very large apartment complex. we bidded it on the low side as it was a very large job that would keep many of our guys busy for a while. Some back yard garage electrican if I dare to even call them that under bid us by almost 2k a unit. we could not even belive the corperation that was in charge went for it. but they did. about 3 months later we got a call from them asking how much to come and finnish the work as the electrican that got the job ran scared as he didn't know how to fix all the mess ups. we went over and looked at it two conductors ran between 3-ways. it was a mess. we told them the smae price that was the orignal bid plus any hidden cost would be extra. they didn't like it so they got some one else but they too buged out before it was done after three contractors and 6 months later it was done.
 
Re: Service call $$$

Hurk & jro,

That reminds me of the lyrics of a Kenny Rogers song :

You gotta know when to hold 'em,
Know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run

Sometimes you just can't bid against these guys. If they don't have legitimate businesses then they don't have legitimate overhead costs (i.e. insurance, vehicles, tools, etc) and probably hire day workers off the highway.

I recently went to a friend's house to correct violations in their new addition made by the electrician that their GC brought to the job. There were hi-hats in the garage, he used IC cans everywhere in the house (whether there was insulation or not), didn't provide switch plates or bulbs for the hi-hats (customer had to go out and buy them), didn't ground any fluorescent fixtures (bulbs wouldn't start). And these were only the things that were brought to my attention. I can just imagine what else was done incorrectly.
 
Re: Service call $$$

Its all part of a growing problem.EC would rather hire guys that work cheap and the cheap guys usually know very little about code and are slow,they need a leadman to run about 4 of these guys and hope to bring the job in at a profit.The wages for top end res crew leaders in Tampa is about $16 hour helpers as low as$8 .They use unlicensed men that often never even seen a code book.It's sad that people paying around $200,000 for a home are getting such poor quaility.
Would love to hear from others as to what the pay scale is for res.journeymen ,mechanic level,green help.

[ January 04, 2004, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: jimwalker ]
 
Re: Service call $$$

Jim, I won't mention numbers, and can't relate to the residential crews, but we are definatly above Tampa if your numbers reflect commercial or industrial wages.

Roger
 
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Jim
In southern NY the going rate for a good nonunion mechanic is from $25 to $30 per hour with some benifits. A helper can start at about $8 per hour.
The union mechanic is at approximately $39 per hour plus benifits.
The funny part of this is that there is more work than there are men to do the work.

Pierre
 
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