Troubleshooting

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

keith gigabyte

Senior Member
Location
New Kensington, Pa
How do you handle service calls. I have somewhat of a price list for things. Bad gfci replacement.. broken switch replacement..change light fixture..etc
thats the easy part. Example. Customer calls says all the lights on 1st floor out and a couple outlets. Spend 45 mins tracking down loose connection in outlet behind couch. As I was troubleshooting found 2 bad switches.
jhow do you handle this?
 
keith gigabyte said:
How do you handle service calls. I have somewhat of a price list for things. Bad gfci replacement.. broken switch replacement..change light fixture..etc
thats the easy part. Example. Customer calls says all the lights on 1st floor out and a couple outlets. Spend 45 mins tracking down loose connection in outlet behind couch. As I was troubleshooting found 2 bad switches.
jhow do you handle this?
Click to expand...

We bill out our time on an hourly basis. If it takes four hours they are billed four, plus materials. Some areas have to give pricing up front. IDK how those unexpected extras are handled for them.
 
I have a set fee for the first half hour. After that it's time and materials, unless they request a quote for the work needed.
 
Service call fee covers first hour of troubleshooting; I can think of maybe a few times over the years it took longer than an hour to troubleshoot. Typically the problem can be found in 20-30 min. Anyway, find the problem within an hour, and then flat-rate for the repair.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Troubleshooting almost always requires some exploratory work. If you have something like a defective GFCI or a bad switch that generally gets corrected quickly. However, if you have to spend time investigating and finding that a wire popped out of the stab on the back of a receptacle that generally takes more time. With that, I generally charge on a T&M basis for that type of work. If the HO asks me to give them an estimate I will give a ball park price. If they ask for a firm price I will not take the job. By the same token, if I somehow provided a high estimate and it ends up taking me 10 minutes I'm not going to charge the full amount that I quoted.
 
I charge T&M for all troubleshooting no matter how long it takes. I tell the homeowner I usually can find the problem within my one hour minimum but there are no guarantees. Once the problem is located, if it requires further work, I give them an estimate.

In the same vein, does anybody here charge for estimates? Seems everybody expects free estimates, but they cost me a lot of money.
 
keith gigabyte said:
How do you handle service calls. I have somewhat of a price list for things. Bad gfci replacement.. broken switch replacement..change light fixture..etc
thats the easy part. Example. Customer calls says all the lights on 1st floor out and a couple outlets. Spend 45 mins tracking down loose connection in outlet behind couch. As I was troubleshooting found 2 bad switches.
jhow do you handle this?
Click to expand...
If they can't afford to replace 2 bad switches at $1.00 - $5.00 a piece (depending on what type and grade of switch they are) that you likely already have pulled out of the box and likely will be putting back in whether new or existing, then you might want to be concerned about getting your service fee for the 45 minutes as well.

Or is this a question of charging them say $100 to find the loose connection, and another $50 for each switch because that is what you would charge them if the only job were to come replace the switch?

What if it took you 3 hours to find the loose connection? Still going to charge them the $100 (that I mentioned) for finding the loose connection?
 
Troubleshooting

Coppersmith said:
In the same vein, does anybody here charge for estimates? Seems everybody expects free estimates, but they cost me a lot of money.
Click to expand...

Yes, we do free estimates. I flat-rate though so it's not very time consuming.

We don't go to everyone that calls though; if a caller is throwing red flags up we'll just say we don't have any openings.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
keith gigabyte said:
How do you handle service calls. I have somewhat of a price list for things. Bad gfci replacement.. broken switch replacement..change light fixture..etc
thats the easy part. Example. Customer calls says all the lights on 1st floor out and a couple outlets. Spend 45 mins tracking down loose connection in outlet behind couch. As I was troubleshooting found 2 bad switches.
jhow do you handle this?
Click to expand...

Minimum hour/service call. If I find and fix the problem in ten minutes, it's still a full-rate service call, tho I will usually throw in a dollar switch or receptacle in for free whereas it would normally get charged. A LED dimmer or GFCI receptacle is not a freebie.

T&M on larger, more involved calls that may take several hours.

I charge for estimates but credit back half of that if the HO has me do the work.

Lectricbota, you're cheating yourself because for every 5 minute fix you budgeted an hour for, there will be another you budgeted an hour for that took 2. You get paid for what you know and what you do. Resetting a GFCI is getting paid for what you know, having to re-run a circuit because the existing is overloaded is more toward the getting paid for what you do. In the end it all comes out a wash.
 
brantmacga said:
You're cheating yourself.
Click to expand...
If I have to travel an hour to get to the job then yes, I would charge the full amount. If I'm working in my home town and it's for a senior citizen on a fixed income (or really anyone else for that matter), charging the full amount is going to come back and bite you. Yes, I'm out there trying to earn a living but I don't need to make enough to go to Hawaii on every job.:cool:
 
goldstar said:
If I have to travel an hour to get to the job then yes, I would charge the full amount. If I'm working in my home town and it's for a senior citizen on a fixed income (or really anyone else for that matter), charging the full amount is going to come back and bite you. Yes, I'm out there trying to earn a living but I don't need to make enough to go to Hawaii on every job.:cool:
Click to expand...
Unless you start taking service calls in Hawaii?:D
 
Here's my take, as one of those pesky commercial building engineers that everyone loves to hate...

Most contractors, at least here in the D.C. Metro area, both resi and commercial, charge a 4 hr. min. which includes travel, which in this area can eat a lot of time. I hear complaints from people all of the time about this, but I understand completely. You also have to have a well-stocked truck to be able to handle most run-of-the mill problems you will encounter. Also provides opportunities to upsell, as long as it's done ethically.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top