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To charge or not to charge...


andyhodson

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The decision is that I will charge him, thats my gut feeling and seems to be the consensus on here.

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One of the companies I used to work for had a good way of dealing with non-contract customers, they would give 2 quotes for the callout on the phone.

first quote was standard non contract rate

second quote was for first years maint contract and the callout charged as a contract customer.

The funny thing was, they had a knack of making sure that the 2nd quote was only a fraction more than the 1st. They got alot of domestic maint contracts that way !

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One of the companies I used to work for had a good way of dealing with non-contract customers, they would give 2 quotes for the callout on the phone.

first quote was standard non contract rate

second quote was for first years maint contract and the callout charged as a contract customer.

The funny thing was, they had a knack of making sure that the 2nd quote was only a fraction more than the 1st. They got alot of domestic maint contracts that way  !

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My only comment on that is: what on earth are you doing on the internet at 5:53am??

Zak Tankel - Managing Director - Security First (UK) - www.securityfirst.uk.com

Disclaimer: Any comments or opinions expressed by me are my own as a member of the public and not of my employer or Company.

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Why you not call me?

Would have done it cheaper for you :P

Couldn't agree more Jef, ALWAYS invoice.

As wise men have said before me, "Only a fool works for nothing" and as for the people who moan because we have corrected the fault in mins, they seem to forget that they are paying us for what we know, NOT what we do. :angry:

I spent 3 days fiddling with the tv when the picture turned a funny colour, finaly gave up and rang the TV guy, he was here 15 mins and gone. TV works and I was £60 poorer.  :(

Turns out the fault was a common one with that Chassis so he knew exactly what to change and whereabouts on the board the faulty part was.  (Duff positron)

I didn't bitch at him over the cost and how little time he'd been here because I respect his knowledge of his trade. :)

Regards

Bellman

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My only comment on that is: what on earth are you doing on the internet at 5:53am??

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the joys of being on call !!!!!!!

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  • 3 months later...

once got called to a house where all the sockets and shower had gone off. owner said she had looked at the MCBs and they were all on, and has tried turnin them off an on but still nothin. got over there (turned out to be just round the corner. was quicker walkin). got there, and noticed the fault immediatly. RCD had tripped and was off.

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Guest CHRIS P

CHRIS P BEDFORD

I GOT CALLED OUT TO A DOMESTIC JOB FOR A RENOWNED GRUMPY CLIENT COMPLAINING THAT THE ALARM WAS "MAKING NOISES INSIDE THE HOUSE" AFTER FULL SYSTEM CHECK AND DEMO OF ALL TONES OUT OF ALARM SOUNDERS KEYPADS ETC CLIENT DID NOT ASSOCIATE ANY OF THESE NOISES WITH WHAT HE HAD HEARD. I THEN NOTICED HIS BT VISCOUNT PHONE WITH THE HANDSET LEAD ALL COILED UP,I ASKED HIM TO GO INTO ANOTHER ROOM AND JUST LIFTED THE HANDSET OFF THE CRADLE 2MINUTES LATER THE OFF HOOK WARNING CAME FROM THE HANDSET THE CLIENT RUSHED OUT SAYIN THATS IT THATS THE NOISE, WHEN I POINTED IT OUT TO HIM HE BECAME VERY AGRESSIVE FILLED IN DOCKET MARKED CHARGEBLE EVEN THOUGH A MAINTAINED CUSTOMER TOOK 4 MONTHS TO PAY BILL AND THEN CANCELLED MAINT CONTRACT GOOD RIDDANCE

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  • 3 weeks later...
Why you not call me?

Would have done it cheaper for you :P

your absolutely correct, if you are a skilled tradesman you will have spent a lot of time learning your skills and built-up a decent tool kit along side the knowledge, and usually while on poor 'trainee' pay. so when you finally become skilled then you are entitled to charge albeit a 'fair' cost for your services, but its always a double edged sword so use the horses for courses approach and judge it on merit :) .

i personally show a degree of mercy depending on if i think the person who called me could have worked it out themselves (see below). as a matter of 'christian' goodwill i always give a lower charge to elderly and disabled, and a higher charge to the rich and/or purposly lazy, stupid or ignorant. that way i maintain both their and my self respect.

we have had moans of smoke alarm flat battery 'blips', i get some 8 to 20 calls a year on this so i ask them to replace the batteries which they can get 24 hour from a service station. i then send a letter suggesting to change them when they renew there car insurrance as a reminder, and giving them the sales speil.

its a valuable foot in the door, and they are already beholdent, now appreciative of my concern for their safety and i have prooved my worth, ability and possibly even intellegence - and have not charged them for my 'knowledge' given over the telphone, but gained that all important sales element -TRUST! 'from small acorns doth the massive oak trees grow'.

anybody get called out for a stuck door bell button? i have had a record 16 calls last year on door bells, and sold 3 CCTv systems, 6 telephone systems and 8 new alarms off the back of them. some 65k of turnover. i'm thinking of doing the rounds with a tube of super glue - its good for trade ;)

If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!!!

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i personally show a degree of mercy depending on if i think the person who called me could have worked it out themselves (see below). as a matter of 'christian' goodwill i always give a lower charge to elderly and disabled, and a higher charge to the rich and/or purposly lazy, stupid or ignorant. that way i maintain both their and my self respect.

I guess you

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Yes, i am self employed and have been for the last 25 years - and yes the profit margin is healthy and repeat work still comes in from these avenue's.

my thoughts to those 'sour' employed guys remarks who ask do i pay for someone to drive arround to do good deeds? with the repeat work and recommendations from them the deeds are more than paid for.

you charge them all you want for one call with my full backing, in fact i emplore you do so, then i'll get their regular and repeat trade later as they will see me as the nice guy - and you never get a second chance to make a 1st impression!

:P

If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!!!

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One of the companies I used to work for had a good way of dealing with non-contract customers, they would give 2 quotes for the callout on the phone.

first quote was standard non contract rate

second quote was for first years maint contract and the callout charged as a contract customer.

The funny thing was, they had a knack of making sure that the 2nd quote was only a fraction more than the 1st. They got alot of domestic maint contracts that way !

i bet they get a lot of rubbish installs too! Honeywell-Shield did simular when i was working for them - they bought up any alarm company they could get hold of all over the country (another bright idea by an accountant - not!) to gain the service contracts - er that would be money then!.

it left the service dept unable to cope with the sudden masive increase in the service calls, the clients were not happy to pay for re-installs and tidy-ups when you found 9 pirs on one zone with pressure matt's in a mansion.

you had various poor or obsolete equipment going faulty, badly installed and with no spares, zones chopped or never enabled and no codes or manuals - total nightmare and a cause of a massive lose of staff moral.

pity, it was a good company and team at one time - it eventually became part of //.National Installer.// this was after after i left, and possibly due to finacial burdens placed by fighting the law suits.

my oppinion = :no: not a good idea but if tempted use extreme caution - go see the jobs 1st!

If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!!!

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  • 1 month later...

You know, Andy it's quite clear that you should have charged for this little adventure (as we all would have)

All I can say is take some comfort in the fact that you got him to empty the bin bags over his path.. even getting him to do the wrong one first! He may well have no problems with his alarm but I bet he sure stunk like Dog sh*t & Kippers for while!

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My god... you lot actually agree with me, thats a first!

Whenever somebody phones I always tell them the call out rate so theres no arguments.

One customer refused to pay me for fixing a shutter contact saying it went wrong during the warranty period. You should of called me during the warranty then...

Are you coming or what he says in his own accent (think you know what I mean)

No I say, not if your not paying. Glad to see the back of the pillock. Someone else is now no doubt regretting taking him on, him and his constant advice.... because we all know they know more about alarms don't they.

It's like going to a pet shop and buying a goldfish with lifetime warranty... so you take it back because it has died and the pet shop refuse to refund me cause the warranty as expired ( because it's dead)

Trade Member

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  • 1 year later...
Couldn't agree more Jef, ALWAYS invoice.

As wise men have said before me, "Only a fool works for nothing" and as for the people who moan because we have corrected the fault in mins, they seem to forget that they are paying us for what we know, NOT what we do. :angry:

I spent 3 days fiddling with the tv when the picture turned a funny colour, finaly gave up and rang the TV guy, he was here 15 mins and gone. TV works and I was £60 poorer. :(

Turns out the fault was a common one with that Chassis so he knew exactly what to change and whereabouts on the board the faulty part was. (Duff positron)

I didn't bitch at him over the cost and how little time he'd been here because I respect his knowledge of his trade. :)

Regards

Bellman

The item in question was a posistor - this has a low resistance when cold which gets higher as it warms up. This is used to energise the de-guassing coils in the TV which in turn de-magnetises the CRT. This was the cause of your funny colours. Don't muck about with televisions unless you know what you are doing. :yes:

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  • 6 months later...

Many years ago, I was doing a full install at one house.

When I came down my ladders, the next door neighbour appeared and stated that he had a problem with his alarm, and could I fix it?

I said I would when I had finished the install later in the day.

I mentioned this to the woman whose hose I was working at, and she told me to stay away from her neighbour..."they're nothing but trouble".

I said I couldn't very well not call round as I had promised. She implored me not to go round..."just pretend you had forgotten".

Like a fool...I went round!

So, a quick check revealed an intermittent fault with the bell box tamper. To be honest, the whole system was about a million years old and only fit for scrap, but it was obvious I wouldn't get away with that suggestion.

"It's a great alarm system that you know boy" said the householder

I replied that it needs some work and the problem lies in the bellbox or wiring.

"There's nowt up with the bell box. You're not going to replace that unnecessarily" he said.

"Erm, well, I can make a change in the control box to isolate the problem, but it's not really the right thing to do"

"Will it stop it going off at random times?" he asked.

"Yes"

"Do it"

So...I linked out the bell box tamper. (Don't shout at me guys for my foolishness...I was trying to help the customer!!!)

When I closed the panel, I said job done, and said, "for a cash job, call it twenty quid".

"You what? But you were already here! It's not cost you anything to do that"

"It's

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  • 1 year later...

I had to go out to a job because someone said "my bell box isnt flashing" thinking they must mean the lights to show the bell is working. anyway i pulled up this really long drive to find the bell flashing as it should be. i got out of my van and said to the lady "you have a problem with your bell?" to see her point at the bell on the side and say "yes its not flashing" the reason why that is because it was a dummy box

she got charged because of my diesel to get there and for the fact the dummy box has never flashed.

my time where i could of been at another job earning more money.

so we are not charities, we need jobs to survive and if you give freebies out then everyone will be like "can you just do me this little job while your here"

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Similar thing, had a customer with a a new extension going up whose builder insisted the dummy bellbox was a live one when customer phoned. So we went round and undone a couple of screws and moved it for

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become old. Why rush to end life when happiness is in the blissfulness of childhood innocence."

"We all die, the goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."

07475071344

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  • 2 years later...

Had a customer haggling over my estimate after their alarm failed after a powercut...

I'd mentioned that a fault after a powercut was likely to be backup battery related, and therefore be prepared for a new battery.

When I gave him the estimate, he started to argue..."but its only a case of removing the cover and fitting a new battery".

When I politely suggested he might want to do it himself then, he said "you've got to be joking! It might electrocute me".

He agreed to pay me!

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