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Customer called to ask me to come and look at his belling built-in double oven,outer glass was coming adrift, also to look at cooker extractor fan which was dead.I told him would call next day which I did, phoned him to say I was on my way, had a good look at the oven door, the small fixing bracket had come off the glass. I said to him will need heat resisted silicon to put it right, then noticed the main oven hinges were well worn and the door was dropping and catching the oven, and thats why the glass come off its bracket. What would you like me to do? I can order the hinges and repair the door, he said I will see the wife when she gets home,maybe be cheaper for me to get the parts off the internet. I said what ever way you want no problem! but if you need me to come back and fit them for you I am also happy to do that. Then he says, what about the extractor? I started to get into that, traced the fault to circult board, the tracks were blown in two or three places,I went out to the van,got my soldering bolt etc, cut some bits of wire, redone the tracks put it all back together, switched on all working ok. got all tools together I said is that ok for you? he says fine, I am standing there waiting for him to say how much do I owe you ? he does not respond ,I said excuse me you owe me £40 for today, he said what? you wanting that now? I said yes please, £30 call out and I have added a extra £10 for the time to fix extractor… He says I not got any money at the moment I will pop it in to you at night time , I know where your house is. Right ok fair enough, let me know about your oven waited a couple of days no sight of him so phoned. Good evening this is chap that repaired your extractor, how have you not come round with the payment ? is there a problem , no not really just did,nt know there was £30 call out, I said everybody charges a call out, other wise we would be going about all day and making nothing, I said to him where do we go from here? he said I will come halfway with you, you never told me there was a call out charge. i said listen mate! I thought you would be happy with £40 for your hood being fixed ,no parts to buy etc , and me telling you whats wrong with your oven ….. I told him as I was so wild (I have never said this to any customer ever but you stick your money right up your a…. and hope that I never see you again !!!!
From now on going to tell every single person there is a call out charge when they phone … also increasing my call out to £45.00 !!!Re: People who don,nt want to pay
Sad story. You should really have stopped when he said he’d have to wait for the wife to come back. Why is it some couples are unable to act independently?
Never mind, you’ve learned a useful lesson and reminded us all of it.
Mike.Re: People who don,nt want to pay
Basically, Rob, you didn’t sell your services correctly in the first instance. MrsP (tactfully) and I (un-tactfully on the odd occasions when I’m allowed to use the telephone) make it asolutely clear that you will pay £35 for the first half hour if you want me to turn up at all. Very quickly weeds out the freeloaders…..
Chris.
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
As per Penguins post Rob, we too tell EVERY person what we charge at the point of booking, we do get those that say ‘Ok, I will call you back’ and we never hear from them again. But they are the ones that want something for nothing and we don’t want anyway 🙂
When advising charges at the point of booking, when they book, you know it’s a proper call.
Ade 🙂
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
It’s always gonna happen now and then, happened to me a couple of times or more, the ones that do my head in are the ones that when you give them the price they say “i will ring you back on such and such date when i get paid” they do tend to, but why the hell didnt you wait till you got paid before you rang i hold back from saying, means ive given a price but now i have to re-call for that same price.
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
Never never call without tellin there is a callout charge and when there never fix anything without informing them of the fault and the cost too rectify it.
Imagine your a client, would you be happy letting someone free on your property without knowing what there doing and what it will cost you.
I certainly would not.
Its basic thinking.
Although not in this industry it seems, I’m constantly being told by clients that the repair guy they last used was a muppet.
I had one on Monday, sent out to fix a coffee m/c that had 4 previous visits and now the client is refusing to allow the company guy back in the house, he was of the impression that his lack of knowledge and inability to do basic fault finding was the clients fault and treated them with contempt, too which they took exception.
There are many dishonest clients who will drop a good engineer into an issue not of his making, but there are also as many who cannot do simple communication which will keep the client and ultimetly you sweet.
Explaining call and labour charges need to be agreed before any work is carried out, legally your on shaky ground, if you don’t agree a price before carrying out work the law could agree you accepted to do the work for free or for a negotiated price, a judge would not be happy listening to your case if you failed to do this.
Good for you for increasing your prices (still much too cheap if you ask me), look at it positively so you might have lost out on this job but in the long run you will be quids in with your new labour rate.
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
Thanks lads will keep my chin up and soldier on 🙂
An engineer dies and reports to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter checks his lists and says Ah; you’re an engineer — you’re in the wrong place.
So the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon the engineer gets dissatisfied with the dismal level of comfort in hell so he begins designing some improvements. He uses the fires of hell to generate electricity. He uses the electricity to manufacture things.After a while they’ve got air conditioning and manufacturing plants. There he makes flush toilets and escalators. He wires hell with phones.
Needless to say the engineer is a pretty popular guy.
One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer “So how’s it going down there in hell?”
Satan replies Hey things are going great! Couldn’t be better. We’ve got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators and there’s no telling what the engineer is going to come up with next.
God replies “What? You’ve got an engineer? There’s been a mistake — he should never have gone down there; send him up here immediately.”
Satan says No way. I like having an engineer on the staff and I’m keeping him.
God says “Send him back up here or I’ll sue.”
Satan laughs uproariously and answers “Yeah! Right! And just where are you going to get a lawyer?
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
leavemetogetonwithit wrote:Sad story. You should really have stopped when he said he’d have to wait for the wife to come back. Why is it some couples are unable to act independently?
Never mind, you’ve learned a useful lesson and reminded us all of it.
Mike.SHOULD DO WHAT THE DOUBLE GLAZING COMPANYS DO MAKE SURE THE HUSBAND AND WIFE ARE BOTH AT HOME WHEN i CALL.
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
Yes you should tell them your rates before hand.
Although even when you tell them there is still no guarantee of payment 😕
These people really P**s me off, ask someone into your home to do a job and not pay. What planet are they on:?
At the end of the day they called you, So why not ask what you charge.
Would you phone a garage and ask for a set of tyres without checking the cost.
Would you do your weekly shop and get to the checkout and say I wasn’t quite expecting that bill can i take it now and send my wife in later and pay.No thought not. 😳
Why is our trade so different ❓
Are we a registered charity, sometimes me think so 😆
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
sorry this hapened to you, think we all caught with that one……. the easiest thing is …no cash > no repair…..i cant go into tesco and get free food ( other supermarkets are avaliable folks)….
i work for a dealer…if he dont get paid, i dont get my bonus…
as the meercats say…simples!!!!
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
visiting a customer today on behalf of a manufacturer, the customer firstly takes 5 mins to find the front door keys then opens the door to demand I go around the back so as to save taking my shoes off. (incidentally I do carry shoe covers in the case I find a nice cream carpet etc this didnt look the case here). He opens the gate after a few more minutes and stands over me. Im making pleasent conversation when he quizzes me over firstly the job in hand a simple mod and then starts to ask about the life of the product and the cost of repalcing for example a compressor. Being vague about charges I suggested in that instance he should get it checked out rather than making assumptions on cost or whats failed after all its a fairly expensive purchase. ” well you would always come out and give a free estimate wouldnt you”. On my way down to him I passed the filling station selling diesal at £1.19 per litre which I kindly informed him and again making polite conversation asked him what business are you in. “Im a management consultant” He proudly chirped. His faced changed when I asked him tomorrow morning does he fancy driving 20 miles and consulting for me for half a day for nothing?
I left on good terms but content in knowing that he now realizes I am just the same as him. I need to be paid just the same as he does. Unless he does turn up in the morning of course. Hope not has I still think he is a kn*b. 😉
The art is identifying when someone is genuine or likely to take the mickey and I believe it is an art that gets better with practice. Consider yours to be just another practice.Re: People who don,nt want to pay
then you get the customers who book one call and then have another or 2 or 3 machines in addition for you to look at when you get there,
“it wont take long” and “i thought you would be able to do all of them for the one call out” are popular phrases…
Re: People who don,nt want to pay
as gand h1 says, ive had that before.
customer rings, book me out, when i arrive they say whilst your here can you look at my cooker,
my reply, ill have a look but its a seperate job (use initiative no full price but not free, depending on work needed doing)i also, say, if you told me on the phone it would of been cheaper, because i would of brought some parts and special tools for both the machines from my shop and not just parts for one of them, so i will have to come back on a second visit with the parts for the second machine, if you told me in the first place i would of brought more spares and wouldnt nned to call back twice.
time is money, and calling twice cost more fule and time.sorry pet, im no psychic, next time tell me what you want doing.
like churchhill said;
give use the tools and we will do the job !! simple, aint it
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