To charge or not to charge...

[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

[Guest]

now there is just a "hummm" sound in my ears..

[arfur mo]

Why you not call me?

Would have done it cheaper for you

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

[Guest]

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

[Guest]

I guess you

[Guest]

i guess for 65k TO you can spend an hour per day for good deeds..

That will depend if he turns a profit?

[Guest]

That will depend if he turns a profit?

if there is a normal profit margin in 65k it will cause good deeds to pay itself back..

[arfur mo]

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!

[Guest]

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

doubt it.

[arfur mo]

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 = not a good idea but if tempted use extreme caution - go see the jobs 1st!