Callout Charges.

kneemos

What's the gig with callout charges? Basically paying someone to drive to work.
Abolish as a total rip off or can they be justified . I've always considered them to be a total con I must say.

Nib

Diesel, insurance, tax, MOT and wear and tear of the vehicle.

/thread

kneemos

Nib wrote: »

Diesel, insurance, tax, MOT and wear and tear of the vehicle.

/thread

Yeah,we all have those.

BoJack Horseman

What's the deal with airline food?!

biko

Callout charge is usually to cover themselves when they have to drive 4 miles to change a resistor that takes 2 minutes.
Many will drop it if the job takes an hour or two.

mad muffin

You know what grinds my gears?! Those 0818 numbers! :mad:

Birneybau

Don't you hate pants?

rubadub

kneemos wrote: »

Yeah,we all have those.

No we don't. The service engineers in my work go out all over the place servicing machines, the company pays for their vans & time taken to get there, which is passed onto customers. They do not expect them to start clocking on the moment they get in and pay all fuel & other costs themselves.

I prefer broken down costs, its the "free delivery" nonsense than annoys me, just tell me the price and do not go including it as a %. You are paying for "delivery" of this tradesman.

kneemos

rubadub wrote: »

No we don't. The service engineers in my work go out all over the place servicing machines, the company pays for their vans & time taken to get there, which is passed onto customers. They do not expect them to start clocking on the moment they get in and pay all fuel & other costs themselves.

I prefer broken down costs, its the "free delivery" nonsense than annoys me, just tell me the price and do not go including it as a %. You are paying for "delivery" of this tradesman.

Yes we do,and it's not tax deductible.
Most service engineers serve their locality and don't do big millage.
if they have to drive twenty or thirty miles for a quick job,maybe a small charge is appropriate,but spending five minutes to drive a couple of miles and charge €70 is plainly extortionate.

One eyed Jack

kneemos wrote: »

What's the gig with callout charges? Basically paying someone to drive to work.
Abolish as a total rip off or can they be justified . I've always considered them to be a total con I must say.

Basically paying someone to come out to do work for you. Would you prefer if your employer paid your travel costs or would you continue to pay your own travel costs if the offer was made?

One eyed Jack

kneemos wrote: »

Yes we do,and it's not tax deductible.
Most service engineers serve their locality and don't do big millage.
if they have to drive twenty or thirty miles for a quick job,maybe a small charge is appropriate,but spending five minutes to drive a couple of miles and charge €70 is plainly extortionate.

I imagine that's a standard callout charge? Depending on the work being done, €70 is on the cheaper end of the scale if it was an electrical appliance you're talking about, and if it was an IT callout, the sky's the limit so to speak.

Indesit for instance charge €115 on your credit card before they even send out an engineer.

rubadub

kneemos wrote: »

Yes we do,and it's not tax deductible.

No we don't. I already explained about service engineers in my place who are not paying the costs to travel out to places themselves. I often have to work abroad and do not pay my travel expenses to get there. If I called plumber from sweden I would not expect him to pay his own way to get here. If I get food delivered I much prefer to see a delivery charge on it

kneemos wrote: »

but spending five minutes to drive a couple of miles and charge €70 is plainly extortionate.

That is extortionate, and is also the first time you mentioned a price in this thread. You simply said you were against them and asked if they could be justified. They can, just like other delivery charges can be. If my chipper charged €20 delivery I would also consider it extortionate, but certainly not call for them to be legally abolished. I would find a more reasonably priced place, I would have confirmed the prices in advance.

tomwaterford

kneemos wrote: »

Yes we do,and it's not tax deductible.
Most service engineers serve their locality and don't do big millage.
if they have to drive twenty or thirty miles for a quick job,maybe a small charge is appropriate,but spending five minutes to drive a couple of miles and charge €70 is plainly extortionate.

they charge per mile + time in my job I think

Tail Docker

If I send a lad to Dublin to fix a broken toilet in an office block, for example, and it takes him an hour to get there, ten minutes to do the job and an hour to drive back down(which happens pretty much daily) do you reckon I should just charge for the ten minutes OP? Which would be €6...as opposed to €80 with the "call-out"(traveling) fee. Which is hardly a "rip-off" either considering fuel and his wages..

anncoates

We got a Airtricity lad out to fix our boiler and they charged a callout fee - 80 or 90 quid IIRC - even though he hadn't got the part with him. When he came back again, we got charged for the repair/part which did rankle a bit.

PizzamanIRL

Why don't you drive to the brothel yourself then and see what extra costs are incurred? Then think twice before you complain about them charging extra to call out to you.

Sh1tbag OToole

If there was no call out fees then people would be wasting their time calling out to people who havn't even tried rebooting even though rebooting usually fixes it

anncoates

Tail Docker wrote: »

If I send a lad to Dublin to fix a broken toilet in an office block, for example, and it takes him an hour to get there, ten minutes to do the job and an hour to drive back down(which happens pretty much daily) do you reckon I should just charge for the ten minutes OP? Which would be €6...as opposed to €80 with the "call-out"(traveling) fee. Which is hardly a "rip-off" either considering fuel and his wages..

If it's a service provided by a big provider like Sky, Airtricity etc they have guys out locally doing a number of jobs in a certain geographic area.

It's not like my Sky dish is fcuked, they scramble some engineer up in Donegal to drive down. :pac:

donegaLroad

our sockets went dead about 5 weeks ago and I called our local electrician, he was here in 20 minutes... this is at 9pm. It took him 10 minutes to figure out the issue, and it didn't require any parts. He wouldn't accept any money even though I was insisting

Long story short, I'll be sticking with him from now on.

jimgoose

anncoates wrote: »

If it's a service provided by a big provider like Sky, Airtricity etc they have guys out locally doing a number of jobs in a certain geographic area.

It's not like my Sky dish is fcuked, they scramble some engineer up in Donegal to drive down. :pac:

I actually know that Sky fella based in Gweedore. He flies around in an old Spitfire.

kneemos

Tail Docker wrote: »

If I send a lad to Dublin to fix a broken toilet in an office block, for example, and it takes him an hour to get there, ten minutes to do the job and an hour to drive back down(which happens pretty much daily) do you reckon I should just charge for the ten minutes OP? Which would be €6...as opposed to €80 with the "call-out"(traveling) fee. Which is hardly a "rip-off" either considering fuel and his wages..

Sounds like madness.Just hire a local plumber.
Don't see why the customer should pay for that kind of inefficiency

alias no.9

kneemos wrote: »

Sounds like madness.Just hire a local plumber.
Don't see why the customer should pay for that kind of inefficiency

Surely the responsibility is on the customer to find the local plumber? A plumbing business can't be expected to have plumbers sitting waiting local to any potential customer. Sending a guy who has to travel an hour could still be the fastest response available, time can be kind of critical with leaks.
Customers choose who to call, the service provider will respond to the request in the most efficient way possible.

Tail Docker

alias no.9 wrote: »

Surely the responsibility is on the customer to find the local plumber? A plumbing business can't be expected to have plumbers sitting waiting local to any potential customer. Sending a guy who has to travel an hour could still be the fastest response available, time can be kind of critical with leaks.
Customers choose who to call, the service provider will respond to the request in the most efficient way possible.

True - They ring us and pay our charges because:
1. we actually come. As in right away, no guff or put-offs.
2. The lads normally have the parts and equipment on their vans - they don't "go off" getting stuff for another hour or two "on the clock"
3. They ring the office and the jobs done - there isn't a long winded too-ing and fro-ing with twenty e-mails and endless phone calls.
If I could find someone who just did the same, I'd be stunned, as usually it's a pita trying to get anyone to do anything. I'd happily pay our "call-out" charges too.

jimgoose

Tail Docker wrote: »

True - They ring us and pay our charges because:
1. we actually come. As in right away, no guff or put-offs.
2. The lads normally have the parts and equipment on their vans - they don't "go off" getting stuff for another hour or two "on the clock"
3. They ring the office and the jobs done - there isn't a long winded too-ing and fro-ing with twenty e-mails and endless phone calls.
If I could find someone who just did the same, I'd be stunned, as usually it's a pita trying to get anyone to do anything. I'd happily pay our "call-out" charges too.

You really need an old Cadillac hearse. "I ain't afraid a' no tap!"

mikom

kneemos wrote: »

What's the gig with callout charges? Basically paying someone to drive to work.
Abolish as a total rip off or can they be justified . I've always considered them to be a total con I must say.

Call out charge = Time waster blocker.

Patrick2010

donegaLroad wrote: »

our sockets went dead about 5 weeks ago and I called our local electrician, he was here in 20 minutes... this is at 9pm. It took him 10 minutes to figure out the issue, and it didn't require any parts. He wouldn't accept any money even though I was insisting

Long story short, I'll be sticking with him from now on.

Of course you will, he works for free.