I recently had a faucet replaced. I had purchased all the parts and planned to do the work myself. I then found I had neither the time, tools, nor talent to do the job efficiently. That cost me $175 for a trip charge and labor. Was it worth what was charged? No one had a gun to my head. The plumber has to make a living so if I want him to do a menial job, the cost is the same as doing more sophisticated work. I have no complaints. The service provided is best known as Time and Material or T&M. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of T&M.
On the plus side, you don't have to pay a monthly charge and you pay for maintenance only as required. On the minus side, you may have to wait a little longer for service that contract customers and you will sometimes face sticker shock when you get the bill.
So, do we offer contract work? Of course we do! You can't be in the service business without offering T&M service. The question is whether this is the right service plan for you. Let's look at the costs and go from there.
We begin with who comes to who. If you bring your equipment to us, the first thing to do is determine the problem. This process is called an Estimate. The fact is that it can often cost as much to find the problem (sometimes more) than it does to fix the problem. We charge $35 for an estimate. If we do the repair, the estimate charge is waived. If not, you owe the $35. By the way, estimates are paid in advance. We've learned from experience that most folks don't like paying for service and very few want to pay for bad news. So, we get that out of the way, right up front. You need to have a Purchase Order (Corporate/Governmental account), a check, cash or credit card.
If you bring your defective product to our facility, we expect you to leave it with us. We normally get back with you within 24 hours. If you prefer for us to come to you, there is an additional charge involved. We call it a trip charge. The rate will vary depending on your location. With 10 miles of our shop, the charge is $50, within 25 miles, the charge is $75, within 100 miles the charge is $125. For distances greater than 100 miles but less than 200 miles, the charge is $175.
Obviously, you don't have to come to us or pay us for coming to you. FedX, UPS, and USPS all provide reasonable shipping cost and within 300 miles of our office, we receive your shipment the next day for normal ground shipment.
Now, the question is what do we charge for making repairs? Sometimes (rarely) we can make the repair while doing the estimate. This could mean your service could cost as little as $35. The average repair will be closer to $95. If the cost for repair will be more than $95, we will request your approval before proceeding.
Lest we forget - the rates quoted assume normal business hours of 8 am to 5pm Monday through Friday. Rates between 5pm and 11pm are 150% of the standard day rate. Rates from 11pm to 8am are double the standard rates as are weekend and holiday rates.
Can T&M be expensive? Yes it can, but if you are going to use T&M service, we invite you to compare our rates against other service companies. Have you ever wondered why other service companies don't provide this type of information? We'll let them answer that!
Now, you know about Time and Material service. This can be a viable choice for older equipment. For new equipment, we suggest extending your factory warranty to the maximum, purchasing a few spares, or better yet, using our exclusive TimeShare service. Our job is to help you make the best choice for YOUR individual needs!