Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

[coppertreeelectric]

I had a situation last night were I received a call from a yellow pages ad. I received the call at 4:30pm, the customer said that he was cutting down a tree and it landed on the secondary utility service drop from the street pole and ripped the service lateral and A-Frame meter from the house. This call was transferred to my cell phone from my office while working on another job. I agreed to leave the job I was on and fix the problem. I was at the customers house within 45min and replaced the meter pan and service lat within 2 hours. The power was back on within 3hrs from the initial call.

I charged the customer $1005.00 for the fix. The cost included the local inspection cost of $100, the hook-up to the utility that I did for $150, the off hour sur- charge for emergency 1hr responce of $155 and the basic $600 charge to replace a 100Amp service lat and meter pan.

Do these charges seem that crazy? This has been the norm of charges for other jobs under the same circumstances. This customer flipped out when he got the bill. I think my biggest fault was waiting until the next day to bill him and not when his power was still out.

Any feelings on this one?
Steve

 

[highkvoltage]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

The customer has no clue how things work. You pull a rabbit out of a hat and they want an elephant. I also feel you was well within reason and maybe a little low. The customer can probably turn this in to his insurance only paying the deductible.

 

[iwire]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

I think the customer should be grateful.

 

[tshea]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Sounds like a fair bill to me. Customers who are calling cold from the phonebook want the proverbial silk purse from the sows ear. They have no idea what anything costs, especially your valuable time and talents.
If they don't want to pay turn it over to a collection agency or better yet, brush up on your State/County/City Small Claims process.

 

[jwelectric]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Here we have a home owner that is in dire straights and totally at the mercy of the greed of the electrical contractor. Not only does he not have electricity but he is losing food that is spoiling in the refrigerator and with out a doubt the babies are crying because they don?t have any milk to drink. The wife is screaming that she is missing the soap operas of the day and this electrician has absolutely no compassion to his despair by handing him a bill so outrageous that he will have to take a second mortgage on his house in order to pay it. Highway robbery.

No one else would side with the home owner so I thought that I would although I think that your price was well with-in reason.

 

[coppertreeelectric]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

jw, thank you for the good laugh. For a second I thought you were serious.

The customer did pay but with a few shrugs of disbelief. I explained my charges item by item and the just cause for each one. But I could see that his hand was moving with much effort needed while writing the check.

There are many topics on this site that touch the subject of how much to charge in such situations as this. I don't find it unnecessary to even kick up the price a bit when it comes to an "emergency" situation. Its simple business 101 "Supply and demand".

I didn't argue this past January when my furnace decided to die and I had no heat at 2:am when it was 5 degrees outside, and the hvac guy charged me $850 for a 1/2 hour visit and one part that was on his truck to fix the problem.

If I was without electricity I couldn't have plugged in the space heaters to keep my babies worm nor would I be able to watch TV for 6 hours while I wait for him.

So there it is...

 

[willyj]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Steve,
You are right on target. We would charge $1600 for that service but we give the customer an up front cost so they can take it or call someone else who will come out at that time of night.
So keep on going looks like your doing just fine.
Bill

 

[George Stolz]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Originally posted by jwelectric:
The wife is screaming that she is missing the soap operas of the day and this electrician has absolutely no compassion to his despair by handing him a bill so outrageous that he will have to take a second mortgage on his house in order to pay it. Highway robbery.

 

[pierre]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Steve
What you may have neglected to mention to the customer was your cost of doing business in NY, and the fact that you take your life in your own hands trying to provide him with the comforts of modern day "taken for granted" luxury of having power to let him live his life without the thoughts of the dangers that may be lurking for you as you hooked him back up.

A pat on the back for a PROFESSIONAL job well done!!!

 

[bigjohn67]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

I would say that you treated the customer fair.
You seemed to execute the job without flaw and achieved in responding to the customers concerns.

Ask them if they have ever seen an emergency room bill from a 3am in the morning. We are all trained professionals.

The one thing we do after emergency calls is to visit the customer for a follow up to make sure everthing is ok.

I say you provided an excellent service at a fair price.

 

[tryinghard]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

There is no better time to collect both an agreement as well as pay then the time of need, from the jobsite. If you do not provide flat rate at least give them a range and clarify collection of full value at time of service.

 

[apauling]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

since I already have a negative following, i will play the devil's advocate and ask you to actually substantiate the repair cost.

They charge $100 for inspections there?

Assuming the the inspection was actually $100 (not what you normally charge for it) and the meter main was one of the few new parts, the following question needs to be asked and answered honestly if you want an honest appraisal:

What was the actual out of pocket, including materials on hand. Actual, not surcharged and puffed here and there.

However you describe the charges, surcharges, fees, and normal charges, some of it seems a bit much. It seems that a few hundred dollars an hour may not be actually excessive, sometimes. Did you actually do a complete service swap, or is this the full price for a partial job.

Sure, it went faster because all the normal waiting and rigamarol was bypassed. I guess that 's how the cards fall for that customer. No savings for him.

That you ask the question indicates to me that there is some lingering doubt, and you know that guy will never call you again.

About 15 years ago there was abig freeze here and some contractors were charging extremely high amounts for nominal emergency work. I had been in LA or I could have gone to work for one of the plumbing contractors ( I was a plumbing and heating repairman in NY 30 years ago). They were paying 100 an hour as long and as many hours as you could do, and charging twice that to just cap all the frozen, broken, thawing pipes.

It wasn't until after, that I got to see the wreckage of that with long lasting hostility towards the workers who were in fact preying on the helpless. Gouging is gouging, near $300 in surcharges for just showing up to do the emergency work, on top of the actual charges for the work, does seem excessive.

I don't care nor do I know the details of the plumber who charged $800.

It's nice that you were there, but I bet that guy didn't say thank you.

Now, on the other side of this issue, we don't know if this guy really has a ton of money, or what his homeowners deductable is, or if he just deserves it. We also do not know the prevailing wage, what others charge for repair work in your area, which is the real determiner of reasonableness.

Ultimately its your conscience, your business, and your reputation that will be the determiner.

I have no stake in either side, just playing the devil's advocate.

paul

 

[iwire]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Originally posted by apauling:
since I already have a negative following,

'

and thrive on it.

 

[tryinghard]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

apauling:
"What was the actual out of pocket, including materials on hand. Actual, not surcharged and puffed here and there."

You obviously have not been a contractor that provides service. With all installations the actual costs are not known for 2-3 months past completion. A bid/Proposal is the property of the author who in this case is also the designer.
A price ahead of application is a PROJECTION; the author of the price does not owe the customer anything but a correct application!
This is not an ethics issue as much as it is a safe business issue.
Do you ask your doctor to explain the value of his material? Do you ask a grocery store how much shipping is involved and where are your actual tags?

 

[petersonra]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

It does not seem too outrageous to me, and the customer would probably have not objected a whole lot if you had given him some idea what it would cost up front.

No one likes getting a bill cold, especially where they feel at someone else's mercy. They need a little time to think about it before they decide its reasonable.

I'm sort of surprised he did not ask up front what the cost would be.

 

[apauling]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

trying hard: but I was a contractor, and the out of pocket for a service repair is usually not too difficult to do in your head, if you are the one doing the billing and paying, normally. BUT it is obvious that you did not read the question, as he did ask an implied ethical question.

paul

 

[coppertreeelectric]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

apauling

They charge $100 for inspections there?

The cost to me is $65 and with the time it takes to file for inspection and the billing in the end it is about a $100 cost when all is said and done.

It's nice that you were there, but I bet that guy didn't say thank you.

The man was very thankfull for what I did, but thought the price was high. When I was about to hand him the bill he said he would pay me cash, when he read the bill he told me he only had $300. Nobody would do it for $300.

That you ask the question indicates to me that there is some lingering doubt, and you know that guy will never call you again.

Funny enough the customer called me today and said he has two modulars he wants to build and wanted to get some pricing info.

Now, on the other side of this issue, we don't know if this guy really has a ton of money, or what his homeowners deductable is, or if he just deserves it.

He is a doctor and has two BMW's in the driveway. Do the math.

 

[dave0317]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

charged the customer $1005.00 for the fix. The cost included the local inspection cost of $100, the hook-up to the utility that I did for $150, the off hour sur- charge for emergency 1hr responce of $155 and the basic $600 charge to replace a 100Amp service lat and meter pan

in my area, this would be high. not outlandish, just the top end. but considering it was a after hours repair, extra $ is to be expected.
i do not have a question not about the price, but the procedure in your area. did you do the inspection? or did the AHJ do this after their hours? i know the inspection office closes at 4pm in my area, and they do not like to do any inspections after 3pm.
also, for a sparky to connect to the POCO lines here is frownd upon. they (POCO) git testy enuff when we pull the meter.

 

[coppertreeelectric]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

Dave

in my area, this would be high. not outlandish, just the top end. but considering it was a after hours repair, extra $ is to be expected.
i do not have a question not about the price, but the procedure in your area. did you do the inspection? or did the AHJ do this after their hours? i know the inspection office closes at 4pm in my area, and they do not like to do any inspections after 3pm.
also, for a sparky to connect to the POCO lines here is frownd upon. they (POCO) git testy enuff when we pull the meter.

The AHJ did the inspection the next day. The utility company requires a permit from the inspector to do the work, he was reached by cell phone and made a call to the utility. The local utility company here permits contractors to do the disconnects and reconnects as long as you are on the approved contractor list, it requires a class and you must be a licensed electrician in the area to do them. The utility would have charged the customer $250 for the hookup, so my charge for the hookup is a saving to the customer.

 

[active1]

Re: Second opinion: Emergency 100 Amp service lateral repair

I don't think you price is out of line.

By not giving a price before doing the work you left yourself open for "I'm not going to pay that".

Trouble is the work is done. Used materials and labor can't be returned. Now it becomes a negotiate or argument over payment. By quoting the price up front even better getting it signed in writing you are in a better position to collect.

Also by not collecting until after the next day the importance is gone. They may take their time to pay out. Best to get paid while it is still an emergency or just after.

The downside is they my decline the work and call the next guy.

Tom