Email: LaurenNicoleGifts@gmail.com

I have always been passionate about designing and making meaningful gifts and keepsakes and was very fortunate to able to start my own business. Lauren Nicole Gifts (name after my niece) was started in 2004 and was a great way for me to have my own business, but still move around as an Army wife. My husband recently retired from the Army and we are now permanently located in Ouray, Colorado

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Home Repair Bills

I am getting my air conditioner fixed today and it reminded of something that may be useful to know. When you have someone come out to your house to repair anything (electric, plumbing, etc.) there are some questions that you should always ask. I learned this the hard way many years ago when I overpaid for some electrical work.

1. Trip Charges - ask what they charge for a trip charge. All companies charge something for travel time to and from a job or work site. You also need to know if they are going to charge you twice for a trip charge if they have to come back out a second time to finish or because they had to order parts.

2. Over Time - Not all companies charge overtime, but enough of them do. Always ask what their labor rates are and if they charge overtime. I always schedule service calls in the morning because a lot of companies will charge time and a half for any hours their employees work on the weekends or past 5:00 pm. This can be huge because most of the time the larger portion of the bill is labor. If someone is supposed to be there in the morning and they are running late and want to change the time to late afternoon I always make them reschedule for another day unless it is an emergency.

3. Warranty - check to see if what they repair is under warranty, either through the manufacturer or a home warranty. A lot of times the labor isn't covered under a warranty, but the parts might be.

I learned the hard way when I ended up with an electrical repair bill for $600 and $300 of it was overtime and extra trip charges.

Does anyone have any other good advice about service calls for everyone??

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

great tips, thank you!

Suburban prep said...

There might be a coupon for some sort of service needed in the phone book. (it has saved us some when a garage door repairman had to come out plus when our heating went out on what was possibly the coldest night of the year).

One Bite At A Time said...

Thanks for the advice!

Celeste said...

This is so ironic!! Our "air conditioning guy" JUST left our house!! We were just having our "yearly check-up" though

Anonymous said...

Great advice!! Thanks!! Hope it all goes well! :)

Jackie said...

Good to know! Thanks :)

Jenna Lee said...

WoW thanks for the tips. I will always use those tips.

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