Additional Service Call Fee

[Mary O]

Is it regular practice for a plumber to charge an additional service call fee when they are already at a customers house on a call, just to go out to their vehicle to get a part needed for the job?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

No I wouldn’t say that was fair if there policy is a call out charge per job and the engineer is on site eg two jobs you should only pay one fee

 

[PETE 123]

At most a call out charge and the rest on a quote or hourly rate..

 

[Nwalky]

If people call us and ask for a plumber to attend a job we have a base rate that we will charge someone so as to cover the cost for someone attending, if the job can be done within the base covered time with material from the van then it is no problem. If we discover that the job is going to take more time and material then we will give an estimate but we will still require payment for the initial visit because we have attended and diagnosed what the issue is.

The problem with a lot of contractors is that they don't want to commit over the phone with a cost because you never know what the job is going to be like but, generally, explaining the above to a customer before attending will usually avoid any dubiety.

In this case, the tradesman should have given you the cost for the part required and charged you additional hourly rate that it took to complete it.

 

[Ric2013]

A callout is a minimum charge on top of the first hour's labour to get to the property, essentially to pay for travel and travel time and, realistically, the time spent doing paperwork. Generally, I think we all tend to include this inside the minimum charge for up to an hour's work.

Time spent getting some extra waste pipe because there isn't enough in the van should be covered by whatever mark-up the plumber puts on materials. It's a standard part and if there isn't enough in the van then we've misjudged our stockkeeping.

But what if the customer needs a new 3-port valve head? They are manufacturer specific. Would it be reasonable to call them a standard part? A ceramic insert for a tap. They aren't all the same. The replacement heads for TRVs are all different and rarely compatible. This kind of thing is where I might be charging an hourly rate for time spent at the merchant (though I'd make it quick) because I cannot reasonably carry all this stuff in the van. Pimlico Plumbing does much the same. That said, the charge for the time spent is not as much as another minimum charge.

What/how much is Mary O being charged though? I might have a different price structure that sounds fairer, but might still be more expensive. So the bottom line is relevant.