Call out Charges

Welshwoofs

Anyone know where I stand on this?

We had a problem with the water heater and called out an electrician to come and quote on the works. The spark arrived a few days later, glanced at it (didn't touch anything, get any tools out etc), said we'd need a plumber and left. All in all the visit took under 2 minutes and we then called a plumber out.

Today I had an invoice from the electricians for £50 for 'engineer attending'. When this electrician was booked to come and quote no mention at all was made of a call-out charge for quotes and looking at their website, there is no mention there either that attending to give a quote will be charged for.

Are we within our rights to with-hold payment for this? It seems ridiculous to me and my OH, having previously worked as a plasterer/tiler for many years, was also shocked that such a charge was being made to come and quote on work.

Amistoso_2

I think most people in a trade eg, plumber, electrician etc have a call out charge. He did visit your home, it wasn't his fault that you possibly called out the wrong tradesman for the job. I have to say I would have called a plumber and not an electrician. He has a right to be paid for the visit regardless of wether or not you feel its fair. (did you not enquire about the call out fee before agreeing to get him to your home?)

bumpoowee

I'd think you are probably entitled to withhold the money having not agreed the price (or even that you'd pay) beforehand. But I'd qualify that by saying I have no legal knowledge on that topic at all.

I did have the same thing happen to me though when we had a problem with the telephone line, BT said they'd need to visit to have a look so I said yeah fine. Guy turns up, has a look and leaves. Then £90 is added to my phone bill. I rang BT and told them to get stuffed (well I was slightly politer, but not by much) since I never agreed I would pay and they never indicated they intended to charge me. They agreed to write off the charge on that basis.

Welshwoofs

Amistoso wrote: »

I think most people in a trade eg, plumber, electrician etc have a call out charge. He did visit your home, it wasn't his fault that you possibly called out the wrong tradesman for the job. I have to say I would have called a plumber and not an electrician.

I described the symptoms on the phone (the heater kept tripping off and finally did nothing) to the electrician and he verbally diagnosed it as a problem with the socket....that's why he came out initially rather than a plumber. When he got here a few days later and saw the socket light was on (something he'd not asked about on the phone), he said that as it was working it'd probably be the element and therefore I'd need a plumber.

He has a right to be paid for the visit regardless of wether or not you feel its fair. (did you not enquire about the call out fee before agreeing to get him to your home?)

I didn't enquire about a call-out fee because, as I said, my OH worked in the trades for many years and never charged to go and give someone a quote on plastering a ceiling or rendering a house. I've also been renovating this house from a shell over the past year and not one of the trades (damp-proofing, roofer, landscape gardeners, joiner, plumber, HETAS engineer) has charged to come out and do a quote. I do expect to pay a fee for emergency call-outs and have done in the past, however this wasn't an emergency call out. I did look at the terms of service on their website prior to calling them and whilst there was explicit mention of them being happy to give an estimate, there was no mention at all that they charged for it.

ifonlyitwaseasier

i'd send a letter back stating that as you had only requested a quote and not a call out you are puzzled as to why you have received an invoice and will not be paying it.

Tom_Jones

Hang on a sec, you expect a firm to travel to your house, pay an engineer, find out it's not an electrical problem, so they can't raise a quote for you, and you expect them not to charge you and absorb all the cost of travel, pay the employee etc.

Seriously what planet are you living on ?

pinkshoes

Welshwoofs wrote: »

I described the symptoms on the phone (the heater kept tripping off and finally did nothing) to the electrician and he verbally diagnosed it as a problem with the socket....that's why he came out initially rather than a plumber.

Welshwoofs wrote: »

The spark arrived a few days later, glanced at it (didn't touch anything, get any tools out etc), said we'd need a plumber and left. All in all the visit took under 2 minutes .

As you described the problem down the phone, and he didn't even touch anything when he arrived, then I think he's been VERY cheeky asking for a £50 call out charge, as how can he possibly have changed his diagnosis without even opening it??

Sounds like he knew very well it wasn't a socket issue and just wanted a £50 call out!

I'd be speaking to trading standards about this.

pinkshoes

Tom_Jones wrote: »

Hang on a sec, you expect a firm to travel to your house, pay an engineer, find out it's not an electrical problem, so they can't raise a quote for you, and you expect them not to charge you and absorb all the cost of travel, pay the employee etc.

Seriously what planet are you living on ?

So if you called an electrician, described the problem on the phone, then they turned up and changed their diagnosis without even touching or looking at the system, and charged you £50, you'd be happy??

If yes, then I'd also question what planet YOU are living on!!!

Amistoso_2

what company did you call? just it sounds like you called an electrician when it should have been a plumber. They wouldn't normally be able to diagnose anything over the phone without seeing the problem for themselves, would they? how could he know he couldn't fix it until he saw it? maybe you made a mistake in calling the wrong kind of tradesperson

Tom_Jones

pinkshoes wrote: »

So if you called an electrician, described the problem on the phone, then they turned up and changed their diagnosis without even touching or looking at the system, and charged you £50, you'd be happy??

If yes, then I'd also question what planet YOU are living on!!!

Well being as I employ 4 electricians, 3 plumbers, 4 carpenters and 2 a/c engineers, and I'm both a carpenter, locksmith and electrician so I wouldn't need to call anyone out

Seriously though the OP described what appears to be an electrical fault, when the engineer arrived it would be pretty obvious if it was a plumbing fault or not. If it had been an electrical fault the cost of the callout would have been added to the quote. Now let's say it took the engineer a total of 1 hour to drive to and from the address, so would be paid a minimum of £16 an hour plus petrol, insurance etc. Do you seriously expect this firm to just absorb the cost and lose maybe £25.00 everytime they go to a job that they can't do, if this happened twice a day that's £250 per week. At the end of the day the OP asked the firm to attend her house they did that so she has to pay, and £50 for a callout is cheap, I charge £70 for the first half hour then £33 per hour after.

bumpoowee

Tom_Jones wrote: »

Well being as I employ 4 electricians, 3 plumbers, 4 carpenters and 2 a/c engineers, and I'm both a carpenter, locksmith and electrician so I wouldn't need to call anyone out

Seriously though the OP described what appears to be an electrical fault, when the engineer arrived it would be pretty obvious if it was a plumbing fault or not. If it had been an electrical fault the cost of the callout would have been added to the quote. Now let's say it took the engineer a total of 1 hour to drive to and from the address, so would be paid a minimum of £16 an hour plus petrol, insurance etc. Do you seriously expect this firm to just absorb the cost and lose maybe £25.00 everytime they go to a job that they can't do, if this happened twice a day that's £250 per week. At the end of the day the OP asked the firm to attend her house they did that so she has to pay, and £50 for a callout is cheap, I charge £70 for the first half hour then £33 per hour after.

Wouldn't it be good practice to actually mention that you want to charge for the service first though? If they don't inform the customer that their service comes at a cost then it is only fair to assume the service is free.