Is this a fair price?

dinky73

Hi

Just hoped someone could give me an idea whether this bill I've received from my alarm company is way too high or not.

We use this company for our annual maintenance contract on our house alarm. In the past we have used them for the odd call out and their call out fee has varied from £69 and £59.50 (for first half hour of engineer visit). These two visits were back in 2005 though so I obviously assumed prices would have increased since then.

We got a bill for £147 + VAT for a job a couple of weeks ago. The engineer was here for 1/2 hour and moved a sensor about 2 feet to the left so it would be situated in the corner (we had some building work done and it needed to be moved).

The bill just said basic call out £147 + VAT. I thought it was excessive and emailed them to which they have not replied.

We had the same job done in 2004 and it cost £65 in total.

I know costs would have increased since we last had to call them out but £147 for a basic first 1/2 hour call out fee seems high to me.

I know I should have checked the price first but we have been with them for years and used them before for call outs so I was expecting to be treated fairly. Lesson learnt.

Just wondered if there was anyone out there in a similar business or had a similar job done so I could compare.

Thanks
dinks

phill99

Whether it is fair or not is almost academic. They have done the work and didn't ask for a price before you started. The bill just needs to be paid and then next time, get someone else in.