Call out charge

Legacy_user

I would like people's opinions please. Dishwasher repair man turned up over an hour late and stayed less that half an hour, typically the dishwasher decided to work so there was no fault to repair, he turned it on/off several times. He wants us to pay £45 but said he won't charge us again if it stops working again. He agreed it was probably a faulty start button.

He wants me to pay him online, I feel £45 is a lot how can I be sure he will come again when it breaks? I feel probably paying half is fair for his petrol and time, it's not like he took the thing apart. Thoughts please?

WestonDave

A call out fee is just that - you called him out, he came so you owe him the £45. If he's promised to come out again without further charge if it doesn't stay fixed then he's a lot more reasonable than many, so for the sake of £20 its not worth getting yourself in a position where you won't be able to use him again. A reliable tradesman is worth keeping on side - he could of course have made out there was something more serious wrong with it and charged you for a new switch etc (Yeah guv the switches on these are dodgy - replace a lot of them you know - that's another £80 please - yeah I know but Hotpoint charge stupid prices for the parts - what can I do - etc etc).

If you only pay him half then yes you'd probably get away with it as chasing it will cost too much, but don't get fooled by the maths of £45 for half an hour equals £90 per hour in his pocket. That £45 has to cover the travel time to get to you - likely to make it up to at least an hour, the full running costs of his car/van - 45p per mile - not just petrol, plus other business overheads like insurance, professional registrations etc.

bod1467

Just pay it. He has fuel costs, time to GET to your place and time spent AT your place - these all factor in. £45 seems reasonable, especially given the offer he has made.

bris

£45 is a bargain, with the promise of no call out fee the next time, you got a very reasonable repairman.

nzmegs

My husband is a tradesman with a £200 day rate. A 30 min job is actually a half day job. the travel to the job and the fact he doesn't know how long it will take will mean he would have to set aside a whole morning - earning nothing else during that time.

he may just have to go home or sit in a cafe for the rest of the morning, but he doesn't know that when he books your job in. Plus he is earning much less than if he had stayed for the whole half day he expected.