What does "No Call Out Charge" mean?

sand_hun

TELLIT01 said:

The original person doesn't have psychic powers which is why it was necessary to visit and diagnose the problem in the first place.  Nobody can carry every part required for every problem in stock.  They would have no way to know whether they had the part or not until they did the original diagnostics.  The second person called had the benefit of being told what the problem was and knowing if they had the part available.

Basically, the OP is being utterly unreasonable in their expectations.

How is it "utterly unreasonable" to expect someone to be clear and honest? In my opinion it's misleading to claim you don't charge for call outs when in fact your fee is hidden within an estimate charge. I'd have preferred it if they'd been upfront about their charging structure. It's not like I refused to pay. I have since paid them for their 15 minutes diagnosis.

I didn't expect them to carry every part required for every problem in stock. I'm not sure what I have said that led you to that conclusion.

You claim that the second person called had the benefit of being told what the problem was and knowing if they had the part available. It doesn't work like that. Tradespeople like to do their own diagnosis.

silverwhistle

sand_hun said:

You're also wrong about people who complaining about this having never been self-employed - I am a self employed sole trader.

So how did you think they were going to charge? All this talk about the semantics of 'call out charge' obscures the fact that they will need paying for their time and equipment. You need to ask more open-ended questions like 'what will it cost me, and what if you can't complete the job in one visit?'. Trying to push the blame on to their so called lack of honesty is ignoring your own lack of common sense, although with a broken boiler we'd all be a bit up in the air.

sand_hun

silverwhistle said:

So how did you think they were going to charge?

In my head, here's how I thought things would pan out:

1) they come out to do an initial assessment without a call out charge.

2) They subsequently provide a quote for the repair and parts.

3) I pay.

However it didn't work out like that because it turned out they didn't have availability to carry out the repair. It's a shame because the engineer who the company sent out was a perfectly nice chap and I'd have been happy for him to do the work if they had the availability/part.

It was a cold Friday in February and I didn't fancy spending 3/4 days without heating / hot water. Hence why I then called someone else who could do it right away.

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As GDB2222 says, I guess it comes down to a misunderstanding.

When I first rang the company they said "we don't do call outs" - seconds later she backtracked, informing me that an engineer said in her ear that he does have some availability. I asked about the cost and they said "we don't charge call out fees". 

From looking at their website it seems they do a lot of commercial work.

fezster

For all those saying OP is in the wrong - in the absence of a call out charge and with no prior agreement on what costs would be charged, at what point was a contract formed between OP and the tradesman?