overcharged by electrician

melb

Good afternoon
Our EV charger suddenly stopped working so we rang a local electrician.

In the meantime I had done a lot of research and thought the likely cause was the RCD within the charger which was a common fault on the rolec charger which costs about £20 to buy plus fitting which would take less than an hour to fit according to people's experiences online.

We phoned an electrician, who also said they installed chargers, in the morning and they said they would fit us in at the end of the day sometime after 4.30 pm. At no time did we say it was an emergency and we would have been happy with an appointment the following day.

The electrician turned up and quiclkly found the burnt wires and showed my partner the photographs and said he was going to get the part from the depot. He returned approximately 2 hours later and spent less than an hour fitting the new RCD.

We have now been sent a bill for £256 inc VAT and the following explanation when we asked for a breadown of the bill and also asked which part he had fitted:-

"As discussed with me on the phone, i gave you two prices, one for 3 hours in total and one for 4 hours on labour
It ended up being the 3 hours @ £156 plus vat then the materials which i informed you £60 plus vat"

On the email to which the invoice was attached it said:-

"This was for an electrical call out"

We will not be paying the bill although his terms that unless payment is made upon recipt of invoice there will be a £30 late payment fee which just makes me think he is a chancer.

Does this sound like he is trying to charge us for an out of hours emergency call-out? They do have a 24-hour emergency service but we had no need for this.

I would be very grateful if anyone could help in terms of what would be a reasonable cost for this work (we are in Leeds) and any advice as to how to proceed with this. There is no way we would have agreed to accept a 3 to 4 hour labour charge for something that nobody could know the cause of until they had had a look. Also presumably if they install Rolec chargers as claimed on their website, they would have some idea that it may be the RCD and bring one with them?

Does an 'electrical call out' have a specific meaning among electricians please?

Ebe_Scrooge

Playing devil's advocate ....... He didn't know it was the RCD until he'd had a look.  Why should he buy one beforehand on the offchance, and potentially be out of pocket himself if it turned out not to be that?  So 3 hours labour - don't forget he's got to charge for his travelling time to come out to you, then to go to the supplier to buy the part(s), then come back to you to fit the part(s).  You say the RCD is £20 - what about the burnt wires than must have needed replacing, plus any other connectors, electrical bits-and-bobs and whatever that also needed replacing.

The "electrical call-out" is just that - you called him out to fix an electrical problem.  There's no mention there of an additional "emergency call-out" fee.

I'm neither defending nor slating the guy - just trying to highlight the fact that there's more to "doing a job" than just buying a part and fitting it.  If it were that easy, I'm sure you could have bought and fitted the part yourself

Doozergirl

No electrician is going to charge you for an hours work.  They just won't come.    Nobody does anything for less than a half day, because it ends up taking half a day.   Travelling time and buying materials is also chargeable time.  My electrician does EV chargers too, but not exclusively.  He doesn't always have the right stuff for a job in the van - in fact most trades have to bring everything in of a night time because the risk of having their entire livelihood stolen is a massive risk.  You can't keep stock and even if you did, it would be something that you genuinely need all that time. Even then, you might use it and forget to replace.  

Your bill doesn't surprise me.  I'm quite pleasantly surprised that you got it sorted that quickly.  

It doesn't sound that bad to me, especially if they're VAT registered.  It also sounds like you were given prior warning of the likely cost.       

TELLIT01

'Call out' means just that, be it electrician, plumber or whatever.  You called them and they attended.  Even if there had been nothing wrong other than a tripped out breaker that charge would have stood.  Time period isn't excessive and neither is the hourly rate.  They are due payment, so pay.

melb

thanks for all your comments - food for thought.  I completely agree that the labour should be more than one hour but I strongly believe he went home for tea and came back - it was 7.30 pm when he returned to do the work after iniitially coming about 5.30. He says he told us about the 3-4 hours labour charge but he did not, nor would we have gone ahead if he had done.  We have free charging with our car so could have waited a few days. A call out is usually in the realm of £60 isn't it for maybe an hour's labour and then charged accordingly thereafte? This part is a known fault with the Rolec charger - there are basically only 2 or 3 components within it so it would have been sensible for him to collect one fro the depot to bring with him surely?  It's a £20 part at most.  I agree in paying what is fair but I do not hink this is at all fair.  On the EV forums this is a job that is frequently done by competent DIYers as it's a straight swap.  As for replacement wires, just cut back to where it's unaffected like most electrics

Doozergirl

...so then you should have DIY'd it...

There isn't anything like a cost comparison between a qualified electrician working for a sizeable company and you doing it yourself.    

melb

I wouldn't dream of attempting any electrical work!  There wouldn't be a cost comparison if I did as it would not cost anything.  Not sure if you understood that I was referring to other people on an EV forum who had had a similar job done.  I am pretty sure he has contracted out the work and is taking a cut for himself.  

EssexExile

melb said:

thanks for all your comments - food for thought.  I completely agree that the labour should be more than one hour but I strongly believe he went home for tea and came back - it was 7.30 pm when he returned to do the work after iniitially coming about 5.30. He says he told us about the 3-4 hours labour charge but he did not, nor would we have gone ahead if he had done.  We have free charging with our car so could have waited a few days. A call out is usually in the realm of £60 isn't it for maybe an hour's labour and then charged accordingly thereafte? This part is a known fault with the Rolec charger - there are basically only 2 or 3 components within it so it would have been sensible for him to collect one fro the depot to bring with him surely?  It's a £20 part at most.  I agree in paying what is fair but I do not hink this is at all fair.  On the EV forums this is a job that is frequently done by competent DIYers as it's a straight swap.  As for replacement wires, just cut back to where it's unaffected like most electrics

It was more than that when I worked and I retired over 20 years ago! The time to discuss the price is before the job is done, having said that, the price doesn't seem ridiculous to me.

fenwick458

well it seems expensive, and I don't understand this bit

melb said:

"As discussed with me on the phone, i gave you two prices, one for 3 hours in total and one for 4 hours on labour
It ended up being the 3 hours @ £156 plus vat then the materials which i informed you £60 plus vat"

did you get anything in writing? do you know how far they had to travel?
tradesmen don't have to make sure they have every possible part in the van ready before they come to a job either so please get that out of your head. 
If you didn't formally accept a quote beforehand then I guess you have the option of not paying and telling them to come and remove the RCD on the basis that you weren't made aware of the potential cost. then just buy one and fit it yourself as it's such an easy DIY job

GDB2222

melb said:

thanks for all your comments - food for thought.  I completely agree that the labour should be more than one hour but I strongly believe he went home for tea and came back - it was 7.30 pm when he returned to do the work after iniitially coming about 5.30. He says he told us about the 3-4 hours labour charge but he did not, nor would we have gone ahead if he had done.  We have free charging with our car so could have waited a few days. A call out is usually in the realm of £60 isn't it for maybe an hour's labour and then charged accordingly thereafte? This part is a known fault with the Rolec charger - there are basically only 2 or 3 components within it so it would have been sensible for him to collect one fro the depot to bring with him surely?  It's a £20 part at most.  I agree in paying what is fair but I do not hink this is at all fair.  On the EV forums this is a job that is frequently done by competent DIYers as it's a straight swap.  As for replacement wires, just cut back to where it's unaffected like most electrics

If the part costs £20, then charging £60 for it is too big a mark-up. However, it's quite common for tradesmen to add on to the cost, as they have to guarantee the work. Frankly, if he charged £60 but ought to have charged £40, it's not worth falling out over.

As to the labour charge, £156 is normal for 3 hours work, if it took 3 hours. If he went off for tea and charged you for that time, I agree that's obviously unreasonable. Getting the RCD after hours might have meant a drive across town, in heavy traffic. It really might have taken two hours. I suggest that you discuss it with the guy. Ask him for more details of where he got the part, and take it from there. 

Did you say that you had agreed an hourly rate before he turned up?

greyteam1959

I think that is a pretty fair price for the job.
The guy drives to you house locates the problem drives to get the part, buys the part returns & fits the part.
Fuel is £1.50 a litre, plus all his other associated business costs.
Time is a minimum of £65 an hour plus Vat.
Part is £20 plus a markup.
You got a cheap job.
Pay the guy.