Rant: Gave a customer a $250 estimate, then found a loose wire

I drove 40 minutes to a house in Oakville to fix a dryer that wouldn't heat. Opened it up and it was just a loose wire on the heating element, took 5 minutes to fix. How do you explain to someone that you still have to charge them the diagnosis fee even though it was a simple fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

benk261mo ago

Man that's always the worst feeling when it looks too simple. People don't realize you still had to drive out there, spend the time diagnosing it, and that's what the fee covers. You can't really just discount everything because it ended up being an easy fix, that's how you lose money on every call.

jessica_miller1mo ago

Wait, isn't the whole point of the service fee that it covers your time and expertise regardless of what the actual fix ends up being? I feel like customers are paying for you to figure out the problem, not just for twisting the screw that fixed it.