B
BlueToBits
You get a call out to fix kitchen sockets that are not working.
It's only a couple of miles out of your way home so you leave the job you are on an hour early and call in.
You charge say, £47 including VAT for a up to 1 hour and £35 per hour after that.
It's a sweet elderly lady living on her own, and you suspect on just the basic state pension.
You notice the RCD has tripped. It resets first time without any problem. She says she had jammed a slice of bread in the toaster and the power went off when she pulled it out. How much do you charge?
Do you:
What would you do?
I always agree the cost before we turn up and always charge the full amount, but I usually stay for the hour, do an IR test to check it is not likely to trip again, show her how to reset it if it did, fix one or two things I can with the tools I have in my bag, but still spend most of the time drinking tea and chatting.
Is this morally wrong?
What would you tell your employee electrician to do if you sent him out on the call?
It's only a couple of miles out of your way home so you leave the job you are on an hour early and call in.
You charge say, £47 including VAT for a up to 1 hour and £35 per hour after that.
It's a sweet elderly lady living on her own, and you suspect on just the basic state pension.
You notice the RCD has tripped. It resets first time without any problem. She says she had jammed a slice of bread in the toaster and the power went off when she pulled it out. How much do you charge?
Do you:
- Charge her the full call.
- Say "It's OK, no charge today" and hope you will earn it back on a recommendation or two.
- Say "Call it a tenner to cover fuel "and consider not declaring it to the tax man
- Charge £10 and certainly declare it to the tax man.
- Charge £20 and declare it to IR and VAT
- Waste time time "checking things out, testing this and that" and charge the full call after a 'respectable' 30 minutes.
- Charge the full call but say you are happy to do anything else she would like for the next 59 minutes, change a few light bulbs, re-adjust the sticking kitchen cupboard doors, nail up a damaged fence panel, put some junk boxes in the spare bedroom, or even just sit down and chat over a cup of tea for an hour as you suspect this is the thing she would be most grateful for.
What would you do?
I always agree the cost before we turn up and always charge the full amount, but I usually stay for the hour, do an IR test to check it is not likely to trip again, show her how to reset it if it did, fix one or two things I can with the tools I have in my bag, but still spend most of the time drinking tea and chatting.
Is this morally wrong?
What would you tell your employee electrician to do if you sent him out on the call?