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Understanding The Route

Each morning before the tech's leave with their service tickets each tech puts those service tickets in an order best suited for a proper route for his route for that day. Just like a delivery truck with several deliveries. The tech's do not want to go back and forth as they would only complete half the amount of jobs they could do if they had a proper route. So they organize their jobs in this route right before they leave for the work day, based on the time slot chosen by you, and not going back and forth from one area, over to another, but then back to the same area they just left. We would not want them to go from Glen Burnie to Pasadena then back to Glen Burnie....makes no sense. Same with every other area. We would not want them to be in Columbia, go to Ellicott City and then right back to Columbia. The routes are set up to eliminate the back and forth driving time. You will have the tech arrive at your home within the time slot of 9 to 1, or 12 to 5 that you have chosen.

IF FOR ANY REASON HE IS SEES THAT HE IS RUNNING LATE HE WILL CALL YOU AHEAD OF TIME TO LET YOU KNOW.

This is just a few of so many examples of things that can happen with the public.

The tech is at your house. While he is there, you remember, and you say, hey while you are here will you look at my refrigerator, its seems that its not as cold as it was yesterday and I don't want to loose my food. Just as you would want him to look at your refrigerator while he is already in your house for the dryer that you scheduled, (this sort of thing can make a tech late).

A stripped out screw or screw head or bolt. Need to drill it out. The tech sees that he is now wrapped up with something out of the ordinary but just as you would want him to complete your job, he does not leave until the job is completed. (a rusted old screw can make a tech late)

And just as late we have things happen, (everyday it seems) that people are not home when we call the, we get no answer, so then everyone in the route after that client is bumped up a notch. (this sort of this of the client not calling us to cancel is one thing that can make a tech early.) BUT HE WILL CALL YOU AND IF HE IS EARLY AND GETS NO ANSWER HE WILL CALL YOU BACK AGAIN AT THE TIME SLOT YOU CHOOSE.

Please answer your phone! You will be called by the tech when the tech is on his way. We need to verify that you did not forget or had an emergency and had to leave. If we do not get an answer, our driving route then changes and you will have to be rescheduled.

These are a just a few of the things which are incorporated into every service business operating costs. Then of course after all this, the business is in business to make some sort of profit in order to continue to remain in business.

• Technicians Training
• Office Training
• Technicians Wages
• Office Wages
• Advertising - Yellow Pages, Adword campaigns on Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
• Advertising Stickers On Appliances That We Repair
• Business Cards
• Computer Training For Proprietary Written Program Only For Our Appliance Business
• Programmers/Coder Wages For Specially Written Program - Updates and New Features
• Specialty Tools For Particular Brands and Particular Models
• Office Supplies - Printer Inks, Paper for Tickets, Files, Clips, Staples from pens to paper
• Computers and Printers
• BGE
• Office Furniture - Desks, File Cabinets, Chairs etc
• Domain Registration
• Web Hosting
• Internet Connections
• Telephone Lines
• Other Specialty Programs Which Answer Phone and Prints Tickets From Voice Mail
• Vehicles
• Vehicle Maintenance
• Vehicle Insurances
• Fuel
• Business Liability Insurances
• And of Course Parts

That Repair Bill Is Huge, but It Might Be Justified

By ALINA TUGEND

Published: June 4, 2010

WE all know the frustration when an appliance breaks down (usually a month out of warranty) and we call to have it repaired. We’re given a window of several hours — if we’re lucky, or half a day if we’re not — when the service guy will show up. He comes in, fiddles around for 10 minutes and then charges $150.

Or he says it needs a new part — for an additional $200 — and he’ll check to see if it’s on the truck. Inevitably, it’s not. He’ll be back in three weeks.

Why do repairs seem to cost so much even if they don’t take long? Why does it seem that the part you need is never the one the serviceman has? What can we as customers do to make the whole process go more smoothly and perhaps more cheaply?

I turned to some people who have been in the business a long time to get some answers.

“When people go to a doctor, they’re paying for knowledge; the same is true with a technician,” said Vernon Schmidt, who has been a repairman for about 35 years and is the author of a book he published himself, “Appliance Handbook for Women: Simple Enough Even a Man Can Understand.” I turned to Mr. Schmidt before, in my column about using too much soap in appliances.

Mr. Schmidt, who works out of Indianapolis, likes to tell a story, famous in appliance repair circles, to demonstrate what he means: “A guy comes in to fix something and he hits it with a hammer, and says, ‘That’ll be $250.’ The customer says, ‘What for? You just hit with a hammer.’ The guy says, ‘That’s $50 for hitting it with a hammer, and $200 for knowing where to hit it.’ ”

That’s a humorous way of saying that repairs may look simple, but they’re often not. Robert G. Johnson, who runs RJ’s Appliance Repair in Capon Bridge, W.Va., said, “We have to stay current with each brand and each model.”

Mr. Johnson does warranty work for many companies, including Jenn-Air, Whirlpool, KitchenAid and Maytag.

“At least twice a year, I travel out of town to attend training on new products and service pointers,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that he is responsible for all his travel costs and hotel stays, if necessary. In addition, “I’m sometimes in my office until 9, 10, 11 at night trying to track a problem down.”

Also, of course, there is insurance, liability, truck maintenance, office equipment and other fixed costs that people don’t think about when the serviceman arrives at their door.

Most service technicians charge a flat rate to diagnose a problem, and if they can’t fix it on the first visit, will not charge for a second visit. You will still, however, have to pay for any parts and labor.

Mr. Schmidt, who usually works with high-end appliances, charges $119 for a visit. He said the national average is about $70 to $80 for the initial visit for the most common (not high-end) appliances. He said he would be suspicious of the work quality of anyone who asked for substantially less and also suggested reading the fine print carefully if anyone is offering free service calls. There is usually a catch.

So the technician arrives and checks out your refrigerator or washing machine. He clucks his tongue, nods his head sadly and says it needs a new something. You don’t quite catch the word, but you have a feeling of dread. This is going to be expensive.

The reason many parts seem awfully costly these days is because they are, said Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman, deputy home editor of Consumer Reports. “Appliances have many more electronic parts and circuit boards than in the past, and these parts can be more expensive than mechanical parts.”

Repair people can’t carry every possible part. And they can’t be expected to order something based on the description a customer gives over the phone because it may turn out to be the wrong thing.

Then “we can’t send it back, or if we do, we have to pay a 25 to 50 percent restocking fee,” Mr. Schmidt said.

Ms. Lehrman said Consumer Reports suggests that if something costs more than half the price of the appliance to fix then you shouldn’t fix it. The trouble, of course, is that you don’t always know how much it’s going to be before the technician comes over. The price could be just the flat fee or it could be hundreds of dollars more for a part.

There are also things we can all do as customers that will make the repair experience easier. Here’s some advice I gathered from the experts:

¶Know if you’re in or out of warranty and what your warranty covers. Ms. Lehman suggests keeping copies of your warranties in one folder or going online to download them and store them in one electronic file. Even if you haven’t sent in your warranty registration, you should be all right if you have the receipt or, lacking that, if you charged the item you can obtain the information from your credit card company.

¶Have the brand, model and serial number available when you call for service. Those details can usually be found on the paperwork that came with the item. Otherwise you will waste everyone’s time searching for it. Although these numbers are usually on the appliances, in some cases — like a frost-bound refrigerator — they are difficult to see.

¶Try to be there when you say you will. We all know that it’s maddening to be given a three- or four-hour window, but all too often jobs take longer than expected. Or there’s the customer who, after the initial repair is finished, says, “as long as you’re here,” and trots out other broken machines. It’s worth asking if the service company will call you five or 10 minutes before arrival, so you can run nearby errands while waiting.

¶Get help sooner rather than later. “One of my biggest frustrations is having someone says, ‘Oh yeah, the dryer has been acting goofy for three to four months,’ ” Mr. Schmidt said, because it’s likely that bad part has caused something else to wear out.

¶It’s fine to observe the technician working. You certainly don’t have to disappear. But keep pets and children away. “I don’t need your inquisitive 4-year-old going through my toolbox,” Mr. Johnson said.

¶And finally, be honest. If you don’t have the money available to pay the fee, tell the repair person ahead of time. Maybe you can work something out. Mr. Johnson said he has one “dear heart” on a fixed income who pays off her bill when she can. “But,” he said, “don’t tell me when I give you the bill, ‘Oh my wife took the checkbook.’ ”

Perhaps this advice will help us all get along a little better. And remember, complaining about appliance repairs is nothing new. Doesn’t this sound familiar? “There are two basic reasons for today’s service problems and those big bills: They just don’t build appliances like they used to, and they don’t sell them like they used to, either.”

That was from an article that appeared in Popular Mechanics in November 1961. The outrageous charge for a service visit in Chicago? $3.95.

This article is from the

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/your-money/household-budgeting/05shortcuts.html?pagewanted=2#

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