When customers make an appointment to have repairs completed on their AC, we tell everyone there is a minimum $99 service charge for each call.
If we send a technician out to the address, we charge a minimum of $99.
There is no fee for the call if the customer uses our company to complete the repair. The average AC repair is around $200. Last week I went to a house where the customer needed a brand new toggle switch for the AC. This specific switch was still under warranty. Unfortunately, the labor was not covered. I only charged that woman one hour of labor costs which was equal to the $99 fee. In total, the price for the bill was $160. It was a reasonable amount of money for an AC repair. A customer was irate when she found out that the bill was more than $99. She claimed the person on the phone told her that the repair would cost that amount. I tried to explain to the woman that was our minimum service charge, but she was angry and confused. I called the office and spoke to the manager about the repair bill. He told me to charge the woman $99 and we decided to take a loss on the sale. I don’t know if the woman was crazy or cheap, but she got away with a $60 savings because she acted like a fool. I didn’t want my boss to cut the bill in half, but he told me that good customer service means taking a loss every once in a while.