Heating Contractor charging for 2 hours of travel time @ $180 per hour

The title says it all. Has anyone ever seen this before? I’ve been using these guys for years and they never charged for travel time before. A 1 hour, non-emergency visit — they replaced thermo-couples and adjusted the valves — came in at $700. No notice that they charge for travel. We did not have a service contract with them and I suspect they were unhappy about that. Who to complain to? BBB? City licensing agency? Thanks….(BTW, it wasn’t any of the heating people who typically comment on Brownstoner)

housepoor

in Plumbing 8 years and 3 months ago

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mozeeatupu | 8 years and 3 months ago

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Which heating contractor was this?

steam_man | 8 years and 3 months ago

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That would be a good policy rd684.

rd684 | 8 years and 3 months ago

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I get what steam_man says and totally agree that it makes business sense. But for regularly scheduled, non-emergency work, I think the onus should be on vendor to disclose ‘travel time’ or ‘minimum hour’ fees in advance.

steam_man | 8 years and 3 months ago

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I’m one of the heating people who typically comment (I’m not the one who went to the OP’s home) and I’m going to weigh in on this from a business owner’s perspective. First off, high bills for mundane work suck. I absolutely understand the OP’s frustration.

Think about this analogy. You are a graphic designer and you are requested to be at a client’s office at 11:30. You start your day at your office, do your meeting or whatever and and take the train back to your office.. two hours total travel time. You go home at 5:00 all is well.

Your paycheck is short two hours! WFT OMG I’m mad AF you tell your boss. He replies, “Sorry Johnny, client doesn’t pay for traveling to their office and I can’t pay you if I can’t bill the client!” “Where’s the revenue supposed to come from?”

Now do you see the issue? I would suggest calling the plumber’s office and requesting a discount on the travel time. I bet if you ask nicely enough and you are a good customer they will at least reduce the charge.

resident2 | 8 years and 3 months ago

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I am not surprised that contractors charge for “travel time” think of it as congestion pricing.
Between trying to get to a job, then looking for parking, or expecting & getting tickets etc it is almost impossible to get anything done in Downtown Brooklyn these days.
I have a few buildings in Fort Greene and what used to be easy to run around and check on things in half a day now can take two days! Just traveling.

nyc_sport | 8 years and 3 months ago

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I have seen that from a few contractors. As I recall, some did not charge it over a certain minimum.