Take a chance on me

Posted by stimsonm on with 0 Comment
Yesterday we received a phone call from a homeowner that had multiple plumbing tasks that he needed done.  His list included removing his shower valve and stubbing the hot and cold water line out of the wall to install his shower “tower” that he purchased at Costco.  It also included installing a specialty toilet that needs to be mounted flush against the back wall.  Since the toilet sits flush against the back wall, the water line must be moved over and the baseboard will also need to be cut (which apparently we are doing).  I was told that “everything was very simple to do, and it won’t take long at all.”  After listening to his list of “simple” plumbing projects that he wanted done, I explained to him our hourly rates, and gave him an estimate based on how long I thought it MAY take me.  Keep in mind, plumbing is vastly different from tiling a floor, or painting a wall; there are NUMEROUS variables that present themselves on EVERY job.  The homeowner did not like the fact that we were going to bill him on an hourly basis, and requested a “fixed” quote.  I told him that we do not bill our smaller jobs this way, and that I could only give him an estimate.  This still was not sufficient for him, and he insisted that it was a very simple job and that I should be able to give him a price.  I kindly explained to him that IF it was as easy as he says, he will be happy because it will fall on the lower end of my estimate.  Not good enough, he still wanted a flat rate.  By this point, I realized we were not making any progress so I obliged.  I gave him a flat rate that was 75% higher than the high end of my estimate.  Of course, this was no good either, and he was becoming upset.  I told him this was most likely what the “flat rate” companies would charge him, and that is what I needed to charge him as well to cover myself in case of unforeseen problems.  We ultimately could not agree on the terms, and I thanked him for his call and asked that if he change his mind, please call us back.  

The point to the story is that we are not a flat rate plumbing company as most companies in the area are.  While we do have fixed rates on the most common items, such as water heaters and garbage disposals, the majority of our service work is on an hourly basis.   We still believe that charging for our time is the most fair and beneficial business practice to our customers as well as ourselves.  We do not feel it is necessary to charge for the “worst case scenario” on every job, as the flat rate companies do.  While it is true that in theory, we could take our time and “milk” out each job, this is never the case, and does not benefit us even if we did.  The reason is that we charge for the first half hour at a higher rate.  This is what pays us to come to your house.  This means that we would be much further ahead by completing multiple jobs in a day that took LESS time as opposed to one job that took longer.   Besides, as all of our very loyal and repeat customers will, and have attested to, that is simply not how we operate.  We are, and always will be, thorough, efficient, honest, and neat.  9 times out of 10, we will be MUCH less expensive than the flat rate guys.   See what others have said for yourself: All Area Plumbing reviews on Kudzu.com

Flat rate company motto:  We just need to get into every house once.  

Our Motto:  We would like to build a trusting relationship with customers for life.  

Flat rate or hourly?

Posted by stimsonm on with 0 Comment
Recently, there seems to be a paradigm shift in the service plumbing industry in regards to how companies charge for their work.  It wasn’t too long ago that all plumbers and plumbing companies charged for their services on an hourly basis.  Now days, there seems to be a movement within the plumbing community to utilize a flat rate pricing model.  This sort of pricing is very similar to how most auto mechanics charge for their labor.  The companies that use this method of billing have a master pricing book, which is about 4 inches thick.  This book will show almost any possible plumbing scenario that could reasonably exist, and what it will cost you.  The advantage to this, is that you will know exactly what you are going to pay for the service performed ahead of time.  For some people, this is a must.  The disadvantage to this sort of billing, is that it will probably be more expensive at least 90% of the time.  Since there are almost no plumbing problems that will take the same amount of time to repair every time, the flat rate pricing book will account  for the worst. Simply put, you will pay for the worst case scenario of your particular repair EVERY TIME, no matter how long it took the plumber.   This is almost always a winning formula for the plumbing companies, and an expensive repair bill for the customer.  While most of our repair and service work at All Area Plumbing is done on an hourly basis, we do have a few of the most common jobs listed on our website with a set price.  The reason for this is to make it easier for our customers, and to help save us some time on the phones. 

The main advantage of an hourly plumbing company would be the add-ons or extras you may think of while we are there.  If you suddenly remember that your toilet is constantly running upstairs, or that you had a little drip coming from a shutoff valve, we aren’t gonna stick you with an additional charge of $100 or more.  It may actually cost you NOTHING!  Since we are already there, and either of those two things would most likely take less than a minute to fix, it wouldn’t even reflect on our time and your bill.  Obviously, our hourly pricing plan is not nearly as profitable on a job to job, or house to house basis as the flat rate companies.  We are confident that we will make up for that with many, very satisfied, repeat customers.