OT Bill for Electrical Work

[johndeere720GA]

I have a rental property in another state. It is managed by a property mgt company that forwards me repair bills. Recently a kitchen fluorescent light stopped working and an electrician was called. (not sure why they didn't just call a handyman). They changed the ballast from t-12 to t-8 and replaced the lamps accordingly. While the charged retail+ on the parts it is the labor that has me steamed.

The electrician charged the following:
Labor 1.5 Hrs @ 67.00 for 100.50
Apprentice Labor 1.5 hrs @ 33.50 for 50.25
There was no line item for a service call fee.

So 3 hours labor to change a ballast and 4 lamps for 150.75 labor costs?

Does this seem right to you?
In my mind it should not have taken 1.5 hrs to do the job.
I also do no feel that i should be paying for the apprentice; maybe i am wrong but i feel that the apprentice training should be paid by the company he works for not me.

 

[Deere Mark]

Apprentice with the plumber did not even know "lefty loosey righty tighty" and still I paid for his labor, although it was not itemized as it was for you.
You are really at their mercy if you are too far away to do it yourself.
Seems like this apprentice with the electrician or with the plumber is a new thing in my area. A plumber or electrician was always alone back 20 or more years ago.
I have no answer for you. Grin and bear it or complain.

 

[Larry EC-OH]

It would make a great difference where this was. If it's in an area with lots of restrictions and other hurdles it's probably right on the money.

 

[David G]

I think you got a bargain, pay it.

 

[Sean Feeney]

6 words in " rental property another state"
at there mercy.

 

[Duane WI]

I think 1.5 hours is fine for a service call with travel time. $67 is also a good rate for an electrician. Most professional trades are pushing or exceeding $100.

 

[Harold Hubbard]

No fee for the service call, but they charged you labor time ? Home to home?

 

[Billy Shafer]

I was in field service and I have seen that before. Customer not on site charge what you think you can get away with. I never operated that way. But I have seen plenty that did. Got me in trouble many times because I refused to operate that way. If I had a job that took just a push a button. Or a simple fix. I wrote it off as a lunch break or rest stop.

 

[johndeere720GA]

Thanks for all of the comments.
I know I am at their mercy. The total labor just seemed so ridiculous I had to ask if was being irrational or not. (Apparently I was)
I am going to request that if the mgt company calls someone for service for something simple that they call a handyman first.
I have been seriously undervaluing my time....

 

[Spook]

(quoted from post at 16:54:54 12/12/18) I have a rental property in another state. It is managed by a property mgt company that forwards me repair bills. Recently a kitchen fluorescent light stopped working and an electrician was called. (not sure why they didn't just call a handyman). They changed the ballast from t-12 to t-8 and replaced the lamps accordingly. While the charged retail+ on the parts it is the labor that has me steamed.

The electrician charged the following:
Labor 1.5 Hrs @ 67.00 for 100.50
Apprentice Labor 1.5 hrs @ 33.50 for 50.25
There was no line item for a service call fee.

So 3 hours labor to change a ballast and 4 lamps for 150.75 labor costs?

Does this seem right to you?
In my mind it should not have taken 1.5 hrs to do the job.
I also do no feel that i should be paying for the apprentice; maybe i am wrong but i feel that the apprentice training should be paid by the company he works for not me.

Id say you got a pretty good deal. Around here, electricians charge that much to roll up in your driveway. Then the clock starts. The management company may have a deal with them, based on volume of business. As for the apprentice, they could just roll that charge into the base rate.

 

[retired farmer]

It is called greed.

 

[Moonlite37]

Any competent electrician or handyman can replace fixture in 20 minutes with an apprentice but they had to pick up the parts or fixture and drive perhaps across town. Enter the building and tell what they were there for. walk out to the truck carry in tools and fixture. Remove fixture and dispose replace and drive home. perhaps could not carry step ladder tools and fixture, May have had to secure key to building and fins disconnect switch. was this in a city? Did the workers work from a supplier? Was it a tell ceiling? It does not look like dishonesty but also does not look cheap. I was an apprentice sheetmetal worker and got about half pay, but I did as much work as the journeyman, but was not as efficient.

 

[1948CaseVAI]

(quoted from post at 20:59:58 12/12/18) It is called greed.

No it is not. It is called a fair price for service rendered. Either get in a position to do it yourself or pay someone else what they want.

 

[544hydro]

Sounds fair to me. He didn't bill a service call. He's a licensed trained professional billing accordingly.

 

[Hanky]

Sounds like a good deal, our company charges far more than that per hour, they got a call, sent an electrician over that had an apprentice with him most likely going to another job, they found the problem, got the parts, and fixed the problem, I used to carry ballasts on the truck, but no more, and never any lamps, last I herd I get billed out at $140.00 an hour, plus a truck charge, 4 hours minimum, had a call today for a huge shot blaster at a foundry, took two hours to find the problem, horrible equipment, dirty, poor prints, and they get charged four hours, plus $14.00 for the truck, and the parts, funniest thing is that a couple years ago I wanted them to let me re-do the machine with an HMI and PLC, and just gut the crap off of it, they have spent far more than that just in service calls keeping it going in that time, machine is 45 years old, at least..

It's just the way things are. And I even have a 40 Cal space suit in the truck...

 

[Hanky]

Depending on where you are they may not be able to legally do that, here if a handyman does "electrical work" and there is an injury, or fire, you are toast, if it's electrical work you have to be licensed, doesn't matter if it's a ballast or a service, handymen may be able to make it work, but will be toast in court later if there are any problems, another company I worked for did work for a property management company for that very reason, and I don't miss that at all, I pretty much refuse to work on anything but industrial stuff these day's.

 

[Poppa Noel]

You got a fair price. My stepfather was an electrician and owned his own business back in the 1980's and it was $90.00 hr. with a 1 hr min.
pull up to the job
diagnose the problem
run to parts store
drive back to job
r&r the fixture
Yep you got a real fair price

 

[Hanky]

And just a thought, I went thru 2 years of day school, 3 years of night school, and then 16 hours every two years just to renew the license, and then there is the other OSHA required stuff, for hot work that some contractors get away not doing, and the high voltage classes every six months, all of the tools and equipment and tools we carry now day's, I'm not complaining at all, I get paid to go thru it, but it all costs money, that's what the customers pay for, they want a professional that is equipped to do anything they need done, Billy and Bubba could have done it for $19.95, sorry, I couldn't help it, I know things are expensive, I'm not trying to pick on you at all, not at all, it's just the world we live in, I carry Fluke power quality meters, and Milwaukee bore scope in the truck, these day's if you are going to fix things you need the tools.

Hey, had it been me I would have done you a favor and just thru the ballast away and put LED tubes in in and you would have been done with it for a long time.

Hey, at least the light is working, I hope.


Merry Christmas

 

[Russ from MN]

There is a shortage of journeymen plumbers and electricians, they have to go through an apprenticeship to become a journeyman, someone has to pay for it.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I don't know, sometimes you have to go to the jobsite, evaluate the problem and then go to the store for parts and go back and fix it. Could take 1 1/2 hours.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 19:54:54 12/12/18) I have a rental property in another state. It is managed by a property mgt company that forwards me repair bills. Recently a kitchen fluorescent light stopped working and an electrician was called. (not sure why they didn't just call a handyman). They changed the ballast from t-12 to t-8 and replaced the lamps accordingly. While the charged retail+ on the parts it is the labor that has me steamed.

The electrician charged the following:
Labor 1.5 Hrs @ 67.00 for 100.50
Apprentice Labor 1.5 hrs @ 33.50 for 50.25
There was no line item for a service call fee.

So 3 hours labor to change a ballast and 4 lamps for 150.75 labor costs?

Does this seem right to you?
In my mind it should not have taken 1.5 hrs to do the job.
I also do no feel that i should be paying for the apprentice; maybe i am wrong but i feel that the apprentice training should be paid by the company he works for not me.

Somebody has to pay for the times from when they leave the shop , go to the wholesaler for parts , do the job and return to the shop.
Hopefully they used a solid state ballast and Substitube LED lamps.

 

[Bob]

JohnDeere720GA, SOMEBODY is "out of the loop" here, and it mite be YOU! LOL!

Heck, if being an absentee landlord was EASY, everyone would want to do it!

 

[MarkB_MI]

I'd say 150 bucks for a service call would be about right. If that's the worst you get gouged on repairs, consider yourself lucky.

 

[DIM]

I wanted to plug in a 220 v heater into my welder plug. I neaded a 220v 50amp plug. None if the box stores had one. went to a elctrical supply store and they had one cost 100 dollars He said he would give me a discount price of 70 dollars. I told him to keep it. Got on line found one for 13.00 dollars (USA made) with shipping 20.00. I call 100 dollars a rip off.

 

[JL Ray]

I think you did good. First off, you have a management comp. taking care of the property. I would imagine they have an agreement that they will use certified people for repairs. Also when a rental inspector comes around and asks about the light for what ever reason, he may want you to show (your bill)that you used a certified person for the repair. I have had issues (replaced a water heater)where I had to go get a certified person to come in and look at what I had done for a repair. Only to have them say its OK and charge me $$$$ for them to put there stamp on it. Really Stupid just because an inspector.
Hey you could always have the management comp. call you for repairs. I'm sure it would cost you much more than 150.00 to drive there and back.

 

[john in la]

Wait till the tenant overloads the circuit and blows the breaker.

The management company calls a electrician because the lights do not come on.
The electrician comes out and charges you a hour minimum charge to reset the breaker.
Then you will really be steamed.


Been there and paid that bill in the past.

 

[Mike M]

Doesn't sound as bad as a microwave I had repaired. My son bought my wife an expensive LG microwave with a built in oven in the bottom. Great for frozen pizzas ! Anyhow it was acting up it ran as normal but the microwave part would not heat up. Not to far away was an appliance place that was an authorized LG shop too. I loaded it up and took it to them. THEY CHARGED HALF of a service call for ME to bring it to them ! Payment up front ! Around $ 65.00 later it worked. Charge for a switch and 15 min labor and the 1/2 service call. Then after a few months it started doing the same thing again. I called them up about warranty on the repairs and it was only 30 days. So I took the cover off for a look. There are 3 micro switches so I started unhooking the wires and testing each switch. On the bottom one (last one)the wire was not on good. Ended up that was the problem ! now I wonder if I even got a new switch last time or just a wire plugged back in ?

 

[tomturkey]

Quit whining, pay the price for having rental properties or get out of the business. As others have pointed out, your paying for "professional services". Do you also quiz your Doctor, Dentist on their "professional services rendered billing. Those monthly rent checks aren't all profit, some has to be allocated for maintenance also. just my free advice. you ask!! gobble

 

[johndeere720GA]

Alright i will quit whining.
Unfortunately, i am not in the landlord business by choice but it has not sold and was being a money suck (taxes, heat, power, etc.) so i resorted to renting.
Thanks again for all of your insight.

 

[dr sportster]

I'm pretty sure a call to the contractor could knock off the apprentice time. What did the kid do ? Hand the journeyman lamps? It is a one man call.

 

[dr sportster]

What do you do with the bore scope ?

 

[WGM]

if I were you I'd just pay what you think the job is worth in true tight wad fashion.

 

[Bruce(OR)]

Calling in a handy man next time might be fun. No insurance, house burns down and your stuck?
i dunno. . . .

 

[dhermesc]

Agreed. Paying $150 for a house call where they actually fixed something actually sounds a little cheap.

 

[Brad Buchanan]

Hey doc.

I don't know what Hanky does with his but I have a Rigid See Snake that I bought years ago and it gets a suprising amount of use from locating things inside of a wall to inspecting gears in a tractor through the fill hole to finding lost jewelry behind fixed counters.

Kind of hard to interpret the images because of the perspective but a very useful tool.

Brad Buchanan

 

[Inno]

Sounds like a deal in this day and age. And while we're talking about the apprentice, at least they billed him out as such. I'm sure there are some contractors that would bill for two electricians even though the apprentice is making less. They were at least being honest about it!

 

[TomR Ont]

If you complain, no one will show up when you need them.

Like at the Dealerships you complain you are charged flat rate $250, but it only took 1 hr real time.
How long will you wait next time.
If there is a hoist not used, your car will be on it and no one working on your car.

 

[Hobo,NC]

Life and prices were so much simpler when a frozen turkey was consider a nice Christmas bonus..

He could have called rockauto had the parts delver there and had the yard man install them for $20 bucks under the table...

Are sale the property like I did I am done being a slum lord invest the money pay the tax man and beach about the taxes...

 

[pinball]

I think actually it was a good deal for you. your company that takes care of your property has to get a bonded/licensed electrician due to liabity problems. I would imagine a 100 dollar service charge is charged by a lot of companys. it sounds as though they charged you by the hour from there business and back and not the service call so I think you got a good deal. I suspect that your manager uses them because they don't over charge and are very reliable which means a lot in these days.

 

[DoubleO7]

Also keep in mind that there is likely a 20% kick back fee to the property management company.
The service/repair contractors do not get on the property managements "short list" of preferred providers for free you know.