Call out fee valid?

Turning up and diagnosing the problem was part of the job. The plumber deserves to be paid. If you don't pay, he has every legal right to pursue you for payment. There's nothing illegal or unethical about you paying for the work, you asked for.

 

I mow lawns
So I quote a job, a few days later I get approval, I turn up and mow (no callout fee)
Once done, people often try to barter the quote (this isn't Bali ! )
For the following month do I get a trailing commission for the work done ?

 

The mower shop I just used charged $50 to diagnose the fault if you didn't go ahead with repair.

 

I am, I don't charge for quotes as I am my role is designated to only attend to quote. If I was attending to quote and perform work if requested/required on the spot I would charge a call out fee. If I was a plumber I would charge a call out fee to attend to quote as they can often commence the work on the spot.

 

You would work for free if you deemed it part of the job? What industry are you in where parts of your job are unpaid?

 

The unpaid bit goes go overheads, so there's no unpaid bit. Same as the time spent sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

 

Big jobs go to tender (call it quoting if you like). For small jobs a tradie will attend and just do the job. Too much time and money wasted for customers doing things a different way. Good luck trying to get a tradie to come and quote on a job that is going to be say $200 or less. You will likely find they will decline to do so as it falls under the category of working for free or interviewing for a job that you'll only be employed in for 2hrs. The callout fee exists so they are not taken advantage of and end up not just working for free but indeed losing money (eg petrol to attend).

 

Hospitality trials are unpaid
If i was a tradie in any speciality I wouldn't even dream to charge to give a quote

I'm not saying I won't pay the fee in this case.
But if you read the op, it's not the usual ask for. A diagnosis situation

 

I pay surgeons to check me out, even when they decide to not operate!

 

Most hospitality trials are paid these days. The days of unpaid trials are rare now.

 

The plumber wasn’t on trial- he was there to diagnose or fix.
He wasn’t invited to try out.
He invested in himself to learn his trade he is entitled to charge for his knowledge
I hate people that bag tradies. The forget that when your self employed you don’t get paid super, annual leave, sick leave etc. all of these things plus the tools of the trade, admin etc all have to get factored in.
PAYG earners don’t realise how much it costs in money and time to run a business. They might physically work all day, then keep working on admin, emails etc at night, chasing payments etc

 

GP’s are charging about $80 just to tell you to “see how you feel in a few days” or take panadol. Our government think it’s fair to pay them for it. Should we expect free consultations since they arent fixing the problem we went to them for?

 

I do too. They literally sweat for a living and deserve to be paid, and paid well.

 

Just last week a plumber I know said he had cut a pipe and told the owner not to flush the toilet until he had finished. Owners wife flushed and **** flew right at him lol. I did laugh but they do have dirty/messy labour intensive work. People also forget most tradies have a much shorter working life span as their bodies give up before “retirement age”

 

That's a very good point.
Never thought of it that way

 

It's Medicare - we don't pay them, do we?

 

No just pay a big fat levy and most drs in rural areas don’t bulk bill

 

Its a ******* rort @TMNT ...but when they all do it...what can we do...they've got us over a barrell...

ROYAL COMMISSION

 

Or anywhere near where I live either but they deduct the medicare rebate off the bill.

 

You'd be surprised. They were common in Sydney when I was living there just over a year ago. Certain stores had a revolving door of unpaid trail staff to keep their business running. They promised to pay them but it never eventuated