Do I Have to Pay This Tradie?

helpme on 04/11/2023 - 08:32
Last edited 05/11/2023 - 10:07 by 1 other user

I contacted airconditioning repair people who came out, had a look at the evap cooling for 5-10 mins, and said the main PCB board needed replacing.

I then contacted someone who does repairs (over the phone, he didn't charge me) who advised me to try re-pairing the remote. That took a whole 5 minutes and it ended up working again. The tradie even sent me a pic of the PCB board with no lights saying it just wasn't working. He then gave me a quote to replace it and a $200 invoice for that callout.

What would you do in this situation?

Thanks

Edit: Thanks everyone for your input, it's been a fun and surprising discussion. I will call the guys and see what they have to say and take it from there. If paying $200 gives me the right to leave a review, maybe I'd rather do that.

Home & Garden

Comments

      • TEER3X on 07/11/2023 - 18:14

        Plus don't forget how much interest they pay on their Wildtrak.

  • TEER3X on 06/11/2023 - 19:55
    +2

    If you were made aware of the callout fee in advance, and it sounds like you were, you have a moral responsibility to pay it.

    There could very well be a problem with the PCB, maybe it's intermittent… maybe it's completely fine.

    I'd call the original tradie and tell them what happened, maybe you can negotiate.

  • furyou on 06/11/2023 - 23:12
    +1

    Here to offer a different perspective. What Is the brand of your air conditioner? I had an Australian branded ducted air conditioner and suffered for years.

    even from the start it was working on and off, and after 5 years just as the warranty was going I actually replaced the whole fan and motor luckily.

    Anyway this thing I had a dodgy air conditioner guy come and check it and every time he wouldn't really find anything wrong with it.

    but I would need to power cycle the thing every few days and the control panel would randomly change temperature or modes or zones without anyone touching it.

    and then suddenly it would work for 6 months straight

    So it is entirely possible that your pcb was not working on one day and completely fine the next

    • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 11:49

      Breezair.

      So it is entirely possible that your pcb was not working on one day and completely fine the next

      yep, like I said, I'm not directly accusing them, I have no proof and intermittent is still possible. I realised the title of my post already had a judgement and that's my bad, but I think my post itself is fair, I was asking for advice.

      So it is entirely possible that your pcb was not working on one day and completely fine the next

      Possibly. Although your issue has been there since day 1. Although what if I told you we didn't use the aircon for 6 months, at some point the remote battery died. Followed by what's happened, what would you say is more likely and by how much? Remote just needed repairing or faulty pcb?

      • furyou on 07/11/2023 - 18:40

        Really had to say. I mean, the only way to really know is whether your ac works perfectly or not in the next few months.

        I had an air conditioner that Only 1 person could service the brand and he was very dodgy.

  • TeruMorgan on 07/11/2023 - 00:31

    The company/contractor must make it clear that a call-out fee is applicable. Could be on their website when making a booking or on a phone call when organising the appointment. If it was made clear to you that a call-out fee will be charged, pay the bill.

    If you were never made aware of the call-out fee, then I would be refusing to pay and gather any evidence I could, website screenshots, text messages, emails etc. If you don't have any evidence, this may be an expensive lesson to learn.

    If you believe the company or contactor was deliberately misdiagnosing the fault, otherwise known as fraud, this should be reported to the local police along with any evidence.

    Side story, for a recent car service the dealership called and requested the car to be held overnight. I had a hire car from the dealership and my very first question before even asking why was "will I incur additional costs for the hire car?".

    It sounds like any future contracting work your very first question will be "do you have a call-out fee?"

  • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2023 - 00:37
    +5

    Are people here mental?
    $200 just for a call out?
    Just charge $200 for a call out, do 5 call outs a day and make 5k a week without fixing a god dam thing.

    Give me a break! Lol

    Trades are the biggest rip off in this country, and absolutely woeful at their job. The quality of work in this country is disgusting, even 10x worse because the prices they charge.

    You can literally go anywhere in the world and get work done for 1/3 of the price and better workmanship.

    The sooner the government allows tradies on visas the better.

    • Serapis on 07/11/2023 - 14:58

      Sounds like a great business idea though - Charge $200 an hour to go in the ute and YT / Google a solution, recommend the solution then issue an invoice. Easy $1k a day, maybe even 10% discount for cash.

      Wanna team up?

      • [Deactivated] on 07/11/2023 - 15:05
        +1

        Exactly! Who asks for credentials? Literally no one!

        Air con trades aren't even specialists are they? I mean it's like fencing, or installing floorboards…. literally anyone can do it.

        Plumbers, half don't even have a master licence. Tilers, you need certificates and electricians.

        Alot of the other stuff falls inbetween!

        And all those dodgy ones who actually do bad work and end up on current affair barely get a slap on the wrist in court! It's mental.

    • Wiser on 08/11/2023 - 13:47

      @Adelv
      That was my thinking
      But majority here blaming the OP for not paying up
      Just come out and say" sorry unable to find anything, you better call another expert. Please pay my call out fee.
      I need to go to the next customer to collect another 200".
      Great idea! Create some bogus reviews. You are done.
      If you rack up too many negative reviews
      Register new business and start the process again. Until theere is consensus on what should be fair for all parties.

  • ahara on 07/11/2023 - 00:45

    Here’s my 2 cents for your consideration:

    Option 1: talk to company/tradie around misdiagnosis and therefore dissatisfaction to pay the callout fee. Ask him to “please explain”.

    Based on the outcome of to your local consumer affairs agency in your state and share story for help and more “proper” advice.

    Worst case he can take you to small claim court but if you can “prove” via second tradie that the issue was truly the remote and that the PCB never had any issue it may count as a lack of qualified diagnosis and thus become a null and void service.

    again my 2 cents. Talk to more “free“ legal experts like consumer affairs to get better info and you can always pay him a bit later if need be

  • pjcook on 07/11/2023 - 08:23
    +2

    How do you justify a $200.00 call out fee…..

    • MS Paint on 07/11/2023 - 09:16

      If you read OPs whinge post on Reddit someone there gave a breakdown of associated costs with call outs and OP even acknowledged it.

      • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 11:06

        What whinge post on reddit? I know $200 call-out fees are normal, I've called tradies many, many times. I never once complained about the actual fee but trying to guage what the tradie did

  • Name on 07/11/2023 - 09:04

    Could it still be a faulty pcb? Like it could cause the remote to lose pairing…

    • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 11:43
      +1

      100%, not ruling it out, but only time will tell. A week now and not a hitch. Keep in mind, hadn't touched the aircon for about 6 months before this and the battery in the remote died at some point but we didn't bother replacing it yet. Because of this, I think losing pairing is actually quite likely than if I had been using it and it suddenly stopped.

  • sauce2k on 07/11/2023 - 09:29
    +3

    Most tradies are crooks unfortunately. $200 for a callout, stuff him/.

  • milkabuck on 07/11/2023 - 11:13
    +7

    The sniff test here says the first tradie couldn't figure it out quickly so decided to turn it into a decent job worth him doing. The defense of "maybe the PCB just stopped working when the first tradie was there?" is hilarious. Claps to you people had a great chuckle.

    In my line of work (IT support) if I couldn't figure it out after spending some time (therefore money) on it I wouldn't charge, let alone tell someone they need a new motherboard in their computer when all that's happened is their wireless keyboard has lost it's pairing. Understand tradies have costs with call outs but we've all got costs when we spend time on problems.

    Fundamentally I think if you pay the bloke you're perpetuating the shoddy behaviour that's running rampant with a lot of tradies. Times are tough.

    • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 11:41

      In my line of work (IT support) if I couldn't figure it out after spending some time (therefore money) on it I wouldn't charge

      Keep in mind I, and many others, would still happily pay you!

      let alone tell someone they need a new motherboard in their computer when all that's happened is their wireless keyboard has lost it's pairing.

      This is what people seem to ignore. This is the right comparison.

  • Deals For Days on 07/11/2023 - 14:51

    Are you going to update us on what happened. I'm just interested in what he has to say for his services.

    • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 16:03
      +1

      Yes I will, I called but the guy wasn't available yesterday. The conversation was a little interesting though:

      After telling them what happened receptionist called another technician
      [Very Paraphrased and shortened]
      Her: the other technician said if you got it working, that's great, it shouldn't be an issue to use and doesn't need replacing.

      Me: but I'd like to know what the fault is and how he came to that conclusion, seeing as I'm paying for the service.

      Her: yeah no idea, but it should be fine to use. You pay for a callout, even if you call out a plumber and they bop you on the head 4 times, you still have to pay them. But I do see your point, I'll contact [guys name] and get back to you when I can.

      Me: yeah that's fine, none of us were there so we can't say. Thanks for your help

      She did say they contacted the manufacturer who said it was faulty, but that's when I asked what signs did he see? None of us knew the answer so it didn't get anywhere.

      So just waiting on a callback

      • Deals For Days on 07/11/2023 - 16:25
        +1

        Either intentionally incompetent or scam to jack up his fee, imo. The whole 'call out is a call-out' doesn't hold water if they can't even do a basic test on the AC remote.

        You're paying for a call-out with the expectation that they have the relevant skills to do the job properly. If they rock up and just 'bop you on the head' then they obviously didn't have the skills to contribute and shouldn't take the job - taking the 'call out' part of the contract in isolation seems wrong to me (not a lawyer no clue what would happen in court).

        • ripesashimi on 07/11/2023 - 16:51
          -2

          How do you even judge the skills of a tradie is the question. Heaps of highly-skilled people with zero qualification. Heaps of morons but having stacks of trade qualifications. That is really not OP's call to make provided OP is not an expert in the field or any regulatory body. Not even small claims courts or tribunals can make that call.

          Ultimately OP pays for their time. Whether OP likes the result or not is a matter for leaving online reviews. Everybody deserves to be paid for their time, even the shit ones.

          • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 20:57

            @ripesashimi:

            Everybody deserves to be paid for their time, even the shit ones

            Even if they come and do thousands of damage to your house? Do they deserve to be paid? This happened to a friend, paid the guy to install a hot water heater and he (profanity) up soooo badly.

          • brendanm on 08/11/2023 - 19:22

            @ripesashimi:

            Everybody deserves to be paid for their time, even the shit ones.

            Incorrect.

        • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 20:56

          You're paying for a call-out with the expectation that they have the relevant skills to do the job properly

          Apparently this isn't agreed upon…which just astounds me. I don't think this applies ANYWHERE else.

  • 191919 on 07/11/2023 - 16:52
    -1

    don't pay the c unt a dime

  • aboogee on 07/11/2023 - 17:11

    I agree with most here, that the moment you call someone then there is a callout fee
    But at the same time it feels shit that he was trying to squeeze more $$$ out of you
    Negotiate something, saying that you found the issue and it wasnt as what he said, and that you're paying as a goodwill?

  • outlander on 07/11/2023 - 17:23
    -1

    Just ghost them. They aren't going to do anything because if they took it to court they'd have to prove they provided a service to you.

    • CurlCurl on 07/11/2023 - 17:50
      +1

      Just ghost them. They aren't going to do anything because if they took it to court they'd have to prove they provided a service to you.

      They did provide a service. They came out.

      • Deals For Days on 07/11/2023 - 18:10

        Where is the line drawn then? There is clearly an expectation of some standard of service related to the work to be done.

        • rumblytangara on 07/11/2023 - 18:39
          +2

          There is clearly an expectation of some standard of service related to the work to be done.

          Apparently not, going by most the respondents on this thread. They could have sent a mime carrying an invisible window, and OP should have paid up.

          • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 20:59
            +2

            @rumblytangara:

            Apparently not, going by most the respondents on this thread

            Yep, as long as decent chunk of society thinks that as long as you call them out, no matter what they do you pay them, then what can we do?

            I'm just so surprised people on ozbargain, of ALL places think that.

  • EvoQuattro on 07/11/2023 - 20:00

    $200 call-out fee seems a bit exorbitant? The last plumber/sparky I used was around $70 (In WA any way). Give him a call and tell him his diagnosis was incorrect and just cut a deal and say you'll cover his fuel of like $50 or something and call it a day /end of. That's what I would do. At the end of the day, you called the AC guy, so you were prepared to pay something. Your issue was fixed, so parting with some money isn't unreasonable (Especially since the 2nd guy didn't charge you anything).

    Next time try google the problem first, maybe you could have fixed it yourself.

    • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 21:05
      -1

      Next time try google the problem first, maybe you could have fixed it yourself.

      I could've, I was busy/lazy, hence I was prepared to pay a lazy tax, I did think it was something stupid like repairing the remote. Either way, I was happy to pay.

      People on this love to shift the blame to me because of that, but this argument really only applies to people who can fix it, what about those who are too old? Immigrants? Technologically illiterate? This just means certain people are taken extreme advantage of and people on this forum are happy to allow that under the guise of "lazy tax".

      • MS Paint on 07/11/2023 - 21:20

        I could've, I was busy/lazy, hence I was prepared to pay a lazy tax

        You contradict yourself something horrible.

        You banged on to me that I don't what the definition of lazy man tax is and that's not what happened..FFS.

        People on this love to shift the blame to me

        I clearly explained who's doing the blame shifting earlier.

        • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 21:32

          You contradict yourself something horrible.

          Oh for God's sake, now you're selectively replying?

          I was PREPARED to pay the lazy man tax, that is, if all that was needed to be done was RE-PAIR the remote, I would've happily paid. That's a lazy man tax. I don't define, if it happened, the person misdiagnosing or misquoting as a lazy tax. That's just either paying for incompetence or a scam.

          Again, answer the question, if this was an elderly copy who doesn't even know how to google search, are they a subject of the lazy man tax? That this happened to them because they were lazy?

          • MS Paint on 07/11/2023 - 21:46
            +1

            @helpme: The elderly copy couple aren't being lazy so they are not paying the lazy man tax. They are paying the tech inept tax.

            • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 22:14

              @MS Paint:

              They are paying the tech inept tax

              Which is what? Be charged $1400 for a board repair that's not required and can be fixed for a 5 minute job?

              At what point are you gonna stop calling things a tax and call it for what it is, either extortion, laziness, or being inept? Here's an idea, why don't you agree with us and make these guys pay the pseudo-professional tax, or unlucky PCB board was not working the moment I was there tax or, in the worst case scenario I was caught out tax which is what? $3 of fuel and 20 minutes of their time?

              The elderly couple is tech-inept, but the technician enough so that he can't re-pair a remote, so the elderly couple has to pay for the self-marketed 'professional' they called out? And that's their fault?

              I also love how you linked to a comment I got 30 likes on semantics…

            • helpme on 07/11/2023 - 22:23

              @MS Paint: You also know what? I'm hair-cut-inept, so are all my friends and family. A haircut takes 30 mins, maybe we should be paying barbers $300

              • Shroomlet on 07/11/2023 - 23:42
                +2

                @helpme: If you agree to engage with a service that charges that price sure.

                OP your arguing points that don't make sense. End of day @Muzeeb is right.

                You knew ahead of time what the callout fee was, you agreed to it.

                It sucks they couldn't fix it, but be grateful you didn't have to pay anyone else and get the same result.

                Irrespective if they were there for 5 minutes or 50 mins, the result is inconsiquential, you agreed to a social contract to pay for someone to attend your premises to solve your issue. They turned up.

                Them failing to fix it sucks but you found out quickly, instead of them being there for half a day and charging you for all that time they spent at your place.

                The "quality" of the repair job is irrelevant in this scenario

                EDIT: end of it all, you agreed for services to be rendered. They provided a service (although not to your liking). You need to pay for what you agreed to.

                Imagine if shoe was on other foot "Customer refuses to pay callout fee because I couldn't fix his issue". That's you.

                • helpme on 08/11/2023 - 08:23

                  @Shroomlet:

                  Imagine if shoe was on other foot "Customer refuses to pay callout fee because I couldn't fix his issue"

                  I've paid for someone to repair the wrong thing. That was fine, because he was not wrong in what he thought was broken. I then paid him again to fix the real issue.

                  I've paid someone to just replace a washer, but regardless of the job, like you said, he fixed the issue.

                  I've paid someone for a quote, even though his quote was twice what another guy was, he confirmed the issue and provided the quote

                  I would've happily paid if the guy went "I have no idea what's wrong, but I did all the diagnostic tests and looked throroughly at the machine"

                  OP your arguing points that don't make sense.

                  What points exactly? I'm sorry but I fundamentally disagree with the notion that even if they come and bop you on the head 4 times you have to pay them. You engage with a service with the assumption they are professionals in their field. This isn't a results based issue but a what exactly did they do issue. I'm waiting for a call back, if they give a reasonable explanantion then I'll pay them and leave a good review. If not, I guess I will still pay them but outline what happened in the review.

                  • Shroomlet on 08/11/2023 - 10:28

                    @helpme: My brother in Christ,

                    I'm sorry but I fundamentally disagree with the notion that even if they come and bop you on the head 4 times you have to pay them.

                    If you've engaged in a contract for someone to come and bop you on the head 4 times, then yes you need to pay them for that.

                    Your invoice would probably look like:
                    1x Callout fee
                    4x bops on the head

                    I guess I will still pay them but outline what happened in the review.

                    Considering the time and effort you've spent here, I think it would be good to help you get some closure.

                    • helpme on 14/11/2023 - 17:29

                      @Shroomlet:

                      If you've engaged in a contract for someone to come and bop you on the head 4 times, then yes you need to pay them for that.

                      100%. But who engages in a contract with a PLUMBER to do that?

                  • Wiser on 08/11/2023 - 19:21
                    +1

                    @helpme: Hey OP
                    What is the outcome?

                    • helpme on 08/11/2023 - 20:53

                      @Wiser: They haven't gotten back to me, the Optus outage probably didn't help…

                    • helpme on 18/11/2023 - 16:24

                      @Wiser: You can refer to the last comments on this thread.

  • kiwimex on 08/11/2023 - 08:44
    +2

    OP should really look at himself in the mirror. Pay up first of course. Why come to Ozbargain and tell your story when you argue every single comments that doesn't agree with you.

  • cupcake on 08/11/2023 - 10:15
    +1

    Does anyone know roughly how much it should cost to have a leaking gas pipe replaced on my air conditioning unit?
    The guy that came around on Sunday quoted me $800, which I think is way too much.
    I always feel scammed by these tradies coming to fix things :((

    • CurlCurl on 08/11/2023 - 11:46

      Does anyone know roughly how much it should cost to have a leaking gas pipe replaced on my air conditioning unit?

      That's very open question>

      • cupcake on 09/11/2023 - 11:12

        Just hoping someone has had that done for them recently so that I get an estimate.
        I already paid the last guy to refill it with gas and paid him $600 so this issue hasn't been fixed :(
        Just sick of feeling scammed all the time by tradies.

        • rogerwilko on 09/11/2023 - 18:29
          +1

          Sorry, sounds like you got ripped off. I would assume they should locate and fix the leak and then gas the unit.

          • MS Paint on 09/11/2023 - 21:18

            @rogerwilko: R410A refrigerant prices have gone insane due lack of supply. If that's what cupcakes system uses (and it's a big unit) then the costs can be very high.

            • rogerwilko on 09/11/2023 - 22:29
              +1

              @MS Paint: Not arguing the price of the gas, i'm saying the root cause should have been diagnosed.

              • MS Paint on 09/11/2023 - 22:47

                @rogerwilko: Ok. Yeah it's not too hard to dye the gas and trace a leak.

                • rogerwilko on 09/11/2023 - 22:53
                  +1

                  @MS Paint: Bit of gas and it will be fine. Just let the R410A leak back out to the environment….

          • cupcake on 10/11/2023 - 09:33

            @rogerwilko: Thanks, Roger.

  • MS Paint on 14/11/2023 - 14:49

    What was the final outcome @helpme?

    • helpme on 14/11/2023 - 17:26
      +2

      They said they'd give me a call back last Wednesday/Thursday. Nearly a week now and haven't heard anything, haven't had the chance to call them back myself.

    • helpme on 15/11/2023 - 21:08
      +2

      Called them back, they did talk about intermittent issues and stuff, I said that's fair. I just wanted to know what diagnostic lights they saw because they said they saw some and what it indicated was broken because the diagnostic lights tell you what's broken (there's only like a 2-3 fault signals) and what it was when they left it. He said he couldn't remember but that they went through diagnostics with the manufacturer and they said it was broken.

      I pointed out I agree intermittent issues are real and could be the cause, but I said it would coincidental that the aircon remote died months ago without being used, the PCB which has never had any intermittent issues would just stop working as I called them out and then be fine less than 48 hours later with no intermittent issues since. He got where I was coming from and said he'd look into it for me and get back to me.

    • helpme on 18/11/2023 - 16:24
      +1

      He has not gotten back to me.

      • MS Paint on 18/11/2023 - 16:26

        Thanks for the updates.

        • helpme on 18/11/2023 - 16:31
          +2

          Also, if people were wondering, I paid, well before I called him back actually. I doubt he'll get back to me, especially since I mentioned someone told me intermittent issues aren't normally an issue with that board.

          Edit: paid before the second call back, when the receptionist said 'you pay for a call out, even if they come and bop you on the head 4 times'. I think it was pretty clear what their stance was.

  • ady211 on 30/01/2024 - 07:07

    I had similar issue for air con tradie 1 comes (no mention of call out fee) tells to replace fans would cost between 12 to 1600. He said he will let me know the exact price bit later.

    Another tradie calls (I had dropped messages to few people), he said he will fix it in half a day for 1400. I just went with tradie 2.

    Now tradie 1 has sent invoice of $200 call out fee.

    • Ramrunner on 30/01/2024 - 19:09
      +1

      No surprise.

      Surely no-one here EXPECTS someone to come to their house for free?

      I will sometimes do deals with new customers if they live local I promise to only come over and have a look (IT/Networking) for free. Most of the time they turn into paying jobs so I have no issues with that.

      But if they don't live within 10-15 minutes yeah, you pay for my attempt to help you with your problem. It costs me time, fuel and skills from a bachelor degree and various other certifications to sometime diagnose or consult on the job. My degree alone cost me 10s of thousands, let's not even talk about the other training.

      Not like the old days, now there are too many tyre kickers and the cost of living is too high to wear these costs.

      • ady211 on 30/01/2024 - 20:00

        Yes I don't have an issue with anything you mentioned issue is call out fee needs to be told upfront and not after the fact.

        • Ramrunner on 31/01/2024 - 08:50
          +1

          Agree - although I sometimes also forget if the customer doesn't ask. Truth is, most of my jobs are word of mouth so sometimes I kind of assume when they've spoken to my other customers the new customers know what I charge. For me it's never an issue or argument when I send the bill, and often get a "paid with thanks" email when they EFT, and they use my services in the future also.

          I guess the only thing I can say to people reading this is if you use a trade or professional, assume there is a call out cost and to check how much if it's not mentioned beforehand if it may be of concern.

          To be fair though my call out is nearly half your aircon tradie :) ($100+ GST), but it does include the travel time to the premise and only up to one hour.

          • ady211 on 31/01/2024 - 09:34

            @Ramrunner: This is 1st time I went through air con repair plus the tradie which I eventually hired I paid him his call out fee

          • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 20:11

            @Ramrunner: I'm sorry but I feel like so many people missed the point…my issue isn't with the call out fee…my issue is the fact that they told me something was broken, and I would've been happy to pay a callout fee to be told something is broken, that's their time and experience. What pisses me off is I did basic troubleshooting and got it to work and it's been fine since. So what did I pay for exactly??? Their excuse of you pay just for them to come out is just ridiculous.

            Especially when they use a line like "they could come out, bop you on the head and you'll still have to pay".

            • Ramrunner on 18/03/2024 - 09:19

              @helpme: I didn't miss the point to be fair.

              Just because he's bad at his job doesn't mean there wasn't time/fuel/effort spent on coming to your house.

              You can try to negotiate down due to the fact they mis-diagnosed or something, but you DID call them out so a call out fee is pretty standard.

              If it happened to me though I would absolutely never use them again and put a bad review (keep it truthful and honest though) anywhere I could. Google, Facebook, ProductReview take your pick.

              • helpme on 18/03/2024 - 13:18

                @Ramrunner:

                Just because he's bad at his job doesn't mean there wasn't time/fuel/effort spent on coming to your house.

                I'd argue if he is bad at his job, he shouldn't be going around people's houses and charging them $200 to show up. If we keep paying them, that's exactly what's going to happen..

                • Ramrunner on 18/03/2024 - 13:37

                  @helpme: Not if reviews of the company are so bad no-one uses them.

                  I run a small business and my reputation is everything. As I've said before smash them on the reviews. Keep it honest. Refusing to pay a call out fee is going to cost you a lot of time, frustration, and god forbid having to deal with debt collectors or worse claims court where you could end up paying more.

                  I don't know how much your time is worth but going by the all posts you've done not as much as I initally thought.

                  Look - we're not going to agree and this will be my last post on this subject. A garage door company frequently promoted on 96 FM came to my house to have a look at a creaky door that some times wouldn't open recently. Was there 10 minutes to adjust a spring, suggested a new motor, and after I asked him promised a quote on getting the backup batteries replaced, and a new motor and he would get back to me.

                  Charged $185 on the call out. I paid on the spot. Never heard from them again.

                  Will I use them again? No. Am I happy about being charged $185 for literally 10 minutes? No. Will I give them a bad review in this case? No because technically he fixed the issue (although the door is still loud). In your case you absolutely should I think. Vote with your dollar and use your time making sure others don't get sucked into using this company.

                  You do you and if you have a lot of spare time by all means stretch it out and make life difficult. Be careful though if they get a bee in their bonnet they will go after the $200 and you could lose more. In the end you called them out and they charged a call out fee. It's pretty open and shut.

                  Good luck in the future mate I genuinely wish you well I'm going to spend my time a little differently.

                  All the best.

                  • helpme on 18/03/2024 - 14:08

                    @Ramrunner: I paid them to leave the review, they did contact me about it. If I buy an item and it's defective or useless, I'm returning it. I don't know why services are any different.

      • clover on 31/01/2024 - 12:37
        +1

        I dont have issue with call out fee but it needs to be somewhat reasonable. $200 is just robbery. And it should be offset against the actual job if it goes ahead. White collar workers dont get paid travelling back/forth to their workplace. So sick of how tradies here operate

        • ady211 on 31/01/2024 - 14:00

          Absolutely agree

  • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 19:38

    Okay tradie knocked up at home today with bill saying I need to pay the bill. Any suggestions what are my options?

    • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 20:13

      Did they do a bad job? Then go for a bad review…I'm in a position where that $200 is not enough for me to take it down.

      • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 20:21

        They didn't do any job, asking for a call out fee which I was never told upfront

        • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 20:22

          What did you call them for…

          • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 20:36

            @helpme: Airconditioning repair

            • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 20:48

              @ady211: Did they repair it?

              • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 20:51

                @helpme: No I had called few tradies. 2nd one fixed it I paid him including call out fee. Now 1st one is asking call out fee

                • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 21:10

                  @ady211: Why didn't the first one fix it?

                  • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 21:34

                    @helpme: I had called couple of tradies first one gave a big range and told he needs to check for parts. 2nd one came same day and said he can fix in 2 hour so I went with him

                    • helpme on 15/03/2024 - 22:23
                      +1

                      @ady211: Then you pay him anyway, he did the same thing as the second guy but you just didn't want to go with him.

                      • ady211 on 15/03/2024 - 22:42

                        @helpme: Okay but he never mentioned about call out fee when he approached me.

    • rogerwilko on 17/03/2024 - 20:39

      Why are they turning up to your house to provide a bill? Sounds dodgy to me, are they going to charge another call out fee to deliver the bill.

      • ady211 on 17/03/2024 - 21:59

        Yes they knocked at my door and were a bit rude handing over letter to my wife. The letter says I need to pay else they will use other mechanisms to extract money

        • Ramrunner on 18/03/2024 - 09:22

          IMO just pay it - you called them out - they charged a call out fee. This isn't rocket science and what most companies do.

          I'm aware they did a crap job and you decided to go with someone else. That's pretty irrelevant. If they never showed up you have a case. But they did.

          Just give them crappy (but honest) reviews everywhere you can.

          • rogerwilko on 29/03/2024 - 10:32

            @Ramrunner: Tbh I thought a call out fee is charged for immediate service e.g. I'm locked out my house and I need a locksmith to come asap. I would also expect that the call out fee to be called out up front. The behaviour of turning up to someone's house and delivering a bill is somewhat intimidating, the bill could have been posted or left in the mailbox.

            Just to be clear, I am happy to pay for someone's time and service, paying a additional call out fee is debatable.

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