Calling Card

One of today's banes, for me, is the fee that is charged just for a service to arrive at your door. They have done nothing but arrive and the charge is not pro rated as to distance. You can be three kilometers away or a block. Same charge.  Recently I had an electrical problem with an appliance. I called a number of repair services I saw in the phone book ads and found that every one of them charged a fee just to arrive at my door. The charges were in the neighbourhood of the possible cost of the repair itself. Sure, I know there are costs to do business and that one must, in some cases, bring a truck full of tools, but why charge me for their  business costs? Running a business has costs that are tax deductible, an advantage, as a customer, I do not enjoy. First of all, the cost of the repair might be less than the fee charged to come out. Second of all, if there is a fee for arriving, why not include it into the ultimate repair cost and itemize it as such? Does it really, as I found out it does, sadly, cost seventy-five dollars to drive just around the corner to do a job?  One of the businesses that came, couldn't do the repair. I still had to pay the coming out charge. Their ad was a whole page thing telling me what a wonderful company they were and how kind and good. Really? The next one who came, after I paid the coming out fee, took out a catalogue of parts and a list of charges for various jobs and at length, with a pretty plastic bound loose-leaf book in hand,  explained that if I took out a plan with his company, I could get a large discount on further repairs. Not planning to need such, I turned it down. Then he took out a list of jobs and according to the quality of replacement, I could choose from their price list. I picked the least expensive one since the job was minor and the appliance was not in need of "gold quality" materials. On scanning the job, he said he couldn't fix the item and that it would require another visit. I asked if I would be charged another call-out fee? Fortunately, it was not so. While I had to pay the call-out fee for the first visit, I did so, but it rankled me.  I was not going to invite this company back for a second time  and even though I was assured that they had a truck full of all the latest equipment and supplies I was not convinced of their credibility.  The truck they had was large enough to walk into and it was painted up vividly with large logos and promises. As I waved good-bye to the chap in his attractive company uniform and big yellow vehicle, I turned to go inside and called a local handyman I found on the complex notice board. The handyman came - no charge. He fiddled around with the repair having to go in and out to find the right tools but finally the job was done and there was no sales pitch about it. His charge was pathetically low. I wanted to give him a tip but I knew he would be insulted. He cared about doing a good job and getting a recommendation. What is the lesson in all this? Shop around. The phone book ads don't always speak the truth. Call and find out what the initial charges are for coming to your home but also compare prices and best of all ask others who hired them,  what the quality of the work was. Lots of retired repair folk have long experience and do a good job because they are interested in doing their best. Ask around; ads are made to exaggerate.