Showing posts with label plumber's service charges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plumber's service charges. Show all posts

Friday, November 15, 2013

Plumber's Service Charges

Ball Plumbing charges a service charge of $45.00. We started this when fuel prices started to skyrocket and will stop when the fuel prices get back to 2009 prices.

Much confusion about the "service charge", though. I looked the term up in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, which doesn't charge a service charge for their service. Based on the first definition, our use of the term "service charge" is correct, in that we charge another fee in addition to our minimum fee of $88.00, which covers one hour of labor.

Tax and parts are always separate and without fail will surprise everyone including us.

I bet the term confusion stems from some plumbers using the term "service charge" to get paid for outrageous estimates. It's a nicer term than "estimate fee", I guess. I don't know, but it sure is annoying.

service charge

 noun
: an amount of money that is charged for a particular service in addition to a basic fee
: an amount of money that is paid to the owner of an apartment building for services (such as garbage collection)
: a charge added to a bill in a restaurant to pay for the work of the waitress or waiter