week, his message said his voicemail box is full, this week it says the number is disconnected."Mom: "Hmmmm. You remember last time we were able to get ahold of him, he apologized about being away from his phone so long. He said he'd been in jail."
Rick: "Jail?"
Mom: "Yep. And no, I didn't ask."
Don has been taking care of appliances around Anacortes for twenty years or more. He's not always on time, but his fixes are sure and his prices fair.
Mom: "Call around and see if we can find a new guy. Try the Yellow Pages, Craigslist, the want ads, whatever you can think of."
We bought the laundry machines from a small local dealer who has let his business deteriorate, making him hard to contact for parts, templates, and that sort of stuff. The last thing we'd heard was his bookkeeper had embezzled several thousand dollars or so and he was facing bankruptcy. We figured he had his hands full, so skipped him.
Thompson Appliance has a great showroom and good sales staff. We'd bought quite a few finer appliances from them, mostly for our residence, and they had serviced some of them. All were under warranty but one, and the charge seemed reasonable. One of their salesmen, Robin, was trying to woo our commercial business, but so far John has been happy with Lowes. They are right down the street from the apartments and they are rock bottom cheap. You don't want to put fancy stuff in apartments because of the abuses you can pretty much count on. Sometimes it's cheaper to replace one than bother fixing it. We figure a $299 range has a lifespan of seven years and then if it has to be replaced we don't cry about it.
Thompson's technician, a guy of about 24, Rick tells me, did arrive as scheduled and spent about two hours tinkering and cleaning lint out of hoses. New parts were discussed and written down on a pad.
The presentation of the charges frightened Rick, and he said he plead for mercy, but to no avail.
Rick: "You're not going to believe this bill, Mom. $525! The tech was a guy younger than me, all by himself and he wrote three separate invoices."
Mom: "I can't wait to hear how he came up with that number."
I still haven't seen the invoices, but I understand it goes something like this: First invoice is a $79 diagnostic charge plus some coded charges, second and third invoices have $40 diagnostic charges and more codes. When you add them all up you get $525 plus some change, and that does include 8% sales tax.
Mom to Thompson's service department: "Please explain your billing today for Mayfair Apartments' three commercial dryers."
Nancy (appointments and billing): "You had three appliances on the calendar. The invoicing is separated according to policy."
Mom: "So the service call is $79 plus $40 plus $40? You can stand in the center of the room and touch all three dryers!"
Nancy: "Not exactly. Those are diagnosis charges. Once we see the trouble, we bill from there."
Mom: "Each charge is for taking the panel off the box of each dryer? So, if you found a cat with a litter of kittens inside each, it would be $79, $40, $40, plus labor for the time spent counting the cats? What is your shop rate?"
Nancy: "We don't have a shop rate. We use book rates that are coded by the work performed."
Mom: "We don't know anything about your book. How do you justify $525 for 2 hours of work? That looks to me like over $225 an hour for labor no matter how you dress it."
Nancy: "You were not charged for the four screws we supplied."
Mom: "That depends on how you look at it. Where is your owner or manager? I'd like to talk to him."
Nancy: "Sharon is not here. She's out on a service call, but she'll call you back. I haven't charged your credit card yet, though."
Mom: "You'd better not!"
I transcribed the above and sent it to a website called Angie's List. That helped blow off a little steam. Then I thought, maybe I should talk to our guy, Robin, in sales.
Mom: "Robin, you should know what's going on with a repair order. It impacts you guys because we've been good customers and we're feeling a little alienated."
I told Robin the story.
Mom: "I know you don't set policy in the service department and it runs by separate ownership, but it does have the Thompson name on it, so I'm telling you as a courtesy. This kind of business does not reflect well on you."
Robin: "Service is separate from sales. But I will ask questions. I'm glad you told me about this because we usually find out about a service problem when it's too late. For instance, I can straighten out an installation glitch if I know about it. I can get a new unit to replace a faulty unit, but no one tells me until the customer is beyond rage."
Sharon called early in the afternoon to explain that she'd talk to her appointment secretary to see if she was lying about informing Rick of the charges and offering an estimate ahead of the appointment.
Mom: "Well, I don't know if anyone is lying, but I do believe Rick when he tells me the billing was a surprise at the end of the visit."
Sharon: "I'll get back to you. When can I reach you?"
Mom: "I'm getting a haircut but I'll be back by 5:00."
Sharon: "I'll be out on a service call."
Mom: "I can't fault you for that. For $225 an hour, I'd go on a service call, too. Would you like me to do it?"
Click.
This afternoon I got a call from someone named Joe. Joe cares about his customers and says Thompson is number one in quality and satisfaction. Cal Worthington spoke those words from his Ford dealership in South Seattle while posing with "His dog, Spot" on live tv until the Washington State Attorney General's Office chased him back to Long Beach, CA. (He's still there!)
I replayed the speach I gave to both women in service and to Robin.
Mom: "If someone had informed Rick how your billing works, and Rick could have told me, I could have directed Rick to call someone else. This appears less than straightforward to me. I'll pay the bill but I will not be happy about it and I will stay in communication with Angie's List until this matter is closed."
Joe: "You should understand as a service business we consider the diagnostic and coding charges as a matter of simplifying billing for our tech and ease of understanding for our customers.
Mom: "We have a service business ourselves as electrical contractors. We bill $115 for a service call. That's a minimum charge, but it includes the first hour of labor at the job site. We do not separate one fee for a light fixture, another fee for a circuit breaker and another fee for a wall outlet. The customer knows what the first hour will cost and we don't need codes for that. We'd never get away with what you do in our industry. We'd be out of business."
I doubt there will be a change of heart with these people. If they give us any kind of a break they will make it up with the next in-coming call.
I have not seen the Maytag Man in television advertisements for several years. I've heard he passed away, but I suspect he was murdered or is doing prison time somewhere.
If Joe calls back with more BS, I'll tell him to go see Cal.
(names have been changed)
