To make a long story short. I had a customer that spent alot of money with the company I work for an a few weeks after the job was done, I get a call late at night on my home phone. I dont know how he got my home number. But anyway, back to the story. I talked to him via his cell phone about his home phone and internet, both had stopped working. I asked him if anyone had recently worked on the house and he stated no one had been inside but the telephone company. They had buried the phoneline outside and had checked the line to his utiliy box and everything was ok. I went back to the house and found that the customer had plugged his second incoming phone line coming from the utiliy box into the network router switch at the home run box. Now the Question is, do you charge him to "fix" this or just laugh about for years.

I say charge them. When it blatently obvious that somwone has been into my work i will call customer over to take a look and expain why the the green from the component video is hooked up to the digital audio out(or other obviously wrong connection). They will usually fess up to them or their son messing around. Then they understand when i bill them.

I would just laugh but by the time a customer has spent a lot of money with me we are usually good buds. I am always invited to parties and never pay to stay in a beach house. Hell, I have a customer that leases me 300 acres to deer hunt on for free for 3 years now. Acts like what you did make a customer for LIFE! I may look at things differently since I own my company.

I'd charge them, but with a twist: explain that, as it was obviously user error, and the company that you represent (and you do, even after hours) would be happy to bill them (more, likely). Plus, you'll be happy to credit (roll in) the charge on future work.

We just had to McGuyver a floppy center-speaker bracket on a customer-supplied speaker system. Normal hourly rate applied, and not a squeak of a complaint.

I would charge him. You were called at home, late at night and were inconvenienced to say the least. If you called a locksmith in a like situation you would be hosed let alone charged. I'm not suggesting you drastically elevate your bill but I couldn't imagine he would expect not to pay considering the situation.

Depends on your relationship with this customer, and whether you think this is going to be a habit. Personally, I don't charge for little things like that, especially if I've done a large job for them in the past. If they are going to be PitA customers, then send them a bill.

Now, if you choose NOT to bill them, then you need to do this:

Send them an invoice with the service call discounted/credited to $0.00. This allows you to DOCUMENT the times you've been there GRATIS, so if there ever IS an issue, you can pull those invoices and say "Look, Mr. Customer, I came here no charge on date A, B, C, D, E... and didn't charge you a dime. You are being billed for this call because...." Works like a charm, and the customer understands that you are doing them a favor, and not just hooking them up. Once they realize there are hard costs (truck roll, your time, etc), and that you've eaten it, they become less likely to call you at home, in fear that the next time, that discount may not be there...

Just my $.02 worth

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

Considering its not your company, or doesn't sound like it anyway, and you wre called late at night. Might want to tell the boss about that, and get some sort of compensation. A late night phone call on your home line is a big NO-NO in my book. Plus, you need to let them now in a buiness-like manner that that type of phone call is NEVER acceptable unless its a dire emergency, ie the dvd player drawer rocketed out of the machine and punctured the wifes implant.

My phone rang tonight at 11pm. It was a 30k client that was trying to hook up a PS2 to her system (there was one hell of a party goin on in the background). I took 3 minutes and walked her thru it. She then said she was going to fire up the hot tub and asked if I wanted to come over and get in. I had to decline but I really don't mind these calls. Maybe if it had been an arrogant bald 50 something CEO I would feel different about it.

Feel different about which part? Not minding calls or getting in the hot tub?

It's a no brainer. Of course you charge him. Unless of course your new hobby is telecom charity work. Does a plumber not charge you for pouring something down the toilet and clogging it beyond repair? of course he does. he comes out, get's one of his gadgets out, fixes the problem in about two minutes then you write him a check

I give the clients my personal cell phone number on a regular basis!

If I get a call on Christmas eve(which HAS happened) because they forgot that they only needed to 'press DVD' to watch a movie with all of the family,I'm glad I could help! (Some clients try to make it way to hard! I guess they're used to the 'multiple remote' setup!)

I might be over-dedicated in some of your minds but, even as an employee, these people write my paycheck!

It's an 'off the clock' service that I don't mind!

I would charge them if someone else 'screwed it up' and they would normally understand the charge.

It would be nice to 'clock out at five' and have no contact with clients but then, that might be why I'm busy all of the time!

Many of my clients have my cell phone number and if i have to walk them through a problem its no big deal. If i have to return to the house for a problem that is not our fault they get a minimum service call charge ( 1 hour) no matter what.

If you decide not to charge them for whatever reason i like Fred's advice. (And don't get me wrong, i've done a bunch of unbillable calls in certain situations)

Mike

I would put the charge in the computer, and next time we send a bill after having done some real work, they will be charged, and most likely not even notice. Best of both worlds.

I would not do anything for free. If it not covered under warranty, obviously not, then you need to bill for it. The problem is once you do something for free then they expect you to do things for free.

This is specifically WHY I send $0.00 invoices. IT shows what they WOULD have been charged. Bear in mind, I did state that I do this for customers who have been good customers (meaning they're loyal, spent lots of money with me, and never argue when I do send them an invoice).

This subject is where your salespeople and operations people will always disagree. Sales will tell you it builds goodwill with the customers (and it does). Ops will tell you that you should bill for everything you do. It boils down to whether you value the free advertising you'd get via word-of-mouth from it. If your customers percieve you to be someone who nickel-and-dime's them to death, they will be less likely to refer you to their friends. If you are perceived as helpful, they'll refer you more often.

Again, just my $.02 worth.

Fred