Five lights don't work

[Taylortwocities]

The electrician visited and tells me the issue is the corroded light fitting in the on suite (I was unaware it is corroded). He has bypassed the light in the on suite and now the other lights work. I was charged £75 call out for this.

The corroded light fitting now needs replacing. He tells this will cost £105 i.e. another £75 call out and £30 for the parts. Is it normal to charge a call out fee for the second visit? He tells me the first visit is to diagnose the fault and the second visit is to repair - so they are separate jobs?

Perfectly normal.

Think about it, as an electrician (and other trades) there are two ways to make your living.
1. Concentrate on big jobs where you are on site for several days (weeks!) at a time. A reduced day rate can be considered for this as you have a degree of time/cost certainty built in.
Or
2. Rely on doing a number of smaller jobs a day. this is much more uncertain. The" call out" charge reflects this. This may be to assume a period on site (uncertain) including: trying to understand the customer, detective work, and the repair itself. The call out charge covers not only time on site but travelling time including all the fixed costs for an electrician*. Having a few smaller jobs a day is (I know) NOT the best use of time.
Take an 8 hour day. On a good day you may have 4 appointments, so 4 x 75 = £300. One after the other. But life isnt like that.
Sometimes everybody wants you in the morning, or there will only be two all day. School times are often blank time slots.
And relying on people to actually be in at an allotted time is sometimes a lottery.

*Electricians have large fixed costs. Van costs, tool, materials, membership of competent person schemes, public and professional insurances plus times to cover all the increasing amount of paperwork. And more. Others will add to this list.

 

[FrodoOne]

Perfectly normal.

Think about it, as an electrician (and other trades) there are two ways to make your living.
1. Concentrate on big jobs where you are on site for several days (weeks!) at a time. A reduced day rate can be considered for this as you have a degree of time/cost certainty built in.
Or
2. Rely on doing a number of smaller jobs a day. this is much more uncertain. The" call out" charge reflects this. This may be to assume a period on site (uncertain) including: trying to understand the customer, detective work, and the repair itself. The call out charge covers not only time on site but travelling time including all the fixed costs for an electrician*. Having a few smaller jobs a day is (I know) NOT the best use of time.
Take an 8 hour day. On a good day you may have 4 appointments, so 4 x 75 = £300. One after the other. But life isnt like that.
Sometimes everybody wants you in the morning, or there will only be two all day. School times are often blank time slots.
And relying on people to actually be in at an allotted time is sometimes a lottery.

*Electricians have large fixed costs. Van costs, tool, materials, membership of competent person schemes, public and professional insurances plus times to cover all the increasing amount of paperwork. And more. Others will add to this list.

The electrician visited and tells me the issue is the corroded light fitting in the on suite (I was unaware it is corroded). He has bypassed the light in the on suite and now the other lights work. I was charged £75 call out for this.

The corroded light fitting now needs replacing. He tells this will cost £105 i.e. another £75 call out and £30 for the parts. Is it normal to charge a call out fee for the second visit? He tells me the first visit is to diagnose the fault and the second visit is to repair - so they are separate jobs?

Taylortwocities comments are quite correct.

Your problem has been temporally "bypassed", allowing other devices to "function".
To correct the actual "problem", further work and replacements are required.

Why would you think that any "worker" would come out a second time (for free)
just to replace the items that were found to be faulty
and
charge you only for the cost of those items?

TIME IS MONY!

You now know what the problem is and the cost of the "parts".
Hence, if you are able (having been informed) you could choose to "do the job yourself"!

If you are not so able, it will be necessary for you to pay for service.

 

[blup]

could have

It could of been worse, this is a forum not a grammer exam.

 

[blup]

The electrician visited and tells me the issue is the corroded light fitting in the on suite (I was unaware it is corroded). He has bypassed the light in the on suite and now the other lights work. I was charged £75 call out for this.

The corroded light fitting now needs replacing. He tells this will cost £105 i.e. another £75 call out and £30 for the parts. Is it normal to charge a call out fee for the second visit? He tells me the first visit is to diagnose the fault and the second visit is to repair - so they are separate jobs?

Save yourself some money and do it yourself, plenty of explanatory videos on YT. His charges are not OTT for more expensive parts of the country. They are separate jobs because he makes more money from them that way. most jobbing sparkies carry ceiling roses / lampholders in their van, so unless you have a new fitting in mind, or re a long way from screwfix, he could probably have done both jobs together.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It could of been worse, this is a forum not a grammer exam.

If people write stupid things I shall try to help them look less foolish in the future.

It is not grammar as such; it is the wrong word which means something else.


Would you go and of a cup of tea?

 

[RandomGrinch]

It is not grammar as such; it is the wrong word which means something else.

However, if enough people use 'of' as an auxiliary verb (in speech and in literature); then it gets included in the dictionaries...

Is 'Could Of' an Accepted Form of 'Could Have'?

The verb sense of 'of' is in the dictionary, but not endorsed.

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[EFLImpudence]

However, if enough people use 'of' as an auxiliary verb (in speech and in literature); then it gets included in the dictionaries...

That doesn't make it right. It just shows the quality of dictionary compilers.

Democracy by the mistaken.

 

[JohnD]

That doesn't make it right. It just shows the quality of dictionary compilers.

Democracy by the mistaken.

What do you think is the first duty of a grammarian?

Where do you stand on Split Infinitives in the English language?

 

[EFLImpudence]

However, if enough people use 'of' as an auxiliary verb (in speech and in literature); then it gets included in the dictionaries...

Also - they have not decided to use 'of' as an auxiliary verb, have they? They have just spelt 'have' incorrectly.

 

[EFLImpudence]

What do you think is the first duty of a grammarian?

To refuse to pander to idiots.

Where do you stand on Split Infinitives in the English language?

We cannot alter what has happened but that is no reason to do similar things in the future.

 

[blup]

If people write stupid things I shall try to help them look less foolish in the future.

It is not grammar as such; it is the wrong word which means something else.


Would you go and of a cup of tea?

Do you get wound up up by missing apostrophe's in place names like St Albans.

English is a living language, just try wading though a typical Shakespeare sentence.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Do you get wound up up by missing apostrophe's in place names like St Albans.

Not wound up - just helping people get things right; like not calling switches sockets.

English is a living language, just try wading though a typical Shakespeare sentence.

Irrelevant.

 

[AndyPRK]

On a positive note, the elec. has done the hard work. Found your problem. Got most of your lights working.

Now to choose a light fitting? Ideally one that is easy to install

 

[ericmark]

For the first visit a call out £75 is fair, second visit is not a call out, but planned work, so one would expect to pay less, however as an electrician if I don't want work, then to give a high quote is one way of not refusing the work, but trying to get the person to find some one else.

 

[JohnD]

To refuse to pander to idiots.

Wrong

The first duty of a grammarian is to study how a language is used.

It is not to prescribe how, in his opinion, the language "ought" to be used.