Well, that fuck wasn't fun

[susandennis]

So the electrician did not come. He sent his assistant.  His assistant took 5 minutes to replace the plug (the electrical socket and wallplate) that never worked right after they installed it last year.  Then his assistant took 15 minutes to explain how I can know what air conditioner will not blow out my circuits.

He left and 5 minutes later I got a bill for $257.  Two hundred and fifty fucking seven dollars???!!!!  For 20 minutes of work and $5 worth of materials.

Totally my fault. I didn't ask.  I could have hired Amy the Handy(wo)man. She'd have done it 2 weeks ago for $97.  I could have done it myself - total bill $5.

Man, live and fucking learn.  I did send an email reply to the billing explaining that I thought half that was expensive but the full amount was not even reasonable for the task.  I assured them I would pay but asked for a reduction.

Since I'm never doing business with them again, I don't really give a shit what they think and the worst they can do is say no.

That was NOT my smartest move by a long freakin shot.  I'm going to pay them via Google Wallet - at least they will have to work a little (setting it up) to get their hands on the cash.

I'm very annoyed with me.

EDIT:  I got a very quick email back saying they would revise the bill to $165 and explaining that there were also charges for gas and procurement of parts in addition to their minimum which, the billing person explicitly said that Walker apologized for not explaining to me ahead of time.

I feel better.  Next time I will 1) get the freaking part myself and 2) ask ahead of time... but, I really do feel better.

And I paid them via Gmail which really is a great feature. I know they will, eventually, slap a fee on it so I'm playing heavy while it's free.

EDIT again:  Turns out the total bill is $212 (they only discounted the hour minimum) and I got an email "send paper check, we do not accept google payment".

So... you are fine with electronic invoicing but not with electronic payment?????

I'm pissed again but I'm going to let it go.  I don't have to deal with them any more and I won't.  I have the money so it's not like they are stealing food off my kids' plates but...

I send them a reply that they need to hit the 'return money' button before I will pay them.  I will get a refund on June 5th if they don't and I'll pay them then. I am going to deduct the cost of a stamp, envelope, prep and mailing from the bill - $1.50 works for me.  Cost of doing business the luddite way.

Comments

[punkymcmunky.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is a lot of money for basically no work. I wonder if the assistant was trying to take advantage of you? Ughhh.

[susandennis]

I just got a reply and they revised it way down so all's ok. I'm going to edit the entry now. Whew.

[punkymcmunky.livejournal.com]

That's great!

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Totally outrageous. :p

[zimzat.livejournal.com]

I'd say that's pretty outrageous too. That's basically 200$/hour or some such, and you didn't even get the main guy. Is the outlet they worked on this time now functional, at least?


That's the thing that's always seemed strange to me: Making it cost more for the electronic version. So many companies (cable, water, whatever) will tack on a fee for paying via electronic. That's part of the reason why I still send paper checks to almost every bill I get. The other reason is because of some technicalities around setting it up and exactly how it works depending on who it gets set up with (the company, or the bank). /ramble

[sea-weed.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the problem I had at work a few weeks ago. L asked me to call someone out to change the light globes in her fridge - expensive set up so we couldn't do it ourselves. I phoned the service place, told them the problem, then a guy came out and asked for $100 for 'diagnosing the problem', but didn't bring any light globes with him, so wanted to charge again for the actual job. I told L and she said tell him to fuck off. Was so tempted to go back and say she says to tell you to fuck off. Jerk. He didn't get his money though.