That customer who refused to pay because I fixed his fridge in 5 minutes

Had a call last Tuesday in Austin for a fridge not cooling. Got there, found the condenser fan blade was just stuck on a bit of ice from a slow defrost drain. Took me maybe 5 minutes to clear it with a heat gun and some compressed air. Guy looked at his watch and said "$89 for 5 minutes? That's robbery." Tried explaining he was paying for the knowledge, not the time, but he wasn't having it. Ended up calling his wife and she actually apologized for him and paid me. Anyone else run into people who think you should only charge by the hour?

2 comments

2 Comments

kelly.keith10d ago

You ever think about printing up a little card that says something like "You're paying for what I know, not how long I take"? I started handing those out after a similar deal with a commercial ice machine. Took me under ten minutes to swap a bad start capacitor, customer tried to haggle me down from $150.

the_stella10d ago

Kelly shared a story on a podcast I caught the other day, about a mechanic who fixed a luxury car in 5 minutes and charged $500 for the diagnosis. SAME exact concept applies here. People don't get that you're not selling the 10 minutes of work, you're selling the 10 years of knowing EXACTLY what to look for and where to look. @kelly.keith is 100% right to have those cards ready to go.