Service Costs

[mick5]

Hi All,

First ever post so hope you can help. I have been working for myself for 8 years installing and servicing air conditioning systems. I have not changed my prices for a few years now and am not sure what the going rate is for servicing systems.

The reason for asking is I have an old customer who I have installed units for since i started. The stange thing is their old facilities manager had two diffrent companies he used for installing and maintaining sytems to the buildings. I think I have done all the most recent installs there but he has now left and the new facilities guy wants just one company to cover all the servicing and maintence on all the exsisting sytems. I have 8 systems there which i maintain out of the 19 on site.

They now want a quote for a contract to serive the units twice a year. one major service and one minor service. This would be the largest service site i would have and they also need a quote for repalcing 3 of the older systems and installing 5 new ones.

Pricing the new systems is not a problem but not sure how to price the servicing. I will also need to quote a call out and labour rate for breakdowns.

He has indicated that one of the quotes includes four free call outs. The client is near Heathrow airport so its just on the outskirts of london and takes me 20 min to get there. Have never lost an old customer yet and dont wat to loose this one so any advice would be really aprreciated.

He also wants an estimate for changing a high pressure switch on a Daikin split R407C cassette system that I guess has been diagnosed by the other company. Not sure how old that unit is but surprised it might have a high pressure switch.

Many Thanks

Michael

[The Viking]

1st, let's start with the last problem.
Some small Daikin splits do have H/P switches but the good news is they also got H/P service ports (mainly Daikin mushroom type). So you wouldn't actually replace the old HPS, you would just fit a new one on a 1/4" schraeder T and swap cables over. No reclaiming/vacuum or mess, 10 min tops. (NOTE: This assumes that the old HPS is not leaking)

Cost of servicing?
Hard one, the best you can do is to estimate how long it will take you and multiply this with your hourly rate...

Good luck

[mick5]

Thats a good idea about the HP switch. I have suggested i go and diagnose myself just to be sure the problem is identified. Thanks

Michael

[superswill]

Hi All,

First ever post so hope you can help. I have been working for myself for 8 years installing and servicing air conditioning systems. I have not changed my prices for a few years now and am not sure what the going rate is for servicing systems.

The reason for asking is I have an old customer who I have installed units for since i started. The stange thing is their old facilities manager had two diffrent companies he used for installing and maintaining sytems to the buildings. I think I have done all the most recent installs there but he has now left and the new facilities guy wants just one company to cover all the servicing and maintence on all the exsisting sytems. I have 8 systems there which i maintain out of the 19 on site.

They now want a quote for a contract to serive the units twice a year. one major service and one minor service. This would be the largest service site i would have and they also need a quote for repalcing 3 of the older systems and installing 5 new ones.

Pricing the new systems is not a problem but not sure how to price the servicing. I will also need to quote a call out and labour rate for breakdowns.

He has indicated that one of the quotes includes four free call outs. The client is near Heathrow airport so its just on the outskirts of london and takes me 20 min to get there. Have never lost an old customer yet and dont wat to loose this one so any advice would be really aprreciated.

He also wants an estimate for changing a high pressure switch on a Daikin split R407C cassette system that I guess has been diagnosed by the other company. Not sure how old that unit is but surprised it might have a high pressure switch.

Many Thanks

Michael

do some phone hours/yellow pages/google and find out what other people in your area are charging,

[S_Line]

Problem we have in our area, is ... there's servicing and there's servicing.
We all know of companies that class a "service" as a young trainee to shake out the filters and leave.

Its really a bit of a up hill struggle :(

In this time where larger companies are having to make cut backs, its going to be service work that's going to take a hit.

I would expect to see many Special deals going on in the next few months with regards to Service work.

Like for like... I would recommend to ask the new manager what he would like carried out in a service.
He may provide you with the list of the other company's service schedule.

Explain to him there's A Service ( filter shake ) and there's a proper service by a skilled refrigeration engineer. Who can see, hear problems before they occur :)

A bit of a minefield i know, but at the end of the day its down to trust and good workmanship.
Ohh, and really good engineers ;)

[mick5]

Hi, Just to give you an update. I went to diagnose the problem with the daikin unit and the fault code was High pressure as diagnosed by the another company.
They must have looked no further than the fault code though as the reason it was cutting out was the magnetic contactor was stuck on all the time!.
Need less to say it looks like I have got the service contract and the installaton of the new systems. Thanks for your advice. Mick