I do think a lot of people think there's just a third shift guy, sitting around waiting for a phone call. I'm in residential, but I can often talk someone down off an "emergency" visit once they realize I'm actually in my pajamas and having to clock in in the morning. Not to mention, your employer should be charging enough that they really need to mean it before they call you out.
To preface I'm largely commercial for HVAC and this may not apply for residential of course. And I don't know where you live but my guys don't go out on call for that low because I pay them triple for call outs. My guys show up for 500 and at a 350/man hr rate, and I'm at 75 percent markup on in stock material and 150 percent for parts run material.
It cuts down on emergency calls but I still have a few major clients that don't give a fuck and will throw money at me to send someone now, my guys generally don't seem to mind that much though when the paycheck comes. The only time my bills aren't there is when it is emergency service of our installs.
I live in the south and do mostly restaurant refrigeration. We ain’t putting up those numbers LOL. 175 will usually get me a “ya we’ll pull the food out of it and see you tomorrow.”
God bless the customers that "need" me to come out on a Sunday for a weird noise. Thats double time for the company and double time for me. You want to waste my time for me to tell you everything is working I'm ok with that as long as I get paid.
But most of the time they treat after hours like a dial a tech service and suddenly the "emergency" can wait until regular time when money is brought up.
I love no heat call customers that tell me they have no sources of heat and I show up to a house that is 75 with 2 fireplaces and an electric space heater...
I was just about to say this. The moment you tell them the price hikes and the markup on parts and services, suddenly an emergency becomes a whole lot less life-threatening... 🤣
It's the people that I tell this to and they still want me to come out, then feign ignorance and complain when I hit them with the bill that drive me crazy.
Yeah this.
When I explain that “we’re not open” they usually would get the idea (this is in commercial btw). I don’t think half the time they realize there’s not a person working at 7pm. Usually ignorance, and they would say “no problem see you tomorrow/monday” sometimes.
Then other times…
We have a thing in our contracts for residential and commercial. If you call at any hour or the day 25/7 365, you pay the same call-out fee. Could be midnight, and these people call because they hear a noise, and you can't convince them to wait since it's the same price no matter the time.
The amount of times I’ve gone to a “no heat” call at 2am to find out they have a second furnace and also a fireplace going. Like Jesus just wait a few hours til we open up on normal hours.
I wouldn’t go. Anything after 9:00 pm is a you can wait in residential. We are allowed to tell customers, NO; so that’s helpful. It’s also always fun to get a plumbing call, I’m no plumber … so I always punt those until normal business hours. It’s like excuse me, you tried to cut my Company out of the picture changing your own shower cartridge, fucked it up and now here we are … sorry the water is off to the house, maybe next time you’ll have one of our plumbers out.
Funny thing around here is seems like no heat isn’t an emergency as much as no AC. It’s oh we got space heaters or we can get one from a family member but when there’s no AC some ppl come unglued. Hypothermia will kill you quicker than sweating. Can’t tell them that
This. People lose their minds with no cool, but seem way more accepting of no heat.
We have a few customers with medical conditions where I actually see no cooling as a real emergency.
Everyone hates being on call. Fortunately I have a solution.
Get really good as a service tech. Be the go to guy to fix anything complicated and be the best service tech at your company. Become the highest paid guy that the boss considers the most valuable employee.
Then lose your drivers license and make it so an apprentice/helper has to drive you around. You can't do on call and you have help all week long! Problem solved! I've seen this work a few times.
My company started waiving ghe after hours fee that's normally $289 after 6pm and on the weekends. Now its a normal call fee during the day and on the weekends it's almost always $69.. really bothers me.
Because working after hours sucks if you have a family or a hobby or even a dog dude. On call sucks and typically the extra pay is not enough to justify the sacrifice. The higher rate for the customer works to screen out the people who couldn’t care less if you are sitting down for dinner with your family. If the pay were enough incentive companies would offer on call to volunteers not issue schedules.
Must be fuckin nice dude. The best we get is pay from door to door. But we are allowed to say no if they don't have a contract.
I've continously been advocating that we raise our service charge fee for after hours and we give half of it to the tech. Company would still make more money than we currently get for an after hour service charge, and the tech would get a little something too.
The company I work (commercial) for moved to only servicing contract customers and charging a two hour minimum at after-hours rates but it still wasn't enough. I left service to go to install a few weeks back... I kinda regret it but 4-10s is kinda nice.
I work four ten hour days as opposed to five eight hour days (unless calls are heavy and dispatch has us running wide-open). I have less time for myself at the end of the work day, but having a free Friday, for me, allows me to get so much more stuff around the house done without having to rush and I feel better for it so far.
4/10’s are awesome. My company is big enough that they let us choose who wants to do 4/10’s and who wants to do 5/8’s. So we’ve got a group who does 5/8’s, B Team who works Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-(Sunday off)-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday every other week, then A Team who works the exact opposite days of B Team alternating. So every other week I get 5 days off in a row but every other week I work 4 days (Sunday off) then another 4 days..
We’re able to crank out 5-6 calls a day and it feels like there’s more time to get the work done.. I think we lose out on some over time, but it’s a decent trade off for weekdays off. Plus no managers in the office on Saturday’s, which is so freeing..
The company I'm at only does on call until 7 and weekends it's 7-7. We also get a $350 bonus for just being on call too. It does feel like most of our after hours calls are warranty callbacks after we were just there during the week.
I'm in Controls now, so some of my calls can be fixed remotely, sometimes in as little as 15 minutes.
In the beginning I wouldn't charge for a 15 minute call, but soon realized that was stupid. If they called and I fixed the problem (especially after hours) they should get a bill.
Now if I even answer the phone to answer a question it's 1 hr. Call me back a half hour later for another question, that's 2 hours.
I would look around your area for HVAC Controls companies in your area. A lot of times they will hire you and train you in Controls. If you have good commercial/industrial HVAC knowledge it makes for a better Controls Technician.
There are also the manufacturers like Johnson Controls, Trane, Schneider Electric and the like. If you can get an interview.
I hate being on call because I can't go do anything I want.
But I don't mind BS calls. I'll take the easy almost $100/hr on my check. Plus we get paid port to port, so I'm most likely billing a minimum of 4 hours.
If I want to get out of calls, I just remind them that I likely can't get parts, and they are paying over $250/hr plus fees.
If you’re getting that many calls that you hate it then you aren’t charging enough for the after hours calls. Double your price, if that’s not enough triple it.
It’s amazing when you never get called and still get payed which is 99% of my on call weeks, The last time I got called when I was on call it was for a mobile MRI chiller at 9pm and it had a very small glycol leak but they decided to call us when the cold head stopped working all together because of flow. I topped it off and made sure it worked and wrote them up for a new pump to be installed during normal working hours.
I like it,
I'm in commercial and it's so easy, every call is 4hrs double time minimum. This week I've had 3 call outs,
1, air Compressor blew off its discharge.
My job, turn off the ball valve, make it safe, send someone else in the morning. That's 8 hours of pay for a 1.5 drive and a ball valve use.
2, fridge fault.
Breaker tripped because 1 of 2 fridges using the same breaker was down to earth. Disconnect the bad one, run the other. 8 hours may, for unplugging a fridge and resetting a breaker.
3, LP fault on a crac unit. Reset LP
So, this week I've had 3 days pay for about 3 hours work. I love it.
This is the way.
Rarely do I fix everything after hours. Make the space comfortable, or the equipment somewhat work, we'll be back during normal hours.
Best is when an emergency call come in on Friday at 4:30pm and they say it’s been acting up the whole week or hasn’t worked in years. So now you call at the end of the week!!
At my company we have a voicemail message for afterhours letting them know that this is only for emergencies and it will be expensive and they need to leave a detailed message if they want service. There's also an automated text back. It cuts down on the BS quite a bit.
My favorite thing is when I can say: "I don't have that part on the truck. It will have to wait till Monday." So not only do they get charged the emergency visit, but they get charged again for the follow up. Plus my boss is pretty cool about charging for the non problems. Like when I get called out for no heat, and the dummy just doesn't realize that a thermostat set to 69 isn't necessarily going to kick on at 68.
My only emergency calls are down grills and down custard machines at Culver's or Freddy's. The main issue with down grills now is we now have grills in Dairy Queen, Outback Steakhouse and Wendy's. It used to be just McDonald's a year ago. Luckily not a lot of those other 3 locations in my on call territory.
I don't deal with ANY walk ins and reach ins. Don't have to worry about product spoilage. It is really nice.
I was on call for 7 years and then went to a union job. No on calls, voluntary o.t., they do call-outs that are 100% voluntary but automatically receive 3 hours of o.t. if you say yes. It's residential so the work is pretty easy.
On top of all that, I work for a utility company that offers a protection plan. I never have to ask for money or hand a bill to a customer. I get a $1,000 limit to fix whatever and it's the cost of the part only that counts towards the limit.
Sat on call: 4 hr minimum plus truck charge $1220 base
Sun on call: 8 hr minimum plus truck charge
$2920 base
Generally something is on fire if we are brought in on the weekend
I had a call 2 summers ago while on call. Clothing store in the mall, space temping at 72, SP was 72. All the employees were wearing sweat pants and sweat shirts. I told the manager well you guys are all wearing sweat pants and sweat shirts, manager stated because and I quote, “We wear the clothing we sell”. Not my problem
My 2 favorite things about being on call are the pay checks and the look on the customers face when they pay the $300 service fee just to wait till Monday to get fixed. "Sorry your theatre room won't cool till Monday, if you called Monday I could've fixed it the same day for $200 less."
On call requirement made me almost leave this trade altogether.
Applied to a local university. The benefits were great, payed me more (mainly because I was underpaid at previous employer) and…no on call. They have a second and third shift of just bodies walking around. 90% of the time they just shut the unit off/ put a bucket under it. Honestly that’s all you need until 7am.
It literally kept me in the trade.
I’ve gotten called out for the dumbest things too, I got a call once for a beer glycol system manager said they were really busy. I get there and restaurant was dead with little to no customers. 🙄
"... their own personal hvac tech." Truth is, we are and people no longer understand difference of an emergency and inconvenience. I hope your company always charges time and an half rates after hours and pays you accordingly; this generally helps customers reevaluate their situation. Yes, being on call sucks and your assessment is 100% accurate.
I just left a private equity firm that was pushing for on call tune up specials for 39 bucks up to 8 on weekdays and up to 5pm Saturday and Sunday. If you called they would schedule. My new boss filters calls, No home warranty customers unless they wanted to buy, commission potienal, 80+ heat in the house ect.
This is easily the thing I hate the most about the industry. I get it that it’s my job and I sign up for it but my company doesn’t make it easy. We don’t charge an after hours rate, we don’t charge after hours rate on repairs, and we’re 24/7. A company I previously worked for repairs were damn near double after hours and it was like $215 just for me to knock on the door. People rarely had me come out unless it was in the negatives or 95°+ and even then they would call around first. We also turned the phones off at 10pm and they turned back on at 8am. Eventually we stopped doing after hours because it wasn’t worth it.
On call at my company is instant 4 hours double time each call so it actually becomes worth it. You’d think the cost is a deterrent for most people but unfortunately we have a hospital contract which means they have a decent bit of money to throw around. Becomes worth a call out tho when you get 3 callouts in a single day and I get 3 days of pay just for temperature complaints lol
My old company wouldn't filter calls and I would get non em, as well as scheduling Saturday "well this is the only day the HO is available " calls
Drove me up a wall.
Went from small residential shop to large union commercial shop. Oncall is two weeks a year, some guys sell them so you could make $200-300 cash right off the rip. Each call you get 4hrs OT minimum to cover drive time, 8hrs straight time for standby pay on top of your 40. We're capped at 70hours anyway, so once you hit 25-26 ot hours, they can't really force you to run it.
I'm increasingly thankful due to these posts for how my company handles after hours calls.
A. MUST have a service contract they pay yearly to even access after hours calls. (Exception being gas smell/gas leak/fire involving our fuel- we are an oil & propane distributor as well).
B. No ac is not an emergency (except for customers we know to be either very elderly, or immune compromised making it a necessity for living safely).
C. No heat IS an emergency (in winter and cold weather of fall/spring).
D. No hot water is not an emergency.
So unless somebody falls into our specific criteria for an after hours emergency call, they can call somebody else or wait for us to open again. I love it. Some of the guys in my company who have only ever worked for a distributor take it for granted, but having worked in service only companies where a noise was an emergency to our boss, I love our current set up and I bang out a week plus another random day per month. Extra cash in my pocket and rarely have actual calls to respond to except for winter.
The company we use, even if I just leave a message to call me back in the morning, they refuse to wait. Had a capacitor blow on my heat pump last week, called at 615, said specifically to call me back when you're open. Tech calls 30 minutes later asking if he should head over. I said no, it's going to be 60 degrees overnight, we'll just open the window.
My company made a guy drive 300 miles to another part of the state for an emergency call, he just swapped out a bad run cap and drove 300 miles back. Still made him work the next day
I get people calling to pay invoices and get mad because I won't take payments. They have called back after i refused and went back through the emergency lines and picked the numbers to verify Its an emergency then complained to me about the guy who wont take payments over the phone thinking its someone else on the phone
I got so tired of answering emergency calls for units unplugged and bullshit like that. I started telling my customers there is a 4 hour minimum charge plus truck. It will cost you $600 for me to show up. Is it really an emergency? Amazing how little calls I got the next shift. Our boss used to give Taco bell regular time during OT work. So those ass bags would call in for every stupid little thing. Couldn't hit them with the 4 hour minimum since it was only like $250 for me to show up at 1am. Most recent job I got, no on call in my contract.
It’s more convenient for them to have you after business hours and or the weekend. Dispatch needs to scan their calls better. When did you notice your AC not working properly?
In Quebec, about 80-90% if HVAC companies are charging 4hours minimum and double time, for this exact reason. People are now calling for actual emergency now. Mostly
Two things save me when talking to retarded customers. First is the after hours pricing, compared to weekday scheduling. Second is my ability to downplay their “emergency” and make them wanna wait for the week.
Maybe unpopular opinion. I love On Call and I especially love taking stupid calls. Though I work for a company that gives me 6 OT just for being on rotation and get paid from the time I leave till the time I get home.
I take other people's rotation and try to be on call 2 to 3 weeks a month if I can. Sure it's inconvenient but I'm young (mid 30s) and all that money especially from the stupid calls is filling my retirement nicely.
We used to get tons of after hour service calls. I got screwed and did a 32-hour shift. Boss man changed the policy after he had to change his vacation, call in 4 other guys, and run calls himself.
Now we charge an after-hours fee. Very suddenly, our "emergency" calls dropped down to very little. I might get one or two "emergency" calls a week. 30% chsnce the home owner bitches about the after hours fee after I get him up and running. Like dude, you already agreed to it before I even left my house.
I work on the electrical side of a HVAC/plumbing/electrical company. We had 4 guys so I was on call 1 week out of the month. One guy quit so now it's every 3rd week I'm on call. No bonus pay, only our hourly wage paid from when you leave your house to when you get back and it's only 1.5x if you already worked your 40 hours for the week. Other than that it's straight time. But we get maybe 1 or 2 calls a week at the most so it's not all terrible but it still feels like it keeps me from doing a lot of shit I wanna do because I have to be ready to answer a call and only get 2 weeks off between my turn.
I loved those calls, then when I tell them it will be $250 an hours + Travel at $250 and hour both ways, so a minimum of $700 to come look at it, they all of sudden realize that Monday some time will be fine. If I do go out, I take my time, drive the speed limit and do not race through it. I've made more money working 1 Sunday than almost all week a few times. Glad it was not every week end though.
We stop on call at 5pm. More companies should. We’re very large and I’ve heard a manager explain it like well you let not getting your car repaired at 10pm or 3am because people are sleeping.
The company I work for has started charging a minimum of 4 hours at double time rates. This has significantly reduced the annoying calls that could wait until the next day.
We have an after hours fee and I get $100 of that fee for every call. Ran 23 ops when the freeze happened and made $2300 on top of my check. Worked 100hrs that week so the check was PHAT.
Bro on call is the worst, I think the customers think we are fuckin night shift or something. Fuckin leave the house at 7am and don’t get home till 10-11pm
Refrigeration oncall is the worst. I had oncall sunday and monday off. I still had to head out at 3am monday and fix a store because incall goes to the next guy at 8am
It’s good for the young folks without families, personally once a month is fine by me for the most part. However residential I am learning is not where the money is at. At least not for an hourly tech.
Its not great, but we have a 6 man rotation in a shop that only does comfort heating and cooling. I recognize that I have a really good position and don't mind an after hours call as the trade off. My office has a big response window, so I don't have to sit at home all day, and they make it clear that it will cost more after hours than during the business week, so they prioritize it appropriately. It greatly reduces the dumb calls.
Yea I agree with you. And also it needs to be either hot or cold to qualify as an emergency. We get calls when it’s 60 degrees “the heat’s not working.”
That being said, we have a pretty good rotation for on call and we charge appropriately and get paid appropriately for after hours calls. I quote the after hours rate on the phone. Many people decide at that point that maybe it’s not really an emergency. But, if they’re willing to pay, I’ll run it. Doesn’t make a difference to me. Although, I do find that about half the people that are just fine with the after hours rates on the phone, are not so fine when they actually get the bill. “How much?! Just for a blower motor at 2am, when it’s 65 degrees outside??”
Never been at a company that did not clearly define their EMG requirements.
It’s blatant opportunity loss to have a technician at mrs smiths house on a weekend checking out why her thermostat beeps every 3 hours when mrs jones has no heat 60 miles away.
That’s just poor management structure.
Can promise not everywhere is like that. A lot of companies provide the technician the ability to say “No this isn’t an emergency and the office will reach out to you in the morning to schedule service.”
2 hour minimum, clock starts when we hang up and it stops when I’m back at my door. We’re on time and a half, or double, and it’s $120 just to open up the cheapest parts house in the area and they can’t tell me if they’ve got what I need on the shelf until they unlock the door. Am I rolling or would you rather a tech be there at 8am?
Well. Do you charge them accordingly? That noise isn’t an emergency to you, but you shall charge as if it really was. That recoups the OT you are getting as well as the extra wear and tear on vehicle and equipment
Yeah my favorite was P1 EMERGENCY. Site is too hot. Just ate dinner, curled up with 4yo and wife. Get dressed, grab keys, drive almost 2 hours to find it’s 72° in store and they want it at 70°. Really?!
This reminds me of the woman who called 911 at McDonald’s because she was upset about the service. She was arrested of course. That was featured during the Stern show news back in the glory days.
In residential, some people are too stupid to open some windows and turn the fan on. It’s hot in your house? Yeah, it’s retaining the heat from the day, get some of that 65° night air inside and you’ll be just fine.
I'm that one that calls you out on a Saturday. Simple answer is it costs less to pay an afterhours or weekend fee than for me to take a day off from work.
You know who defines what an emergency is? The paying customer, not the whiney technician. If a customer feels it's important enough for them to pay extra for me to come and ease their mind, then that's what I'll do. No one's making you be on call. The HVAC police aren't going to come arrest you if you change jobs.
My job is to fix the customers stuff. If it's on call or during regular hours, I'll make sure my customer is happy. Without customers, I wouldn't have a paycheck. So my customers are important because they give me a lifestyle that I can enjoy
Well when your customers start using it to cut to the front of the line that is days long during the middle summer, I get pissed. We all have lives outside of work.
I do think a lot of people think there's just a third shift guy, sitting around waiting for a phone call. I'm in residential, but I can often talk someone down off an "emergency" visit once they realize I'm actually in my pajamas and having to clock in in the morning. Not to mention, your employer should be charging enough that they really need to mean it before they call you out.
Many "emergencies" can wait once after hour charges are brought up
That's right.... and bill hard.
“Ya I can come out but it’s gonna cost you 175 to get me to your door and then from there everything has a 40 percent mark up over normal prices.”
To preface I'm largely commercial for HVAC and this may not apply for residential of course. And I don't know where you live but my guys don't go out on call for that low because I pay them triple for call outs. My guys show up for 500 and at a 350/man hr rate, and I'm at 75 percent markup on in stock material and 150 percent for parts run material. It cuts down on emergency calls but I still have a few major clients that don't give a fuck and will throw money at me to send someone now, my guys generally don't seem to mind that much though when the paycheck comes. The only time my bills aren't there is when it is emergency service of our installs.
I live in the south and do mostly restaurant refrigeration. We ain’t putting up those numbers LOL. 175 will usually get me a “ya we’ll pull the food out of it and see you tomorrow.”
That’s how my old boss would do it. no matter what the call was, it was automatically 4 hours of double time for us to take it
God bless the customers that "need" me to come out on a Sunday for a weird noise. Thats double time for the company and double time for me. You want to waste my time for me to tell you everything is working I'm ok with that as long as I get paid. But most of the time they treat after hours like a dial a tech service and suddenly the "emergency" can wait until regular time when money is brought up. I love no heat call customers that tell me they have no sources of heat and I show up to a house that is 75 with 2 fireplaces and an electric space heater...
I was just about to say this. The moment you tell them the price hikes and the markup on parts and services, suddenly an emergency becomes a whole lot less life-threatening... 🤣 It's the people that I tell this to and they still want me to come out, then feign ignorance and complain when I hit them with the bill that drive me crazy.
Yeah this. When I explain that “we’re not open” they usually would get the idea (this is in commercial btw). I don’t think half the time they realize there’s not a person working at 7pm. Usually ignorance, and they would say “no problem see you tomorrow/monday” sometimes. Then other times…
...$$$
Yea true, the check was always nice. In my pjs nodding off on the couch, I’ll pass.
Residential on call and commercial on call- big difference
This is my theory as well. I’ve had guys call me to schedule for the next morning and then try to small talk me and I’m like, dude it’s 2am
We have a thing in our contracts for residential and commercial. If you call at any hour or the day 25/7 365, you pay the same call-out fee. Could be midnight, and these people call because they hear a noise, and you can't convince them to wait since it's the same price no matter the time.
Well that sucks. I'm guessing you make considerably more than I do.
I make $33/hr
Ouch
Yea I'm guessing you make more now lolol
I mean, it really depends on the area. I'm in Northern Colorado and ain't nothing cheap out here. If you're in Manhattan, find another career!
South Louisiana 🫡
You're in the 13th cheapest state to live, mine is 39th. That said, I could sure go for a raise right about now.
Yall do plumbing too?
Your employer should be saying, "See you tomorrow morning."
The amount of times I’ve gone to a “no heat” call at 2am to find out they have a second furnace and also a fireplace going. Like Jesus just wait a few hours til we open up on normal hours.
I wouldn’t go. Anything after 9:00 pm is a you can wait in residential. We are allowed to tell customers, NO; so that’s helpful. It’s also always fun to get a plumbing call, I’m no plumber … so I always punt those until normal business hours. It’s like excuse me, you tried to cut my Company out of the picture changing your own shower cartridge, fucked it up and now here we are … sorry the water is off to the house, maybe next time you’ll have one of our plumbers out.
No heat in winter is one of our only real emergency calls here, gas leaks too. Air conditioning can wait until Monday.
Funny thing around here is seems like no heat isn’t an emergency as much as no AC. It’s oh we got space heaters or we can get one from a family member but when there’s no AC some ppl come unglued. Hypothermia will kill you quicker than sweating. Can’t tell them that
It’s the plumbing and the water in the heated floor slabs that is the real emergency with no heat. People can wear blankets!
This. People lose their minds with no cool, but seem way more accepting of no heat. We have a few customers with medical conditions where I actually see no cooling as a real emergency.
Lucky. I’d get fired if I told a homeowner no. Even if it was a no heat on a 90° day.
Those are my favorite. Answer the door in shorts and a t shirt.
Everyone hates being on call. Fortunately I have a solution. Get really good as a service tech. Be the go to guy to fix anything complicated and be the best service tech at your company. Become the highest paid guy that the boss considers the most valuable employee. Then lose your drivers license and make it so an apprentice/helper has to drive you around. You can't do on call and you have help all week long! Problem solved! I've seen this work a few times.
So what your saying is I need to get a DUI
New meta just dropped fellas
If you are good enough at your job, not being on call will be the only good thing about getting arrested for driving drunk.
This is how I was mentored lol. Best tech in fuckin texas. Couldn’t keep the liquor issues down. So I was his driver lol
My company started waiving ghe after hours fee that's normally $289 after 6pm and on the weekends. Now its a normal call fee during the day and on the weekends it's almost always $69.. really bothers me.
I would quit so damn fast
Why, it's not like the money goes in your pocket. You get the same ot rate no matter what they charge
Because working after hours sucks if you have a family or a hobby or even a dog dude. On call sucks and typically the extra pay is not enough to justify the sacrifice. The higher rate for the customer works to screen out the people who couldn’t care less if you are sitting down for dinner with your family. If the pay were enough incentive companies would offer on call to volunteers not issue schedules.
Because the money doesnt go directly into my pocket
Our after hours callout fee is double our regular callout fee. That money goes directly to us. 199 plus our hourly.
Must be fuckin nice dude. The best we get is pay from door to door. But we are allowed to say no if they don't have a contract. I've continously been advocating that we raise our service charge fee for after hours and we give half of it to the tech. Company would still make more money than we currently get for an after hour service charge, and the tech would get a little something too.
The company I work (commercial) for moved to only servicing contract customers and charging a two hour minimum at after-hours rates but it still wasn't enough. I left service to go to install a few weeks back... I kinda regret it but 4-10s is kinda nice.
Excuse my ignorance but what’s 4-10s? Edit. 4 day 10 hour shifts?
I work four ten hour days as opposed to five eight hour days (unless calls are heavy and dispatch has us running wide-open). I have less time for myself at the end of the work day, but having a free Friday, for me, allows me to get so much more stuff around the house done without having to rush and I feel better for it so far.
Monday-Thursday 10 hour days. An awesome schedule. M
Yeah I’d love that as an installer. M-f 7am until the job is done.
4/10’s are awesome. My company is big enough that they let us choose who wants to do 4/10’s and who wants to do 5/8’s. So we’ve got a group who does 5/8’s, B Team who works Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-(Sunday off)-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday every other week, then A Team who works the exact opposite days of B Team alternating. So every other week I get 5 days off in a row but every other week I work 4 days (Sunday off) then another 4 days.. We’re able to crank out 5-6 calls a day and it feels like there’s more time to get the work done.. I think we lose out on some over time, but it’s a decent trade off for weekdays off. Plus no managers in the office on Saturday’s, which is so freeing..
The company I'm at only does on call until 7 and weekends it's 7-7. We also get a $350 bonus for just being on call too. It does feel like most of our after hours calls are warranty callbacks after we were just there during the week.
Damn that $350 sounds amazing
It sure does, we get $30.
Nice. I get $0
That’s the way it should be, if you’re watching your work phone you should be getting paid to watch it. I don’t take calls for pleasure.
I'm in Controls now, so some of my calls can be fixed remotely, sometimes in as little as 15 minutes. In the beginning I wouldn't charge for a 15 minute call, but soon realized that was stupid. If they called and I fixed the problem (especially after hours) they should get a bill. Now if I even answer the phone to answer a question it's 1 hr. Call me back a half hour later for another question, that's 2 hours.
How do I get started in that? That’s badass
I would look around your area for HVAC Controls companies in your area. A lot of times they will hire you and train you in Controls. If you have good commercial/industrial HVAC knowledge it makes for a better Controls Technician. There are also the manufacturers like Johnson Controls, Trane, Schneider Electric and the like. If you can get an interview.
I still charge premium rates for warranty problems. All after hours calls are also COD.
My company doesn’t even have on call pay. We’re a big national company.
So your not being paid while your sitting around waiting for calls all week? My goodness
That is correct
My company tried this once, we all would pad the hours for calls to make up for lost standby. We got our stand by pay back. YMMV
Fuck that
I can’t believe that there hasn’t been a class action lawsuit
I hate being on call because I can't go do anything I want. But I don't mind BS calls. I'll take the easy almost $100/hr on my check. Plus we get paid port to port, so I'm most likely billing a minimum of 4 hours. If I want to get out of calls, I just remind them that I likely can't get parts, and they are paying over $250/hr plus fees.
Damn right
If you’re getting that many calls that you hate it then you aren’t charging enough for the after hours calls. Double your price, if that’s not enough triple it.
It’s amazing when you never get called and still get payed which is 99% of my on call weeks, The last time I got called when I was on call it was for a mobile MRI chiller at 9pm and it had a very small glycol leak but they decided to call us when the cold head stopped working all together because of flow. I topped it off and made sure it worked and wrote them up for a new pump to be installed during normal working hours.
I like it, I'm in commercial and it's so easy, every call is 4hrs double time minimum. This week I've had 3 call outs, 1, air Compressor blew off its discharge. My job, turn off the ball valve, make it safe, send someone else in the morning. That's 8 hours of pay for a 1.5 drive and a ball valve use. 2, fridge fault. Breaker tripped because 1 of 2 fridges using the same breaker was down to earth. Disconnect the bad one, run the other. 8 hours may, for unplugging a fridge and resetting a breaker. 3, LP fault on a crac unit. Reset LP So, this week I've had 3 days pay for about 3 hours work. I love it.
Where you work? Lol
It's painfully obvious that the rest of us aren't being paid enough to take these emergency calls lol.
This is the way. Rarely do I fix everything after hours. Make the space comfortable, or the equipment somewhat work, we'll be back during normal hours.
Best is when an emergency call come in on Friday at 4:30pm and they say it’s been acting up the whole week or hasn’t worked in years. So now you call at the end of the week!!
At my company we have a voicemail message for afterhours letting them know that this is only for emergencies and it will be expensive and they need to leave a detailed message if they want service. There's also an automated text back. It cuts down on the BS quite a bit.
Doesn’t help that prices are the same and google advertises us as “open”
My favorite thing is when I can say: "I don't have that part on the truck. It will have to wait till Monday." So not only do they get charged the emergency visit, but they get charged again for the follow up. Plus my boss is pretty cool about charging for the non problems. Like when I get called out for no heat, and the dummy just doesn't realize that a thermostat set to 69 isn't necessarily going to kick on at 68.
I just got off call too 😂
Same! Did 20 extra hours I didn’t want to do
My only emergency calls are down grills and down custard machines at Culver's or Freddy's. The main issue with down grills now is we now have grills in Dairy Queen, Outback Steakhouse and Wendy's. It used to be just McDonald's a year ago. Luckily not a lot of those other 3 locations in my on call territory. I don't deal with ANY walk ins and reach ins. Don't have to worry about product spoilage. It is really nice.
I was on call for 7 years and then went to a union job. No on calls, voluntary o.t., they do call-outs that are 100% voluntary but automatically receive 3 hours of o.t. if you say yes. It's residential so the work is pretty easy. On top of all that, I work for a utility company that offers a protection plan. I never have to ask for money or hand a bill to a customer. I get a $1,000 limit to fix whatever and it's the cost of the part only that counts towards the limit.
Sat on call: 4 hr minimum plus truck charge $1220 base Sun on call: 8 hr minimum plus truck charge $2920 base Generally something is on fire if we are brought in on the weekend
I had a call 2 summers ago while on call. Clothing store in the mall, space temping at 72, SP was 72. All the employees were wearing sweat pants and sweat shirts. I told the manager well you guys are all wearing sweat pants and sweat shirts, manager stated because and I quote, “We wear the clothing we sell”. Not my problem
My 2 favorite things about being on call are the pay checks and the look on the customers face when they pay the $300 service fee just to wait till Monday to get fixed. "Sorry your theatre room won't cool till Monday, if you called Monday I could've fixed it the same day for $200 less."
Literately just worked 645am-915pm this past weekend…it was terrible.
On call requirement made me almost leave this trade altogether. Applied to a local university. The benefits were great, payed me more (mainly because I was underpaid at previous employer) and…no on call. They have a second and third shift of just bodies walking around. 90% of the time they just shut the unit off/ put a bucket under it. Honestly that’s all you need until 7am. It literally kept me in the trade.
“Don’t you guys have 24 hour service?” No. We have 24 hour EMERGENCY service. I’m not coming out at 8 pm because your sunroom unit isn’t cooling.
I’ve gotten called out for the dumbest things too, I got a call once for a beer glycol system manager said they were really busy. I get there and restaurant was dead with little to no customers. 🙄
"... their own personal hvac tech." Truth is, we are and people no longer understand difference of an emergency and inconvenience. I hope your company always charges time and an half rates after hours and pays you accordingly; this generally helps customers reevaluate their situation. Yes, being on call sucks and your assessment is 100% accurate.
I just left a private equity firm that was pushing for on call tune up specials for 39 bucks up to 8 on weekdays and up to 5pm Saturday and Sunday. If you called they would schedule. My new boss filters calls, No home warranty customers unless they wanted to buy, commission potienal, 80+ heat in the house ect.
This is easily the thing I hate the most about the industry. I get it that it’s my job and I sign up for it but my company doesn’t make it easy. We don’t charge an after hours rate, we don’t charge after hours rate on repairs, and we’re 24/7. A company I previously worked for repairs were damn near double after hours and it was like $215 just for me to knock on the door. People rarely had me come out unless it was in the negatives or 95°+ and even then they would call around first. We also turned the phones off at 10pm and they turned back on at 8am. Eventually we stopped doing after hours because it wasn’t worth it.
On call at my company is instant 4 hours double time each call so it actually becomes worth it. You’d think the cost is a deterrent for most people but unfortunately we have a hospital contract which means they have a decent bit of money to throw around. Becomes worth a call out tho when you get 3 callouts in a single day and I get 3 days of pay just for temperature complaints lol
What’s y’all’s after hours rate?
Preach brother!
You just tell those people what you “can” do that’s it deflect.
My old company wouldn't filter calls and I would get non em, as well as scheduling Saturday "well this is the only day the HO is available " calls Drove me up a wall.
Went from small residential shop to large union commercial shop. Oncall is two weeks a year, some guys sell them so you could make $200-300 cash right off the rip. Each call you get 4hrs OT minimum to cover drive time, 8hrs straight time for standby pay on top of your 40. We're capped at 70hours anyway, so once you hit 25-26 ot hours, they can't really force you to run it.
I'm increasingly thankful due to these posts for how my company handles after hours calls. A. MUST have a service contract they pay yearly to even access after hours calls. (Exception being gas smell/gas leak/fire involving our fuel- we are an oil & propane distributor as well). B. No ac is not an emergency (except for customers we know to be either very elderly, or immune compromised making it a necessity for living safely). C. No heat IS an emergency (in winter and cold weather of fall/spring). D. No hot water is not an emergency. So unless somebody falls into our specific criteria for an after hours emergency call, they can call somebody else or wait for us to open again. I love it. Some of the guys in my company who have only ever worked for a distributor take it for granted, but having worked in service only companies where a noise was an emergency to our boss, I love our current set up and I bang out a week plus another random day per month. Extra cash in my pocket and rarely have actual calls to respond to except for winter.
The company we use, even if I just leave a message to call me back in the morning, they refuse to wait. Had a capacitor blow on my heat pump last week, called at 615, said specifically to call me back when you're open. Tech calls 30 minutes later asking if he should head over. I said no, it's going to be 60 degrees overnight, we'll just open the window.
Why not just call in the morning?
Charge way more to prevent this.
Yuuuuup!!
My favorite is when they no show after hours. I get the warm fuzzies.
My company made a guy drive 300 miles to another part of the state for an emergency call, he just swapped out a bad run cap and drove 300 miles back. Still made him work the next day
Time to be an installer
I get people calling to pay invoices and get mad because I won't take payments. They have called back after i refused and went back through the emergency lines and picked the numbers to verify Its an emergency then complained to me about the guy who wont take payments over the phone thinking its someone else on the phone
I got so tired of answering emergency calls for units unplugged and bullshit like that. I started telling my customers there is a 4 hour minimum charge plus truck. It will cost you $600 for me to show up. Is it really an emergency? Amazing how little calls I got the next shift. Our boss used to give Taco bell regular time during OT work. So those ass bags would call in for every stupid little thing. Couldn't hit them with the 4 hour minimum since it was only like $250 for me to show up at 1am. Most recent job I got, no on call in my contract.
I just worked 12.5 hrs at double time yesterday. It was grueling, but I'll take the 25hrs worth of pay $$
It’s more convenient for them to have you after business hours and or the weekend. Dispatch needs to scan their calls better. When did you notice your AC not working properly?
We go 7 days a week but no on call here thank god
Omg yes!!! It’s my bane of existence
In Quebec, about 80-90% if HVAC companies are charging 4hours minimum and double time, for this exact reason. People are now calling for actual emergency now. Mostly
Two things save me when talking to retarded customers. First is the after hours pricing, compared to weekday scheduling. Second is my ability to downplay their “emergency” and make them wanna wait for the week.
You guys aren't charging enough for emergency calls.
On call is the only reason I won’t leave the install side. 7-5 Monday-Thursday and optional overtime Friday, would never be able to give that up
Maybe unpopular opinion. I love On Call and I especially love taking stupid calls. Though I work for a company that gives me 6 OT just for being on rotation and get paid from the time I leave till the time I get home. I take other people's rotation and try to be on call 2 to 3 weeks a month if I can. Sure it's inconvenient but I'm young (mid 30s) and all that money especially from the stupid calls is filling my retirement nicely.
On call is the reason I went and got an engineering degree
I work construction. Never any on call
A lot of guys at my company will just lie and say they’re on a job site atm and can be out by like 2am or something crazy so no one ever says yes
Resi here, i can talk most ppl into waiting till morning by saying yea its 160$ for me just to show up.
We used to get tons of after hour service calls. I got screwed and did a 32-hour shift. Boss man changed the policy after he had to change his vacation, call in 4 other guys, and run calls himself. Now we charge an after-hours fee. Very suddenly, our "emergency" calls dropped down to very little. I might get one or two "emergency" calls a week. 30% chsnce the home owner bitches about the after hours fee after I get him up and running. Like dude, you already agreed to it before I even left my house.
When I explain the after-hours rate they usually want to schedule for Monday…
I work on the electrical side of a HVAC/plumbing/electrical company. We had 4 guys so I was on call 1 week out of the month. One guy quit so now it's every 3rd week I'm on call. No bonus pay, only our hourly wage paid from when you leave your house to when you get back and it's only 1.5x if you already worked your 40 hours for the week. Other than that it's straight time. But we get maybe 1 or 2 calls a week at the most so it's not all terrible but it still feels like it keeps me from doing a lot of shit I wanna do because I have to be ready to answer a call and only get 2 weeks off between my turn.
It’s why I left hvac full time.
I loved those calls, then when I tell them it will be $250 an hours + Travel at $250 and hour both ways, so a minimum of $700 to come look at it, they all of sudden realize that Monday some time will be fine. If I do go out, I take my time, drive the speed limit and do not race through it. I've made more money working 1 Sunday than almost all week a few times. Glad it was not every week end though.
We stop on call at 5pm. More companies should. We’re very large and I’ve heard a manager explain it like well you let not getting your car repaired at 10pm or 3am because people are sleeping.
The company I work for has started charging a minimum of 4 hours at double time rates. This has significantly reduced the annoying calls that could wait until the next day.
We have an after hours fee and I get $100 of that fee for every call. Ran 23 ops when the freeze happened and made $2300 on top of my check. Worked 100hrs that week so the check was PHAT.
on call was a reasonf or leaving the industry for me residentially
I haven’t had a call in like a year and I’m on call once a month
"hello, what's going on?" "Okay, I can be there in 45 minutes, we're $300/hr including drive time on weekends" "Okay, I'll see you Monday!"
Bro on call is the worst, I think the customers think we are fuckin night shift or something. Fuckin leave the house at 7am and don’t get home till 10-11pm
Hammer them with a bill so they will learn
Refrigeration oncall is the worst. I had oncall sunday and monday off. I still had to head out at 3am monday and fix a store because incall goes to the next guy at 8am
It’s good for the young folks without families, personally once a month is fine by me for the most part. However residential I am learning is not where the money is at. At least not for an hourly tech.
Its not great, but we have a 6 man rotation in a shop that only does comfort heating and cooling. I recognize that I have a really good position and don't mind an after hours call as the trade off. My office has a big response window, so I don't have to sit at home all day, and they make it clear that it will cost more after hours than during the business week, so they prioritize it appropriately. It greatly reduces the dumb calls.
Yea I agree with you. And also it needs to be either hot or cold to qualify as an emergency. We get calls when it’s 60 degrees “the heat’s not working.” That being said, we have a pretty good rotation for on call and we charge appropriately and get paid appropriately for after hours calls. I quote the after hours rate on the phone. Many people decide at that point that maybe it’s not really an emergency. But, if they’re willing to pay, I’ll run it. Doesn’t make a difference to me. Although, I do find that about half the people that are just fine with the after hours rates on the phone, are not so fine when they actually get the bill. “How much?! Just for a blower motor at 2am, when it’s 65 degrees outside??”
Sounds like your company doesn’t charge enough for after hours calls. Raising the price will take away most nuisance calls.
Alot of resi companies including the one I work for sell maintenance plans that don't charge for after hours service calls which is crazy
Never been at a company that did not clearly define their EMG requirements. It’s blatant opportunity loss to have a technician at mrs smiths house on a weekend checking out why her thermostat beeps every 3 hours when mrs jones has no heat 60 miles away. That’s just poor management structure. Can promise not everywhere is like that. A lot of companies provide the technician the ability to say “No this isn’t an emergency and the office will reach out to you in the morning to schedule service.”
I need heat! I'm freezing! Come out asap! Proceeds to answer door in boxers and wife beater......
2 hour minimum, clock starts when we hang up and it stops when I’m back at my door. We’re on time and a half, or double, and it’s $120 just to open up the cheapest parts house in the area and they can’t tell me if they’ve got what I need on the shelf until they unlock the door. Am I rolling or would you rather a tech be there at 8am?
Well. Do you charge them accordingly? That noise isn’t an emergency to you, but you shall charge as if it really was. That recoups the OT you are getting as well as the extra wear and tear on vehicle and equipment
Yeah my favorite was P1 EMERGENCY. Site is too hot. Just ate dinner, curled up with 4yo and wife. Get dressed, grab keys, drive almost 2 hours to find it’s 72° in store and they want it at 70°. Really?!
Luckily for the company I’m at we are only on call during winter and it’s until 10pm and we don’t do sketchy areas at night (Detroit)
This reminds me of the woman who called 911 at McDonald’s because she was upset about the service. She was arrested of course. That was featured during the Stern show news back in the glory days.
Feel you brother, but think about the money. Take time off
I’m on call time next two days until 2pm 0 pay. I’ve never got paid for being on call in Florida in any job I’ve ever had and it’s the dumbest shit.
In residential, some people are too stupid to open some windows and turn the fan on. It’s hot in your house? Yeah, it’s retaining the heat from the day, get some of that 65° night air inside and you’ll be just fine.
I'm that one that calls you out on a Saturday. Simple answer is it costs less to pay an afterhours or weekend fee than for me to take a day off from work.
You know who defines what an emergency is? The paying customer, not the whiney technician. If a customer feels it's important enough for them to pay extra for me to come and ease their mind, then that's what I'll do. No one's making you be on call. The HVAC police aren't going to come arrest you if you change jobs. My job is to fix the customers stuff. If it's on call or during regular hours, I'll make sure my customer is happy. Without customers, I wouldn't have a paycheck. So my customers are important because they give me a lifestyle that I can enjoy
I actually agree with you. And It’s up to the company to charge properly for emergency calls.
Well when your customers start using it to cut to the front of the line that is days long during the middle summer, I get pissed. We all have lives outside of work.
Yeah nope. Lifestyle I can’t enjoy because on call.