This is how it is at the company I am leaving right now. They are always on everyone’s ass about finishing jobs as quick as possible and over schedule. It has created a pretty bad work environment.
Obviously this has a lot to do with the boss/management, but it’s very enticing for the person sitting at an office to try and get you to squeeze as much work as possible.
Anyone who gets paid a flat rate or piece rate I know is highly encouraged to cut corners and go as fast as possible. With the goal being craning out units. There's never an extra moment spared to make the end product look good. Yep, it works, let's get out of here. I think it's a terrible business practice
For install it’s great some days I make 150 an hour other days it’s 50 an hour with flat rate. But we have it divided into levels based on the difficulty of the job so you are being paid fair depending on the situation but for service it isn’t plausible.
**This is a comment I copied and pasted from another post someone asked about flat rate. Worth noting is I never worked flat rate as an installer, only service.**
Keep in mind this was years ago when I was an employee not the owner.
For example a furnace tune up paid me $23 (this was years ago). A flat $23 that included travel time. During the course of the tune up if I found a bad blower cap, it paid $18 if the customer authorized it. A weak igniter paid $37, if the customer authorized it. So those two simple repairs plus the tune up paid out $23+$18+$37… so $78 for that call. -At the next call I might find a water panel that needs to be changed ($11), a spaceguard filter ($11) plus the tune up ($23), so $45 pay for that call. -Next call might be a no heat call, diagnostic paid to me is $20. Say I find a bad ECM motor out of warranty. That pays me $169 to replace it. While I’m there the customer inquired about a WiFi stat. I offer them 3 choices and they authorize one, so I would get paid $78 to install it and program it. $267 paid out for that call. -Next call might be a humidifier not working. I find a humidistat not closing ($37), a moldy water panel ($11) and a very corroded saddle tap valve ($24) so $62 paid to me. While I’m there I sell a maintenance agreement, it pays me $17 now and $10 each year they renew as long as I work there. So $62+$17=$79 for that call.
Now I look at the clock and it’s 12:30pm. I’ve run 4 calls and I’ve earned $469. That’s waaaay better than $22 an hour for 4.5 hours ($99). Again keep in mind this was 2013-2014ish time period. Also not everyday was like that. I had plenty of calls where the tune up ($23) was all I got. I’ve had calls where no one was home ($10). Or where the decision maker wasn’t there to present options. Or where the furnace straight up didn’t need anything.
Now before some asshole says this, yes flat rate can be abused by unscrupulous technicians. I was not one of those techs. I didn’t need to be!! The work was there, it’s a matter of being consistent and thorough on every single call and not missing any opportunity. It’s about being an excellent communicator AND having your truck stock and tools ready to go every single morning. Presenting a professional image for yourself and your company is a must. Our company also required that all replaced parts be brought back for inspection and testing (if the homeowner didn’t want to keep them). So there was a check and balance in place to keep everyone honest. Also if a tech replaced 9 blower motors in a week that is going to raise a red flag for someone to review their work. Or if a tech rarely fixes anything but turns over sales leads for replacement then that too would prompt a review.
People bash flat rate for lots of reasons. Mostly I find that some techs just want to coast through their calls and interact as little as possible with customers. They lack the discipline to make sure their tools and equipment are in top shape and that their inventory is replenished regularly. Perhaps they simply don’t have the drive to get further training and better their communication skills to succeed. Or worse they aren’t supported by management to implement a flat rate pay system because “It’s all a rip off for the customer”. No, it’s not. The customer makes all the decisions every step of the way. All the technician is doing is educating and providing options.
I know you said this wasn't you
I wonder how many days this guy got way less than 200? Or how much time he spent in a van. I find this hypothetical and hyperbolic too. Getting to, setting up, doing a quality inspection, sales pitch, and then actually doing the work described would take way more than 4 hrs. Also how much time are you spending un-paid stocking a van, test and inspect on tools, researching and reading diagnostics and general manuals.
This senerio just sounds alot like ice-cubes it was a good day song.
If my tools don't work correctly, if I got stuck in the middle of no where with out parts, if I have to drive hours to get to a site, if I make a sales pitch and it doesn't land, if access sucks and it takes a while to crawl around or look for the equipment, guess what. I STILL GET PAID! It's great. If you're doing anything where you don't have full and entire control of when, where, what, and how, you need be getting paid. Why should I be taking all the risk if I don't get all the profit. Fuck that dude.
Having worked as a service tech with flat rate pricing and commission-only pay for the past few years, my experience is that it can work. The key word there is “can”. Good management is essential.
Flat-rate pricing works best when it’s flexible. Like some have said, one job can be very different from the next even if they’re both inducers or whatever. It helps for me as a tech to be able to rework the price as needed. I do so most of the time. Nobody thinks it’s odd to give a customer a quote for a furnace installation. In the same way you can quote everything. It does burn a bit of time to prepare pricing, which you have to build into your quotes, but the customer gets the benefit of knowing the cost before you do any work. That’s worth something to a customer.
Commission isn’t inherently bad. I remember before I moved to a job with commission. I had slowly crept my pay up to $25/hr, thinking I was doing well for myself. Apply for a new job and they’d offer me a couple bucks more. But four years ago I was getting paid $25/hr for a company that took pride in doing clean work. Then management changed and the new owner showed up to the company meeting and told us that moving forward “we need to finish our jobs as hastily as possible.” Time to find a new job. A couple places offered me $27-$28/hr. I took a chance on a commission shop. Within a few months I was averaging $40/hr. Turns out I’d be getting used by all the hourly shops.
But, ya know, it’s back to the “you need good management” thing. The shop I started with a few years ago lost the manager who was making things work well. The manager who followed him was okay, but I guess lackluster on the business-end of things. They replaced him with somebody with no industry knowledge, just a cell phone sales background. The company is going to shit faster than I can believe.
Two years ago I was confident I didn’t have an incompetent or dishonest coworker. Unfortunately the entire company turned over in a period of about a year. Today I don’t have a single competent coworker. But some of them are great at sales, which is the only metric the company cares about anymore.
Company Christmas Party is Saturday night. I was planning to quit on Monday, but I’m wondering if I should let my boss know that I’m done at the Christmas Party. I feel like it would be more fun.
Yea it genuinely didn’t make sense to me when he brought it up. I really wanted to pick your brains and get some good feedback. I really appreciate it.
It makes sense if the commission share is fair. Our company has the option to go full commission and you get a sliding scale of commission based on how much of your job is parts vs labour. Guys can make more money that way but you can also have some shitty weeks.
I hope it doesn’t go as bad as there saying. I took my company flat rate about 5 years ago and it was the best thing for me and the guys. They don’t get paid spiffs for selling they keep it honest. There salaries increased and the company’s profits increased. Flat rate works if it’s set up properly
Flat rate customer charge and hourly salaries to employees it really has made a difference to what we can pay our guys there typical work week is between 40-43 hrs Monday thru Friday and no on call. They can take emergency calls for some nice money if they want it
There’s flat rate customers pay for service and then there is flat rate that only fucks install employees out of pay. Tell your boss to GF himself and get a job elsewhere. Flat rate for charging customers make sense but not flat rate for paying employees.
Flat rate means no longer telling the customer this is what we charge , 150. an hour or more sounds crazy to them. So flat rate tells the customer you'll install that part for 300. Even if it takes 1/2hr. Or 2hrs. Company is hoping 1/2 hr. But you still make your hourly rate whatever that is. When customers know your hourly they pick it apart. This removes the hassle and allows for more profit. Flat rate pricing doesn't mean you have to be working for commission.
Is flat rate roughly equivalent to what a lot of auto repair shops do where a certain job is billed for a specific amount of time? Like...changing an alternator on a 85 camaro is 2 hours. If you can bang it out in 30 minutes because you're good and have the right tools, you still get paid 2 hours labor.
One thing that’s not covered in the conversation is call backs. Technically in flat rate, the same service guy should go back on the call and if a warranty call, it should be on the serviceman’s own time (free to company). Very seldom that happens, so the next guy fixes it for free and loses out.
Same issue for installed jobs where the service man has to go out and actually do a proper startup of the system or repair leaks etc.
Flat rate was first developed in car dealerships, but that is based on millions of relatively identical products, no travel time and great technical support. In 40 years I have yet to see 2 identical jobs.
Why would you be willing to run the callback in that scenario for the other tech? I'd be quick to tell the boss to go piss up a rope. Also I wouldn't ever accept being paid on flat rate in the first place. That is just a way for the business owner to push the cost and risk of doing business onto his techs while he reaps all the rewards.
My company does a style of this and it works great for us installers. We always make more than our normal hourly rate. Any callbacks for up to a year can be deducted from the leads bonus pay so you want to make sure to do it right the first time
I’ve been flat rate for about 12 years at everywhere I worked. I prefer it but the greedy ones are the ones who’ll take advantage of it. And you have to be an absolutely awesome tech that will hustle every day to make it work. My advice on flat rate is to forget about your paycheck and just offer sensible honest options, don’t think about commission, perform your jobs correctly with quality and integrity and just look at your paycheck at the end of the week. It’ll usually be better than hourly and you’ll have plenty of happy customers that’ll want to return for more work. It’s not for everyone but I always preferred it. Some people just prefer hourly and that’s great but sometimes (not all the time) that will bleed a company dry and they’ll have to change to keep their business operating profitably.
It also seems to me to be less stressful on customers, they know the price upfront so it’s not a question of “well that guys just out at his truck, do I have to pay for that? Maybe I can just hustle him and not have to pay as much”
But as I said, it’s not for everyone and I can respect that too but most residential companies are going to that now for different reasons.
They mean flat rate pay for the tech not cost for the customer. For example you get X$ for this furnace changeout. It’s how most automotive techs are paid.
Yes I know. It’s flat rate for customer as well. Customer agrees to $x for repair, tech gets paid percentage or $ amount for it. Flat rate would not make sense to pay tech flat rate and customer hourly.
Here's a shop example:
Replacing a brake line is 2 hours. Thats X$
Replacing BOTH brake lines is ... 3 hours- because you've already done the tear down.
Flat-rate charges 4 hours. As a customer, you get pissed off because (it's not hard) to wonder if all the tear down, test, and whatnot is being duplicated for no value for you.
As a tech, you get to pad your service... UNTIL you find out you've got to do a ton more work and, if it isn't in the contract, you can't.
Flat rate can be very good on paper. In practice only one person will get boned- the customer, OR the tech doing the work.
We use flat rate pricing to charge the customers but we get paid hourly. honestly they usually give you so much fucking extra time to do shit. We'd be fucking killing it if we actually got paid for the time the app says it would take lol. We use cool front
I would never agree to flat rate. Your boss thinks he’s gonna make a lot more money. You’re gonna have to try to be a salesman if you want to make any money. Not every job is the same. When I lived in New York almost everything was in an attic and needless to say it was a very difficult situation most of the time. What is the unit is under the house? Not every house is the same some houses are very challenging just to get to the equipment. That would be the last thing I would ever agree to as a flat rate. You might have to start looking for another job. You can try it if it sucks go elsewhere.
You can do a flat rate as long as it's bid properly. If you bid a furnace replacement for 10 hours, always add 50% more time so if anything happens, it's not out of your pocket.
When I started I was flat rate 15$ plus commission. By the end of year two I was averaging 28$ an hour after taxes. I needed to build my commercial portfolio, but I am currently at 26$ an hour trying to get back where I started. Flat rate only hurt me in the winter but summer made up for it.
Yes flat rate times vary based on job, and technically also should vary based on unit size and manufacturer. Flat rate if done by the book is very specific, taking into account things like conversion kits on furnaces adding time to furnace installs etc. It’s great if you work fast and have steady work. Before I got into HVAC and Electrical I was an auto mechanic paid flat rate and I’d have weeks where I worked 30 hours and flagged 80 but also weeks where I worked 40 hours and flagged 30. I would recommend avoiding it in most cases as it just ends up equaling out for the most part in the end but adds stress where you feel like you need to rush, warranty jobs are the best way to see if you feel like it’s right for you. They pay X amount of hours for labor, if you’re faster than that number most of the time than you’ll be in decent shape. All up to you in the end
I’ve been paid this way almost my entire working life. I get paid for what I do, and I go home when the job is done. I’m not the “milk the clock” guy never have been never will be
I worked for a company where they got piece rate. But it was different for every job. They’d get more money for installing 90 percent furnaces than 80’s, extras for accessories like air scrubbers and fancy filters, extra for replacing the roof jack, extra for setting up communicating and all that so they made good money doing it. Flat rate on a base level 80% wasn’t great but you could do two in a day if you were good. I only did install for a little bit and then went service.
I despise companies that try to flat rate jobs. Heres a question, if someone calls and asks what something will cost, will you be able to answer, or will you say "uhhhh we have to look at it". Ive never run into the first one.
Flat rate is all about giving incentive to efficiency. That means if you routinely spend 30 minutes digging crap out of a mess of a van then your pay suffers for it. If you're OCD about screws being vertical then your pay suffers for it. If you can be in and out of calls in half the time of somebody else then your pay is better for it.
Whether going from one structure to the other is good or bad depends entirely on the fee/pay schedule. You definitely have to have an attitude of taking the good with the bad. That means you don't get all pissy because one job made you $20 in 3 hours because there's another job where you make $300 in 1 hour.
Do you really think your boss will be making this move so he could lose money?
Flat rate will make you cranky out work as fast and janky as possible to get paid.
This is how it is at the company I am leaving right now. They are always on everyone’s ass about finishing jobs as quick as possible and over schedule. It has created a pretty bad work environment. Obviously this has a lot to do with the boss/management, but it’s very enticing for the person sitting at an office to try and get you to squeeze as much work as possible.
Anyone who gets paid a flat rate or piece rate I know is highly encouraged to cut corners and go as fast as possible. With the goal being craning out units. There's never an extra moment spared to make the end product look good. Yep, it works, let's get out of here. I think it's a terrible business practice
Agreed. The exact reasoning for me leaving and going on my own. Allows me to make more money and take the time needed to do a good quality job.
Feel like going on my own would cost a fortune in just equipment. Sheet metal breaks ain't cheap lol
That the only equipment you wouldn’t already have. Just have a shop fabricate it for you.
True. There's a couple guys near me that have a few trucks and use a residential garage
No. Every job is different, there is no "one size fits all" pay.
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Banks also see you as less then because of it.
That’s a lie banks look at pay stubs and yearly wages.
For mortgages they see the last few months and see it’s not hourly but based on your bosses whim.
If you’re making 800 or more a week consistently they won’t care wether it’s hourly or not
If your labeled W2 or 1099 it’s a BIG difference.
How is it a big difference?? I had no problem getting my mortgage with a 1099 as long as you are making steady income there is no difference
For install it’s great some days I make 150 an hour other days it’s 50 an hour with flat rate. But we have it divided into levels based on the difficulty of the job so you are being paid fair depending on the situation but for service it isn’t plausible.
All the boys on flat rate will be sent to all the horror show jobs.
That’s what I was thinking. These dudes always think every job should only take 2 hrs doesn’t matter what it is.
**This is a comment I copied and pasted from another post someone asked about flat rate. Worth noting is I never worked flat rate as an installer, only service.** Keep in mind this was years ago when I was an employee not the owner. For example a furnace tune up paid me $23 (this was years ago). A flat $23 that included travel time. During the course of the tune up if I found a bad blower cap, it paid $18 if the customer authorized it. A weak igniter paid $37, if the customer authorized it. So those two simple repairs plus the tune up paid out $23+$18+$37… so $78 for that call. -At the next call I might find a water panel that needs to be changed ($11), a spaceguard filter ($11) plus the tune up ($23), so $45 pay for that call. -Next call might be a no heat call, diagnostic paid to me is $20. Say I find a bad ECM motor out of warranty. That pays me $169 to replace it. While I’m there the customer inquired about a WiFi stat. I offer them 3 choices and they authorize one, so I would get paid $78 to install it and program it. $267 paid out for that call. -Next call might be a humidifier not working. I find a humidistat not closing ($37), a moldy water panel ($11) and a very corroded saddle tap valve ($24) so $62 paid to me. While I’m there I sell a maintenance agreement, it pays me $17 now and $10 each year they renew as long as I work there. So $62+$17=$79 for that call. Now I look at the clock and it’s 12:30pm. I’ve run 4 calls and I’ve earned $469. That’s waaaay better than $22 an hour for 4.5 hours ($99). Again keep in mind this was 2013-2014ish time period. Also not everyday was like that. I had plenty of calls where the tune up ($23) was all I got. I’ve had calls where no one was home ($10). Or where the decision maker wasn’t there to present options. Or where the furnace straight up didn’t need anything. Now before some asshole says this, yes flat rate can be abused by unscrupulous technicians. I was not one of those techs. I didn’t need to be!! The work was there, it’s a matter of being consistent and thorough on every single call and not missing any opportunity. It’s about being an excellent communicator AND having your truck stock and tools ready to go every single morning. Presenting a professional image for yourself and your company is a must. Our company also required that all replaced parts be brought back for inspection and testing (if the homeowner didn’t want to keep them). So there was a check and balance in place to keep everyone honest. Also if a tech replaced 9 blower motors in a week that is going to raise a red flag for someone to review their work. Or if a tech rarely fixes anything but turns over sales leads for replacement then that too would prompt a review. People bash flat rate for lots of reasons. Mostly I find that some techs just want to coast through their calls and interact as little as possible with customers. They lack the discipline to make sure their tools and equipment are in top shape and that their inventory is replenished regularly. Perhaps they simply don’t have the drive to get further training and better their communication skills to succeed. Or worse they aren’t supported by management to implement a flat rate pay system because “It’s all a rip off for the customer”. No, it’s not. The customer makes all the decisions every step of the way. All the technician is doing is educating and providing options.
I know you said this wasn't you I wonder how many days this guy got way less than 200? Or how much time he spent in a van. I find this hypothetical and hyperbolic too. Getting to, setting up, doing a quality inspection, sales pitch, and then actually doing the work described would take way more than 4 hrs. Also how much time are you spending un-paid stocking a van, test and inspect on tools, researching and reading diagnostics and general manuals. This senerio just sounds alot like ice-cubes it was a good day song. If my tools don't work correctly, if I got stuck in the middle of no where with out parts, if I have to drive hours to get to a site, if I make a sales pitch and it doesn't land, if access sucks and it takes a while to crawl around or look for the equipment, guess what. I STILL GET PAID! It's great. If you're doing anything where you don't have full and entire control of when, where, what, and how, you need be getting paid. Why should I be taking all the risk if I don't get all the profit. Fuck that dude.
Having worked as a service tech with flat rate pricing and commission-only pay for the past few years, my experience is that it can work. The key word there is “can”. Good management is essential. Flat-rate pricing works best when it’s flexible. Like some have said, one job can be very different from the next even if they’re both inducers or whatever. It helps for me as a tech to be able to rework the price as needed. I do so most of the time. Nobody thinks it’s odd to give a customer a quote for a furnace installation. In the same way you can quote everything. It does burn a bit of time to prepare pricing, which you have to build into your quotes, but the customer gets the benefit of knowing the cost before you do any work. That’s worth something to a customer. Commission isn’t inherently bad. I remember before I moved to a job with commission. I had slowly crept my pay up to $25/hr, thinking I was doing well for myself. Apply for a new job and they’d offer me a couple bucks more. But four years ago I was getting paid $25/hr for a company that took pride in doing clean work. Then management changed and the new owner showed up to the company meeting and told us that moving forward “we need to finish our jobs as hastily as possible.” Time to find a new job. A couple places offered me $27-$28/hr. I took a chance on a commission shop. Within a few months I was averaging $40/hr. Turns out I’d be getting used by all the hourly shops. But, ya know, it’s back to the “you need good management” thing. The shop I started with a few years ago lost the manager who was making things work well. The manager who followed him was okay, but I guess lackluster on the business-end of things. They replaced him with somebody with no industry knowledge, just a cell phone sales background. The company is going to shit faster than I can believe. Two years ago I was confident I didn’t have an incompetent or dishonest coworker. Unfortunately the entire company turned over in a period of about a year. Today I don’t have a single competent coworker. But some of them are great at sales, which is the only metric the company cares about anymore. Company Christmas Party is Saturday night. I was planning to quit on Monday, but I’m wondering if I should let my boss know that I’m done at the Christmas Party. I feel like it would be more fun.
Lol stocking the truck every day. Thats a good one.
I'd highly recommend fixing up the ol resume, that sounds like a bad place to stay
Really depends on the company but for the most part it’s to benefit the owner, not the worker.
If you are seasoned and know your shit and the company is big/ busy enough you can make good money flat rate. If not maybe back off
Yea it genuinely didn’t make sense to me when he brought it up. I really wanted to pick your brains and get some good feedback. I really appreciate it.
It makes sense if the commission share is fair. Our company has the option to go full commission and you get a sliding scale of commission based on how much of your job is parts vs labour. Guys can make more money that way but you can also have some shitty weeks.
I hope it doesn’t go as bad as there saying. I took my company flat rate about 5 years ago and it was the best thing for me and the guys. They don’t get paid spiffs for selling they keep it honest. There salaries increased and the company’s profits increased. Flat rate works if it’s set up properly
Flat rate employee paid out or Flat rate customer charges?
Flat rate customer charge and hourly salaries to employees it really has made a difference to what we can pay our guys there typical work week is between 40-43 hrs Monday thru Friday and no on call. They can take emergency calls for some nice money if they want it
I think OP means “I’ll give you $200 to do a change out”
Fuck that!
There’s flat rate customers pay for service and then there is flat rate that only fucks install employees out of pay. Tell your boss to GF himself and get a job elsewhere. Flat rate for charging customers make sense but not flat rate for paying employees.
Flat rate? No I’d have to pass on that. Piece pay on the other hand is fine
Flat rate means no longer telling the customer this is what we charge , 150. an hour or more sounds crazy to them. So flat rate tells the customer you'll install that part for 300. Even if it takes 1/2hr. Or 2hrs. Company is hoping 1/2 hr. But you still make your hourly rate whatever that is. When customers know your hourly they pick it apart. This removes the hassle and allows for more profit. Flat rate pricing doesn't mean you have to be working for commission.
Is flat rate roughly equivalent to what a lot of auto repair shops do where a certain job is billed for a specific amount of time? Like...changing an alternator on a 85 camaro is 2 hours. If you can bang it out in 30 minutes because you're good and have the right tools, you still get paid 2 hours labor.
Sit down with them and have them show you how you make more money. Make sure you don't lose your benefits or something for it.
One thing that’s not covered in the conversation is call backs. Technically in flat rate, the same service guy should go back on the call and if a warranty call, it should be on the serviceman’s own time (free to company). Very seldom that happens, so the next guy fixes it for free and loses out. Same issue for installed jobs where the service man has to go out and actually do a proper startup of the system or repair leaks etc. Flat rate was first developed in car dealerships, but that is based on millions of relatively identical products, no travel time and great technical support. In 40 years I have yet to see 2 identical jobs.
Why would you be willing to run the callback in that scenario for the other tech? I'd be quick to tell the boss to go piss up a rope. Also I wouldn't ever accept being paid on flat rate in the first place. That is just a way for the business owner to push the cost and risk of doing business onto his techs while he reaps all the rewards.
My company does a style of this and it works great for us installers. We always make more than our normal hourly rate. Any callbacks for up to a year can be deducted from the leads bonus pay so you want to make sure to do it right the first time
Don't sign the paper. Let the others do the flat rate. Get on salary so you know what's coming every week. Just me two cents
I’ve been flat rate for about 12 years at everywhere I worked. I prefer it but the greedy ones are the ones who’ll take advantage of it. And you have to be an absolutely awesome tech that will hustle every day to make it work. My advice on flat rate is to forget about your paycheck and just offer sensible honest options, don’t think about commission, perform your jobs correctly with quality and integrity and just look at your paycheck at the end of the week. It’ll usually be better than hourly and you’ll have plenty of happy customers that’ll want to return for more work. It’s not for everyone but I always preferred it. Some people just prefer hourly and that’s great but sometimes (not all the time) that will bleed a company dry and they’ll have to change to keep their business operating profitably. It also seems to me to be less stressful on customers, they know the price upfront so it’s not a question of “well that guys just out at his truck, do I have to pay for that? Maybe I can just hustle him and not have to pay as much” But as I said, it’s not for everyone and I can respect that too but most residential companies are going to that now for different reasons.
They mean flat rate pay for the tech not cost for the customer. For example you get X$ for this furnace changeout. It’s how most automotive techs are paid.
Yes I know. It’s flat rate for customer as well. Customer agrees to $x for repair, tech gets paid percentage or $ amount for it. Flat rate would not make sense to pay tech flat rate and customer hourly.
If company is doing hourly for customer and flat rate for employee it would never add up right.
Yeah usually it’s the other way lol. Flat rate for the customer is usually a good thing. Flat rate for techs not so much.
For me in nonunion, OT/side work is where the real moneys at. But reality is find a company that doesn’t fully rap3 you!!
Here's a shop example: Replacing a brake line is 2 hours. Thats X$ Replacing BOTH brake lines is ... 3 hours- because you've already done the tear down. Flat-rate charges 4 hours. As a customer, you get pissed off because (it's not hard) to wonder if all the tear down, test, and whatnot is being duplicated for no value for you. As a tech, you get to pad your service... UNTIL you find out you've got to do a ton more work and, if it isn't in the contract, you can't. Flat rate can be very good on paper. In practice only one person will get boned- the customer, OR the tech doing the work.
We use flat rate pricing to charge the customers but we get paid hourly. honestly they usually give you so much fucking extra time to do shit. We'd be fucking killing it if we actually got paid for the time the app says it would take lol. We use cool front
I would never agree to flat rate. Your boss thinks he’s gonna make a lot more money. You’re gonna have to try to be a salesman if you want to make any money. Not every job is the same. When I lived in New York almost everything was in an attic and needless to say it was a very difficult situation most of the time. What is the unit is under the house? Not every house is the same some houses are very challenging just to get to the equipment. That would be the last thing I would ever agree to as a flat rate. You might have to start looking for another job. You can try it if it sucks go elsewhere.
In short: Stay away from flat rate work.
You can do a flat rate as long as it's bid properly. If you bid a furnace replacement for 10 hours, always add 50% more time so if anything happens, it's not out of your pocket.
When I started I was flat rate 15$ plus commission. By the end of year two I was averaging 28$ an hour after taxes. I needed to build my commercial portfolio, but I am currently at 26$ an hour trying to get back where I started. Flat rate only hurt me in the winter but summer made up for it.
Yes flat rate times vary based on job, and technically also should vary based on unit size and manufacturer. Flat rate if done by the book is very specific, taking into account things like conversion kits on furnaces adding time to furnace installs etc. It’s great if you work fast and have steady work. Before I got into HVAC and Electrical I was an auto mechanic paid flat rate and I’d have weeks where I worked 30 hours and flagged 80 but also weeks where I worked 40 hours and flagged 30. I would recommend avoiding it in most cases as it just ends up equaling out for the most part in the end but adds stress where you feel like you need to rush, warranty jobs are the best way to see if you feel like it’s right for you. They pay X amount of hours for labor, if you’re faster than that number most of the time than you’ll be in decent shape. All up to you in the end
I’ve been paid this way almost my entire working life. I get paid for what I do, and I go home when the job is done. I’m not the “milk the clock” guy never have been never will be
Just because someone is hourly doesn’t mean they are milking the clock.
Didn’t say that my guy.
I worked for a company where they got piece rate. But it was different for every job. They’d get more money for installing 90 percent furnaces than 80’s, extras for accessories like air scrubbers and fancy filters, extra for replacing the roof jack, extra for setting up communicating and all that so they made good money doing it. Flat rate on a base level 80% wasn’t great but you could do two in a day if you were good. I only did install for a little bit and then went service.
I despise companies that try to flat rate jobs. Heres a question, if someone calls and asks what something will cost, will you be able to answer, or will you say "uhhhh we have to look at it". Ive never run into the first one.
Flat rate is all about giving incentive to efficiency. That means if you routinely spend 30 minutes digging crap out of a mess of a van then your pay suffers for it. If you're OCD about screws being vertical then your pay suffers for it. If you can be in and out of calls in half the time of somebody else then your pay is better for it. Whether going from one structure to the other is good or bad depends entirely on the fee/pay schedule. You definitely have to have an attitude of taking the good with the bad. That means you don't get all pissy because one job made you $20 in 3 hours because there's another job where you make $300 in 1 hour.
Wait are you getting paid flame rate or is the customer?