by Dale M. Olsen

Air Conditioning and

Refrigeration Technology

As a service person, your normal rates are $50.00 per hour plus truck fee of $35.00, and one hour minimum charge. On a particular refrigerator service call the only problem you find is a piece of insulation that has stalled the condenser fan motor. When you remove the insulation, the fan begins to operate properly. The total time spent to get the refrigerator operational was less than ten minutes.

You realize that even though the motor was stalled for a period of time this probably will not affect its life expectancy and it may operate properly for several more years or it may fail tomorrow. Your company doubles the price of all its parts, but pays you a 15% commission on parts you sell.

Questions:

What would you do and how would you charge the customer?

Tell the customer the truth and charge them 85.00.

Tell the customer the fan motor was bad, pretend to change the motor and charge them $85.00 plus $50.00 for the fan.

Tell the customer the fan was bad, replace it with a new one and charge the customer $85.00 plus $50.00 for the fan.

Tell the customer the truth, check everything else on the refrigerator, clean the condenser and condensate drain pan and charge the customer $85.00.

Tell the customer the truth and leave without charging anything.

Repair the problem and charge the customer less than usual.

Would your response be different if the customer was an elderly person on a fixed income?

Would your response be different if you knew the customer owned the new sports car parked in the driveway?