Haas Service

[jawaba]

Our shop is approximately 2 hours from our servicing HFO. When we have a service call they charge us a 4 hour trip charge (aprox. $400), regardless of the problem or how long they are here.

We have 2 techs that live within 45 min of our shop (they rarely travel into the Dallas HFO), and as a general rule they group service calls together by area.

On our last service call we were billed for a 4 hour trip charge even though the tech came from a customer 45 min away and his call after us was aprox. 45 min away.

My question is this: is this normal for all HFO's? Do they all bill like this? I'm actually quite shocked this is their practice. If a tech makes 6 service calls in 1 day in our geographic area he would be billing 24 hours of travel time ($2,400).

I could understand this if they were truly sending a tech out on an emergency basis and the travel time was 4 hours round trip, but to have to wait several days or weeks for the tech to be in our area and then have to pay like he was coming from Dallas seems a little rough.

On a different note, does anyone know of a good independent tech in East Texas?

Thank you,

Jason

[underthetire]

Pretty standard practice i'm afraid. Way better and easier for the distributors to charge office to customer. We used to charge a 2 hour travel and 1 hour labor minimum at the last place i worked. Even when I was an independent, I charged round trip from my office, no matter where. Wasn't worth it to me to walk in a shop for less than 200-300. Half went to pay uncle sam, then my van that I used to spend 300-500 a week in fuel, then insurance. Never made anyone wait that long for service though, i would just work longer days or Saturdays to catch up.

[behindpropeller]

Yes. That is just how it is. I just asked my HFO if they could get to me while in the area to give me a software update....nope.

[jawaba]

Thanks for the replies. I guess location should be a factor when figuring TCO and selecting a machine. I'm not sure I had any better options, but $400 just to show up is steep. Thanks again!

[haastec]

What if that tech was not next door, but 2 hours the opposite direction from your HFO? You would not like to be billed 4hrs each way right?

Each HFO can set up their own travel charges but travel from HFO office to customer site is the most common and also the most fair (IMHO) for both sides.

[behindpropeller]

What if that tech was not next door, but 2 hours the opposite direction from your HFO? You would not like to be billed 4hrs each way right?

Each HFO can set up their own travel charges but travel from HFO office to customer site is the most common and also the most fair (IMHO) for both sides.

I just asked them....Hey if you are in the area could you schedule me for....etc.

I understand though.

[jawaba]

What if that tech was not next door, but 2 hours the opposite direction from your HFO? You would not like to be billed 4hrs each way right?

Each HFO can set up their own travel charges but travel from HFO office to customer site is the most common and also the most fair (IMHO) for both sides.

This is a nice hypothetical, but it's not the case, they are local, and do group customer visits. It would be bad for the HFO to schedule a tech to run from one part of the state to another, they group visits by geography. Given this, why kill a customer with outrageous trip charges. The relationship needs to be symbiotic (mutually beneficial for both the HFO and customer).

They have numerous techs, but I always see the same ones, the ones that live near my location. Coincidence?

If in one day a tech makes 4, 1 hour service calls in our area they bill 16 hours of travel time, plus 4 hours of service time. So the customers pay for 20 hours when maybe 8 were used? How is this "fair for both sides". It sounds like a great deal for the HFO, and not so great for the customers.

It would be fair to pay actual travel time. You call the HFO, let them know you would like to schedule a service call, they tell you when they will be in the area, done deal. If you can't wait then you pay a premium.

In the last year I've had this same problem fixed under warranty, paid for it a second time, and am now looking at having to pay for it a third time - approximately $500 for 1 hour.

I'm obviously missing the fairness side in all of this, IMHO...

[gizmo_454]

Sounds like most of you are getting the stick. That really stinks. Our HFO charges travel time from A to B, 1/2 hour minimum and 1 hour minimum labor. A to B being from the previous location to our shop. So if the previous location was 2 hours away, we would be billed for that. We too, have 1 tech that lives about 20 minutes from our shop and they only bill us for 1/2 hour, even though the closest HFO office is 1.5 hours away. I can't say we have ever been charged for the trip away.

Based on what is stated above, if the HFO is billing for a trip from the office to the shop and back to the office again, that is extremely wrong! Let's think about this one for a minute, looking at the example above...
(stop 1, 0.5 hour travel)
2 hours from the office to the shop.
1 hour at the shop.
2 hours from the shop to the office.

(stop 2, 0.5 hour travel)
2 hours from the office to the shop.
1 hour at the shop.
2 hours from the shop to the office.

(stop 3, 1 hour travel)
2 hours from the office to the shop.
1 hour at the shop.
2 hours from the shop to the office.

(stop 4, 0.5 hour travel)
2 hours from the office to the shop.
1 hour at the shop.
2 hours from the shop to the office.

Billed for 16 hours of travel time and 4 hours of shop time in a 6 hour day! If that is truly how people are getting billed, I would seriously be getting in touch with Haas about it. Especially with the money the HFO charges per hour.

Like I said, we have only been billed 1 way for travel plus time spent at the shop.

Mike

[jawaba]

Looks like it...

Before I call Haas direct I am trying to resolve it at a local level. I have spoke to the Service Manager twice and left a VM for the owner yesterday. I'm going to wait and see what he has to say first.

I get the logic behind having to send someone from far, far away, it's just that that it is not the reality of what is really going on in the field. If I had bought from a smaller competitor with 1 tech covering a massive territory I could understand this argument. We bought from Haas because they are American made - and have a very extensive network within the US. Hence the techs in our area...

[underthetire]

So, if a tech is sent out to Customer "A", charges him actual travel, lets say 2 hours R/T, then a call comes in at Customer "B" thats right next door. Cutomer "A" gets the bill and "B" pays no travel? I can see your point if they are scheduling a bunch of calls in the same area for a certain time of week, but you never know when a new call comes in. Be thankful you don't have to worry about heavy traffic. On Saturday I can make to South San Francisco in about an hour, Mon-Thursday its about 2-3 hours each way, on Friday its more like 3-4 each way.

[jawaba]

So, if a tech is sent out to Customer "A", charges him actual travel, lets say 2 hours R/T, then a call comes in at Customer "B" thats right next door. Cutomer "A" gets the bill and "B" pays no travel? I can see your point if they are scheduling a bunch of calls in the same area for a certain time of week, but you never know when a new call comes in. Be thankful you don't have to worry about heavy traffic. On Saturday I can make to South San Francisco in about an hour, Mon-Thursday its about 2-3 hours each way, on Friday its more like 3-4 each way.

I see your point, but if we apply the real world to this scenario, then customer B gets scheduled out a week from when they call. I have never received service the same day.

There are a million scenarios. My goal is not to fix this. I just wanted to know what normal is. This has been answered, some do it like my HFO, others bill minimums, others actuals.

It's not like I have a lot of choice. I just wanted to know the norm. I should have found this info out prior to purchasing. As we are in the market for a second machine I will make sure and add this in when considering TCO.