Another lying, overbilling technician...

PascalG

PascalG

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after sailing today, Naomi went for lunch with her daughters at a nearby restaurant here in the Grove... Noticed a service van from a fairly well know local marine Air Con company outside and ends up at a table next to 2 guys wearing "----- Air" shirts...

At some point one of the guys gets on the phone and goes on explaining how he is still working in the engine room of a boat up in Aventura and doesn't know when he's going to be finished, not sure he'll make it to the next job...

As usual Naomi couldnt' keep her mouth shut and confronts the technician who as an excuse says that in that kind of job, it's perfectly acceptable to do this.

so, the owner of some boat in Aventura, got billed $100 an hour for the technicians lunch today... Same thing happened to me a few years back with another AC contractor...

bottom line, if you're going to get work done on your boat, be there and check the hours...
 
I would call the manager/owner of the shop and tell them what you overheard. I would also point him/her to this thread and also that you are passing the word about how they conduct business. That should get their attention quickly..
 
"who as an excuse says that in that kind of job, it's perfectly acceptable to do this."
What kind of job would this be? a union job maybe.
 
Maybe he had plans with his girlfriend for later and and was telling his old lady that he would be busy and not to expect him home anytime soon. Give a brother a break!

Did you see a copy of the bill? Could he have been working on a fixed price/bid job? How do you tell he was billing/overbilling by the hour from eavesdropping from another table?
 
Like putting yout nose where it need not be ?
 
Keith I guess in your line of work it's ok for an employee to tell his boss he's working on a customer boat while he's in fact in a restaurant having lunch... either the boat owner or the business owner is being scam. Since fixed price air con repairs are very rare down here, i suspect the boat owner was paying the $100 labor during lunch.

as a boat owner who's been on the receiving end of such an attempted scam (although it was breakfast, not lunch), this kind of things really get to me...
 
Two technicians eating lunch are lying and overbilling?....geesh!!! They are not entitled to lunch? When they said that they are still working in the bilge of another boat....do you think, or know for that matter, that they meant that literally as if they were in the bilge that minute? And as said above....how do you know that they weren't billing by the job and not the hour and if by the hour, how do you know that they billed for their lunch?
 
I don't let anyone work on my boat, I do it myself, or replace the unit.
 
when one of them is one the phone telling his boss that he's working in the ER of a boat an hour away and probably wont' have time to make it to the next job, I'd say the odds are that either the boat owner OR the business owner are paying $100 an hour, actually 2 x $100 an hr for their lunch.

then when they say that the reason for them lying is because it's part of the job, well that removes any doubt about their ethics.
 
The best part of this forum is the characters and the tone of their comments. "Let It All Hang Out" should be our slogan. :-)
 
If the technician was in Coconut Grove having lunch, and the boat was in Aventura, he was not just taking a quick lunch break before diving back into the bilge. Those towns are not that close, especaily in Miami traffic. If he was truthful, he could have just said he is at lunch.

If he was sitting on a bench at the end of the dock eating his sandwich, and was going to jump right back to work in the bilge...then sure, he would be in the middle of the job, just taking a quick break. But, not when he is 45 minutes away (90 minutes round trip) down in Coconut Grove. The dude was likely scamming either his boss or the client or both.
 
Maybe this is an a/c occupational habit. I often notice a well maintained new-ish marine a/c service van parked at a neighboring condo for an hour or so over lunchtime. Nothing wrong about a "nooner" with a friend---as long as its not my boat thats getting the tab.
 
I left my home at 0500 this morning so I could be at a shipyard for 0630 to baby sit a T&M job that the owner is having shipyard billing issues with. Count heads, document what's done, let the yard know that they are being watched. I will have to drop in on them several times (unannounced) over the next few weeks. We have a saying around my part "Nothing makes the cotton grow taller than the owner's foot prints in the field".

To bad mouth a company and it's workers based on a hear-say, eavesdropped, one sided conversation is, in my opinion, wrong. It has been my experience that some folks will accuse others of sins that they themselves are guilty of.
 
Too many assumptions. Suppose the tech is 45 minutes away eating lunch; does that mean the customer is paying for all this. He may have needed a part to complete the repair, or at least hone in on the problem, in the engine room. This customer may have been high priorty and wanted the A/C fixed before the weekend. The tech knowing this met up with another tech at a convenient location; the resturant. He tells the boss 'still working in the engine room'. He is honest and doesn't know for sure how long it's going to be until the job is done and that it may be too late to start on another project.
 
Pascal has obviously not run a service business, let alone owned one. He is quick to criticize.
 
Based on the limited but pregnant information that we have, there is no way that these two bozos are legitimate.
 
Sorry gentleman: But I have to put my opinion: As a marine tech since 1987 on Air Conditioning generators and plus....I would say most of the times customer's presence implicates efficiency on the job. 1st they keeping asking questions.2nd most of them inadequate and unrelated to the job the tech is performing and so so. yesterday I was doing a job for a person of my work neighborhood And he was present all time he ask me what he wanted and two hours later job was I explained what was done and case closed he was very happy. If a tech is on the phone telling somebody he is in the bilge of a boat and he's having lunch. This guy probably is looking for some kind of affection from his girlfriend , wife, mother, or even from his boss. Minimum rate is one plus travel time what's the big deal. I had jobs of 30 minutes travel 5 minutes labor. My question is How much you go to pay me???????
 
Boatcomfort , you hit it. 2 hour minimum plus travel.we all have to eat.
 
So I take it you got right on the horn to the owner of the company? Right?

Me, I get references from knowledgeable boaters and am always present on the first visit. Actually, 80% of all the visits because I hire people who also will teach me how to DIY if I want to. You know what? I have had a LOT of work done on my boat from Aventura to Massachusetts and I have never been ripped off or cheated. Quite the contrary, I consider a lot of my techs and boat yards to be freinds, because they have acted that way for me before we really knew each other.

You want some aggressive billing practices? Go check into a hospital for a few days and get some test, MRIs and Xrays done. Those alleged creeps having lunch in the Grove will look like Mother Theresa in comparison.

George
Hatteras 56MY
Boston Whaler 130 Sport
 
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