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Surprises can be fun on your Birthday
or at Christmas. But when it comes to important decisions that you
need to make in caring for your home and those you love, surprises
are rarely welcome.
We proudly offer standardised
up-front pricing to eliminate any negative surprises from your service
experience and put you in complete control. It is also the only
way to be fair and equitable in our service to you and all of your
neighbours that we serve.
First, a little history
lesson. Years ago, most tradesmen charged an hourly rate for their
travel time and labour, plus a retail price for material. Customer-oriented
service companies like Atlantis Plumbing have since converted to
Up-Front Pricing or as more commonly known Flat Rate Pricing.
What was wrong with hourly pricing? Hourly pricing is inherently
unfair and forces you to authorise work without knowing how
much it will cost. An easy way to explain how it is unfair is as
follows:
A novice service technician arrives
at one home at the same time that an expert technician arrives
at another. They face identical problems. At an hourly rate, the
expert technician will identify and resolve the correct problem
promptly; thus saving the customer time, money and future problems.
The novice technician will take more of the customer's time, use
more parts (at the customer's expense), and charge a whole lot
more for the effort. This is not fair or ethical, but that's what
happens under the hourly rate method. In addition, the incentive
for an hourly plumbing company is to have inefficient technicians,
and lots of travel and parts pickup time, because that translates
to longer hours and more revenue. Also, the customer gets surprised
by a big bill at the end of the job with no control over it. Up-front
pricing solves these problems and puts the burden of quality and
efficient service squarely where it belongs, on the service provider.
Some of the benefits of our No-Risk
Up-Front pricing system:
You know and
approve the exact price before the work begins.
The cost for
the stated work is fixed regardless of how long it takes.
The technician
will be more efficient and respectful of your time because "extra-hours"
do not mean "extra-money."
The company
takes responsibility for having the proper tools, equipment and
parts on the job site.
Hourly rates
are not comparable, because you can't know how long it will take
one company versus another. Flat rate prices are.
Each customer
pays the same price for the same service regardless of the technician.
This is also very comforting to anyone who feels they may be taken
advantage of such as the elderly or people who are not experts
at plumbing.
Just as you would not
walk into a restaurant and expect to pay an hourly rate for the
chef, waitress, dish-washers, etc. plus some retail price for the
food products, people generally understand the necessity and benefits
of up-front, all-inclusive pricing. Virtually every product and
service we enjoy today is delivered at a flat rate price - service
companies should deliver this same benefit to you.
We don't believe it's
fair to charge by the hour or to give rough estimates, so we give
you the exact total price in advance before any work is done. Instead
of a guesstimate to get a foot in your door, we give you the exact
total price in advance for your okay before any work is done. Our
customers love it because they are in control, they get the benefit
of real professional advice and on-site review, and they don't end
up with a nasty surprise of charges that they didn't expect or approve
of in advance. It's all about fairness and trust. We want to earn
your business over and over for many years to come; up-front pricing
is an important part of our commitment to earn your trust.
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