I had a good customer that called at 5:10 PM and asked that we respond to a color unit (3225) locking up. We responded to the call and showed up approx 6 PM. The problem ended up being a corrupt file causing the issue. My question is should we bill this customer as they have a contract with us on machine only. Tech was on site approx 2 hrs.?? I want to sleep at nite.

Scott,
We have an emergency "After Hours" program in place:
Contracted customers pay $110/hour for service if they demand it after 5:00 or anytime on weekends/holidays.
Non-contracted customers pay $220/hour for the same service.

These fees are charged even if it is a legitamate machine malfunction. Our simple reasoning is: Service agreements are not designed to cover the fees of paying a technician overtime.

Cool I may be able to sleep better tonite as I was awake at 3:30 fighting it.

Some additional info:
There are only two of us that are on call for emergency service. When we are on call, we are paid an additional $40/week ($1/hour) just for being on call. If deployed to an after hours call, we then get an additional "Time-and-a-half" from the point of dispatch to the point of returning home. We are given the opportunity to first fix a customer by phone if possible, then if on-site service is necessary, the customer decides whether or not it is worth the additional fees to them. If not... they simply wait until next business day to get service.

Hope this all helps. Feel free to give me a call if you would like more detail.
864-644-4113
Regards,
Dan Hill

I think the rule of thumb is disclosure. Whenever a customer is printing something and has a problem we always ask that they purge any pending jobs, disconnect the network cable and print an internal status page.
If it's working at that point it's not a contracted issue (unless they have a network contract with us).
If it locks back up when they plug it back in, it's a job or network issue and we advise we would be happy to help but it will cost. Overtime rates apply if they're willing to pay.

Thanks for this post, we just ran into this problem last week when a "enough infomation to be dangerious" customer decided to print the status page and take the ip address off the "wired" side of the (sp)instead of the wireless which he was wireless, I am going to charge him for that call.