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I work for a commercial/industrial outfit now. Don't do any residential, but I have in the passed. We do alot computer rooms - They call we go - period. Of course they are told of the price difference. (time and a half) At all times we have 2 techs,1 supervisor, and 1 control tech on call. We've gotten alot of accounts by responding when other would not.

wow i wasn't expecting that many replies. we sure have many refrigeration techs here. I stay away from refrigeration for the reason many of you stated if its 3am you gotta go. I do appreciate everyones response i find it amazing how in the hvac industry how things differ so much from one company to another and one area of the country to another.

We have 6 techs and we take turns, 1 week on call (fri -thur), minimum 2 hrs OT (time and a half, double on stats) and your paid from when you leave till you get home. We also get $150 tool allowance for each week on call. Because we have the contract for a small local supermarket chain, if you get a call at 1am, 3am whatever, and the pack is down you go. Also a couple fish packing plants. Those are the emergency calls. Most home owners will wait for monday once they hear $102 per hour.

Originally posted by sparky383
Work for a commercial refrig/heat cool/ company

We only go out for real emergencies.......walk-in down, ice machine, or kitchen exhaust (fire alarm)

get 4 hours OT pay plus 1 1/2 pay from time leaving home to getting back home. dbl time on holidays.

For cust. 1 1/2 after 4:30 during week and 1 1/2 on weekends. dbl time on holidays

Now THAT is a fine way to run a service dept!!! I am impressed.

However, I would not roll out for an ice maker. One call and they can have ice in any quantity delivered. That's much faster than repairing a machine and waiting for it to drop a couple hundred pounds ...
Plus, with delivered ice, no one is in the way of the people who are in the restaurant or store.

A tech does a much better job on regular time than OT. He isnt rushed to get to the next call and he knows he has backup as well as full access to parts houses, etc.

Plus ... a tech needs their rest. Sure, OT money is nice, but when your in the busy season, the tech is already flush with their bills anyway. What they really need during that time is rest, not more to do.


And of course, no contractor in his right mind would hire flex labor.
Someone semi retired to come fill in the spots as needed.
THAT would make too much sense!!!

I like your reasoning troyorr. Now if it could only work like that in the "real world"!! My approach: Just how em-urgent is it?? Willingness to pay OT rates(COD) equates to severity of need. ALWAYS!! It is amazing how many calls magicall evaporate after hours.

After 1 am if they want to pay triple I go myself lol. But if a tech went on the call I would pay him triple you betcha.


Right on....should be standard in the industry.

its double bubble if i get home from work and then are called out. the phone is switched to phone the tech directly whom is on call. we do not go out for non contract customers period unless the boss autheroises the call. I explain the charges to the customer and then I go
we do commercial hvac so mostly its server rooms or 24hr care homes or the odd residental tower that calls

Work for a commercial refrig/heat cool/ company

We only go out for real emergencies.......walk-in down, ice machine, or kitchen exhaust (fire alarm)

get 4 hours OT pay plus 1 1/2 pay from time leaving home to getting back home. dbl time on holidays.

We have a maintenance contract with 95% of cust. so it is rare to go out for something stupid other than the occasional belt.

On call once every 5 weeks until summer then we double up and have a back up person in case first called ends up getting slammed with more calls.

We also charge for round trip mileage. Round trip travel or picking up and returning with parts is all billed by our hourly rate.

For cust. 1 1/2 after 4:30 during week and 1 1/2 on weekends. dbl time on holidays

Here it varies, the smaller shops that are hungry will be at the customers beck and call for cheap, but the established companies charge time and a 1/2 for the hours between 6 and 9 and double time from 9 to 11 with an hour give and take for different shops. After that the answering service takes the calls till 8 am. If there is a prior contract for 24/7 then they have paid dearly and the tech gets double time if they are the 2 o clock sucker. But for residential, the only emergency is a care facility like a adult foster home or a developmentally delayed group home and it has to be freezing outside literally and the answering service has a criteria checklist on the computer to verify emergency status before they place the call to the tech. If it is a commercial contract, it also has to be loss of product to warrant a midnight call. Same thing it is disclosed up front before the service tech ever gets woke up by the answering service that it is "x" amount of dollars if the service guy comes. But here it is sometimes just time and a 1/2 to be on call and the shop gets the rest of the profit. Just be aware of the variances and interview your prospective employer as to the expectations. It is not called an employee interrogation, it is an interview, two sided discussion of the expectations of both parties. Take a pen and paper and ask questions, a good employer sees that as being thorough, smart and ready, a bad employer sees it as being picky and paranoid.

I deal with alot of Very large server rooms and Drug Manufactors When they call you gots to go 24/7 365 days a year I'm on call every eight weeks it's not bad, other calls I try to put off till the next day I had a couple calls where I fixed the problem over the phone it went something like this: "Sir your stat needs to be in the auto position not the off position" Got to love them calls but they are few and far. Bottom line 24/7 service means 24/7!!

I did not state that I get OT for my after hour calls and I get $105.00 extra for the week.. but summer is coming and this is not good, we can work unlimited hours for 7 months straight and still be on call. oh well the checks are good,,... anyone need a job in az......

It's the companies that run 24/7 that is the problem. Why should a tech have to leave his bed to go clean a coil or change a filter. If it is not done by 11 pm it can wait for the next morning. Except now companies worry that the guy down the street will take the call and loose revenue.

Kinda pisses me off when I'm doing routine maintance on equipment when my family is home asleep.

Last Saturday night I went 20 miles to look at a furnace. Blower was caked. Rug for a filter. And yes a cracked heat exchanger. My company was selected because we had the cheapest OT rates. (almost none exsistant).

Left the furnace disabled, called the land lord, left a generous proposal, and picked up a check from the renter. We didn't get the replacement. Even though we went out late Saturday night. Simular story earlier this year. Didn't get that job either. And we lost money on the call. Well at least I got paid.

Then you get the *******s that don't want to take time off from work. Last time I checked there no heat wasn't my problem. "Can you come a 4 o'clock?"

dave you must be a liberal you gave your opininion without giving details to the question posed. I appreciate some of the replies but it hasn't helped me much. I work in north virginia and last year i made over $75,000 yet can in no way afford a home that is not a severe fixer upper and even then its borderline and even those are hard to find. I currently drive on average over an hour and a half each way to my first call and from my last call and some days almost 3 hours and i won't discuss if there is a wreck on the beltway. My dilemma is i work for a good company have a good boss and i'm in a supervisor position myself. I'm only oncall every 7 weeks and its not 24 hour service. Now i'd like to move south where single family housing is more realistic with what i'd likely make but am nervous about the 24 hour service dilemma. My current company takes any call that comes in and we do not charge overtime ever and there is never a time that when the faxlist gets checked at 8am there are always a list of people that called in for something at 1am 3am 5am and so on. I'd never get a wink of sleep if i gotta be up all through the night screening calls.

I hope this give you guys more to go on and i get more replies. my target location as of right now is raleigh nc with consideration going to orlando fl. I use to live in raleigh and i have friends in orlando.

unfortunatly, we all chose our professions and our jobs are here for serving the customers. this is a customer service job and we should respond to the calls when they come in , day or night. I personally hate being on call but I do run the calls....

I work for a contractor, not for my self, and we have 24 hour 7 day a week 365 days a year on call. We are a large company and we rotat on call, one week a time, each guy has two weeks a year. I em fine with this because if you do not take care of your customers someone else will.Granted we are a commercial contractor that does refrigeration work. But we also get no heat and no cooling calls in the midel of the night. We only get time and ahalf for after hour calls, but we get profit sharing once a year. We use an answering service to take custmer call after 5:00 PM until 8o AM and weekends. We have company cell phones and they call us on the phone when a call comes in.We call the customer and let them know that it is time and a half and the time starts when I leave my house until I get home. The company policey is if the customer will pay we go.We are very cusomer driven, we do no advertising, no yellow pages, and we are very busy, we rely on word of mouth,and the companys long time history.If the customer is willing we will try to talk them through the problem, sometimes it works. I hope this helps.

i gott agree most residential customers don't know what an emergency is. water leaks and gas leaks can usually be turned off. i understand in refrigeration service you gotta be ready 24/7. when there is 50k worth of produce on the line it needs up now. residential isnt that demanding and i have a theory that more talented technicians are migrating towards the companies that don't run 24/7 therefore there is better quality of service being offered by those companies providing you don't need service at 2 am. all just a theory though. I've done commercial and residential to cover three companies and the cutoff was 10, 10, and 8pm respectively. i just never found anything compelling enough to work for a company that runs 24/7 and can't figure out out why anyone would if they had the choice.

What usually constitutes an emergancy is this: they cannot hold their product without losing it and it's after business hours at the store.

Residentail customers dont know what an emergency is. So you have to introduce them to the higgher service charge when they insist on coming after five PM.

Commercial accounts will only use you when they have either an issue of convenience or truly have an emergency.
But most times they call, it is their fault for not planning ahead.
But I would still go anyway cause they are the one;'s who pay the bills. The employer only writes the checks.
The customer pays the bills! ALL OF THEM!!!


Do I like rolling on a call at eleven PM when they really dont need service but merly want to be prepared for tomorrow's delivery? HECK NO!!!
But I get paid to go. And stiing home after turning down that call, is grounds for being fired in some people's book.
I work for the paycheck. Not for the thrill of the tasks.
So if a service man wants to keep his job, be best get used to rolling out whenever the customer says "jump"!
Providing they are willing to pay the fee's.

Sub Contract Emergency

Our company owner is very generous when it comes to emergency service. He pays the tech full markup on the job less 10%. Thats emergency serice call, labor and part mark up less 10%. Can anyone top that? There is 1 catch, if you bring the call back incomplete the next day, it goes back to the company and you only get the Emergency S/call. There are other rules you have to go by but i think you get the jist of it.

[Edited by appltech1 on 01-20-2005 at 10:11 PM]

We have a lot of full maintenance contracts, and i have personally gone out at 3:00am to work on a water cooler. (no joke) We have one account that requires us to come reguardless of time or holidays.

I want to work the night shift for Vern....you are the man Vern!

Where I work the office closes at 6PM.

From 6:01 until 9PM answering service sends text messages to our nextime uh I mean nextel phones so the oncall tech can call the customer to explain the OT and all that good stuff.

All calls after 9PM are held until the office opens in the morning.

Helps prevent tech burnout.