BEWARE!!!
I had a window replaced that had the outer pane chipped. The glass cost was $198. The very pleasant gentleman drove out to my home (30 minute drive from Homer to Anchor Point) and installed the glass. They were here physically from "hi, how are you? Which window?" to pulling out of my driveway for about 25 minutes.
When we received the bill, though my husband when he ordered the glass was told labor charge was $75/hr, there was a $225 labor charge.
When Lakeshore Glass called me to discuss this I was told that two people came out, so we were charged $75/hr PER PERSON. We were charged $150/hr. But that still doesn't add up to the $225 labor charge we received. The explanation? We were charged for their travel time. We were charged $150 (30 minutes one way) for these two men to drive out here and back to the shop. The other $75 of that charge is the 30 minute labor charge for the ACTUAL labor of removal and installation. I could understand, and even expect, a delivery fee or out of area service charge. But $150?
The gentleman that called me tried to mansplain to me the expenses of running a business (my degrees are in business admin and accounting) and how that hour of them driving IS "labor" because he has a secretary to pay, and electricity, and "blah blah blah" business expenses. So I tried to tell him that if he were to take his truck to an auto shop where the shop rate is $90/hr and there are 4 hours of book time and it takes 3 mechanics to complete the job that he's STILL only being charged $90/hr for those 4 book hours, not $90/hr PER MECHANIC that worked on his vehicle? His response? "No? You're not? Really? You're not??" as if I'm uneducated in that area as well (my husband owned a shop for about 10 years) and have no idea what I'm talking about. When that justification didn't work, he tried to tell me how it would easily cost us more to have a glass delivered from Soldotna. Well, yes, we are most definitely quite a distance out of their service area, 3x the distance we are from Lakeshore's shop in Homer.
We did not put a rush on having this window replaced, zero urgency. We could have easily waited until they had a day they were going to be working in the area. So we can only hope that we were the ONLY home being serviced that day and charged $150 for their travel time. And that other homes in the area or on the way weren't also serviced and charged $150/hr for travel time as well.
If we would have been PROPERLY informed about the ACTUAL cost of labor, my husband, who works in construction/contracting, would have purchased the window and we would have transported and installed it ourselves.
INSTEAD ... we were screwed out of hundreds of our hard earned dollars because of gross misinformation of actual service charges. We could have easily been told that the cost is "$75/hr per laborer including travel time to your location." But we weren't. We were told "the labor charge is $75/hr." And who knows ... if we WERE properly informed perhaps we would STILL have opted to utilize their service out of convenience. At bare minimum we would have still purchased the glass.
However, we will never use Lakeshore glass again. read more
