A lot of my customers are upset with the new fees that I have to charge.
I really don’t have any choice, because gas prices have doubled in the past four months.
Before summer, I was spending about $2 a gallon for gas. Now gas is more than $4 a gallon and it’s cutting into my profits. I’ve been in business for the past eight years and I have never charged a single customer a trip fee. A lot of HVAC companies will charge a trip fee if a customer is outside of their regular area. I have never charged a fee, but I had to start last month. With gas prices doubling in such a short time, I have no choice. Many of my customers are more than 40 miles away. In order to continue servicing these customers, I have to charge an extra fee for the longer distances. This is the only way that I can get away with keeping prices the same. I thought about raising the prices of many regular h3ac services, but I don’t want to hit customers in town with higher rates. 80% of my HVAC repair customers are in town and it’s important that they are happy with the company and the prices. They are a dozen different companies they can call for service. Until gas prices return to normal, I don’t have any other choice. I need to keep the business moving forward. I hope that I won’t lose too many customers over the trip fee, but it’s a chance I’m going to have to take.