Not anywhere close to me (Deep South gulf coast )at less than $100 to clean a sewer. I won’t even drive to your house for $100 unless I wanted to go out of business
I have a fun $100 plumber fee story. I was replacing the drain valve on a water heater at our cottage. The original metal one broke off and I needed a sawzall to cut the remaining piece off the threads. I didn't have all my tools with me (or even in the same state) and I needed to get the new valve on.
I called a neighbor to inquire if he had a sawzall as I had a plumbing issue. He said, "No, but I actually have a plumber standing right here, he was here to fix something, I can send him over when he is done."
Great, so the guy walks 15 feet to our cottage, I show him what I need to do, and ask if he has a sawzall. He said sure, goes to his van, gets one and brings it back to me, hands it to me, I cut the pipe, hand it back.
How much do I owe you?
"Well, my service call just to come here is $100"
I paid him $100, as frankly I was screwed for the moment without using his tool.
He gave me his card and urged me to call with any other plumbing needs. I have referred a different plumber in the area probably 10 times, never once this guy.
You can argue that it was worth $100 for a ten second cut or tool usage or not, but it felt predatory to me and would have served him well to say "oh $20 and a chance to earn your future business!" or something like that.
Your story just jogged my memory on that, it isn't anything like what you are saying, just reminded me of the story. I do agree with having a minimum number in mind before showing up! But this case as kinda special, and I used a tool and he did NOTHING.
Oh well, fun story to tell!
I ran an ad agency for years and every time I tried to do a small job for cheap as a favor to someone, I ended up spending way more time than it was ever worth.
