I finally started charging a trip fee for washer calls across the river, and my regulars are split down the middle

Mark Perry · 2026-10-09T00:05:05.374215+00:00

I was at the supply house on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie grabbing a drain pump when a guy named Sal who runs a two man shop out of Newburgh asked me how I handle calls across the river. I said I just eat the bridge toll and the extra 40 minutes, and he looked at me like I was nuts. He said he tacks on a flat $35 trip fee for anything past the Hudson and hasn't lost a customer in two years, which got me thinking about the 60 or so calls a year I do over there. So I tried it starting in March, and here's the split. The older folks in the river towns don't blink, they just want their Maytag fixed and hand me a check. But a few longtime customers got real cold about it, one lady in Beacon said she'd been calling me since 2016 and felt like I was nickel and diming her, which stung a little. My take is the fee is fair since gas and tolls are real money, but I get why it rubs people the wrong way when it shows up as a line item they never saw before. Do you all bill travel separate or just bake it into your hourly and keep your mouth shut about it?

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I finally started charging a trip fee for washer calls across the river, and my regulars are split down the middle | Appliance Repairers - Hub Chatter