Before You Fight a Callback, Price It

The problem in one breath

She says the back bedroom ceiling is wet, and you're pretty sure that stain isn't your work. So you spend three weeks on the phone being right. The fix was a pipe boot and two hours.

Why it happens

Nobody ever put a number on a callback, so it gets settled on principle instead of arithmetic. "It isn't ours" feels like the whole answer. The question is what saying that costs you against what fixing it costs you.

The play

1. Price the fix off your own numbers. What a crew hour costs you loaded — wage plus everything you pay on top of it, the number you bid with (Module 10, Play 4). What a trip out costs: truck, fuel, a man behind the windshield instead of on a roof. Then hours times that loaded cost, plus material, plus trips times what a trip costs. That's the fix, in dollars. The callback log (Play 1) does it as you type the row. Both that number and the log's cost column are roof-side only — the ceiling inside the house, and anything a carrier gets into, is its own number and its own decision, so nobody eats a ceiling thinking it was a two-hour call. If the walk card (Play 2) says water got inside, price that damage before you decide — a two-hour roof fix over a ruined bedroom is not cheap.

2. Price the fight the same way. A second trip to prove a point, the third phone call, a foreman pulled off a roof you already sold, your own afternoon. Total it beside the fix. Once your own hours are in it, which one is bigger is a question your own paper answers — total both before you decide it on principle. Then the part nobody can price: what she writes where the next ten homeowners read it (Module 3, Play 5) — real money, and no number goes on it.

3. Set the fix beside what that roof made. You graded the job when the last check cleared (Module 6, Play 19), so you know what it made. Two hours and a boot against a whole roof's profit is a ten-second decision. A fix that eats most of what the job made is a different animal — that one goes to the callback read (Play 6), because the way you build it or price it is wrong, not this homeowner.

4. Nothing gets priced until somebody has climbed. No bucket from Play 2, no fix number — and a no out of the office is the one you can't take back.

5. Cheap and arguable, eat it fast. Small next to what that roof made, and arguable either way? Quit arguing and go fix it — today, not after two more calls. Speed is most of the value. When it's genuinely not your work and not cheap, saying no is on the table — but read your warranty page (Play 3) and the contract she signed first, and ask your own attorney where the wording isn't clear — what you signed and what your state requires decide it, not what feels fair. How you say it matters more than the money: in person, at the house, not by text or email, with the photos and a written price for the repair in your hand.

6. When you eat one that isn't yours, say out loud that you're eating it. Say it to her in the card's words, with the number in it. A fix nobody names as a favor buys nothing — she just thinks you fixed your own mistake. Then log the row at its real cost, zero billed.

Do this this week

Take the last callback you argued about. Write down hours, material and trips, multiply them out, and set the total against what that roof made on its grade. Fifteen minutes, and you'll know whether the argument was worth having.

The tool

One card, more stop sign than worksheet. Keep it where the no gets said. Question one ends it by itself if nobody has climbed. The rest turns the callback into two dollar figures and a name against a day, in pen, before you pick the phone back up.

BEFORE YOU SAY NO — five questions

Job / address: ______________________  Called in: ______
Roof finished: __________  Crew: ______________________

1. HAS ANYBODY BEEN ON THAT ROOF?
   [ ] Yes - date: ________   Who went: ________________
   [ ] No  - STOP HERE. Nothing below gets answered from
             the office. Send somebody, then come back.

2. WHAT DOES THE FIX COST?
   Hours ____ x loaded hourly cost $____ = $________
   Material ....................... + $________
   Trips ____ x cost per trip $____ = + $________
   THE FIX ........................ = $________

3. WHAT DID THIS ROOF MAKE?
   Profit on this job (its grade) ... $________
   The fix is this share of it ...... ____ %

4. WHAT DOES THE FIGHT COST?
   Second trip .................... $________
   Third call, your hours ......... $________
   Man pulled off a sold roof ..... $________
   THE FIGHT ..................... = $________
   Plus what she writes about you - real money, and
   nobody can put a number on it. Don't try.

5. STILL SAYING NO? THEN:
   [ ] Warranty page and her signed contract read first -
       what you promised in writing decides this
   Who says it: ____________________  Day: ________
   In person, at the house. Not by text. Not by email.
   Bring: the photos, and a written price for the repair.

IF YOU EAT IT, SAY IT OUT LOUD
   "This one wasn't our work. It would have run you about
    $______. We're not charging you for it."
   Then the log row: what the fix cost $______, billed $0.
   A favor nobody names buys you nothing.

If your crew is 1099

The arithmetic doesn't change, but the fix isn't yours to hand out. A man of yours still goes and looks — she called you, and the diagnosis is yours (Play 2). The fix is the sub company's to make under its own agreement: hand the company the photos, what's wrong and the day it has to be right, and don't put his men to work yourself. If he won't or can't make that day, you fix it and settle the money afterward — what comes off his next check, or doesn't, is whatever the two of you already put in writing (Module 12, Play 4), so ask your own attorney before you hold anything back. Price it first; a number beats an argument with him too. She hears your answer either way, not his.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.