New EPA mandate for lead paint!

[hvacrsteve]

Starting April 10, 2010 there is a new mandate from the EPA that my company and many others must obtain, the cost to do this is approximately 50,000.00, we have aproximately 2,500 customers, not all will be affected by this.
I would gues approximately 40% of them directly.
My question is, I have to pass this through to my customers, if you were and some of you will be by the way(some company's customer), would you rather just a few dollars tacked on every service visit, like the phone company does, so you know its because of the EPA or you you prefer just to pay a higher rate and not see it itemized on an invoice?

It is another hidden tax is how I feel about it myself.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Rose Pink]

Starting April 10, 2010 there is a new mandate from the EPA that my company and many others must obtain, the cost to do this is approximately 50,000.00, we have aproximately 2,500 customers, not all will be affected by this.
I would gues approximately 40% of them directly.
My question is, I have to pass this through to my customers, if you were and some of you will be by the way(some company's customer), would you rather just a few dollars tacked on every service visit, like the phone company does, so you know its because of the EPA or you you prefer just to pay a higher rate and not see it itemized on an invoice?

It is another hidden tax is how I feel about it myself.

Thanks for sharing.

I'd prefer knowing.

 

[Kal]

...It is another hidden tax is how I feel about it myself....

Just another overhead cost of doing business. Take a look at your invoice from automobile repair shops. There's frequently a line item for "environmental related charges" or the like.

Lead and other heavy metals is a problem in commerce.

 

[1950bing]

Just make it part of the price. I remember the first time I paid to have tires done away with and took it as an insult.

 

[NWL]

I would prefer to see it as a line item on the receipt. I would also like to know about it ahead of time if I am getting an estimate for work to be performed. I dislike "surprise" charges on a receipt.

Cheers!

 

[hvacrsteve]

Just make it part of the price. I remember the first time I paid to have tires done away with and took it as an insult.

The issue is that not all of the competition actually obeys the law, so they can be at a huge cost advantage!

They usually don't enforce them either, even if you call the EPA, they have no interest in coming out to check out anything.

 

["Roger"]

The issue is that not all of the competition actually obeys the law, so they can be at a huge cost advantage...

In this case, I would make it a separate line item. That way, some customers might ask about it when they don't see it on other quotes. You can explain that it is a safety regulation imposed by the EPA to eliminate residue lead dust. Hopefully that will encourage some of them not to use the competition. (I fully relize that others will go for the cheapest quote.)

I would definitely avoid calling it a "hidden tax." Those who are concerned about safety will not be happy with that as a description of what they would see as a safety concern for themselves and their family.

 

[Kal]

How do you deal with other workplace safety issues that have a cost?

 

[hvacrsteve]

How do you deal with other workplace safety issues that have a cost?

They are currently figured into our pricing structure, we usually don't raise our prices but once a year. We haven't raised them for over 2 years at this point because of the current market conditions.

This requirement we did not know about until several weeks ago so we are scrambling with it. Most of our industry didn't know anything about it.

We just got done converting from r-22 to r-410 and raising all the equipment
ratings to 13 seer training.

Now we are hit with this one by some what of a surprise.

Most customers are shocked at the cost of replacing their HVAC systems.
What was 4-5 k a few years ago is now 8-10 k.

It is a huge difference so people are in a lot of cases just trying to repair what they have now.