Frequently Asked Questions

Am I going to be charged to go get parts?
The best answer is: Sometimes.

Our policy is that if we come to fix your equipment and we do not have a part that our competition would normally have, then we will go and get it for you at no charge. If we do something stupid like run out of Freon, then that is not something that you should be held accountable for and there too, we will go get it for you at no charge.

On the other hand, there are many parts that no service agency stocks and we will charge you for the time involved to get these parts. Some but not all these parts are compressors, condenser fan motors, TX valves, Blower motors, refrigeration heaters and parts for appliances the distributor does not have in stock. Get the idea? If not call us.

Why do you charge a travel charge when others do not?
Our competition are companies like Hobart, GCS, Fox services, Commercial Kitchen and many other local companies in your market. To the best of my knowledge, all of these companies charge a truck or travel charge. If you call them and ask if they charge a truck charge, the will tell you “no”. But when you ask them how much they charge you will see that they build in a hidden truck charge into their rate. They will tell you something like this, “We charge $80.00 for the first half hour and $80.00 for every hour after that.”

So the price for a half hour is the same as a price for a full hour???? Why is that?

It is because they are really charging you for their normal rate of $80.00 per hour or $40.00 for a half hour which leaves another $40.00! What is the reason for the extra $40.00 charged for the first ˝ hour??? That’s the hidden travel charge. Get it?

When do you charge overtime?
We charge an overtime rate of time and a half after 5:00PM Monday thru Friday. We also charge this rate on holidays and all weekends. There are a few exceptions to this rule.

If you call us for service in the morning and we do not get there until 4:00PM and the job winds up going after 5:00PM, you are not charged for overtime. You also are not charged for overtime if we choose to do a job for you on the weekend.

What are your hours of operation?
We are open 7 days a week 24 hours a day. We never close. And, we do not have people “on call”. We actually have technicians in the field in all our markets every single day of the week so you do not have to hope that we are able to contact a technician. We can immediately contact our techs.

When our office closes at 5:00, all phones are call forwarded to a technician of this company. There are no answering service or answering machines in this company ever. No matter when you call, there will always be a live employee of this company who can tell you exactly how long it will be before a technician will arrive to fix your problem.

How long will it take you to arrive after my service call to you for service?
Our normal arrival time is always the same day and usually within 1-4 hours. We can also arrive faster if you have an emergency like a walk in freezer which is down. We often times will arrive slower under certain circumstances as follows.

If we recognize your service call as a non emergency like putting gaskets on something or a piece of equipment that has been down for a couple of weeks, we may ask you if we can get to you in a day or so due to an increased work load.

What makes the Restaurant Repair Company better than others?
Because I care. I am the owner, Ted Baker. I hate to get complaints. But more than anything, I hate to get complaints for customers about things that are not my fault. I am not happy when one of my techs does something stupid and then I have to suffer because the customer calls me. My employees do not get many of these “Opportunities”

I own and operate this business. I sit in the same office as the accountant and the dispatcher so that while I am working, I generally hear at least 95% of everything that is happening.

It is also good because I am a technician and I have personally worked on every single machine that I send one of my technicians to. No technician is allowed to replace a compressor unless he calls me first and approves it with me. No one is allowed to tell me that he “Thinks the compressor is bad”. We do not change any parts unless a technician can prove to me and you that those parts are in fact, actually bad. Guessing is not allowed. And changing 4 or 5 parts in a “shot gun” approach is also not allowed. If the shot gun approach is the only way they can fix something, they need to go work for one of my competitors.

I also hold the state license for the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration from Texas.

We actually have one of our competitors here in San Antonio Texas where the owner has the AC license from the state of Texas but has never fixed an air conditioner or refrigerator in his entire life. I would be very surprised if he even knew how to connect a set of gauges to the system.

And last…

Our technicians get job offers from our competitors on a daily or weekly basis. I hear about this all the time. Our competitors would not be doing this if they were not the best.

If you work on something and it breaks down again in a short period, are you going to charge me again after I was already charged?
If the reason it broke is the same reason as before, then the answer is NO. You should never have to pay for the same repair twice if the problem is the same. Notice that I did not say if, “the symptoms were the same”.

Once we got this client who wanted us to fix a refrigerator free that we had worked on about 9 months ago. The reason she said we should fix it free is because it was doing the same thing, “It was not cooling” Do you see the problem here?

Every time something breaks in a refrigerator, the end result is that it is not cooling. In order for us to give you the repair free, it has to be the same part that we put in. If we put in a compressor and that compressor goes bad again, then that repair is free.

How much do you charge per hour?
We charge a $40.00 truck charge and $75.00 per hour. Sometimes; rarely, we charge mileage charges if your business is outside loop 1604 or very far away from our local office, but this will be told to you when you call in for service.

Will you give me a free estimate?
Yes. But understand there is a difference between an estimate and a diagnosis. An estimate is telling you how much it will cost to fix something. A diagnosis is telling you what is wrong with the appliance and what parts and labor your machine needs to be repaired.

We have to be picky about this because we used to give all free diagnosis’ and we often found that once we told someone what was wrong, they would fix the problem without us.

If you are a brand new client we will probably give you a free estimate and a free diagnostic for two or three times but this is not something we will do indefinitely. Eventually if you keep calling, it would turn out to be only a free estimate.

Why should Restaurant Repair Customers not call the service technicians direct on his cell phone?
Since all our technicians wear cell phones there is often a tendency for the customer to ask for this number and then call the technician direct and request service. This is bad of both you and I. In the past we have gotten phone calls from irate customers who say that they have called us 3 or 4 times and no one has shown up! When we investigate how that happened, we always find that the customer did not call the company, but instead called the tech, and the tech never told us.

The purpose of calling our office for your service call is so that we have a record of the call and we can monitor the progress and the satisfactory solution to the call.

If you call the technician and tell him the call, most often he does not tell us.

Additionally, there is one more reason not to call the tech. There are some customers who try to get our employees to do service for them “on the side.” We would like you to understand that if such an offer is made to one of our employees and he accepts this is considered to be theft from the company. Theft means a thief and that means this person is dishonest. We will never send anyone to your store who is dishonest and if there is ever a time where we can prove that he did side work or was blatantly or purposefully dishonest; he is immediately terminated.

Please consider these issues should you be tempted to make such a request. These policies exist for our mutual protection.

Are there any other hidden charges like mileage?
NO. There are never any hidden charges. We will always tell you and get your approval for any extra, abnormal charges. If we intend to charge overtime, we will always inform you of that, ask your permission and record the name of the person that said yes or no.

In some rare cases, we charge for mileage or just extra time because your business may be so far away. Before we send a technician to you in such a case, we will always tell you of these charges and get your approval. Again recording the name of the person that said yes or no; in our records.

Are there any special deals you can offer me on prices?
Yes. We are always looking for more business and more highly skilled technicians. If you are able to help us in either of these areas, we can talk about some very special money saving deals for you in the future.

This is particularly a good deal if you are one of many chain restaurants such as Red Lobster, Chili’s or a chain like that.