Maintenance pricing is often quoted before anyone has seen the fault, which is why final invoices so rarely match. European Technical quotes fixed prices after inspection, charges a AED 200 inspection fee that is refunded against the work, and says plainly when a price cannot be given in advance.
How maintenance pricing works in Dubai: fixed written quotes, a AED 200 refundable inspection fee, and honest treatment of what cannot be priced sight-unseen.
When we attend to diagnose a fault, we charge a AED 200 inspection fee. That covers a technician's travel and time and a proper diagnosis rather than a guess over the phone. If you proceed with the recommended repair or sign up to a maintenance contract, the AED 200 is refunded in full against that work. If you take the diagnosis and do nothing, you have still paid for a real finding: the cause of the leak, the state of the DB board, the reason the AC underperforms. We make this arrangement clear before attendance, so there is no surprise line on a bill. For contract clients, diagnosis is already included in the schedule, and the fee does not arise at all.
A fixed quote comes after the fault is seen. Our technician diagnoses on site, photographs the issue, and the office issues a written quotation listing the work, the materials, the labour and the price, valid for a stated period. Once you approve it, that number does not move unless the scope changes and you approve the change in writing before it proceeds. What we do not do is quote over the phone from a description, because descriptions are unreliable and phone prices are the ones that grow. If additional faults are found mid-repair, work stops and you get a written variation to approve or refuse. The photographic record attached to the quote means you are approving evidence, not a description.
Some things are priced predictably: a scheduled AC service visit, a known drain clearance, a valve replacement on a surveyed system. Those we quote firmly. Others genuinely cannot be priced sight-unseen: the depth of a leak's source, the state of wiring behind a board, the extent of duct damage above a ceiling. For those, the honest structure is inspection first, fixed quote second, work third. What we refuse to do is bury risk in a low headline price and recover it through extras. Where a repair opens a judgement call, such as repair versus replacement, the quote sets out both options with costs, so the decision stays with the person paying.
Annual maintenance contracts are priced from a physical survey of your building's assets: equipment counts, access, age and condition. The survey produces a scope, the scope produces the price, and the price holds for the contract term. There are no visit-by-visit surprises, because the schedule defines what each visit includes. Over a year, contract clients typically spend less than reactive callers for the same building, since scheduled work catches faults at maintenance cost rather than emergency cost. Call +971 50 168 5444 to book a survey, and the AED 200 will not apply.
Straight answers, before you book.
The refund applies when you proceed with the repair or contract. If you take the diagnosis and stop there, the fee stands, because the finding itself is the deliverable: the cause, photographed and documented. Either way, the arrangement is confirmed before we attend, so nothing is ambiguous.
Only with your written approval. If work reveals something outside the approved scope, we stop, photograph it, and issue a variation for you to approve or refuse. We do not proceed on assumptions and present the result as an invoice, which is the practice our fixed-quote model exists to prevent.
No. Written quotations for works identified through an inspection or a survey are free. The inspection fee covers diagnosis time on site. Once a diagnosis exists, quoting the fix is part of our job, not an extra line.
Speak to a technician now, not an answering service.