Diagnostic Visit
A diagnostic visit is a paid visit whose job is finding out what is wrong, not pricing the fix. It earns a fee on its own, whether or not any repair work follows it.
What it means
A diagnostic visit is not a quote in disguise — the client is paying you to answer a question ("what is actually wrong with this"), not asking you to price a job you both already understand. That answer is worth something on its own, even if the client decides not to go ahead with the fix.
Price it as its own line, separate from the repair. State the fee before you travel, and say plainly whether it credits against the work if the client goes ahead — some trades credit it, some treat it as a fully separate charge for the finding, and either is fair as long as you say which one up front.
A client reports an intermittent fault with no obvious cause. You charge a $90 diagnostic visit to find it, and credit that $90 against the repair if they book it. You spend forty minutes tracing the fault; the client decides to live with it for now. The $90 still covers your time.
Calling a diagnosis a "free look" because it sounds like a quote visit, then absorbing an hour of real troubleshooting for nothing when the client decides not to book the fix.
See also
Where this shows up
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