A quote can look clean at the top and still cost you more than you planned once the extra lines appear. The base hourly rate gets all the attention. The surcharge table, which lists what changes for nights, weekends, and holidays, gets skimmed. Read it first.
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Find every surcharge line
Look for each of these categories and write down the trigger in the agency’s own words: night hours, weekend hours, holiday hours, overtime, and any shift longer than a set length. If a category is missing from the quote, ask whether it exists at all. A category that is not listed can still be a category the agency bills.
Ask what triggers each line
- Does the surcharge start at a set clock time, and does it apply to the whole shift or only to the hours inside that window?
- Which days does the agency count as a weekend, and does a weekend shift that runs past midnight count as weekend hours?
- Which days make up the holiday list, and is that list written into the agreement?
- Do surcharges stack, so that a night shift on a holiday costs more than either line alone?
- Do the minimum shift lengths in the quote apply to surcharge hours too?
Ask for one shift worked through
Ask the agency to write out one sample shift, covering a night and a holiday if the table has both, and to show each line it adds. Compare the written total with the rate sheet. If the sum does not match what the sales call suggested, get the difference explained in writing before you sign.
If the agency will not say what triggers a surcharge, or will only say “it depends,” record that as silence. Silence on a line you will be billed for is a finding. For a full walkthrough of the quote itself, see how to read a home care quote. The method behind these findings is on our How We Rate page.