A Christmas light service call is priced as a flat call-out fee that covers the drive and the first half hour, plus parts. The only installer page we found that publishes a number, Christmas Lights Experts DFW, lists $75 to $125 for diagnosis and minor repairs, $5 to $15 per bulb, $50 to $150 per strand, and $0 for its own customers. Below: example service prices, the warranty split, the lease clause, and a December call worked to $343.
I run a permanent lighting company in Ottawa and I built GlowBid. The service prices on this page are example settings, labelled as such; the warranty terms are the manufacturers' own pages, linked.
The service price list#
These are example settings for a service line on a rate card, not GlowBid defaults. GlowBid's default card has no service line; you add one as an add-on or a custom item priced each, and every installer sets their own numbers.
| Service item |
Example setting (ours) |
Published range |
Our own permanent install, year 1 |
Lease with maintenance included |
| Service call (drive plus first 30 minutes) |
$125 |
$75 to $125 own customers; $125 to $250 plus parts on others' installs (DFW) |
$0 if the fault is ours or the product's |
$0 |
| Time past the first 30 minutes |
$95 per hour |
not published |
$0 |
$0 |
| Seasonal bulb, replaced on the line |
$8 each |
$5 to $15 (DFW) |
not applicable |
$0 |
| Seasonal strand or line section |
$85 each |
$50 to $150 (DFW) |
not applicable |
$0 |
| Timer, plug or power fault |
call fee plus part |
$100 to $200 (DFW) |
$0 |
$0 |
| Permanent node, inside product warranty |
call fee, part $0 |
not published |
$0 |
not applicable |
| Permanent node, outside product warranty |
call fee plus part at cost plus markup |
not published |
not applicable |
not applicable |
| Controller swap |
call fee plus part |
not published |
$0 inside labour warranty |
not applicable |
| Customer-caused fault (unplugged, cut, moved router) |
full price, always |
not published |
full price |
full price |
| Takedown (for scale) |
own line, see the takedown guide |
$100 to $400, about $0.50 per foot (Angi) |
|
included |
The column that matters is the last two. Most calls in December are on lights you installed, and most of those are on you. The list exists for the rest.
When is a service call billable and when is it warranty?#
Billable when the cause is outside the job; warranty when the cause is the product or the work. That is the whole rule, and writing it on the agreement is what stops the argument at the door.
On a seasonal install the season's service belongs inside the install price: a strand that fails, a timer that drifts, a section that comes loose in wind are the installer's to fix without a bill. Christmas Lights Experts DFW says the same on its page, no service-call fees for customers it installed and stores for. Billable is the homeowner who unplugged the timer to run a leaf blower, the eavestrough contractor who cut the line, the dog, and every display we did not install.
On permanent, the split is by warranty: parts from the manufacturer for as long as their document says, labour from you for as long as yours says. Inside both, $0. Outside labour but inside parts, the call fee and no part. Outside both, the call fee and the part. Print which one applies on the invoice so the homeowner sees why the number is what it is.
How much for the service call fee?#
Enough that a December call-out is not a loss, which means the drive plus the first half hour on site at your loaded crew rate. Our example is $125, at the top of DFW's $75 to $125 for its own customers and the bottom of its $125 to $250 for other people's installs. Charging less on strangers' displays than on your own makes no sense: an unknown install takes longer to diagnose, and you are competing with the installer who put it up and is not answering the phone.
Two ways to make the fee easier to say. First, quote it on the phone before you roll, with the per-bulb and per-strand prices, so the number is agreed before the ladder comes off. Second, waive it when the call turns into a takedown or a next-season install. The seasonal per-foot pricing guide has the install side; the service fee is the smallest line on the rate card and the one you say out loud most often.
Per-node or per-strand: which do you charge?#
Per strand on seasonal, per call on permanent, and per bulb only when bulbs are the whole job. A seasonal C9 line fails by the section: a socket corrodes, a section goes dark, and you replace the section, so the unit is the strand. Our example is $85 per strand, inside DFW's $50 to $150, with $8 per bulb for the loose lamps you swap while you are up there.
A permanent system fails by the node, and a node costs less than the drive to reach it. Pricing a node at $15 and driving 40 minutes each way is how a service business loses money. Price the call, then the part: inside the product warranty the node is free, outside it the node is at cost plus your markup. Ask your manufacturer whether nodes replace one at a time or by the section, because that answer decides whether a single dead node is a ten-minute job or a channel-off job.
A seasonal re-lamp on customer-owned lights (they bought the strands, you put them up) is a labour line, not a repair. GlowBid's default seasonal service line is $3 per foot on roofline and ridge line, $3.50 on peaks, $2 on ground and $2.50 on trees, and a re-lamp before install is a per-bulb line on top of it, or a flat pre-season check.
What does the warranty cover on a permanent install?#
Parts from the manufacturer, labour from you, and every brand we read on September 7, 2026 keeps the two separate.
| Brand |
Product warranty |
Labour warranty |
What to notice |
| Trimlight |
50,000 hours on standard residential ("lifetime"); ridge lights one year; landscape ten years; control board software excluded |
Minimum one year, from the dealer |
Register within 30 days of install; report a defect within 30 days of finding it |
| JellyFish Lighting |
Three years on parts for holiday lighting |
One year |
The shortest published parts term of the four |
| Gemstone Lights |
Lights 50,000 hours; power kits, controllers, cables, connectors and tracks ten years |
One year; "service charges may apply after year one" |
Register within 30 days; transferable once |
| EverLights |
One to ten years by product |
Not covered by EverLights |
Labour is entirely the installer's call |
The homeowner hears "lifetime" and expects a free ladder in year six. Trimlight's own warranty blog (September 2, 2026) says the labour is the dealer's independent commitment past year one. So your agreement should say, in one sentence, what the manufacturer covers and for how long, what you cover and for how long, and that after that a service call is billed at the rate on the invoice. GlowBid's default clause reads: workmanship is warranted for one year from the installation date; product warranties are provided by the manufacturer. The permanent lighting agreement template has the longer version.
Register the product warranty the day you finish. Two of the four brands void it after 30 days.
The maintenance SLA in a lease#
A multi-year seasonal lease includes maintenance, and the per-season price has to carry the cost of it. The homeowner is paying for lights that work every night from install to takedown without a phone call, so the agreement promises a response time and the price funds the truck.
GlowBid's default lease clause says: maintenance is included for the term; failed strands, bulbs and controllers are repaired or replaced at no charge; response within 48 hours of the report and within 24 hours in December. Storage liability is capped at $500 per the default clause. Those are defaults you edit, and the multi-year lease template shows the wording with a note that it is not legal advice.
Pricing it is arithmetic on your own calls. If one lease in ten needs a December truck and your loaded cost for that visit is around what you would bill a stranger, the maintenance premium per lease is a tenth of a service call plus parts. Put it in the season price. Never bill a leased customer for a strand, because the strand is yours.
Controller and app faults#
Remote first, free. Then the truck, billed by cause. Most controller calls are not the controller: the router moved, the Wi-Fi password changed, a breaker tripped, a schedule was set to the wrong time zone. Walk the homeowner through a power cycle and an app check on the phone. If that fixes it, no charge and a note on the customer record.
If it needs a visit, the cause decides the bill. Customer network or power: call fee. Controller hardware inside the manufacturer's term: part is a claim, labour follows your labour warranty. Software: Trimlight's warranty page lists control board software as not covered, and other brands are vague, so a firmware fault outside your labour term is a billable call whatever the app says. Keep a spare controller on the truck in December; the second trip costs more than the unit.
Worked example: a December call on a display someone else installed#
A homeowner calls on December 9. Half the roofline is dark on a C9 display a different company put up in November and is not answering. Example settings from the table, nothing from GlowBid's default card except the tax line, which is zero by default and set to your rate.
| Line |
Quantity |
Rate |
Line total |
| Service call, drive plus first 30 minutes |
1 |
$125.00 |
$125.00 |
| Time past the first 30 minutes |
0 |
$95.00 per hour |
$0.00 |
| Strand or line section replaced |
2 |
$85.00 |
$170.00 |
| Bulbs replaced on the line |
6 |
$8.00 |
$48.00 |
| Subtotal |
|
|
$343.00 |
| Tax (set on your rate card) |
|
|
as set |
| Total, due on completion |
|
|
$343.00 plus tax |
Quoted on the phone at "$125 to come out, then $85 a strand and $8 a bulb", agreed, paid by card on the invoice's pay link before the truck left. Same house, if we had installed it: $0, and the two strands and six bulbs are a cost against the November job. Same house on a lease with maintenance: $0, and a 24-hour response clock started when the homeowner texted. You can measure that roofline in the free tool if the call turns into a quote for next year.
A permanent version: a two-year-old install with three dead nodes, product under a 50,000-hour warranty, labour warranty expired. Parts $0 as a claim, call fee $125, one hour past the first half hour at $95, total $220 plus tax. Inside year one the same visit is $0 and $220 of your cost.
Minus 30 call-outs and other edge cases#
- Minus 30 with wind. Some calls wait. Say on the agreement that service visits are scheduled at the first safe temperature and wind, and that an outage during a cold snap is not a breach. GlowBid's default lease wording moves dates for snow, ice, high wind and extreme cold with no penalty either way.
- Ice on the line. A dark section under ice is not a fault yet. Wait for the thaw before the ladder goes up; the strand often comes back on its own.
- The GFCI trip. Many December outages on seasonal displays are a tripped outdoor outlet after rain. Teach the homeowner the reset button on the first visit and put it on the invoice.
- "It was working last night." A dead timer or a changed schedule. Check the timer before you check the lights.
- Strangers' displays with no parts match. If you cannot match the strand, you are replacing a section with a different bulb. Say so before you do it, and bill it.
- The warranty you did not register. Trimlight and Gemstone both require registration within 30 days. Miss it and every part is on you.
- Storing leased lights badly. Strands stored wet come out dead in November and the maintenance clause makes them yours to replace. Label the bin, dry the lights, note the condition on the asset record.
Where it goes on the rate card and the invoice#
Every line in the table above is an add-on or a custom priced-each item on the GlowBid rate card, so a service call is quoted the same way an install is: pick the customer, add the items, the total appears, the invoice prints with the deposit received, the payments ledger and a pay link. On a lease, the install job and the takedown job are created by the signed agreement, and a maintenance visit is logged against the same customer so the year-two renewal shows what the season actually cost you. The takedown pricing guide covers the other January truck roll. Founding pricing for the whole loop is on the pricing page: $299 a year for Core with a 7-day trial and no card.
