The things people ask before booking

Standard tasks want 24 hours' notice. Same-day is usually possible if you call before about two o'clock, and rush dispatch inside four hours is available most days at the rush rate. The honest answer is that the desk will tell you at quote stage, and we would rather say no than promise a window we will miss.

$65 an hour with a one-hour minimum, or $55 an hour if the task needs no vehicle. Most of what we do is not on a published list — the lists exist because people like seeing a number, not because they are the limit.

One hour on on-demand hourly work, then 15-minute increments. Members have no minimum at all — a 20-minute task bills as 20 minutes. Flat-rate courier runs have no minimum because the price is the price.

No, and most clients never do. Membership makes sense somewhere around four tasks a month; below that, paying per task is cheaper and you should.

Because the honest discount has a floor. A scheduled member hour is genuinely cheaper for us to produce, and that saving funds the $57.80 rate. Below about $53 an hour the discount overtakes the saving and the money has to come out of what the runner is paid or how carefully the task is done. So both plans buy hours at the same rate and differ on priority, hours and who owns your file.

We withdrew it. It sold hours at $48.33, below the rate at which the work pays for itself properly, and it consumed thirty hours of capacity every month that another household could have had. Households that need that much are better served by Private Household, which is quoted against the actual work rather than against a block of hours.

Through the Errandables Wallet. You load a balance, we draw against it for approved purchases, every receipt is photographed and attached to the task, and there is an 8% handling fee with a $10 minimum and a $150 cap. Your balance is your money — it is not income to us, we do not use it as working capital, and it is refundable in full on request. Runners never advance their own funds and never hold your card.

Yes, $35 a month, and it is included on Signature. Keys are held in a numbered, sealed, tamper-evident envelope in a fixed safe, logged in and out by named individual, never labelled with an address and never copied. Every release and return is recorded on a key custody record you can ask to see.

$1,000,000 general liability. We issue a certificate naming your company, building or landlord within one business day of a request, at $25. Ask before you need it rather than after.

Independent contractors, background-checked, vetted, insured and briefed on your file before they arrive. Pay bands are published on our careers page because we think you should be able to see what the person at your door is being paid.

Yes, and it is the single most useful thing we do. Dry cleaning every Thursday, returns every Friday, a parent check-in every Saturday, an office mail run every weekday afternoon. Set it once; change or pause it with one message. Every completed task also offers Repeat this task.

Yes. Your household profile holds preferred stores, brands, sizes, substitution rules, access instructions, the dry cleaner's account name and anything else that stops us asking twice. Sensitive entries are access-restricted and you can change or delete any line at any time.

We tell you at the quote stage, and then we usually find you somebody who can — licensed, insured, three quotes, scheduling handled, door opened, completion photographed. We take no commission from anyone we introduce you to, and their invoice comes to you directly from them.

Clinical specimens and patient records. Passenger transport. Hands-on personal care. Cooking, serving or supplying alcohol. Home repair over $1,000. Showing property or hosting an open house. Home inspections. Booking or selling travel. Letting or managing property. Legal, tax or financial advice. Firearms, controlled substances, cash above $500. Unaccompanied care or transport of children.

No, and this matters. Errandables Family Assist is non-medical: a friendly scheduled visit, the shopping, the pharmacy collection as an authorised agent, the vendor let in, and a written report with photographs to the family contact afterwards. No lifting, bathing, dressing, medication handling or transport of the person. Where hands-on care is needed we say so and refer you to a licensed home care provider.

Because a task cannot be closed in our system without the proof it requires. Depending on the job that means photographs, timestamps, a recipient signature, a chain-of-custody record or a written report — and if the proof was not captured, the task is not billed.

An incident record opens the same day, with photographs and the evidence from the task. Where the evidence is inconclusive, it is resolved in the client's favour. We would rather absorb a disputed $80 than argue about it with somebody who is going to need us again next Thursday.

Everything within 15 miles of ZIP 20151 is included in the published rates — which covers most of Fairfax and Loudoun. Beyond that we still come, with mileage quoted openly at $1.25 a mile before you approve anything, across the District, Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland.

Yes. Dispatch runs seven days, 07:00 to 21:00. Work before 08:00, after 18:00 on a weekday, or at any time on a weekend carries a $25 an hour uplift, and federal holidays are plus 50%. All of it is on the quote before you approve it.

Never expected. If you do, it goes to the runner in full — there is a tip field on every receipt and no amount is pre-selected.