My quote cut in half

[stoner]

Hi, went to do a measure and quote for 60x30 porcelain tiled in herringbone. Job was 25m2 kitchen into hallway, removal of tiles and tile downstairs wc totalling 45m2. I includes 10 bags of addy and grout and came out at £1200 on 20m2. How does this sound? I figured 5/6 days. Then someone went in and quoted £600 lol, what can you do??

:yikes::yikes:

 

[jay]

walk away:8:

 

[hillhead]

thats bad stoner!! you can't compete with that!!
And a herringbone pattern too!!!

 

[TT Tiling]

get wot you pay for , might be back next week putting it right:incazzato:

 

[mikethetile]

this is being posted a lot recently

how can someone running a proper business work for those rates

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

walk away:8:

Ditto:mad2:

 

[stoner]

Thing is phone is very quiet and has been since xmas and when it does ring i usually don't get the job. Had 6 weeks work since new year, don't mind working for £700 a week but i aint even getting that at the moment and that 700 is bad compared to 2 years ago

 

[DHTiling]

Some area's are like this.... but you have to live...

 

[paulyoung666]

Some area's are like this.... but you have to live...

very true , i have posted in another thread , it is not just the tiling industry that has gone back in money terms , pretty much all trades have , you can try and hold out for the better money you think you should get , the problem is you may run out of money before you get the better money you think you should get :yikes:

 

[Scott]

this is being posted a lot recently

how can someone running a proper business work for those rates

They obviously cant be running a proper business, declaring tax etc. Take 25% off that and pay your diesel, insurance and other overheads and you may as well stay at home and watch Jeremy Kyle.

If jeremy kyle was a wall :mad2:

 

[davy_G]

You said it would take you 5-6 days. At 6 days thats 100 a day.
Its alot of work in a week and there is no profit in it, but the chap who is doing it isnt really cutting his own throat....

Im not saying you should match him or even reduce your quote, just thank the customer for the chance to quote and wish them well explaining that you can not give your standard of craftmanship for that price.

 

[Rob Z]

I've priced jobs and the customers have had a fit and showed me what some other guy had priced the job to cost....and I have realized on some occasions that the other guy's price was about the same as my fixed costs (materials, permits, etc), to say nothing of the labor. Those are no-win situations, and the best that anyone can do is leave without any negative words spoken and hope the lost customer calls again for another job or maybe even to fix the mistakes the other guy might cause.

 

[Bolter]

Are you sure customer isnt bartering by telling a porkie?

Maybe that he/she is testing the waters and trying to get the price down. Go back and say £1175

 

[jay]

okay say you drop your price what the customer gonna think (he was going to rip us off wont get him) or something like that if you drop your price your standards will follow:8:

 

[Spud]

Stoner your original price was very competitive, it sounds to me like the customer was trying it on as the other price is exactly half of what you priced which is a typical tactic when someone is haggling a price walk away

 

[Aston]

there seems to be some really really low prices flying around at the moment..
all as you can do is keep as competetive as you can without dropping your standards because if they go low, then its time to look at another career imo,,,

keep pluggin away and selling the pro's of your company...

ed

 

[mistral]

1200 sounds about right....... you win some you lose some. No point getting upset about it, that's the way i look at these situations.

 

[Bolter]

Stoner your original price was very competitive, it sounds to me like the customer was trying it on as the other price is exactly half of what you priced which is a typical tactic when someone is haggling a price walk away

Exactly my point, but better said

 

[Dontiler]

People who is going that cheap they don't know what they doing, porcelain > means applying adhesive on back of the tile, and that means more time, 600 works like 13.3 per metr?? I had few jobs like that to repair, guys did everything plumbing, decorating, all carpentry, they said for client that they do everything including tiling, shame that I had to redo all tiling they did, I pulled 1 tile from the wall and all tiles felt off, lips was all over the place, to do nice job you need time > time > cost money, you price is to low in my opinion any whey
good luck

 

[White Room]

Let them get on with it, you can't get blood out of stone

 

[Sean Page]

I've had a few like that, the last one was 52m modular travertine job, I priced it and my price was cut to bits......

I wished them all the best and thanked them for their time. Maybe they'll call me for their next job?

It's a pain, but it's business

 

[Rob Z]

Sean, I believe you're right with that approach-always take the high road, be professional, and leave with the chance that they will call back later or maybe recommend you to a neighbor or friend.

I've known guys to get really chapped about this and start talking s*** to the customer, about the other contractor, business, etc etc, and it's a no-win situation.

 

[Scott]

There are so many variable when pricing, it could be a case of the customer trying it on. It could also be a case of the other person miscalculating the area, or even a typo on his quote, maybe it should have been £1600!!!

You could always ofer to do it for £600 and ask them which half they wanted left out

I never drop prices unless they are on holiday and i get really :incazzato: if they ask me to. I had Direct line insurance call me about a job Friday, i priced it as £720, they came back and said they made it £600. I told the jumped up little squirt to go and do it for £600 then, or try and get someone else to look at the job and do it for that.

Stick to your prices and stick to your standards!

 

[stoner]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I might have to start dropping my prices tbh though, i'd sooner clear £400 a week than sit at home losing jobs due to pricing, atleast bills will get paid. Will be £100 a day soon i think. The customer i mentioned is the developer of new luxury flats in yorkshire and he has had one of the four penthouses which they are selling for £600k lol which makes you even more surprised by him taking the other quote. Phone is quiet but i've only lost out on 3 jobs this year so can't really complain.

 

[garretridge]

the only reason people can do it for that sort of money is there doing the double and they are not tilers its rife over here too lost a couple lately guy quoted 9m2:mad2: i thought i was resonable but ill stay at home for that sort of money!

 

[Richard Edwards]

This topic is becoming a repeat of a repeat and that's a bit of a worry.

That said, I think its always a good policy to work out your price based on costs - ie your costs of all components - materials, van running costs, tax etc and then decide what you need for yourself - based on average earnings per day - use 40 weeks a year and decide how much you need to earn. Cal daily rate and use that.

I had a situation last Autumn, when the phone hardly ever rang and I quoted a few jobs and were under cut by morons, who I know were not going to prep as we do, [customer info] and we did not turn a penny for 4 months.
Now were are busy again - thank goodness. But one thing I have not done is drop the rate and will never. Thats how we run our business. Occasionally we have had a client ot two, usually women strangely enough, who when given a price at say £1000, ask if we can do it for £800. We have said - yes ok we can drop the price - however which bit of the rip-out are you going to do yourself or are you now going to supply the correct brand of addy / grout yourself. ? - The answer usually is Non.

To which I respond thus. - Ok Mrs Jones, so what your saying is that you are asking for discount - but not prepared to offer any thing to trade with.? to off-set the lower price. This Mrs Jones sounds like we have to give you £200 for the privilage of working on your home. Is this a 'Cash Back deal '

Put like that Mrs Jones might colour - up. We very politely say No and offer to do the work at £1000 as per quote - if she wanted to take up the offer, please let me know - Bye.

 

[Dave Ramsden]

peanuts, monkeys!

 

[mikethetile]

im holding my rates up but im struggling to keep the work coming in

I am being seriously undercut

im sick of the whole situation, I know theres a process here that repeats itself every time theres a downturn

market gets flooded with cut rate chancers, people jump up and down with joy at the prices for getting work done

having a cheap quote in their hand they try and use it as a lever against the quoters to bring the quote down as they would rather have you do the work as you look more proffessional and sound as if you know what your at

people get the work they have paid for and are unhappy

you get asked to sort it but they have already paid so if they pay you the job would have cost a lot more than you originally quoted , which isnt fair

you refuse to do it cheaper

lessons are learnt and chancers move on to something else as they cant scratch a living

rates go back up, shortage of tradesmen pushes rates higher, tradesmen return to trade and things stabilise

were in the first stages here and the chancers are now giving up, im keeping my rates up to take advantage of the next stage, where lessons have been learnt and they want a proper job fom a proper tradesman

 

[Richard Edwards]

The Pendulum swings as it always has and always will - The sad part about all of this is that the cost of putting right some 'moronic chancer's' work is about 2x / 2.5x times the original charge that you quoted. I know because I do a fair bit of remedial work.

 

[davy_G]

the only reason people can do it for that sort of money is there doing the double and they are not tilers its rife over here too lost a couple lately guy quoted 9m2:mad2: i thought i was resonable but ill stay at home for that sort of money!

Do you know where he lives GR, report him. Taking food out of honest self employed folks mouthes!