Stupidly-priced Quotes - Sick Of Them

[kilty55]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hi bunny,i think your quote for 300 fopr plastering and also 9 metres of tiling at 700 are a bit steep but the prices you wanted/got them done for were on the other hand too cheap

personally i dont think you should be comparing your husbands job and salary to anyone elses and quite frankly its a bit of an insult

how about i compare a soldiers salary to your husbands? 17 grand on the front line? maybe hubbys over paid after all?

:smilewinkgrin:

 

[widler]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

Personally for those people that bothered to turn up and do the job rather than mess about spending 2 hours here quoting (yes I had some of those) I have given them more work.. then I gave them even more work through friends so for one of the roofers £100 turned into £2k for one of my tradesman. In my view £60 is still a good wage for half a days work.

bunny,i aint having a go,but,everyone needs to earn a decent wage,i don't know how much work was involved,but a 4ft x 4ft room,or even a 4ft x4ft patch,i would want more,its a lot of messing about for nothing,and has for more work coming their way,thats like dangling a carrot,half of the time it comes to nothing

 

[bunnycd]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

hi bunny,i think your quote for 300 fopr plastering and also 9 metres of tiling at 700 are a bit steep but the prices you wanted/got them done for were on the other hand too cheap

personally i dont think you should be comparing your husbands job and salary to anyone elses and quite frankly its a bit of an insult

how about i compare a soldiers salary to your husbands? 17 grand on the front line? maybe hubbys over paid after all?

:smilewinkgrin:

Ok your right I should not compare my partners job with others. As for the army my friends who have entered did not have any formal qualifications and retired in his 30s with an army pension then he retrained as a bricklayer, they have a bigger house than us across the road (5 bed_)... plus £17k a year is quite allot of money for a 18 year old in this economic climate so I don't think you should knock it.

 

[Aston]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

yep, some good points made by kilty!!

this story comes to mind.... most of you will have heard it in one form or another..

theirs a a fault on a ships engine.
the captain calls out this specialist old timer who claims he can fix it.
the guy looks at the engine and says, yep, i can fix it, it'll be £1000
the captain says fine, just do it.
the old guy takes a screw driver out of his pocket and turns 1 screw to the left.
the engine starts working as normal again.
that'll be a £1000 says the old timer
the captain shouts, a £1000 for turning a screw!!!!!
the old timer says, No, its a £1000 for knowing which screw to turn ;0)

so i suppose we shouldnt put a price on something that we cant do ourselves?
and we shouldnt compare the value of somebodies skill compared to somebody elses, its all relevant isnt?

 

[kilty55]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

Ok your right I should not compare my partners job with others. As for the army my friends who have entered did not have any formal qualifications and retired in his 30s with an army pension then he retrained as a bricklayer, they have a bigger house than us across the road (5 bed_)... plus £17k a year is quite allot of money for a 18 year old in this economic climate so I don't think you should knock it.

was i knocking it? NO I WASNT
as you well know it was an example of why you shouldnt be comparing wages and jobs

17k for a young man to go and put his life on the line every day is a disgrace rwgardless of what pension isat the end of it

 

[fulabeer]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

The trouble with "half days work" is that they are not half days.
I charge more "pro-rata" for "half days work" than i do a full day.
The simple reason for this is due to travelling and setting up.
If i get "half a days work", i need to get two of them to make a full day.
Since i don't think customer number 1 would be happy me nipping off early to get to the next job before the second half of the day starts, i charge more.

I also have a minimum charge regardless of the time needed to do the job.
What might only be a "five minute" job, still needs quoting time, and maybe "parts" sourcing.
I always recommend the customers groups several jobs together to make it cheaper for them.
If for any reason a job takes a little longer than quoted for(unexpected faults), i normally throw it in for free, or just charge a small extra.
If the customer adds work whilst i'm actually on site, it will cost them less, as i'm already there.
Small jobs are not good value for either party.

I no longer aim at the "cheap skates" of the market. If you want a cheap job, then that is fine by me. There are plenty of people for you to chose from.
It doesn't take people long to realise why the job was cheap!
If you want a job that costs you every penny it needs to, but not one pence more than should do, then give me a ring.

It's all about fairness...from both sides!
You want a good job at a fair price.
We want a fair price for a good job.

 

[andy-p]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

If you are looking for sympathy i think you have come to the wrong place , i dont know any tradesmen making the money your quoting , at the moment most people are looking for jobs done for peanuts, regarding your partners job , he/she is probably guaranteed a job for life with a nice pension , holiday pay etc , i have no problem with that but you have to realise if your self employed if the phone dont ring you get NOTHING, for example last winter with all that heavy snow then the christmas holidays i never worked for nearly 4 weeks , no money coming in and no government handouts , so think twice before you judge, anyway peace to all ...

 

[fulabeer]

Re: Stuiped Priced Quotes..sick of them...

Little side (true) story called the "British Rail £900 screw".

I worked for British Rail during the 80s/90s/00s as a Signalman. (now called Signallers)
We had just changed to Railtrack, so was in the process of lots of changes.
One of those changes was to out source maintenance work.

One of the window catches in the Signal box was loose.
So i called the manager to get it fixed.
He called the external contractor to send a maintenance man/person.

Three weeks later, a maintenance person turned up.
Well, i say turned up. He sat in his van for over an hour before approaching the box.
When asked why the long wait, he explained that he had to do a pre-site safety assessment. (walking routes/hazard awareness etc)
He then proceeded to examine the missing screw.
As a reference, he removed another screw as to gauge it's length and size.
He then spent the next hour writing down a "description of works" report.
He then made his way to the door. I asked was he actually going to fix the window catch, to which he replied "no".
This was just the pre-works assessment and quoting visit.

Another four weeks passed, before he finally returned.
The delay was due to awaiting parts!
He only spent 30 mins outside this time.
On arrival at the door, he thought i should be impressed how much quicker he was today.
He explained that after already doing his pre-site safety assessment on the last visit, all he need to do was re-read it before walking to the box!
I pointed out that since he had in fact written it, did he really need to re-read it. "Oh yes, you would be surprised how much you can forget in three weeks"....

He proceeded to install the screw, only to be a little perplexed.
It turned out the replacement wouldn't sit flush in the screws counter sunk hole.
I was told this was now a health and safety matter, as somebody could catch themselves on the sharp edge.
He removed the screw to be on the safe side.
So he packed up, and off he went.
Three/fours weeks passed before he finally shown his face again.
Again he was 30 minutes outside. Had to re-read his pre-site safety sheets!
He had decided to just bring a new window catch. Unfortunately, it didn't fit.
You could see the sweat running down his face.
He said "hang on, i will be back in a minute". He popped back over live running rails, to his van.
Picked a screw from the old tool box, and ran back over.
Two minutes later, the window catch was fixed.

By the time they had worked out parts/labour/visits, the bill came to £890. With 10p of that being for the "part".
I was asked to sign for it. "Not a chance" was my reply!

It wasn't the 10p screw that was the problem.
It was the dangerous location, and the fact that the person had never visited the box before.
Also, because the railways wanted a quote before authorising work, the costs just mounted.

If the guy had just been given some freedom to use common sense and allowed to do his job, the bill would have been £25.
Still expensive for a single screw, but a lot less than £900!

Months later we took on a "handy man/person".
He did several jobs at once by grouping lots of little jobs into the same visit.
He carried spares/parts that he could just fit.
Because he knew the area, he was safe without having to make/read pre-site/pre-work safety sheets.

 

[Daz]

Well done to all the professional tilers for their patience and effort to justify quotation prices.
Personally, I feel that it is a waste of your effort.

I quote a fair rate for a quality job (in fact I think I quote too cheap for my services). If the customer thinks I am too expensive than that is up to them. If you want a cheap job pay a cheap price, if you want a quality job then pay a quality tradesman that has taken the time to invest into tools and knowledge so that you get a quality result.

You get what you pay for and why do think you have the right to rant? You pay a price and you take your chance, just don't come complaining when you get a DIY quality job.

Professional rant over!

Daz

 

[bunnycd]

My last post but I have paid a fair price for all work done to my house and got an amazing finish, I paid for my patio to be done, went for the cheapest quote and got burnt as he did not know what he was doing so I ended up paying someone 20 miles away to correct it, but I only in the end paid the same as if I had used tradesmen from around here, so I took the risk and it did not pay off. I just don't like being ripped off, simple. tradesmen around here seem to charge allot more than in other places. I have just booked a plasterer with 25 years experience for £80 and he said my job will take 2 hours, so with travel that is about £35 an hour for him which is a fair price, I am happy and so is he, £100 an hour (which is what I was quoted this morning) is a joke and I think I am within my rights to say so, I don't know why everyone is defending these people who quote silly money.

You get what you pay for and why do think you have the right to rant? You pay a price and you take your chance, just don't come complaining when you get a DIY quality job.

Professional rant over!

Daz[/QUOTE]