Dispute with Electrical installers
- Thread starter Chas72
- Start date
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Good effort mikhail! 
He visited our house to quote. He confirmed they charge by the hour and their hourly rate. He didn't mention the hourly rate does not include £120 a day for a trainee engineer to be onsite or £60 for materials.
This is all true except when I paid the deposit I asked them to confirm that the actual total rate would be less given that we were paying by the hour. They confirmed that yes it could be less if the job takes less than 5 hours.
We agreed that I would do the back boxes and prepare the runs for the wires. I did both and they were happy with them when they arrived to do the work. We also did one of the light switches (changed a switch for a dimmer - they inspected this and were happy) and supplied the sockets. We didn't agree the light switch or that we would be supplying the sockets.
Wrong type of JB, they did extra work prep and removal work which added time and they didn't remove one of the old sockets.
No we didn't have grounds to not allow them to do the remedial works. We've now set a date for this and agreed a price. Their 10% discount off the remaining amount, about 25 quid.
Some of the answers were not helpful, perhaps based on the confusion of the story, but the vast majority were
He visited our house to quote. He confirmed they charge by the hour and their hourly rate. He didn't mention the hourly rate does not include £120 a day for a trainee engineer to be onsite or £60 for materials.
This is all true except when I paid the deposit I asked them to confirm that the actual total rate would be less given that we were paying by the hour. They confirmed that yes it could be less if the job takes less than 5 hours.
We agreed that I would do the back boxes and prepare the runs for the wires. I did both and they were happy with them when they arrived to do the work. We also did one of the light switches (changed a switch for a dimmer - they inspected this and were happy) and supplied the sockets. We didn't agree the light switch or that we would be supplying the sockets.
Wrong type of JB, they did extra work prep and removal work which added time and they didn't remove one of the old sockets.
No we didn't have grounds to not allow them to do the remedial works. We've now set a date for this and agreed a price. Their 10% discount off the remaining amount, about 25 quid.
Some of the answers were not helpful, perhaps based on the confusion of the story, but the vast majority were
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A few years ago I was a trainee engineer while studying for my degree. However I was a fully qualified electrician and I would have done as much as any other electrician and I would consider £120 a reasonable rate for my skills.
If paying by the hour then of course materials are extra.
However glad it's now sorted I am sure you have learnt the same lessons I did about getting it all down in writing.
Could have been worse. I found a day worker sitting down waiting for a drum of cable to be delivered when he had some in his van. But was on a labour only contract so had no intention of using his own cable.
Also had them sitting down waiting for PPE as with labour only I was responsible to provide it. I had expected him to have his own hard hat.
I expected to get around 6 hours work in an 8 hour day. And I think that is a reasonable expectation.
If paying by the hour then of course materials are extra.
However glad it's now sorted I am sure you have learnt the same lessons I did about getting it all down in writing.
Could have been worse. I found a day worker sitting down waiting for a drum of cable to be delivered when he had some in his van. But was on a labour only contract so had no intention of using his own cable.
Also had them sitting down waiting for PPE as with labour only I was responsible to provide it. I had expected him to have his own hard hat.
I expected to get around 6 hours work in an 8 hour day. And I think that is a reasonable expectation.
A
Alarm
How did I do?
Very well actually.
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erm, it still doesn't make a whole heap of sense, but any-hoo.
Maybe it would have been wise to read the quote before handing over the shekels.
Can't help but laugh at the fact that you now say that you agreed to do the back boxes, which you are not happy with and want them to rectify, even though you agree it was your responsibility. Who's fault is that and who should pay for the recitification???
That is a good example of why i am often reluctant to let a customer 'chip in' with the monkey work to get the cost down.
Some people take the view that they can do it, but when they do it wrong they think the magic electric fairy will wave her magic wand (BTW, its a 1000V insulated wand) and make it right at zero time/cost.
Maybe it would have been wise to read the quote before handing over the shekels.
Can't help but laugh at the fact that you now say that you agreed to do the back boxes, which you are not happy with and want them to rectify, even though you agree it was your responsibility. Who's fault is that and who should pay for the recitification???
That is a good example of why i am often reluctant to let a customer 'chip in' with the monkey work to get the cost down.
Some people take the view that they can do it, but when they do it wrong they think the magic electric fairy will wave her magic wand (BTW, its a 1000V insulated wand) and make it right at zero time/cost.
They inspected them when they arrived to do the job and agreed they were fixed correctly. They loosened them (as I'm just a customer they must have done this with their magic electric fairy will wave her magic wand) so it's their responsibility.
They loosened them?
No - you did a sh*te job drilling and plugging the wall and then started casting around for someone to blame when your sh*te work failed.
No - you did a sh*te job drilling and plugging the wall and then started casting around for someone to blame when your sh*te work failed.
Maybe you are making too many assumptions that are biased to your favour?
Maybe the back boxes loosed off due to poor fixing in the first place?
Maybe they just agreed with you that they were done well in the first place to avoid upsetting you with telling you they weren't good.
How many screws/plugs did you use for each box?
Whats the condiiton of the brickwork you fixed to? -Like rock solid engineering blocks or more like a slightly over done crust from an apple crumble?
Was using MK back boxes. Chased out with a hammer and bolster, held them is situ to mark one of the screw holes. They're fixed into yellow stocks so not the best brick to fix into but used 70mm screws. Masonry bit drilled a little more than the raw plugs needed. Fixed them with 70mm screws cross head screws. Marked the other hole and repeated the steps above.
One of them came loose, not bad average out of 12.
One of them came loose, not bad average out of 12.
H
holmslaw
..
It's not whinging. I'm explaining the issues as I see them.
Bottom line is we're paying way more than we should be for this job BUT - as we've now established in the two threads there's nothing we can do about it without a lot of grief - we have agreed to pay them.
Can close this thread now.
Bottom line is we're paying way more than we should be for this job BUT - as we've now established in the two threads there's nothing we can do about it without a lot of grief - we have agreed to pay them.
Can close this thread now.
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