Customer said I was to expensive!

[Zampa]

Lets be honest we have probably all done a job a bit too cheap just to get it..

Business people are always looking for a deal, they want to haggle..farmers are murder for it..ive had to say to a few of them 'we aint talking abut buying a lorry load of lamb here..we are talking about painting your house'

I priced somthing for a car dealer once..first words out of his mouth after I gave him the price verbally (rare for me) ...'is that your best price?'

I said 'yes, thats why I said it'

Bang went that job...(did me a favour really cos I later found out he had been done for fraud and deception and was one of the local 'mafia')

With a lot of business people you know that if you say a pound for a weeks work they want it for 90 pence.

**** em

Just write 'non negotiable' on your quote and refer em to that if they want to haggle.

Do they go to Tescos and say..'£82.57..hmm ok...tell you what, what about 60 cash?.'

Some people will but the best of everything for themselves on the principle of 'you gotta pay for quality aint ya'...but odnt want to pay for quality tradesman to do a good job for them.

If they try the knock down next time just say 'do you want a good job..or a cheap job'?

 

[noseall]

BRAVO! Zampa.

 

[nikon70]

i would have charged 1050 plus mats

 

[Donkmeister]

When I take on any job I figure 35% is going to cover my insurance 10% for my office and add in something for a fudge factor as a job may take longer then expected.

*sigh* I'd have sent you for training by now.

35% on risk mitigation alone points to incompetence. And a fudge factor? Have you never heard of a three-point estimate? Triangulated technical risk? Sigma? Gaussians?

It sounds like you run a profitable high-turnover business. You should therefore have sufficient throughput to put yourself through the necessary training to estimate properly, and an accountant to correctly assess your G&A costs.

Assuming your rate is about $500 a day. Do you REALLY cause an AVERAGE of $175 damage every single day? That's 35% of $500. That means that in an average 5-day week, you cause $925 of damage.

Or, do you just do one $50K piece of damage once a year? Public liability insurance shouldn't cost that much.

I'd recommend a course in the basic principles of project management, and get a good accountant. You'll save the money several times over when it comes to your take-home.

Just make sure you never intertwine your business practices with your private finances, especially in the current environment. It might seem like a good way to make a few extra bucks but the stakes are too high (your house, for instance).

 

[hairyben]

I would leave the trade if I had to work for some of the day rates people have claimed they can get a sparks for.

"What do you think this is, a turkish rug bazzair?" works if you want to f them off, "tell me his number I'll give him a job" is better if you don't want to fall out.

 

[Zampa]

Anyone ever thad the...

''The other guy was cheaper than you but I thought id ring anyway cos I'd rather you do it and if you can match the price the jobs yours''..treatment?

I always say 'thats a brilliant price, go for it..bt thanks for thinking aobut me anyway''

You can almost hear them kicking themselves for trying it on and now having to get more people in to price it..better still if you know your price is very competitive..

 

[Thermo]

i had that last year. the neighbours came out and asked me to price a garden, while i was having a final meeting with another client. I priced the job and they came back to me saying that my price was too high but they wanted me too do the job rather than the other guy. I said no im not dropping the price to match his, you better let him do it, its a good deal.

we turned up to do the job next door and the two guys had started on the other job at the neighbours. the 6 yard skip was full to about 12 yards. all the materilas came from band q, and the cheeky ****er even asked if he could borrow some of my tools. (guess the reply) There were endless rows between him and the nieghbours. Our client was over the moon and on the last day stood in the drive and said as loud as she could "well you pay your money and take your choice"

we came back a week later and the workmanship was appalling. normally i feel sorry for people who pay money and end up with a shoddy job, but i have to say they had the oppurtunity and they went for price over quality. lesson learned!

 

[Zampa]

I apprciate everyones got a budget..but some people will never learn.

Ive priced loads in the past where people have started it and decided to get someone in..ive lost the job to cowboys ..but some people even have the cheek to ring me again after thy have kicked the cowboys off the job and finish the shoddy work off..

I wont.

 

[breezer]

why not do as some one i dont know any more said.

ok, so you hate charlie, but would you not feel better if charlie was working and making money for you? That way you can still hate him but feel better because he is giving you money.

my point being the job that is wrong needs to be put right by some one, you can then charge them twice, once to get rid of what is wrong (quicker than trying to put it right*) Then charge them to do the job right.

This way they will like you, you get work and you take money off them

* a skirting board is too short / bad joins. you explain its a better and quicker job to scrap cowboys skirting board and put a new one in. or you could spend time taking off cowboys one correcting joints thatshould not be there, filling in gaps etc which as you charge by the hour is longer than changing the whole thing

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

I had a guy ask for a price on boarding out his loft, huge house, huge loft, lots of pipes cables etc to sort out/cut round etc. I got a mate of mine (a chippy) to come round with me and we provided a quote. The guy wanted the loft boarded as he was coming back to the UK from living abroad with loads of stuff to store, he asked if we could do the job on a specific date about 2 months away we both agreed that the date would be fine so we asked if that was definite but he said he had a couple more quotes to get and he would let us know.

We heard nothing back from this bloke and assumed our quote had been beaten. Two days before the work was originally going to be done the bloke rings me on my mobile from the states . "That quote you gave me, can you do something about the price ?"

Now that really p'd me off. I never over price a job, I work on a fair price and that is that. So I told him the price was not negotiable. I then told him that we couldn't do the job anyway as we were both busy on other jobs. Well, he got in a right strop what am I going to do with all my stuff blah blah. I hung up in the end

A price is a price, if you don't like it get another quote (or two)

 

[Thermo]

you mean you werent waiting around to do his job......shocking, what sort of business do you run?

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

He probably thought I would be waiting anxiously by the phone

Ever so 'umble sir, whats that sir ? a shiny sixpence....why thankee kindly

 

[hairyben]

i had that last year. the neighbours came out and asked me to price a garden, while i was having a final meeting with another client. I priced the job and they came back to me saying that my price was too high but they wanted me too do the job rather than the other guy. I said no im not dropping the price to match his, you better let him do it, its a good deal.

There's a lot involved in doing a sizable job, be it a garden, rewire, bathroom whatever, and a million ways to cut corners and do it sloppily. You cannot list and define how good your job will be on a quote, thats why it's imperative the customer needs to rely on trust and faith in the contractor to do a good job at a reasonable price, and glowing recommendations are worth more than any trade body.

And that neighbour highlights his own, but sadly all to common ignorance; he wants you, you come across as better for whatever reasons, but is seduced by the price of the other guy, so he's convinced himself mr cheapy is just as good. We all like a good price, but our line of work is not like buying a new telly or evan a car, where "like for like" can be relatively easily compared.

 

[Thermo]

exactly, people think because one guy can price it for that, then they all can.

 

[sparkiedave]

Went to look at a job today, wire a new shower, consumer unit had no RCD, old crabtree board, suggested replacing board as breakers are hard to get hold of, would've had to have fitted an RCD just for the shower, quoted £350 to swap CU and wire shower, then she mentioned that she could get a mate to do it as a cash job, wish she'd said that on the phone, would've saved me goin round, grrrr