Should I be concerned???

Its not easy to break a price down .
Generally an itemized quote bears no resemblance to an all-in jobby.
You would need to treat each item as if it were done in isolation and make the customer aware of this.
 
Charge for the itemised quote - Admin charge, refundable if quote is accepted. Similarly an admin charge if customer wants a detailed breakdown of material costs. Had one customer who counted the number of screws, nails, tubes of 'gunge' used and wanted such pricing per piece! Took 4 hours to complete. Even questioned what I'd done with the off-cuts.

Such customers are a PIA!
There was a customer posting in the building section a while back that was measuring how much sand his builder using :D
 
Labour only quotes at the mo. Customers pay for the materials.
 
Than u get the customers who expect to pay the same price for materials as you :ROFLMAO:

you have to pay for it pick it up ect

had the odd customer who supply there own boiler
Good on you

you bought it you sort if it go’s wrong they can contact the manu and deal with em ;)
 
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Williams the plumbers merchants

are strictly a trade supplier big signs up “ trade only”

good on em

nothing worst that being in a que
Behind some fruit cake diyer with a toilet part in his hand or clogging up the counter asking for advice on how to rewasher a 20 year old tap :)
 
Charge for the itemised quote - Admin charge, refundable if quote is accepted. Similarly an admin charge if customer wants a detailed breakdown of material costs. Had one customer who counted the number of screws, nails, tubes of 'gunge' used and wanted such pricing per piece! Took 4 hours to complete. Even questioned what I'd done with the off-cuts.

Such customers are a PIA!
I swapped a couple of light fittings for an elderly couple, sent the bill by post as no email, received a hand written letter asking for an itemised bill, so split it down the middle, posted it off, received a cheque (grr), next time he rang I never answered
 
I did have a carpet fitter who once charged me for 38 square metres of underlay and corresponding gripperrod.

Trouble was, the room was only 4 X 6m.
 
There was a customer posting in the building section a while back that was measuring how much sand his builder using :D

does not surprise me
I know if builders were the customer wanted them to bring there own water to knock up the cement

want some thing off the bill for the leccy they used for power tools

There are some nasty horrible tight ***ed customers out there
Rude
Ignorant

worked for a couple of South African tenants

I think they thought they were still
Out there and that we were blacks
 
I know customers can be a pia but so can builders.
Saying they will be there at 8am and turn up at 2pm because they are running 2 jobs. Waiting for a plumber to finish his day job so he can take a look at the builders leaking water main then he cant do it so calls his mate.
Took my builder 3 days to connect water to the house that took less than an hour even with drilling the holes through the cavity wall.

So its not all customers, hence the reason people diy.:D
 
Agree with no-links-transam on this one.

Some customers ask for itemised quoting then think they can cherry pick the profitable bits away from the contractor. I'd rather forfeit the entire job (and have done).
All quotes should be itemised, but not necessarily costs.

However, itemised costs do help when extras need to be priced once a contractor has started work. If I am getting quotes or doing tenders, I'd normally prepare a schedule that needs to be fully priced and it helps to see if the contractors are actually pricing correctly (and so are capable of completing the work on budget) if their individual prices are vastly different to each others.
 
All quotes should be itemised,
To what degree?

I'm talking about fracturing a job into into constituent parts and pricing them individually. Probably a lot more relevant to those doing much second fix stuff as opposed to a builder like me that mainly focusses on generic building. I'm sure schools, breweries, associations and those that do large complex tendered contracts, do require fully itemises quotes.

I supply a separate spec' sheet detailing the 'specifics' of all my quotes. For example ..x 6 windows and 1 door supplied by Placcy Windows Inc £3'000....x6 internal doors and hardware @ £110 per door...Trusses and Posi Joists by Trussform....

The information on the drawing as well as the wording on my quote sheet, then provides all the other information needed, to remove any ambiguity.
For example.. Quote covers all BUILDING work compliant with drawing supplied. Work to include, demolitions, drains (storm and foul), soakaway, foundations (1m deep), brick and blockwork...etc

I add my disclaimers at the end i.e. Quote does not cover electrics or plumbing (heating). Final decoration i.e. painting, carpets, floor/wall coverings, not included in quote.

The reason I do the spec sheet is so that the customer can see the people I use to do my flat roofs, supply my trusses, supply my steel etc. I also put a value next to the items that are either paid directly by the customer or they are items that are client specific like doors, skirts and archies.
 
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