Stupid Priced Quotes..sick of them...

[bunnycd]

Ok this is not the best place to post regarding quotes but I just have to have a big fat moan...I just gone off the phone to a plasterer and had another stupid priced quote and it just makes me so mad, I am happy to pay a day rate at a reasonable price but £300! To plaster an area that is 4ft x 4ft (WTF) and the other guy did not even want to quote when I said I am not paying more than £80! cause it is a small area.... Where I live in Worcester the tradesmen just charge so much that I have to get people in from other parts of the country, for example my fire is being fitted by a guy in Manchester because it is cheaper for me to pay his time, van hire and petrol than pay anyone round here. My tiny bathroom has been a joke had 3 people over and £1k in labour) my garden patio came in at an average of £6k across 5 tradesmen, in the end I paid £2k and got some guys in from Birmingham. Now, my partner is a freelance hospital consultant he worked 9 years to become a GP then a consultant and some of the tradesmen I have got quotes from charge more money than he earns... he said he is not paying it. It is like people want nothing for nothing now days. The guys I know that live where I do who are roofers are wondering why people from Coventry are stealing their work - it's because they are use to earning lots of money for little work and people are not going to pay it anymore. I was also quoted £80 per sqm to tile my bathroom (labour only) £700!. Got a tiler in from Bham for £150 Sorry to moan I am all for paying a decent price but I am sick of people trying to rip me off. Please think of my post next time you quote.

[Dan]

I've moved this to the Arms, and have granted you access to it bunny. You don't want to post that sort of stuff in the main forums really. This one the public can't view what you've written.

[Dan]

lol - moved it back and ungranted you access - my bad - thought you were a tradesmen then when I quickly read the first bit

[Dan]

If I were still tiling now, I'd work out what I want for the month to live happy, cover the bills, eat out the odd time, etc. Then that'd be what I wanted to earn minimum on average each month. It'd work out about £150 a dayish. Or 20 quid a meter tiled and grouted (but not supplying any materials - I mean just the labour) in a day we'd be talking me needing to cover about 8sqm a day on average.

So your 9sqm might have fell into two days and if it's bitty and needs prep work it might fall into 3 days.

Though you don't want just the cheapest tiler (or tradesmen) ever - you want the one that's doing the job right the first time.

£150 for 9 square meters (you'd be handling about 11.5 square meters of tiles minimum there) is a bit of a joke IMO. He's clearly not paying tax, probably came in a car not a van, definately wouldn't have anything sign-written, possibly free vistaprint business cards with mobile number only. I'd have probably not even let the guy in the house to be honest. (Only guessing all that there - he perhaps could have just done it all in 1 day maybe there)

[widler]

although £300 is a tad much,£80 is not enough,and if someone rang me up and told me how much they would pay me i wouldent come out either
he has his van,fuel,insurence,his time coming to look at the job,going builders yard for gear ect ect

a small area will take just as long as a larger area or a few walls,setting times are more or less the same. he may even have to come back and skim it the day after.

also,the cheapest quote is not usually the best,you pay peanuts you will get a chimp

saying that,some of your prices were a bit too much

[TF Ed]

hmmmm note to myself, must talk the wife into moving to worcester ;0)

£300 to plaster ( i take it you mean just to skim, not backing plaster then skim) is an absolute rip off.

it would still take a morning by the time he arrived, prep, set up etc so i wouldnt want to be paying more than £100 for that sized area.

plasterers are getting £1-50 pm2 for skimming on most sites now!!! every spread i speak to is saying the game is so damn hard this year and the money is a joke as so many people have saturated the market as boarders and skimmers... if i lived around your way, id do it on my way home for £80 and then the wife could take it straight out my hand to get her hair done or something riduclous like what women do....says me who'll buy a tool if you wave it under my snout ;0)

[andy allen]

people quote what they need to do the job, certain areas are higher priced, due to the high end houses and clients, a tiler in london may quote twice as much as where i live in Gloucester due to his outgoings being a lot more than mine, if all the quotes in your area are coming out the same, then thats the going rate for your area, you either pay it, move house or get someone from miles away that you can get no local referances from and will proberly tell you where to go should you need any remedial work doing.

and as for your partner spending 9 yrs learning his job and earning x amount are you trying to say tradesmen should earn less? we spend alot of time perfecting our trade , and as such deserve a decent wage to.

[bunnycd]

"and as for your partner spending 9 yrs learning his job and earning x amount are you trying to say tradesmen should earn less? we spend alot of time perfecting our trade , and as such deserve a decent wage to"

what I was trying to say is that the difference is that my partner has peoples lives in his hands everyday, if he makes a mistake then people die and he has to live with it for the rest of his life, which is one reason he is paid what he is, plus he spent £60k training which he is still paying back. These guys were quoting based on a salary of £78k per year, I guess £20k overheads that still means £58k per year which is more than my partner earns.
I did not mean any disrespect at all I appreciate that it takes years to become good at whatever you do.

[widler]

hmmmm note to myself, must talk the wife into moving to worcester ;0)

£300 to plaster ( i take it you mean just to skim, not backing plaster then skim) is an absolute rip off.

it would still take a morning by the time he arrived, prep, set up etc so i wouldnt want to be paying more than £100 for that sized area.

plasterers are getting £1-50 pm2 for skimming on most sites now!!! every spread i speak to is saying the game is so damn hard this year and the money is a joke as so many people have saturated the market as boarders and skimmers... if i lived around your way, id do it on my way home for £80 and then the wife could take it straight out my hand to get her hair done or something riduclous like what women do....says me who'll buy a tool if you wave it under my snout ;0)

exactly mate,they aint plasterers. i wouldent get out of bed for £1.50,and nether would any plasterer i know.

so if the person in question rang you up and said,right ive got 4m2 of tiling to do,i will give you (£15 m2)£60,would you go and look,or even do it mate

[bunnycd]

so if the person in question rang you up and said,right ive got 4m2 of tiling to do,i will give you (£15 m2)£60,would you go and look,or even do it mate

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.

[kilty55]

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?

[widler]

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]

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?

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.

[TF Ed]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

[fulabeer]

bunnycd

You can pay too much AND too little for a job.
Too little and you may have to repair or have the job done again.
To much, and you are just wasting money.

You are right, there are "chancers" out there.
They have an attitude that they prefer to just throw loads of expensive quotes out, in the hope that at least some come in.
That way they don't have to work very often, yet still earn decent money.
They have an attitude of "what they can get away with", not what is a fair price.
I know quite a few who do this. However, what goes around comes around.
Whilst i have been snowed under during this recession, they have been kicking their heels.
They are now seeing the benefits of a good (loyal) customer base. (which they haven't got)
The sad bit is they will not learn, and when things get busy again, they will be at it again...

The safest (but NOT guaranteed) method to get quality at a fair price is through recommendations.
If you find a good trades person "stick to them like glue" !!!

[Daz]

I typed a reply but it disappeared, so suffice to say that you have got a local tradesman at a price you are pleased with, so your original rant is now satisfied. If he's not local then he ain't earning £35 per hour!

[bunnycd]

Yes glad I found him, he's 14 miles away so far enough away to quote a reasonable price, the guy who lives 2 doors down wanted £200, so it just shows going that little bit further out and cost comes down. Fulabeer is right, I have just had my house painted by a great guy who holds C&G and he was amazing, he is now doing a host of other jobs for me which he is qualified in, his quotes are fair but he wants the work so prices to win the jobs.

[CJ]

As mentioned................do your homework before looking for any trades.

Ask friends/family for recomendations. OK, its not fool proof, but your'll stand a slightly better chance of getting a good-en.

[Colour Republic]

I haven't even read this thread all the way through as your first post angered me, then I see this one...

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.

So you mean the guy who spent the time looking at your job and specifiying it for the best possible outcome is a loser? and shame on him because little did he know that had he have done a cheap job for you then you would have passed him on to somebody that was willing to pay for a proper job. He could have had it all and been earning the big bucks at £60 for half a day! That would have more than covered his van/fuel/tools/insurance/tax/advertising/time wasters/phone bills/accountant/sick pay/hoilday pay.....

What a loser!

[bunnycd]

I haven't even read this thread all the way through as your first post angered me, then I see this one...





So you mean the guy who spent the time looking at your job and specifiying it for the best possible outcome is a loser? and shame on him because little did he know that had he have done a cheap job for you then you would have passed him on to somebody that was willing to pay for a proper job. He could have had it all and been earning the big bucks at £60 for half a day! That would have more than covered his van/fuel/tools/insurance/tax/advertising/time wasters/phone bills/accountant/sick pay/hoilday pay.....

What a loser!

He would have been better off to ask me my budget, then say if he gets here and he thinks its worth £80 then he will do it as it is a 2 hour job, rather than spending 2 hours talking to me, don't get me wrong he was a lovely chap. I don't know why people are so hung up over seeing a job, if the specifications are given, photos taken and it's a small job then whats the point in messing around visiting people, maybe people are not timewasters they just don't want to pay silly prices. Asking peoples max budget may help get rid of what you call timewasters. I have been quoted from £600 to £5,000 to fit my bathroom if the guy who quoted £5k to fit and tile my bathroom that is 5ft by 6ft asked me my budget he may have not bothered wasting my time and his time quoting. So what I am trying to say is asking what people can afford first I think is a good thing.

[bunnycd]

Well I am sorry I have angered some of you (colour republic), that was not my intention, I understand the concept of being self employed and overheads because I am myself but I have been speaking about people charging silly prices e.g £100 per hour, and not you personally I am sure you quote a fair price for a fair job.

[GirlRacerRed]

I think it's appropriate to call time on this discussion here. Everybody has had a fair opportunity to say what they want to say. I will now close this thread and I trust that everybody who participated is able to see and understand other people's views on this matter. Thanks to everybody for contributing.