Difficult and Unreasonable Builder Questioning Price

[Dave OCD]

I'm lucky in that the only builder I do work for is one of those 1 in 25 Andy, proper old school and always puts me straight on to his customer to deal with direct on pricing/spec/payment. He says it's simpler for him that way and it suits us both. His only downfall is sometimes getting his timescales for when I'm needed wrong but they all do that anyway.

 

[electric al]

Get what you can out of him and quit but make sure you tell him shortly after that you can't do business with him because you can't trust him. Might be a good idea to have a word with the customer as mentioned by irelec if you get the chance .
Outline the extras that you've had heaped on and his unwillingness to pay .

 

[FatAlan]

When the specs were changed and discussed with the customer surely that was the time to discuss price changes? Bob could have then passed the hit back to the customer? ....then Bob’s your uncle !

 

[Pete999]

When the specs were changed and discussed with the customer surely that was the time to discuss price changes? Bob could have then passed the hit back to the customer? ....then Bob’s your uncle !

Or in this case Bob has been a bad bad Bob

 

[PEG]

Hi,even though the builder in question,might be a friend of mine...i would suggest jacking,with immediate effect.

The other issue,you may want to consider,is the "wild-fire" syndrome....where fellow builders,like to chat,concerning the subbies that they've straightened out...

If you get known,for being pliable - you're done

Ring him up,and tell him you cannot continue,as just like him...you are short-handed. Then,99/100 folk will reply "...What do you mean? Short handed? ...I'm not short handed!...."

Then,without resorting to rudeness,tell him your arms cannot reach your tool-box,in the same way,his arms,cannot reach his pocket....then bid him good-day


I genuinely look forward,to one of my R-C builder mates,telling me this story

 

[richy3333]

@DK Wired Never label your cables. Number them and just write the numbers down in your day book/customer file etc so you know what they are. Then in the future if anything like this happens...

 

[baldelectrician]

I don't do work for builders- end of

I ALWAYS price per item and make it clear, then the customer knows where we all stand

As the saying goes - points make prizes

 

[Jjc]

Hi,

I have recently started work and finished first fix on a loft conversion for a builder. During first fix, the builder who has hired me for the job, specified various additions and removals from the original quote which I had to include at the time of first fix, which resulted in the job taking longer than planned. I revised the quote on what he added but now he's not happy with the price at all and won't listen to my explanation as to why the price has changed in this way. He has become aggressive saying that I'm taking the biscuit (not using that particular word). He is comparing this quote to a previous loft conversion I had done for him, telling me that 'this one is smaller (which the loft is but these additions relate to further work being carried out in the bedroom on the floor below) so I want it all in for £XXXX which is £150.00 below my revised price.

He has already paid me £300.00 upon completion of first fix.

Any advice on how to deal with this situation would be appreciated.

I have considered options and they are as follows:
- Stand by my price, change my terms now and ask him for further payment up front before starting 2nd fix and then the remainder before certificates are provided
- Drop to his price level (which I do not want to do because this undermines my business and pricing)
- Walk away and tell him that due to him being completely unreasonable I refuse to deal with him, leaving him in a difficult situation in finding another electrician to complete the work.

Any other suggestions welcome!

Cheers all!

Try and avoid builders work. In my experience they tend to be not the most honest of people you could deal with.

 

[EbolaSideRoom]

What they said.
In my albeit limited experience, builders are either respectful of other trades and recognise their own limitations (rare, but can be brilliant to work with) or they’re, well, builders.
IMO for domestic work the client, and therefore you, are better off dealing directly with you. If Bob wants to make a percentage for “managing” the job then that’s between them and the client. It doesn’t come off my price.

Worth considering too, in your current predicament, is said client. If you leave Bob in the brown, who suffers? I tend to think that in all such conflict it is the client that suffers most. To that end I have, for the sake of not losing a customer and not giving Bob the opportunity to make me the scapegoat for everything else that goes wrong, swallowed the loss over such alterations, finished the job and made sure that the client has my direct details and that the next time Bob calls for some work, I don’t answer the phone.

 

[Diver233]

Walk away, not worth the stress and agro.
Sometimes big customers think they own you and you are desperate for their work so try and treat you like crap.
I would agree with another poster, sounds like he has cocked up on his price and wants you to pay for his poor pricing.
Leave him to it.

 

[45140]

...Worth considering too, in your current predicament, is said client. If you leave Bob in the brown, who suffers? I tend to think that in all such conflict it is the client that suffers most. To that end I have, for the sake of not losing a customer and not giving Bob the opportunity to make me the scapegoat for everything else that goes wrong, swallowed the loss over such alterations, finished the job and made sure that the client has my direct details and that the next time Bob calls for some work, I don’t answer the phone.

Absolutely spot on, excellent advice !
Make sure the ultimate client knows why you are walking off the job, otherwise the builder will probably do damage to your reputation by saying you were unreasonable and wanted more than was agreed or was acceptable. Make sure the client knows that the builder is trying to make money or recover poor costing through trying to force you to do the work below its true value to cover his own short-comings.
You should offer to assist the client in helping to get the electrical work completed but explain that this will probably be extremely difficult given the attitude and abusive personality of the builder. If you are walking away personally I would tell the client that I was happy to pass on the requisite information to the replacement electrician so as to minimise cost to the client. That is a professional way to act, will put the builder on the back-foot, and will be appreciated by the client who will see you are on his side. That is a powerful place to be. And if you brief any incoming electrician/electrical company on the state of matters, you may find that the courtesy will get repaid in another way as you will be seen to be behaving with integrity.
I once had to do this on a large Contract (in not dissimilar circumstances). The incoming Contractor called me a while afterwards and asked if we would come in and support them on some work they were bidding for and needed someone with them they could trust. We made some decent money with them as well.

 

[SparkySy]

Hi I have had a similar situation a long time ago when I started on my own, where the builder was 'running the job' and I was sub for him. I did a quote for the work and cracked on, then there were alterations so went back and changed things. Then sent an invoice to the builder and got a snotty reply and what we had originally agreed not what was invoiced. It went stale between me and the builder at that point. I didn't want to upset the customer as they were fine so went round one evening and explained that I wouldn't be back to second fix as I had issues with the builder. I said I could either pass on to another contractor the info I had or if they were happy to accept the 2nd fix quote work directly for them.
They accepted the quote I gave them and gave me a deposit.
I accepted the work! The builders face when he found out what I had done must of been a picture!!
It later transpired that even thought I had given both the customer and builder the same price for second fix the builders price to the customer was considerably more!
They also fell out with the builder too and ended up with a really nice bloke for the second phase who was an absolute pleasure to have worked with.

 

[MJPD29]

Hi I have had a similar situation a long time ago when I started on my own, where the builder was 'running the job' and I was sub for him. I did a quote for the work and cracked on, then there were alterations so went back and changed things. Then sent an invoice to the builder and got a snotty reply and what we had originally agreed not what was invoiced. It went stale between me and the builder at that point. I didn't want to upset the customer as they were fine so went round one evening and explained that I wouldn't be back to second fix as I had issues with the builder. I said I could either pass on to another contractor the info I had or if they were happy to accept the 2nd fix quote work directly for them.
They accepted the quote I gave them and gave me a deposit.
I accepted the work! The builders face when he found out what I had done must of been a picture!!
It later transpired that even thought I had given both the customer and builder the same price for second fix the builders price to the customer was considerably more!
They also fell out with the builder too and ended up with a really nice bloke for the second phase who was an absolute pleasure to have worked with.

I love it when builders get screwed over adding money on they are the most difficult and awkward people to work with a lot of the time

 

[SparkySy]

I just don't get their mentality or ---- house mechanics. It is always them and us! They seem to either forget or not care that we are all in it together for the customers benefit, so the only person they are screwing is themselves for repeat business and the poor unsuspecting customer!