Another quote too much.

[5544]

Made a visit to a 4 bed detached house with garage, that needed everything stripping out and a complete re wire. At least three doubles in each room, with all the usual elsewhere. Fire stop led,s in the bathroom and all fittings being mk. Consumer unit was going to be Crabtree star breaker since I like them.
I had allowed 10 days with a labourer helping for the first 4 days to help chase and run cable.
Quote came in at £3500 which I thought was fair. Well I have just been told I was undercut by £600.00 . There was a great deal of work at this address to make it right, and in all honesty do not intend re quoting. I am starting to get fed up with undercutting like this. The materials alone was going to be £1500. I looked at my turnover for the last 6 mths, and my profit is engle gable as it is. I make more doing bathrooms. Any one having the same problems, or am I honestly pricing too high.

 

[telectrix]

£3500 is about right, maybe even on the low side.

 

[pete555]

had a similar quote for house as big quoted 2,500 not as much going in as yours told they had a quote for 800

i replied eastern european answer yes

my reply good luck call me when it goes ---,s up

 

[CSP2012]

I find that. It all depends who you are going up against and how badly they need the work. I feel I'm pretty cheap as iris but I've been eat by 1000s before. I just leave it with parting shot of just be careful 'just be careful of the quality of materials you'll be getting'

 

[dan86]

I'd say it was a bit on the low side. have you Actually been undercut, or is it possible the customer is chancing his arm?

 

[Dave 85]

I'd probably have been over 4k on that job. Where do you live?

 

[Dcf]

3.5 for that amount of work isa bit low I think.probably nearer 4 to 4.2k .time you pay the labourer as well.it will probably go ---- up no doubt but that doesn't help you in the meantime.some of the prices being put about are criminal.its like I'm in1987.

 

[Guest55]

I'd probably have been over 4k on that job. Where do you live?

evening D , hope youre well

 

[Jay Sparks]

I just did a quote for running a supply to a garage, fitting a cu in the garage then 2 x striplights, 4 x sockets, 2 x outside lights and 1 x outside socket. SWA to garage about 15M. They also wanted a new 10 way dual board fitting in the house. I quoted £650 for the lot. They came back to me and said that was way above there budget, so I said "ok, thanks for letting me quote and I hope you get it sorted".
Got a message a few hours later, "can you do it for £400"?. I politely said "no sorry, the best I can do is £600". Not heard owt since.

Jay

 

[5544]

Well I live in hampshire. I had allowed for the fact that the kitchen was quite basic due to ongoing work, and a revisit later once they had finished. But I agree I thought that was a good price.

 

[bandit]

Sign of the times, things are really getting tough for me. I have a local Slovenian halving my quotes. 1st available exit and I'm out of here!!!

 

[Dave 85]

evening D , hope youre well

Im good thanks mate. Hows life?

 

[Dave 85]

The fact that you'd allowed £2000 for 10 days of your labour PLUS 4 days for a labourer seems crazy to me. I aim to make £300 a day absolute minimum on quoted work. I dont know how some of you guys even turn a profit.

 

[Guest55]

Im good thanks mate. Hows life?

steady , on a good job 2 mins from home , finished my 2396 design project , planning hols in south of france , blah blah blah lol.

 

[Dave 85]

Forgive my ignorance biff but whats a 2396 design project?

 

[Jay Sparks]

Forgive my ignorance biff but whats a 2396 design project?

So he can appear on Goks fashion show..lol

 

[5544]

I can understand what you are saying. But I had priced this to what my last few months have been like, being undercut all the time. The line has now been drawn as it is not worth doing the job if its any cheaper

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Your not alone mate, I don't lose many but I have noticed I'm losing the odd one locally to new guys, I haven't put up my prices in two years, I priced two bed bungalow rewire 3 streets away, £1300 as no fuel cost , sent out a feedback text two weeks later and was told the accepted quote was £1000, I've just put a six bed rewire quote out for £4000 hoping to get that, but just won a 4 bed detached for £3500 and foot in the door of a 16 bed hotel being converted to residential

 

[Guest55]

c & g 2396 design qual has a project where you design all electricals for an argos type superstore.

 

[accordfire]

Made a visit to a 4 bed detached house with garage, that needed everything stripping out and a complete re wire. At least three doubles in each room, with all the usual elsewhere. Fire stop led,s in the bathroom and all fittings being mk. Consumer unit was going to be Crabtree star breaker since I like them.
I had allowed 10 days with a labourer helping for the first 4 days to help chase and run cable.
Quote came in at £3500 which I thought was fair. Well I have just been told I was undercut by £600.00 . There was a great deal of work at this address to make it right, and in all honesty do not intend re quoting. I am starting to get fed up with undercutting like this. The materials alone was going to be £1500. I looked at my turnover for the last 6 mths, and my profit is engle gable as it is. I make more doing bathrooms. Any one having the same problems, or am I honestly pricing too high.

Seems low for this neck of the woods - not sure where you are, or where quote is. Realistically labour alone would have been around £2.2k and maybe a little more. Then materials, testing time, admin to write certs up, cost of getting to site, insurance, and so on. Decent quality kit throughout too - you're looking at around £4k - £4.5k in the SE. To be undercut by £600 seems a lot though - like someone isn't fitting MK or Crabtree.... but more like BG and Protek.....or cheaper.

It's a problem not really limited to domestic electrical now though - it's everywhere. Sadly, there's no way to enforce a proper job - not on the resources the industry has. A ground up rethink of the whole industry would do it - but at what cost. Much as we'd like a licencing system that drove out the cowboys (and that applies to fire, security, and doubtless other trades too) - it just won't ever happen all the time someone can make a profit by cutting something out, or by widening their market (suppliers selling to DIY etc)

As an industry we just need to get smarter about why people should use us, and not the guy shaving £600 off your already keen price.