Cheaper quotes.

[SirKit Breaker]

Now I know why people quote cheaper than me.

I put a CU into a granny flat onto a new PME supply, also wired them a single socket so other trades had power to complete the refit.

I quoted to do the electrical install as well. 1 x Ring final 8 twin switched sockets. 1 x 8kw shower, 6kw hob, single oven with 13a plug top, 2 lighting circuits, and 2x 20a radials for electric heaters, and all the control bits that go with the system.

Didn't get the job, but never gave it much thought. BUT this afternoon the phone rings, "You did some work in our granny flat a while back, and we need some more doing".

I went up and had a look earlier, the sparky quoted £150 less than me, so he got the original job. Now he cant come back, he has not put in a supply for 32a hob, told them it just needed a plug, no supplies installed for heaters, shower done in 4mm cable, lights not correct IP rating for shower enclosure.

They want me to quote to put it all right and certify, "Sorry mate i cant certify what i haven't done, and i will put a quote in the post for the rest of it".

If he had gone with my price originally then he would have only paid once and it would have been right. I explained that i charge what i do for a good reason, and enquired as to which Part P body the other lad was with, erm none was the reply.

I told him to put it down to experience and he doesn't know it yet but i am going to quote what i quoted originally for less than half of the work in the original quote. If he doesn't like it, then he can bollox, i will go play golf on Friday instead.

Cheers.........Howard

 

[tony mc]

Class .

Intresting to see what other short cuts or cover ups this guy has done when you get to uncover everything

How can these people sleep at night????? !!!!!

 

[zedess]

I have said it before and i will say it again...and again...and again...joe public is only interested in one thing..not part p (who?),regestered sparkys, testing,certification or a good safe job....PRICE. If Gadaffi was £2 cheaper he would get the job!

 

[Des 56]

Class .

Intresting to see what other short cuts or cover ups this guy has done when you get to uncover everything

How can these people sleep at night????? !!!!!

If you do a ultra crap job and are not playing the game, with testing, registration, inland revenue and probably getting paid cash in the hand (possibly being just a bit of a handyman) you would then understand

If you are none of the above, you find yourself asking the question
" How can they sleep at night "

 

[Robinson]

yeah thats the words how can they sleep at night...like nOOOOOO conscience what so ever....no regard for life basically.

 

[Jay Gallie]

Shocking, quite literally it coulld of been...

 

[rocker]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - 75% or people who get ripped off by cowboys bring it on themselves. People who are willing to pay a proper price for a proper job will rarely have any problems.

 

[nikmet]

When I read on the forum that people have lowered thier price because the client has been quoted less by someone else, i think before rushing in and lowering ANY prices, its better to make sure the client has been priced for IDENTICAL work and quality first!!

 

[Octopus]

Out of interest do you confirm certification on your estimate? Wonder what the other guy did?

 

[kung]

Stories like this happen time and time again ! the more of us that refuse to cert others work the more chance we have of getting the work in the first place ! i get everyone i know to spread shocking stories about dangerous things that have happened when someone used a unregistered spark to do the work ! dont work with everyone but at least if enough shocking stories get about maybe just maybe things may get better for us and stories like this will get less and less !

 

[Octopus]

I did some notifiable work last week for a plumber and at the end mentioned the certs and notification - apparently his normal spark doesn't bother...

Needless to say I did the right thing!

 

[rocker]

I find it astonishing how little other trades (round here) know about certification. It seems the general consensus amongst our building/chipping/plastering bretheren, and the pipe monkeys, that you don't need a certificate unless you are renting the place out. I'm beginning to think, however, that this ignorance is deliberate, so that they can keep on doing spark work because 'aw sorry I didn't know, guv'.

 

[Adam W]

Out of interest do you confirm certification on your estimate? Wonder what the other guy did?

I expect the customer thought they were getting a bargain because the 'spark' was cutting out the red tape, which ended up being a false economy.
In the absence of any other other form of measurement, price always seems to become the overriding factor, for one thing because it's easy to measure; you can compare estimates and say one is 13% cheaper than the other, but it would be more difficult to argue that not only do you tack your cables 26% neater than the cheaper guy, but the overall installation is 51% safer because the cables are 100% the correct size.

This is what happens when you listen to bean-counters - quality suffers.