Tradesman rates, how accurate is this for your area?

[supasparxs]

I have been charging £29.50+vat an hour
and I have been thinking of putting my rates up to £13.50+vat because the cost of living, the increased costs of insurances (even without making any claims, and to cover the cost of Napit membership).
I'm based near Warrington and work mainly in the local area but also going to Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton and Wigan.

I do work away on larger projects but those a\re different again

Am I to expensive?

Richard

 

[byrnie_2004]

all depends on your overheads i think mate

 

[D Skelton]

There's some cheap tat online, mostly made in china, MCB's, cable, sockets etc etc... Why not get on that! That'll cut your overheads for sure!

 

[SPARTYKUS]

Us sparks don't have to unblock huge steaming logs from toilets, that's why they can charge more

ANd most of them I've met are big jessies and wouldn't do that anyway

 

[D Skelton]

ANd most of them I've met are big jessies and wouldn't do that anyway

HAHA! So true

 

[1shortcircuit]

Here we go, let me run this by you

Worked all day today, then had a job come in which is about 6 miles away. £75 2 hours work plus 10 parts/fuel happy days.

Another job straight after that nearly 15 miles in the opposite direction passing within a mile of my home. Arrived on site, found problem and fixed within 5 minutes (loose connection in light switch) Re-terminated, doubling cable over up and refitted.

Whilst carrying out the work it was mentioned that a two gang switch on the landing had been wired in a way that meant the wrong light switch was being operated each time. One was bedroom and other was landing (so we had three core in there too) . Rewired and again doubled over the terminations.

The fun, the lead cost me £4.50, and I charged... ... ... £40 quid, more than reasonable in my opinion as I was going to charge £50.

Here's the review

"He literally couldn't have been faster to respond (I had only just completed the form before he phoned and he'd done the job before anyone else responded!) and did a great job. In terms of value it was a bit more than I thought it would be. I don't know how much was call out and how much was rate (though an e-mail reciept is to follow) but given the speed of response and cheer he did the work I was just about Ok with handing over the money. If you're worried about carpets and tidyness even to do a minor job for a lightswitch it was shoes off and dustsheets! 10/10 for customer service."

Quality 5 stars
Value 2 Stars

What a kick in the **** for value! lol

Nice customer though and very nice environment to work in :thumbsup

 

[cjp1]

Here we go, let me run this by you

Worked all day today, then had a job come in which is about 6 miles away. £75 2 hours work plus 10 parts/fuel happy days.

Another job straight after that nearly 15 miles in the opposite direction passing within a mile of my home. Arrived on site, found problem and fixed within 5 minutes (loose connection in light switch) Re-terminated, doubling cable over up and refitted.

Whilst carrying out the work it was mentioned that a two gang switch on the landing had been wired in a way that meant the wrong light switch was being operated each time. One was bedroom and other was landing (so we had three core in there too) . Rewired and again doubled over the terminations.

The fun, the lead cost me £4.50, and I charged... ... ... £40 quid, more than reasonable in my opinion as I was going to charge £50.

Here's the review



Quality 5 stars
Value 2 Stars

What a kick in the **** for value! lol

Nice customer though and very nice environment to work in :thumbsup

£40 seems very reasonable to me
take off £4.50 for the lead & your travel costs & tax etc
IMO you did them a very good deal and they have the front to say it was more than they thought it would be????????

 

[1shortcircuit]

£40 seems very reasonable to me
take off £4.50 for the lead & your travel costs & tax etc
IMO you did them a very good deal and they have the front to say it was more than they thought it would be????????

I should have charged by the minute as it took me nearly 30 minutes to find the place lol

I just think some people have no idea what things cost. Perhaps they thought that my hourly rate diveded by how long the job took was the cost they were going to get charged and I did the other job as a favour because I was already there?

I'm still happy though because of the comments regarding my service and I have other feedback staing that what I charge is good value

Cannot win them all I guess

PS £4.50 was plus VAT also

 

[TPES]

It's a joke at the minute, I'm on a job in an office out of town, I told the customer I want £160 a day, I could tell in there reaction they were shocked and thought I was expensive (£20 ph), he thought the job I was going to do was going to take me an hour or two.

So far I have been there 14.5 hours, plus spent about £125 on materials, and I've still not finished, I know I'm going to have problems with this customer when it comes to giving him the bill, but I think I've been more than fair with him.

Some customers just have no idea on how long jobs take to do them properly and how much materials cost.

 

[kung]

Makes me laugh ! some people want to pay peanuts and get discounts for cash ! get them to see how much companies like Mr Elec, SEC etc charge and see if they will get cash discount ! do we get discount when we buy food, petrol, clothing etc or would they moan about how much a solicitor, dentist etc charges and ask for discount for cash ? as said with ALL our expences to be a registered, qualified, upto date spark. Most are ok but you do get the odd duffer !

 

[GaryM]

Makes me laugh ! some people want to pay peanuts

Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Simple as that!