what a bargain!

[thekingiam]

i had a call out this morning no power to sockets, ok stated 50 call out fee if resolved in an hour or 25 per hour if longer ok nice bloke said.looked at problem ir problem ok seperate upstairs from down check, still unresolved opened up a few more sockets still no joy.started geting bad insulation results on both tails? ok spoke to customer saying probable cable damage some where and when found he would need some sort of rewire,traking the fault was difficult as spurs going downstairs to upstairs conservatory etc.after checking nearly every socket found a socket suplying 2spurs one going outside with ir fault.followed cable to a shed with cable lying on floor in a pool of water,thought i asked every question, no new installations no drilling etc.had a hangover so should of found it sooner,charged him 70 for 4 hours work lol.
wants pir installed on weekend i am not suprised at my prices!

 

[Megavolt]

Ha that was a cracking price. Nothing worse tracing faults hung over

 

[Poshspark]

Ok £50 call out this covers your fuel, time getting there & 1st hour. Then three hours at £25 this adds up to £125 you have just lost £55.
We all say if only I checked this first when we find the fault!
Charge properly you have to make a living £70 does not go far these days.

 

[Poshspark]

This job did not take you just 4 hours. Say you have been in the trade for 18 years so this job has taken you 18 years and 4 hours you are charging people for your knowledge. What price can you put on 18 years of knowledge?
Please don't under sell your self because it reflects on the trade as a whole.

 

[thekingiam]

ok lesson learnt, honestly well respectable bloke i was just happy to give him power and get rid of hangover i am a bit of a soft touch he had a daughter my daughters age and as i am quite new to fault finding and plenty of time on my hands at moment no problem.give me a while and prices will increase as demand grows.

 

[thekingiam]

25 quid for pir change ok with you guys?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

i had a call out this morning no power to sockets, ok stated 50 call out fee if resolved in an hour or 25 per hour if longer ok nice bloke said.looked at problem ir problem ok seperate upstairs from down check, still unresolved opened up a few more sockets still no joy.started geting bad insulation results on both tails? ok spoke to customer saying probable cable damage some where and when found he would need some sort of rewire,traking the fault was difficult as spurs going downstairs to upstairs conservatory etc.after checking nearly every socket found a socket suplying 2spurs one going outside with ir fault.followed cable to a shed with cable lying on floor in a pool of water,thought i asked every question, no new installations no drilling etc.had a hangover so should of found it sooner,charged him 70 for 4 hours work lol.
wants pir installed on weekend i am not suprised at my prices!

well thats what happens when you go out gettin ale`d up during the week....lolffs....anyway...at least you found the fault......ther`l be some around that would have been goin round for hours pickin their arses tryin to find it...without success...and without the `alexcuse`....lol....:drunk::8:

 

[Poshspark]

Hi I am glad you can see my point I have been there and made the same mistake worried about what the person might say when you ask them for the money so you say less to make it sound better. The problem is when they then tell there friends he only charged me £70 for half a days work then they expect the same prices and it is hard so it makes it harder to put your prices up. As the saying goes there is nothing worse than a busy fool.
£25 for a PIR change by the time you have gone to the wholesaler then driven to the job made up invoice you will make nothing £50 minimum charge for everything.

 

[thekingiam]

guy paying for pir so hopefully strait swap,20 mins max.have not quoted so if no probs 25 sounds fine,plus spreading the word etc

 

[thekingiam]

i will charge what i feel apropriate at the time,i turned up half soaked ( Not a good impretion ) by the way guy was talking on phone i was thinking rcd failure.told him my rates,then changed them because first tests i thought indicated burnt wire therefore some type of rewire.told him i need to locate fault so as to quote for rewire,extent of damage etc.i don't like charging people too much and them not being able to live in there house until a rewire is done.also thinking at time if alot more works need doing try to come across cheap so get big job lol.i obviously need to have more problem solving experiance as i was wrong.if he tells other people how cheap i am great i will tell them what i charge normaly and take it or leave it, i doubt they will.

 

[Knobhead]

guy paying for pir so hopefully strait swap,20 mins max.have not quoted so if no probs 25 sounds fine,plus spreading the word etc

Now what's that worth?

 

[Octopus]

I'd say stick to your minimum charge. I also charge a minimum of £50 but occassionally if its a very small job, and if I have the part I'll drop to £35 - but that's rare.

A couple of weeks back got a call from a lady, went round, spent 20 minutes discussing her issues, quoted £50 to fix, and arranged a day the following week as it wasn't urgent - got a message the following day saying she felt that £50 was too much!! Her late husband was a plumber - can't imagine that he'd have charged any less. What do people expect, £50.00 for 2 visits - better off without such customers.

 

[telectrix]

it's always difficult to give a fair price on fault finding. after 3 hours of following red herrings, you find the fault , which you then think " if only i'd looked outside first, i'd have done it in an hour". then you feel as if you're overcharging if you charge for the 3 hours "wasted". in the OP's case i would have been inclined to go a bit higher, say, £90. once over the magic ton, customers will think you are too expensive and not call you for future work. i would recoup a bit by charging £45 to change the PIR.

 

[Guest111]

A good one that gets you work,well it did with me was this.Quote say £80 for a job then the job doesnt take as long as you thought so you can say to customer tell you what wasnt as bad as I thought lets call it 70 quid,they think its great as its a tenner cheaper than they expected and everyone loves a good deal.Some people expect a bit knocked off so in that case add a tenner on to your price then you can knock it off at the end and everyones happy.

 

[thekingiam]

any ways after reading some of your posts charged 40 for pir change,not bad price but peed down half way through and i got drenched. sat here with runny nose feeling sory for myself.

 

[Poshspark]

You should have done the £5 trick if you want £40 you say £45 because cash machines don't give out £5 pound notes and they get embarrassed looking for change so they then give you £50 and say keep the change works every time.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

A good one that gets you work,well it did with me was this.Quote say £80 for a job then the job doesnt take as long as you thought so you can say to customer tell you what wasnt as bad as I thought lets call it 70 quid,they think its great as its a tenner cheaper than they expected and everyone loves a good deal.Some people expect a bit knocked off so in that case add a tenner on to your price then you can knock it off at the end and everyones happy.

aye....or go in 10% higher Phil.....then knock that off the bill....
they think they`v won and you got what you wanted...lol...

 

[thekingiam]

they pay by check.

 

[Poshspark]

It really annoys me when you see the cheque book coming out for small sums like that especially when they know that you where coming and expect to be paid. Some times if you only have one cheque to pay in by the time you go to the bank park then wait in the queue it's taken 1/2 hour out your day. If only us small traders could take cards without having to give a percentage of it away and wait 10 working days for them to transfer the money to you.

 

[Guest111]

It really annoys me when you see the cheque book coming out for small sums like that especially when they know that you where coming and expect to be paid. Some times if you only have one cheque to pay in by the time you go to the bank park then wait in the queue it's taken 1/2 hour out your day. If only us small traders could take cards without having to give a percentage of it away and wait 10 working days for them to transfer the money to you.

Yep that really used to get me too,if it,s a planned job and not a big one they should get the cash ready,bit different if its a call out at night.

 

[pottymotty]

I'd have spent all off the 70 quid on funding another hangover and not wasted a penny

 

[Stroppy]

I know of one electrician who got so fed up with having to wait for months to get paid that he changed his policy to not leaving the property after a job until he got paid, even if he had to wait around for the customer to go off to the cash machine.