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.

 

[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.

 

[Jay Sparks]

I think the trouble is, there are people out there, whether Electrical Trainee or timed served lads that can live on £80/£100 a day, so when they quote, they are going to be alot cheaper. Most of my friends are doing normal, meedioker jobs, earning around £250 a week and they go out more than I do!!! Lets face it, earning £500 notes a week isnt that bad to most people doing 40 hrs a week. But I wouldnt do electrical work for that, I would rahter stack shelves in moggies, where no brains are needed.

Jay

 

[ayjay]

employ poles ?

 

[Essexboy7]

At that price if you paid the labourer £80 a day you would make about £160 a day.There is no point doing it for less then that.I would have quoted a bit more

 

[p11jor]

Priced one for restraunt 14 rooms above, fire alarm system, e-lighting

11k

Get a call back saying he wants to pay no more than 4k.......

Got him upto 8k then just thought no way am I doing all that graft to not even make wages and the risk of not even getting payed......

Drove past and the restraunt still ain't open!

 

[telectrix]

do 'im a 4K job then. chuck in a few mains interlinked smokes.

 

[p11jor]

do 'im a 4K job then. chuck in a few mains interlinked smokes.

He tried to get the roofer for 8k apparantly after a 23.5k quote

He might do it himself because he told me he was a "electrician" himself

 

[ipf]

Forgive my ignorance biff but whats a 2396 design project?

Technical for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner ?

 

[Robson689]

He might do it himself because he told me he was a "electrician" himself

Lol if he is an Electrician himself you'd have thought that he would understand why you wanted 11k for the job!