Did I rip myself off?

[Spoon242]

I went to look at a job for a 92 year old customer. It took 20 minutes to travel each way to his house.

When I was there I looked at 3 seperate lighting issues in 3 rooms.

1. Living room walls light stopped working - Wire out in the switch
2. Utility light not working - changed the lamp
3. Outside light not working after his double glazing was installed cause they broke it and they fitted him a new bulk head fitting - They did not wire it up (

I charged him £25-00 as I was at the house an hour.

Did I rip myself off, undercharged him ya think?

 

[Mark_Burgess]

Not if he recommends you to his neighbours, friends and family.

 

[Spoon242]

True enough, it was my first paying customer, yay, and I wanted to be fair, but at the same time I am in business or will be very soon.

 

[wade88]

To be honest mate, £25 for an hours work with no materials costs is still a good wage. It wasnt strenuous work by the sounds of things, all very quick and easy fixes, and you just helped out an old gent in a time of need over Christmas and didnt take a heavy sum of him for frankly an easy hours work.

Your paid and happy, hes fixed and happy, and like Mark says, any recommendations that come your way for being a nice lad and not over charging him, are more cash in your pocket. I think there is a fine line between ripping yourself off, doing someone a good turn, and being fair about what you deserve for the job.

Karma is a wonderful thing mate, and it pays to be fair.

Well done on your first paid job mate

 

[cook1e]

If you can afford to work for about £12 per hour, less after your overheads, then no, but you could work in aldi on the check out for more than that without the responsibillities and hassle

I would have charged £37.50 plus any materials, most my co horts up here would charge £45 - £60 for nearly 2 hours work

 

[Spoon242]

To be honest mate, £25 for an hours work with no materials costs is still a good wage. It wasnt strenuous work by the sounds of things, all very quick and easy fixes, and you just helped out an old gent in a time of need over Christmas and didnt take a heavy sum of him for frankly an easy hours work.

Your paid and happy, hes fixed and happy, and like Mark says, any recommendations that come your way for being a nice lad and not over charging him, are more cash in your pocket. I think there is a fine line between ripping yourself off, doing someone a good turn, and being fair about what you deserve for the job.

Karma is a wonderful thing mate, and it pays to be fair.

Well done on your first paid job mate

Thanks for the support, he was a lovely old gent too.

 

[Big n Daft]

If you can afford to work for about £12 per hour, less after your overheads, then no, but you could work in aldi on the check out for more than that without the responsibillities and hassle

I would have charged £37.50 plus any materials, most my co horts up here would charge £45 - £60 for nearly 2 hours work

I take it from that reply you're in the smoke, plenty to go at. In more "rural" areas there's less to go round and charging the old fella a more reasonable fee will go down well with others in the community, its why many city tradesmen fail in the "rural" areas, people dont like greed and word spreads quickly. Many business's have gone bust taking the short sighted greedy route, RBS springs to mind.
Wade has got it just about spot. Small bites of the apple and plenty of 'em, you'll work up to bigger fruit very quickly when word spreads that your fair with people.
Good luck.

 

[cook1e]

I take it from that reply you're in the smoke, plenty to go at. In more "rural" areas there's less to go round and charging the old fella a more reasonable fee will go down well with others in the community, its why many city tradesmen fail in the "rural" areas, people dont like greed and word spreads quickly. Many business's have gone bust taking the short sighted greedy route, RBS springs to mind.
Wade has got it just about spot. Small bites of the apple and plenty of 'em, you'll work up to bigger fruit very quickly when word spreads that your fair with people.
Good luck.

no I am as deep in the rural countryside that Derbyshire/peak district has to offer, if you have done a business plan you will soon realise that adding your required wages, lets say 25,000 pa plus van costs, insurance costs, prof body costs, 4 weeks paid holiday, tool costs etc you would need to earn about £15.50 per hour, then there is the question of profit add about 25/30 % on - you are either running a business or just working for many employers but taking all the risks and hassle that goes with it.

 

[Big n Daft]

Point taken. However life is a game of swings and roundabouts.
I've flown high on the swings with about 25 men on board at times. These days I'm on the roundabout, such is life.
Its not as if Spoon 'lost out' and not charging too much may just get him some more work, you just dont do it on regular basis.

 

[ruston]

When I first started off a I got a call out from a miners widow , the plasterer had tripped the fuse with wet plaster on the cooker circuit and gummed up the contacts on the switch. ( old mk type) I cleaned out the switch and reinstated the supply and tested the cooker was working properly and declined any payment.
Two days later I got a call from a lady instructing me to come and fit her an alarm, I said I would call and give her a price , she replied that that would not be necessary as I had shown such kindness to her Mother, and to just come and do it. I've worked for all the family and friends to this day and still get recommendations from them.

 

[telectrix]

all boils down to the old saying " what goes around, comes around". in your situation, i would have done exactly the same. realistically, you would have charged £35ish, but a tenner invested for good customer relations when you are just starting out, could pay you back 10 times over.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Did a job yesterday.
20 mins travelling in the pouring rain on my motorbike, to change a lamp holder that the customer's son had already purchased, but not changed as there were too many wires.
I got £20, a cup of tea and a hair cut (she's a hairdresser, and works at home).
On thes sorts of jobs, there's no point in worrying whether you could of made an extra £5 or £10, what would you have been doing if you hadn't of done the job?
The chances are you'll never get any more work out of this job, and if you do, it'll be another little job.
Be different of it was a re-wire or CU change, and we were talking about hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
If you start advertising, in the local papers or similar, you could charge a call out fee (usually with the first hour free), especially if you get really busy. The fee will put off time wasters and skinflints.

 

[mogga]

the question is "Do you feel ripped off? Do you think you ripped anyone off? Have you lost any money? " if the answer to tose questiong are NO! then as most others seem to be saying Youv done a wee job that will no doubt lead to recomendations and possibly more work And What else would you have been doing this afternoon

At 92 the old guy is probably well warey of being ripped off and as IMO you havent ripped him off Hope he does the recomendations for you at the OAP club even special rates for pensioners works

 

[topquark]

As others have said, you've not lost out yourself and done someone a favour that may reap benefits. I'd have done exactly the same given the scenario. Goodwill exists in a companies balance sheet for a reason

 

[telectrix]

then again, earlier this year, i was called out to an elderly gent who's outside socket had stopped working. found that it was spurred off a kitchen socket which was also dead. after 45 minutes searching for the fault, i traced it back to a FCU supplying the cooker hood. the sockets were wired from there and the fuse has blown. fitted fuse, sockets working. he then asked me to look at a fault in his shed. 3 double sockets, spider wired from a JB, no earth sleeving anywhere. disconnected all the cpc's and sleeved them, told him it really wanted rewiring but he said he couldn't afford that. checked my watch. i had been there 1hr.45min. told him £40 and he said i was ripping him off. miserable old sod.