Difficult and Unreasonable Builder Questioning Price

[45140]

...Worth considering too, in your current predicament, is said client. If you leave Bob in the brown, who suffers? I tend to think that in all such conflict it is the client that suffers most. To that end I have, for the sake of not losing a customer and not giving Bob the opportunity to make me the scapegoat for everything else that goes wrong, swallowed the loss over such alterations, finished the job and made sure that the client has my direct details and that the next time Bob calls for some work, I don’t answer the phone.

Absolutely spot on, excellent advice !
Make sure the ultimate client knows why you are walking off the job, otherwise the builder will probably do damage to your reputation by saying you were unreasonable and wanted more than was agreed or was acceptable. Make sure the client knows that the builder is trying to make money or recover poor costing through trying to force you to do the work below its true value to cover his own short-comings.
You should offer to assist the client in helping to get the electrical work completed but explain that this will probably be extremely difficult given the attitude and abusive personality of the builder. If you are walking away personally I would tell the client that I was happy to pass on the requisite information to the replacement electrician so as to minimise cost to the client. That is a professional way to act, will put the builder on the back-foot, and will be appreciated by the client who will see you are on his side. That is a powerful place to be. And if you brief any incoming electrician/electrical company on the state of matters, you may find that the courtesy will get repaid in another way as you will be seen to be behaving with integrity.
I once had to do this on a large Contract (in not dissimilar circumstances). The incoming Contractor called me a while afterwards and asked if we would come in and support them on some work they were bidding for and needed someone with them they could trust. We made some decent money with them as well.

 

[SparkySy]

Hi I have had a similar situation a long time ago when I started on my own, where the builder was 'running the job' and I was sub for him. I did a quote for the work and cracked on, then there were alterations so went back and changed things. Then sent an invoice to the builder and got a snotty reply and what we had originally agreed not what was invoiced. It went stale between me and the builder at that point. I didn't want to upset the customer as they were fine so went round one evening and explained that I wouldn't be back to second fix as I had issues with the builder. I said I could either pass on to another contractor the info I had or if they were happy to accept the 2nd fix quote work directly for them.
They accepted the quote I gave them and gave me a deposit.
I accepted the work! The builders face when he found out what I had done must of been a picture!!
It later transpired that even thought I had given both the customer and builder the same price for second fix the builders price to the customer was considerably more!
They also fell out with the builder too and ended up with a really nice bloke for the second phase who was an absolute pleasure to have worked with.

 

[MJPD29]

Hi I have had a similar situation a long time ago when I started on my own, where the builder was 'running the job' and I was sub for him. I did a quote for the work and cracked on, then there were alterations so went back and changed things. Then sent an invoice to the builder and got a snotty reply and what we had originally agreed not what was invoiced. It went stale between me and the builder at that point. I didn't want to upset the customer as they were fine so went round one evening and explained that I wouldn't be back to second fix as I had issues with the builder. I said I could either pass on to another contractor the info I had or if they were happy to accept the 2nd fix quote work directly for them.
They accepted the quote I gave them and gave me a deposit.
I accepted the work! The builders face when he found out what I had done must of been a picture!!
It later transpired that even thought I had given both the customer and builder the same price for second fix the builders price to the customer was considerably more!
They also fell out with the builder too and ended up with a really nice bloke for the second phase who was an absolute pleasure to have worked with.

I love it when builders get screwed over adding money on they are the most difficult and awkward people to work with a lot of the time

 

[SparkySy]

I just don't get their mentality or ---- house mechanics. It is always them and us! They seem to either forget or not care that we are all in it together for the customers benefit, so the only person they are screwing is themselves for repeat business and the poor unsuspecting customer!